DoubleYellow's Covenant Thrival Guide

Been meaning to, but havent had much stationary time to break out the laptop & I hate writing more than a few sentences on the phone

 

assuming we dont lose our next preplanned load, this will be my second 7000mile week. Ive really been wanting to sit down and write more, but we've just been rolling. I do feel guilty though, so jere is a quick rundown of current pay brackets at covenant (to the best of my knowledge: payroll does not have a chart or anything they give out).

training ( >= first 35 days): $450/week + 1cptm hazmat
first 90 days (training period does not count towards this 90): 14cptm +3cptm hazmat (~=28 or 34cpm)
91-180 days*: 15cptm + 3cptm hazmat (~=30 or 36cpm)
180-365 days*: 17cptm + 3cptm hazmat (~=34 or 40cpm)
366+ days: raise varies based on annual review with FM

solo drivers start out at 26cpm (a cent or two less if dedicated)

every quarter without an incident results in a bonus equal to that quarter's total truck miles x $0.01 For example, this quarter I had 60,000 truck/team miles (took 2 weeks off) for a $600 bonus


*if you have a low csa score and no incidents 90days after training, you can test out at chattanooga to the 6-month pay rate. the test is very much like the training test, but the lanes are quite a bit tighter. I probably come across a real-life dock that tight once every 3 months (but ofcourse dont have a tester standing there with a clipboard watching me)... if you fail you can retry once that same day. fail again and you have to wait the full 6 months.


slightly annoying is the fact your 35+ day training period does not count towards your payrate senority. had you worked for a competitor those first 35 days would count -- a fact I'm left to assume speaks to the high regard in which covenant brass holds their own training program...

 

Cool tip I recently learned:

in the qualcomm navigation you can specify hazmat routing. After typing "@COVCHA10" (just for example using Covenant's Chattanooga terminal) add a "/h" & the number of the class you are hauling. So flammable liquid would be @COVCHA10/h3


And in case I forgot to mention it earlier, always try the shipper id (eg @covcha10, @covhut02, etc) first rather than typing out the address in the qualcomm navigation. There will often be helpful differences like gate codes, or directions to a truck entrance