First Employer After Obtaining CDL

That's a good one!

 

Atleast get 4-6 months and good training before that. Then move on. I started with Werner, moved on the Schugel. Will be here until I get a local job but that's not for another year before I meet minmim requirements for the next company I plan to work for.

the guys with the nice rigs been doing it for a while. After a year you'll know if you want to do this for the next 20 or not. You have to have tough skin, and learn from your mistakes. After a year there should be no excuses on getting tickets, over weights, and deffiantly since day 1 you should never have hit anything use GOAL everything else is just part of trucking. You'll have ###### days and days you'll want to quit believe me I've been there. Just get through it and move on.

 

Chicken lights and chrome doesn't pay the bills any better than a bare bones fleet truck. Its all in who you work for. Truth be told, I made more money driving my old bare bones truck than I do now. Same employer, just a shiny new truck and trailer, loaded with lights and chrome. Boss asked me one day after having a rotten week how things were going, he was suprised when I asked for my old truck and trailer back. He asked why, I told him the old one made me more money. He just grinned and said "if ya need more money, ya gotta say so! I can't read your mind" I haven't had a bad week since.

Finding your 'sweet gig' takes time and patience. I worked 12 years for mine. I've seen the older, less dependable guys get the gravy runs, while I got the crap no one wanted. Pissed me off in so many ways, but I kept at it. Kept the truck cleaner than the rest, wasn't late, and never hit anything. It paid off in the end.

 

Very true i've seen the same in my job Just keep my head down and take whatever load is going..

 

Whatever you do, give at LEAST 2 weeks notice. You do NOT want to "burn your bridges" behind you. Try your hardest to leave on the best terms possible.

Good luck to you!
God bless you and your family! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Leaving on good terms I will agree with but giving A two week notice is unheard of in this industry.Only time you're visable is while working at a carrier,you give them a notice chances are they'll route you to the nearest terminal and force you to resign right then and there and you have to find your own way home with all your stuff in the trk.Giving them a notice you quit while you're home is plenty of notice.As long as you're not under a load dispatch could care less when you quit.Trucking is not like a 9 to 5 job where you have a time clock and home every night.Motor carriers can make the remaining time for the driver a nitemare.Id rather be home when giving them a notice so I can clean trk out and make arrangments for transportation back home once I drop trk off at terminal.

 

Never quit while you're under a load,otherwise that will go on your DAC report as a service failure.Companies don't take kindly to that.But like I told MJE if you quit while on hometime that's plenty long enough notice.In this industry your company would find a driver to take your spot with the next orientation class.You would think you're doing the right respectful thing by giving them a 2 week notice but really you'll be only hurting yourself.

 

While that may be true with the bigger fleets, where you're just a driver number to some bimbo behind a desk, I would strongly advise against not giving a 2 week notice if you're working for a small company. Reason being, the mega fleets, like you have said, can find a steering wheel holder in a second. But small fleets generally don't want those types of employees, so the pool of drivers they will hire is much, much smaller, and as such, not giving a notice puts them in a real bind.

You mentioned the holy DAC report. Well, it's my belief that if a company uses such a screwed up method of hiring drivers, they aren't worth my time

 

Patty has a good point there. The ideal thing is to be on your home time when you give your notice, then if they tell you to clean out your truck, it isn't a problem.
IMHO, a two week notice is the RIGHT thing to do. If the company says "you're done right now," at least you know that you did the right thing.