Have you ever switched to a different company and regretted it?

Yes I sold my truck once and went to work local .
The worse mistake of my life !!!
After 6 years of misery I put in my 2 week notice took 2500.00 and bought a 1985 Marmon .
20 years later I am still driving a Marmon and still with the company I left my local job for !!!

Money had nothing to do with my decision but my happiness did .
I now make more money but my happiness is still more important than the money .

 

Exactly! Money is a large part but there is other factors to consider, happiness being one of them.

 

If you dont like your job, that is a red flag. I've had good jobs in the past, but they never made me feel happy, well, may be at the beginning, but they did not challenge me as a driver i would say. In ten years as a driver, i've been with three trucking companies. I do not regret any decision i made. I started my career with coca cola, great company, good benefits and future, but I quit. Lots of people told me I would regret it, but never happened. I have learned a lot since then. I drove kind of regional for a food service company and then when I needed somethi g local again, i had the experience i needed for the company i always wanted to drive for. Do not stay in the comfort zone. Sometimes we need to take risks.

 

You are correct but at the same time your kinda wrong. From my experience the more a company requires the less they pay, don't get caught up in the BS requirements that they have. Many companies in all industries make unrealistic requirements so they can beat you down on wages when you are hired, its just business.
I've done my fare share of job hopping and it was never for pennies and I never hurt myself doing it.
Its like the DAC report....the companies that are worried about what it says are the first people to put crap on it, the companies that are worried about your numbers are probably more worried about their own and your not going to make anything anyway, or, they are looking for a driver that can take a lot of abuse and have you sitting in some cheap broker freight dock for hours on in for free.
After 20+ years driving I finally stopped looking at the trucking company and started looking at their customers....A trucking company can be the best company in the world, they can have naked women hand you coffee and doughnuts every time you walk into the office and you know what...it doesn't matter because your not there your at their customers and if their customer sucks so do they, time to job hop!

End of rant!

 

I’ve never been sentimental about any job I’ve ever had, so it may be down to mentality. As far as job hopping goes, in most industries job hoppers actually earn 50% more income over their lifetime than lifers who get excited about a dismal salary increase once a year. I.e If I can go to a company offers me 20% more income today, why would I stay at my current company for that huge .01 cpm increase once a year? I go in to make money, when I leave a company I don't even remember 99% of the workers and staffs names. They are irrelevant to me, only thing that matters is how fat are my checks, and if another company can make them fatter, then I am out the door. I couldn't care less if the company goes belly up trying to pay me what I want, I don't care about them emotionally, it's just business. There's nothing wrong with this mentality because companies are the same exact way!

Now some people enjoy company culture and make friends where they work and all that crap and so they will stay even when it's against their own best interest and that's fine, but job hopping is what more motivated people tend to do. IF they are just leaving for more money, if they're job hopping because they are a crybaby or bad worker and keep getting fired then that's different.

 

After two years at US Xpress, my wife and I left to team at R&L Carriers. After a month of that we quit. We switched companies thinking the grass was greener but not always true.

 

That would be great to stay in one place for a good while. Its not like its super enjoyable to switch and having to learn new system. However for some of us that want to move in to a certain sector of the industry in my case Tanker dry bulk or chemicals most if not all ask for at least 3 months experience pulling dry van. So can't really get away from the job hop when that is the case.

Yes I am aware that if I try at the right time i might get hired with no exp in to a tanker job but i can not just bank on luck.

 

These folks are giving you good advice. I job hopped my first 3 years. Not a good habit to get into. I eventually figured myself out & and straightened myself out. I knew that I loved trucking, but wanted a little more say in my operating environment. I decided on going the IC/OO route and eventually ended up with Schneider Nat'l. They still had some pretty regimented guidelines to follow, but treated me excellent. I was associated with a couple great driver managers and fleet managers. If I had a problem.....they listened. If I screwed up......I always told them the truth. They always paid back any favors that I did for them......like trailer hunts, and taking loads for other drivers on our board that couldn't handle NYC. I got a lot of runs out to LA, Seattle, and Portland as a thank you. They knew I loved being west of the Mississippi.

All the job hoppers that I met were pretty much the same.

1. Poor communications skills
2. Immature
3. Too stubborn to sit down and talk with dispatchers/fleet managers.
4. The grass is always greener.... types.
5. Career whiners

Don't be those guys.