Company recommendations for that all-important first year?

Schneider

 

Make sure you confirm your logs several times a day. Once it is in the system it is there forever, and they can be printed out (or possibly e-mailed) if needed.
And if the QC does go out it is usually a connection issue and not the whole unit frying. In that case you would still have all the log entries you entered, and you could transfer them to paper easily enough.

 

Call J&R Schugel

 

I started and got experience local, so I avoided the megas, but:

If I was brand new to trucking and had to go with a mega, it would be CFI or KLLM. KLLM seems to have pretty good miles and start around 46cpm. They’re a reefer company that does all 48, so you’ll get the true OTR adventure. I was mind blown when I saw the entire country for the first time. I’d make true 48 states a requirement if I was new. CFI seems to always get fairly decent reviews and pays around the 40cpm mark. They seem to have a ton of drop and hooks, nice equipment, and everyone from there has seemed pretty satisfied. Schneider and JB Hunt aren’t bad options. Schneider has OTR, local, flat bed, tanker, dry van, etc. so you could move around within the company whenever you want to make a change. JB Hunt also has a variety.

also, check your opportunities at the 6 month mark, especially if you’re not under a contract. I have 3 years experience, but I’m at a 6 month experience requirement company and happy/paid well here. Experience requirements from 6 months and beyond is an insurance thing, and not indicative of the job quality. Plenty of terrible companies require 2 years experience and lots of good companies only require 6 months.

 

Great visual Frank Speak! Lol

 

Maybe you could marry your pet. That seems to be perfectly acceptable in our society today!

 

There are much better options in the Portland market than low pay May and strange with the change Schneider. The days of having to take vows of poverty for a year and spend a month as a plaything on a trainer's truck are over. Home every night with weekends off? Union job with 100% paid medical and a pension? Signing bonus without experience? $70,000+ your first year? All available. Thank the China Flu and the Mad King. Even good companies have 10+ openings now. Take your pick:

Estes Express
FedEx Freight
Old Dominion
Reddaway

 

I can’t get a job at anything local with my 2 month experience here in SE FL. I except Sysco (which I don’t think I can handle physically with my shoulder) and very low pay backbreak Coke for $19hr. I want to get into LTL/line haul or taker fuel home every night stuff but it seems like I’m going to have to go back OTR to get my 6 months. Estes, FedEx, YRC, et all around this area all want a year. It’s such a bummer because I know I don’t want OTR after doing it for 2 months that I’m forced to go out there just to get 6-yr when I’m definitely going to quit.

I just wish those local companies would open up some training opportunities for those of us with less than a year. This Is why I haven’t been in a truck since Jan. My wife doesn’t want me gone and I hated truck stops and living in the truck.

 

And yes, I applied for them all and never got an interview. Might be a good idea to get all your endorsements first because not having Hazmat, Doubles\triples I think hurt me. I’m going to get those soon.