Feels like a mistake.

Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by WI Cupcake, Dec 2, 2013.

  1. WI Cupcake

    WI Cupcake Light Load Member

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    We get paid all miles we are told to drive. It does not matter what is behind my sleeper. As long as I'm instructed to go from point a to b I make my miles. Mind you this isn't hub to hub, so I'm sure I've been screwed on cross town equipment hunts. Detention at shippers or consignees starts at 2 hours, and it is hit or miss. I had one "2hr" live unload turn into over 6hrs sitting, but usually it's not that horrid, and I do a lot of drop & hook hook stuff too.

    I usually am recapping for an entire trip. Last time and this time are anomalies where I will have 34's. They tell us to scrimp on hours as much as possible. I will wait until I am out of the guard shack when at PU or DP to allow a 7 minute time window. Less than that and the e-log reverts to your last status (can be abused to a point). I wait this time to show I got to the place and did "something" for at least a few minutes before going to line 1. Besides that, my truck hits line 1 immediately when it stops for food or rest, unless I have to fuel on line 4. Even then, the second I pull up and pop the breaks I'm back to line 1 (unless I'm leaving right away, but usually I will at least use the bathroom first).

    CPAP - yeah, got screwed on that and there is nothing I could do about it. Had no insurance when coming on with them, and my med card was going to run out 30 days prior to benies kicking in at 90 days and had to have a sleep study (which they paid for) and I of course got diagnosed, so I had to buy a machine through SNI and sign a form allowing a $15/wk deduction from my checks for 104 weeks. Not sure how that cookie will crumble when the time comes, but they can keep the machine and the company that runs that. Not one phone call has been about therapy or my treatment. It's always centered around my compliance. That and I haven't seen one actual true to form doctor about OSA yet, just the tech that gave the test and the people at the company. They can keep all of that garbage. I have even asked for my CPAP treatment be switched to my primary physician, and they said she could oversee it, but their company would still have to be involved. Sure feels like a hustle if you ask me.

    As I said, besides that $15/wk, it's just my health insurance and any advance I took the week before. Doesn't seem too bad on the deductions.
     
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  3. DirtyBob

    DirtyBob Road Train Member

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    Staying out only 12-18 days doesn't help. Coming off of hometime is usually slow and getting you back to a specific to location to get you home usually leaves you passing up better stuff. You're not putting the truck out there long enough to make money. When I was OTR, my first week back and last week out where usually my worst. There's a reason a lot of people stay out 4-6 weeks and that's to make money.
     
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  4. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    WI, would that your experience was the exception. It's not. Many megas treat truck drivers as second class citizens--used as grist to grind down, underpaid with poverty pay and lousy assignments, or work for no pay at all. Not 'entitled' to at least a minimum wage.

    Painful to read of your predicament yet all-in-all very, very familiar. Sorry about the loss of your Mom and your work in sales that paid beaucoup better than most OTR gigs for new drivers.

    Had a similar experience myself with Gordon but my financial situation was different--no debt, bills, home paid for. Never saw such small pay checks, though, and had made good money prior (and since Gordon). What a surprise!! Laughable. But not funny.

    Sounds like you're close to the end of your rope. Certainly you hear the advice that says stick it out (if you can financially) for at least six months. That's good advice as is the to switch to bulk (if you've got enough van experience under your belt for bulk) or dedicated at SNI .

    A lot of the so-called 'advice' here is unsympathetic, cynical, unfair and fundamentally wrong as you shouldn't have to put in the equivalent of two work-years in one year to get a fair, one-year wage. Yet some would tell you that's what's required--stay out 4-6 weeks or more. Forget hometime, family, a regular life. They'll tell you, "That's trucking." Hooey. That's unacceptable.

    First off, SNI should be doing better by you. Talk to someone above your dispatch and explain that you're getting killed financially. That is, ask SNI what you need to do to start making money at SNI, for example, dedicated, where you know better what your miles will be.

    You need a better gig, like ODFL. See: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...2443-old-dominion-a-newbies-experience-3.html
    Also be aware of huge trucking health ramifications: http://www.uncg.edu/phe/faculty/apostolopoulos/AAOHNJ.pdf
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2013
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  5. avenger79

    avenger79 Medium Load Member

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    sounds like you dropped the ball on yourself. didn't do the simple math or research to find out where to begin. What to do now? If you leave and go somewhere else, do you think they will treat you better? would you? if someone bailed on a commitment they made because it wasn't going their way, what would you expect of them when the going gets tough on their new job? I would be willing to bet your first year in sales didn't pay a ton either. Takes time and contacts and experience to get ahead in any field.

    stay where you are for 1 year. During that year, figure out where you want to go and what you want to haul. that way you avoid coming here talking about jumping too fast and making a second mistake and it sucks and..............

    best of luck to you.
     
  6. windsmith

    windsmith Road Train Member

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    There's the rub. You agreed to work for less to cover the cost of your training. Now you're having buyer's remorse because you're actually having to pay the bill.
     
  7. "Hang - Man"

    "Hang - Man" Heavy Load Member

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    Ride out the "Crap Train" LOL - Pitch a "Beep" about your miles and pay - Ask if they can do anything about it or ask if you can change anything from your end to increase your pay or miles -let them think they are the smart ones and are helping you.
    Dont let them think you are going to jump ship even if you are, or i would bet they will think of some ways to "Punish You".
    Use this forum and your time as a great tool to check out the other threads and companies and try to weed out which are bad and which you can live with.
    Start a written list from the potential companies you study as to what is actually offered and what actually is received by the drivers. And what you require as a driver -EX: i would not even consider a company that doesn't have some sort of APU or lets you idle to stay warm or cool within reason even if you pick a company that pays a couple of cents less than others that don't or wont let you do either.
    Note that you can have many different stories about the same companies with different outcomes with a variety of different drivers - but that doesn't mean any of them are lying about it good or bad.
    FYI: Dieselfuelonly in his thread said "Screw it" to trying to get Schneiders fuel bonus and ran hard which i think actually may have made him better money by getting him more miles or faster miles.
     
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  8. WI Cupcake

    WI Cupcake Light Load Member

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    First year in sales I made 38,000. Not stupid money, but still at least a livable wage. Do not insult my intelligence by stating I did not do my homework... As I said this isn't just happening to me - I know of 3 other new drivers all having the same problems. Simple math: here we go. I'm told new drivers are averaging 1800mi/wk. 1800/7=267mi/day. 267mi/day @ 60mph = just over 4.5hr of driving. Those numbers seemed so low that they were realistic. 1800mi/wk grosses just over $500 at 0.29 cpm, and take out about 20% for taxes and whatnots and you are looking at bringing home $400-ish a week. I looked at my bills, we moved in with a friend to split rent thereby reducing rent by $280/mo, and halving utilities, and I figured I could ride out 6mo at least and then make the move if I didn't like it. How unreasonable is that "simple math".

    I must thank Victor for a thoughtful response. I will look at OD as another option. I will also start working up the chain to figure out if and how much money is being left on the table.

    "Buyers remorse" - ya think? As I said I was led to believe earnings would be better than they are and I could at least scrape by long enough to give them their training money back.

    Hang-man:
    "don't let them know you are going to jump ship" - I've played the corporate game plenty enough to know how to keep the dog and pony show going. The only time I've raised a complaint is when things are so screwed up on their side that it has left me sitting for hours while they try to figure out which one is the hole in their backside and which one is their elbow. When voicing my complaint, I never yell or scream or threaten. I am calm and collected, and I give sincere thought as to if I should say something or not before I dial the phone. As I said earlier in the thread, I have a hole in my wallet, not one in my head haha.

    The Internet can be a difficult place to study on matters of opinion, mainly because the tendency of our society is that most people that are happy never bother saying that they are pleased, but those unhappy ones will tend to be many times more vocal about their dissatisfaction. You get 20 ticked off people out of 10,000 employees or customers all talking at the same time and suddenly it looks like a pandemic yet it's really an isolated issue. The challenge is sorting out if the information is genuine or if it's being posted with the intent to harm the company as some petty form of retribution. Even on these boards you will find the negative experiences among the positives. Just need to weed through the information.

    Back to point - Maverick looks good, and I've seen some positive on US Express and now Old Dominion. Any other recommendations?
     
  9. avenger79

    avenger79 Medium Load Member

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    wasn't trying to "insult you" in anyway. if you look at your orig post and what you posted as weeks earnings, they seem to average out to "about" 400ish. couple short weeks and a couple good weeks. par for the course. problem comes from not "averaging" your spending on the good and bad weeks. before you get too bent on the "insulting" part, read the last part of my previous post. very serious and meant to be helpful no matter what industry you are in.

    have a good day.
     
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  10. tow614

    tow614 Road Train Member

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    I wouldn't recommend US Express... but ODFL would be good if they are in your area...also Estes and even Saia.

    They have line haul positions open all the time and P&D with hourly wages from $18/$21 per hr..

    Depending on where you live there could be some smaller local companies to check out..
     
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  11. Victor_V

    Victor_V Road Train Member

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    It would help to know where you live. (Oops, edit: confused 2 threads. Ha ha on me!) Maverick, for example, is more than just a little strict about hiring area. Move out and you're fired (or so a recruiter told me when I mentioned moving from Indiana to Charlotte--but Charlotte and Asheville were okay... )

    More info, please. (Let me guess, somewhere up next to my home state, MN... And you're one post away from able to PM, WI.)

    Understand that cellopudding at OD makes more just starting out than 90% of the OTR drivers on this site @ 49 cents/mile, runs terminal-to-terminal in the daylight and a company he could retire from should he choose to stay trucking that long. Estes, as tow said, is another great company. Local out of Indy's about $24/hour at full ticket.

    Your experience, $400-$600/week gross is typical OTR for the majority out there at mega carriers. Sad but true. And a six-seven day week. However, it has pulled many a new driver off food stamps and down the road into an hourly job with overtime and hometime enough to have a 'regular' life.

    Trucking's not for the faint of heart. That's not your problem, though. You just need a decent gig and some time there to decide how well you like watching highway tv all day out the windshield. Many cannot last that long...
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2013
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