How long did you stay at starter company as a driver?

Farmers are the best people to work for (customers). They’re reasonable and sane. If they complain. There’s very good reason.

 

What is a FAST card?

I’m leaving my first at one year.
I have a great offer.

My first six months were awful. Should have walked out at the start. Almost left two months in. Magnum convinced me to stick it out after 2 months. Just plain would look too bad. I transferred to another terminal at six months. It’s better. But not what it could/should be. I accepted a great offer. I’m submitting application on my first year date exactly. That’s January 8th

 

FAST: Free and Secure Trade for Commercial Vehicles | U.S. Customs and Border Protection

 

You beat me to it.

 

When you do make a change, find yourself a company that doesn't do cheap freight and doesn't pay based on miles. It shouldn't be about the miles. Once you have some decent experience, you can find a place that works smarter instead of harder and doesn't make you kill yourself running 3k miles a week.

 

You can avoid the megas completely. If you're with one now, don't go to another one. Look around, read ads in the local papers as well as the online places, contact them no matter what they require and be polite about them not taking you, because most won't.

I didn't worry about leaving the 1st one after a few months, if it's an abusive situation it won't likely get better. The next one I left after 4 days, the next after a week. It's harder at first because of limited choices for new drivers, but keep looking.

The place I found that I'm still at, still in my first year, actually needs another driver or two, but doesn't advertise a lot. They put one ad up this year and I responded right away.

Chinatown offered you some good choices, take a Dock job at an LTL and someday they'll need a driver and you'll e right there.

 

i agree 150%, my farmers never complain about me. they pay ALLOT of money to have their product hauled away. they have every reasonable expectation to have their product removed in a timely manner. only extenuating circumstances will prevent me from doing so. farmers never complain about a driver that is only late in extreme weather conditions. most of the time im +/- 10 minutes to pick up their milk, i know how to keep a schedule. when you do your job with professionalism these people become your best friends. i enjoy going there and serving them, if i ever leave this job i would miss going to the farms.

despite the possibility of extreme weather, i have never been late long enough to cause them to have to dump product. its a real problem if they get to the point where their milk tank is full and they end up dumping on the ground.

 

I stayed for over 3 years.

 

I stayed with Western Express for 9 months before another company took me on

 

I’ve been with Western Express for 4 months. At least out west It’s not nearly as bad as I’ve had heard reading this site. My DM is a gem so I can see where other people could have issues, but I think that goes for any DM/carrier.