Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

dfo,

Enjoy your time off, you have certainly earned it!

As far as the choice program goes, your dbl has nothing to do with it, to begin with. I went through the steps, let me tell them to you.

Call 1-800-44-pride, tell them you are interested in the choice program. Once the know you are a current company driver, they set you up with someone to talk to about transitioning over. This person will check your accident history and if you have any false logs. You can have one false log in the last six months, and I believe one preventable in that time frame as well. IF all looks well he greenlights you to go ahead. If you are going to lease a truck from Schneider Finance, they will send you a credit app to fill out. If they approve you, and your dbl approves you, then they schedule you for orientation in Green Bay.

This was my experience. Yours of course may vary.

I could not go choice due to major health issues with my wife this year, I could not give up the company's health insurance. At least for the remainder of this year, since we have already paid all the deductibles and she has to have major surgery in December, which would normally cost over $75,000 but we get for free.

Good luck with your 'chat'. I hope you can get some things resolved.

 

Can yall please explain a false log

 

False Log - a log that is not true. Examples include but are not limited to:

*Coming on duty a significant distance from where you went off duty
*Not logging line 4 when fueling
*Not logging pre/postrips and dvirs
*Having time stamps not match up (ie went off duty and posttriped at 1630 but didn't ingate at an OC until 16:40)

 

I had a false log for reporting an accident while I was logged in sleeper berth.

Once I explained the circumstances, ie I could not pull over immediately to report the accident and when I did finally pull over I just automatically went into sleeper berth, they removed the false log.

 

False log=.The majority of driver logs, lol. But not mine, no never.

 

certain edits to on duty times to "gain" more time on your 14 for that day or 70 for that week.

 

sadwar - thanks for the information. I take it you find false logs in the scorecard page? I am showing two, one from May and one from June. I have no idea what they are from... unfortunately even if they would allow me to explain why they occurred, since they are from several months ago I have absolutely no idea. I wish they would call or message as soon as one of these shows up so we could explain why. I had no idea I even had any until you mentioned it and I looked. Oh well, I won't worry about anything yet until I sit down with them in Charlotte.

Which brings me to the real issue... I'm on my hometime, why I am sitting here worrying about trucking on the internet when I'm supposed to be enjoying my time off? LOL. Gonna go drive the deuce and a half.

 

call regulatory, so you can avoid the same in the future? They should be wiling to tell you.

 

Yes, regulatory can tell you. They helped me.

 

Here is SLC they said 6 days off per month. I'm on my second week with them driving the 11 western, even though they did send me down to Dallas. I dropped that one and did a small run down to Temple and right back up with Dogfood from and for MARS. Then grabbed a Clorox Load for target in Pueblo, Co.

I REALLY HATE running recap hours, But taking almost 2 full days off trying to do a 34(Ha!) hour reset is too hard and my DBL won't let me anyway. So I have been on Duty since 08/19 with no time off and none in sight. I'm going to try manage my hours down to 8.75 a day so I can run that every day. I seem to be averaging about 380 miles per day. The majority of my stops are open drops/unloads. I have been lucky with that aspect. I've only had one 4 hr+ load, most are within 1-2 hours. Same with the unloads.

I'm not impressed with the equipment at all. They gave me a 08 with 560k(miles dont mean anything)black truck,that has been beat to hell, to run in the south with. Mechanically it's excellent! It just had a major rebuild and it runs and pulls like a champ, but most of the crap on the inside of the cab is broke. I only have 1 privacy curtain. All the bunk controls are broke. The bunk heater doesn't work. Sometime the A/C fan doesn't kick on or refuses to turn itself off. One radio speaker is blown so it crackles all the time. Every single cabinet has loose plastic. I'm supposed to get a newer one so I can run Cali before the new EPA regs start in January. I would love a white one.

Driving a 60 MPH truck is alot harder than I thought it would be. I'm ok on the 55 MPH speed limits but when I'm on a 2 lane road and it's 65 and there is a line of cars waiting to pass me, it drives me nuts. I've alreadt got an Overspeed % because I do 65 on those roads. I just don't feel safe with People trying to pass me in between oncoming traffic(or on the shoulder as some have down)

I will admit that Most of the Drivers I have met have been outstanding. I was surprised at how many have been here for 5+ years. I met two 25+ year guys today. Most of the office people have been really nice too! I'm very lucky with My DBL. He takes his Job seriously and is quick and actually good at math. He calculates my hours down to a T and dispatches me accordingly, though sometimes to my detriment LOL. I like him, but He's not very personable. He's professionally polite on the phone, but you can still hear him roll his eyes while he's talking to you. I don't take it personally and do my best to be profession with Him as most of the time He is with me. He has been patient with me and I appreciate that.

I'm still trying to adapt to the "Work more for less" rule of thumb for OTR Driving. I haven't had to work a weekend or had more than a 5 day work week since 06 and almost always grossed 800+ for around 50-55 hours of work. Now I'm working 70 and I haven't had an accurate Gross yet, but added up and averaged it comes to $700 a week, so $10 an hour.
Once I get used to the Elogs and proper trip planning again, I should be able to bump it up. I'll be happy with 2500 miles a week, especially with all the short runs. Though I wished they had a sliding pay scale like Knight does. It would really help out with the shorter 300 mile and under trips.

Speaking of Pay. Is the pay topped out at .36 CPM? I overheard our Recruiter say they only pay for up to 2 years of experience. I'm not going to be jumping ship for a while, I was just curious. Nobody wants to talk about Pay in my OC. It's like it's a secret. With me losing my house because of being unemployed for so long(thank you CSA) I'm going to stay about 3 years. This will pay off my last 2 bills and net me enough to either go back to school or invest to try and rebuild my savings.

I am enjoying myself so far. I read alot(Kindle app for the smart phone) and I have a laptop for games and such. I also have been making myself go for walks wherever I may happen o be and that has been alot of fun! Jog oneday down some old abandoned farm road in northern Cali, then Hiking before bed, on top of the mountain on 89A in northern Az, to walking in a field in Southern New mexico chasing giant grass hoppers and practicing my photography.

This has been a great thread. I have really enjoyed it. I can say without a shadow of a doubt I will NEVER run the NE with Schneider LOL!