Got approved by Crete today.

I went through the Orentation 3months ago, you are right about ssa, the same thing happen to me. I drive for shaffer but it was the same orent. I am glad i made the move from the other company i worked for. Have a good attutide and you'll be fine.

 

stay with Heartland. the top pay is far more than you will make with Crete. if you slide over, with 9 yrs, you will start at .40 a mile.

training update. week one was hell. i was paired with a non smoker after i asked for a smoker. he was 63 years old and really #####y. all he is doing is using students to make a paycheck so he can retire in 2 years. he claimed my snoring at night was too much for him so i was transferred to another truck. i do snore like a bear lol

so the second trainer was an immigrant from Persia. funny as hell. i learned a lot from him not only about driving, but the culture over there in the middle east as well. i was with him for 5 weeks, but due to the fact his parents were flying back overseas, he took a week off to be with them. i can respect that. i had already had my hometime, so i was to get a 3rd trainer after a one night layover at home.

so i go meet with the third trainer. a black guy from nigeria. we went from chatt tn to baltimore md. halfway through virginia, he turns on the satellite radio to some very racist call in show. blacks talking about f this, f that, screw that mofo stuff, fin white ppl are crazy and so on. so i was like hummm ok. then, during my drive through virginia, he has his laptop out. im checking my mirror during a lane change, and i catch a glimpse of what he is doing. he is looking at porn on his laptop while in the jump seat. not boob pics, i mean the stuff that you would see in the movies. graphic to say the very least.

we get to cardinal health in baltimore, and the receiving is closed till 3am and its 12am now. they let us in to turn around and park on the side of the street, they will come get us at 3. no big deal. i go to make a u-turn in the lot, the lot is maybe 1000 feet wide and the trainer goes off. what are you doing? i reply i am turning around. he remark was you dont have enough room. i said excuse me? i had to make a uturn on a 2 lane blacktop in fort collins in a 4 way intersection on a backroad due to bad qualcomm directions. this is 10 times the room. he remarks well i am a better driver than that. he made me get out of the drivers seat, then he had to make a fugging uturn anyway. and from the looks of it, he shouldnt be doing that himself. it took him forever to realize that the uturn was the only way to turn around. it was not pretty.

so by then, i have decided that this is not going to work out. the next morning, he starts ######## about my downshifting when approaching an exit ramp. parts of virginia can be hilly at times, so running with the jake brake on is a good idea.

so i go to make a fuel stop, a quarter mile away, i proceeded to drop to ninth and let her coast while it starts to engine brake. then about 2500 feet, i throw on the turn signal to signal my intention, then enter the ramp and drop to 7th, then to 5th then use the brake to slow down then drop it in 2nd and ease up to my stopping point.

he starts his rant about how that is tearing up his transmission, and that he would like to keep his new transmission and he wants me to start entering the ramp in 10th gear (loaded or not) and use the service brake to an almost complete stop then place it in the takeoff gear by matching the gear to the speed then stopping completely.

well i know this is not right, the jake brake and gearing down is designed to slow the truck while not using the service brake. it is all about being safe, and if you have to slam on the brakes, you want cool unused brakes applying in an emergency situation rather than ones that have been applied the entire length of an exit ramp. that can sometimes be a half mile.

so during the fuel/food stop, i called driver development and told them to do something and told them what has had transpired the last day. her remark was ok, sit tight and let me get back to you. an hour later, i call back, and she has still not done a thing about my dilemma.

i then told them they had until i got back to chattanooga (load was going south of atlanta) and this was at 10am and they would be in the office until after 5pm. ample time to make something happen or get me a motel room so another trainer could get me. 5 came and went and i never heard a word. at 5pm i was in troutville virginia, and i knew how long it was till i got to chattanooga.

i arranged to be picked up in a closed food store parking lot. at least i did the jerk a favor and gave him room to turn around. he gave me a lecture about riding in the left lane even though the stretch of highway i was on has no restrictions on the left lane. i know this for a fact, i have lived here 30 years. this was 2 miles from my exit on I75. he had been on the phone for 3 hours, so i replied to him this is my exit. he was like what? i said you and i are not getting along. i am getting off the truck. its all yours. and he was out of hours and had to be delivered at 7am LOL. his know it all ### had to drive backroads to avoid the scales to get to his delivery.

i sent a detailed email to the director of driver development, and have yet to hear back from them. i understand that people are different, but i mean come on. as hard as it is to be away from home while doing this job is one thing. but when you get two strangers that have that instant "click" like i did with my second trainer, they should have left me idle until he came back from his time off. i am going to call him tomorrow to see if he can call crete and get a freaking answer on what is going happening.

i do have a string on a local job. bird whispered in my ear. local trucking company, home 4 nights a week, and they run the southeast and part of the northeast. going there tomorrow to apply as well.

i will try to keep this updated.

 

Well first off you Jumped off the TRUCK, you should have gone to the terminal, Your USIS/Dac is most likely screwed now, Not matter how compelling your story is.

 

I spent 2 years OTR with schinder, they were good to me, had a fairy new truck, got sent all over, but had a few deaths in the family,happened all at once and I needed to stay closer to home, do drive a tanker local, would love to get back out, but these deaths,of more the one take time to recover, for some of my family members, thier still having a hard time I'm needed more then ever to stay closer to home and it's been 8 years....... You did the right thing, out on the road it hard enough, do not need other issues of home to dog u around

 

They will hire convicted felons. Not sure of the time limit but I know a guy who drives for them. He did maybe 15 or 20 years...can't remember.....for murder. Been out for at least ten and driving for them for 4.

So obviously they will give people a second chance if you've proven yourself to be changed/rehabilitated.

 

i believe the 8 week deal does not affect the DAC. that is the trail period to see if you are going to fit in with the needs/requirements of the job. i will find out though. they didnt want me to go to a terminal, that is the thing that puzzled me. they wanted me to stay with him until she could do something. why would you want someone to stay in an uncomfortable situation any longer than than they already have been? beats me.

 

The top pay with Heartland is very hard to get.
For one you have to be system (OTR) to get it. And the drivers still do not get more than 2500 miles a week. They just sit on the road weekends.
Also the .50 they advertise is with a few extras. One cent is hazmat, the other is for the safety bonus, which is paid once a year at the rate of 1 cent per mile.
They are also very good at running down your rate by somehow not being able to verify experience. Some of mine was almost 19 years ago and with company's that did not use DAC. So could not be verified. Also had a large gap away from driving when I went and got a degree and worked with that for several years.
Also I had quite a few years local driving.
So all that the OTR company's will accept is about 3.5 years at this point. Heartland at my hire time only accepted 2, since I was a few months short of 3 years recent.
Thus I am at .385 cpm. I have to get hazmat for Crete, so if I add that to my heartland rate it will be 39.5 and in OCT would go to .40.
Crete will start me at 41-42, I will not know till some time this next week.
Also heartland will not pay for many tolls that I have to go around every week, this costs me 80-120 miles each time I do it. Also they are a short to med haul company, and use short miles.
The short miles would not bother me in an OTR situation. Since it would only be 20-80 miles per long run. But on a short haul situation, when I do 1-2 loads per day, it is costing me those miles each day, on every load.
So I am loosing 200-500 miles each week, that I am running but not being paid for.
Also heartland does not have any layover, shuttle pay, detention pay etc. For any move inside a zip code they pay nothing.
So I basically run hard all week and I take home 400-600 per week. Granted I am home almost every weekend. That is the big plus. And trucks are all new and maintenance is great.

I need to get some cash flow again though. My wife is a teacher but not at a public school. So she does not make any income in summer. So my 400-600 a week is our total income. It is paying the bills, but just barely. Nothing extra to pay off debt.
Also, while I am home most weekends, it is for a 34. That is about it. I cannot make plans since I do not know if I will be home till Friday and do not get there till Saturday some time. Can be any time midnight to midnight. Just that I will get home.

 

chromedome, they pay NOTHING for any move inside a zip code? I sure wouldnt take that. I woulda told them to kiss my arse the first time i found out about that.

Im glad i dont work for heartland.

 

Lucky for me it has only happened a few times, and all but one of those times I asked if they had anything. I did this because it was Thursday and I had a few hours left coming into the Columbus terminal.
I knew that I would not get my next load till Friday afternoon or evening headed home. So I asked if they had any loads local for me to grab and bring to the terminal. So it would be easy for the driver that got the load out.

On the pay thing, I forgot to add a few things.
If I was system I would get .04 cpm more. So if I add up what my pay would be system in Oct with my yearly raise. I would have .385+.005+.01 for hazmat+.04 for system. I would be at .44 cpm.
I may talk to my fleet manager and see about going system just to try it out. I hear that most of them are not getting more miles though. But I need to get hazmat anyway and I figure I should give it a shot if I am going to go OTR at another company. This way I will see what the real changes are.
If I am still not making any money I can always move later.