Got a call from Werner Recruiter today!

Sorry, but I consider a trailer brake fire to be rather important, no matter how many drivers you are watching. Especially when a driver saves the load, trailer and truck.

They are lucky it was winter and there was snow on the ground, otherwise they would have lost the trailer and load at the least. He went through both fire extinguishers and had to resort to using snow to finally put it out.

 

Don't confuse dedicated pay with new hire OTR. I went straight into dedicated route after training # .38 per mile w/$800 dollar a week minimum in case the miles don't add up. Other dedicated routes such as Office Max start at .32 a mile.

The Family Dollar account is a mixed bag, for every driver who bad mouths it, I have heard another say how much they like it. I'm not sure about your area, but in some they use the rolltainers to get the freight in and out of the trucks, with the pain being some of the inclines. Again, some people like using them, other don't.

The real question here is will he be able to land a dedicated route out of training, or will he have to cut his teeth with some OTR before there is a spot on the list.

As for the company itself, There are plenty of those who have been given the short end of the stick, but they certainly aren't the only name on the bad company section. I did way too many hours in training, but the payoff was more than I expected. I would have to drive 3000 miles # .26 to make what I do now, and in my current situation I get to come home every day.

No complaints here...

YMMV

 

They do put new drivers on those dedicated accounts. When my hubby was there, that's where almost all of the new drivers were going for a while. He had trained on that dedicated account.

 

So OTR is 26cpm,so if I got a dedicated account,ill be making around .32cpm.So how many miles a week can you get on a dedicated account?

 

I was throwing numbers for examples. My dedicated route is .38 per mile, but since the miles are fairly low since it is local, they make up the difference and I'm on a minimum $800 a week. Office Max is .32, but I don't know what Family Dollar, Dollar General or the others pay.

There are different types of dedicated:

If you are home nightly, most either have a minimum weekly pay, or they have better mileage pay, or even stop pay (along w/multiple stops per day) along with an amount per day (say 100 bucks) to make up for the small amount of miles. There is a local route here in So Cal that has a 100 a day along with 40 bucks per stop (2-4 stops per day). Mileage is not a factor for pay on this account.

Some other dedicated accounts like the Office Max I mentioned are basically regional and you can be home weekly most of the time. You can get 3000 miles or more at times. I trained on this type of account and we made several trips from Vegas to Scranton, as well as up north to Sea-Tac, as well as trips as far south as San Angelo, TX. There are miles to be had with this type of dedicated account.

Ask your recruiter the particulars for whatever account you are looking to get on. Ask a driver at the terminal if possible as well. We can all add a little here or there relating to our experiences, but you will get the full story from the guys on the routes themselves.

 

Hey now I was a night dispatcher and my drivers always could get ahold of me and I knew them by name and voice not just truck and employee number. Course ever since I got into the driving part of it I havent quite found a night dispatcher I liked either

 

Then you were a gem of a night dispatcher!

 

i'm not saying its not, but in general, at night most drivers (me included) are just ######## about things moving slowly.

having a bad dispatcher does suck, but having one that is just too busy to bother with non-critical thing is merely annoying. unfortunately for your husband, he had a bad one (to say the least).

i know the dedicated P&G out of KS City/ St. Louis starts at 24cpm. if you started out at 38cpm, then i can only imagine they were having problems filling that route, so they increased pay as incentive... officemax makes less on the dedicated scale due to 6 stops per load ($185 in stop pay per trip). i've been on the dedicated waiting list since i hired, just nothing around my area i guess...

 

Not intending to go tit for tat but... I know for a fact they aren't having problems filling the route, there was one on the waitlist before me (I was on the list for 4 months) but he didn't want to work nights, with 5 on the list after me. I figure it must be a cost of living issue if anything and/or the negotiated contract amount.

As for the Office Max out of Vegas, it was a flat .32 a mile, no additional stop fees. The most stops were 5 and that included shipper, consignee, and stops in between. However, that route left Vegas and included stops throughout the 48 with a stop at the Pennsylvania DC for the trip back. It was by no means a home daily or weekly for that matter.

Good luck on getting the route you want and drive safe in the meanwhile.

 

Family Dollar running TX Regional = .28 cpm/800 min/10.00 per stop??