How To Evaluate A Potential Employer

Recruiters will tell you whatever they have to in order to get you into orientation TBH. I didn't trust any of them and I can't really suggest you doing so either.

You can see the big stuff online or in a pamphlet. Pay rate, insurance benefits, 401k details, hometime, and so forth. From there, do research on this site. Seriously, it's a treasure trove of information on companies if you can sort out the guys that are just disgruntled.

When I was in trucking school in january, most of the offers were in the 24 CPM (lol) to 30 CPM range. Some companies (TMC) do percentage based pay, which is what I do. I routinely made 45 CPM and up on this program. I now make considerably more.

As for equipment... I can pretty much tell you that youll be in a well used tractor that's been at least decently well taken care of. There are some lemons out there though. The one thing that differs most from company to company is the transmission type. 10 speed, 13 speed, 18 speed... Automatic.

 

You came to the right place to ask questions . What you hear from schools and recruiters is pure BS .
A checklist may be helpful but in reality newbies can't be picky and have to take what they are offered .
Detention pay with a decent carrier is hourly pay when you are detained being loaded or unloaded . The most common agreement is after 2 hours . At Purina in Nashville there is a sign stating they will only pay detention if they don't have storage room to accept the load or there is a mechanical failure with unloading equipment . They don't make appointments and drivers can wait for hours .
Their have been several threads on per diem . You can get a lot of info by doing a site search .

 

I'll make a quick list for you, some may add or disagree but here is the basics

Type of equipment (type of trucks/year of trucks/trans type)
Pay and benifets (cpm and raise timelines/ insurance costs/401k)
Apu on trucks ( this is really nice to have buy most companies dont)
idle policys (very big deal if you don't have an apu)
rider policy ( if you want a rider)
pet policy ( Most don't allow but some do/ werner and prime do of the top of my head)
average miles for drivers (you want as close to 3000 as possible)
detention pays ( differs with each company, but you will want a good one)
tarp pay if flatbed
breakdown pay ( hotel stay/pay while in shop)
hometime policy (very important/ not just how much you earn, but how much you can take at a time, and if you keep the truck during hometime)
vactation time/family emergency policy ( self explanitory)

 

One thing on my checklist, if I go check out a company in person, I take note of the employee parking lot. If it's full of junk cars, chances are nobody is making any money...

 

If a recruiter is trying to convince you how good things are it's probably a bad place. If a recruiter merely gives you information and says I don't know sometimes there's a better chance it may be ok.

 

Naw, they just are getting paid so much, they left their cars in the parking lot, and now use a personal limo to get to and from work..