Indian River

Most of my breakdowns were with the old style Peterbilt that had the full fairings. I have a new style one now and that had to be towed to the dealer with only 30K on the clock. It has also had far more issues than the old one.

His name was Mike, don't recall his last name.

 

This is my first time driving the new body style and I've had quite a few problems but they're all really minor. I've had my shifter lever replaced once, turn signal replaced twice, had an issue with the starter wiring (truck wouldn't start and the roadside mechanic had to jump the starter with a screwdriver), quarter fender rusted and fell off entirely, and my PTO quit working (I found out the hard way while trying to unload and another pump driver had to come save me).

I still consider myself lucky because these are all minor issues and the quality of Peterbilt had me expecting the worst. These trucks truly are thrown together with the cheapest parts they could find these days. I'm probably going to go back to being an owner operator in a couple years so I can get a truck that was made back when they actually lasted a million miles.

 

I'm on my 3rd turn signal stalk in less than 2 years. I see them on Amazon for $40, I'm tempted to get one to keep in the truck as a spare.

 

Hey guys, I'm a rookie with only 4 months of driving experience, and I'm interested in joining IRT. This will be a long post so I appreciate if you guys read it, and answering the questions that I have. Before I start, you guys should know that I got a ticket for "Unsafe Lane Changing" and I made the the mistake of paying it, I don't know how screwed I am, I was planning on doing a year here then jump on IRT, but looks like I might have to do two years, you guys let me know. Alright, so, I live in Port Saint Lucie, Fl, I originally wanted to join IRT from the start but they wanted at least 6 months OTR experience, so I went to Cypress Truck Lines instead to get the experience. If you guys don't know, it's a flatbed company, I wanted to do either Flatbed or Tanker when I graduated, and... I want to get out of that Flatbed stuff lol. Doing a lumber load in a 90° sun in GA is no joke... Plus I'm too skinny for them loads. So we mostly haul sheetrock, like 90% of the time, they are preload trailers, which I like cause I don't really like doing live loads. We're South East until we have 6 months with the companie, so the closest to the west I got is Texas, and the furthest I got to the Northeast is PA and NJ, and they are both crazy lol... We do one load per day, like I can pick up a load from Jacksonville FL, and deliver it tomorrow in NC, then take a load in Mount holly, NC, 20 miles away, deliver that in Atlanta, GA the next day, and pick up one in Atlanta GA, to deliver it in Tampa, the following day, you guys get the point lol, I don't like that. I like long loads, like 700, 800 miles loads that take 2-3 days to deliver, they do have these kinds of loads as I've done them before, usually I get them for the weekend, maybe it's because I'm Southeast.

*Here's the things that I think it's great about Cypress*
Home Time
Most of their drivers are home weekly, so I could be home every week if I wanted to, but I don't want to come home for just a day, that's why I stay out 3 weeks and home 4 days. I doubt that there's another company that have a good home-time policy like they do, maybe there are, I'm new to this stuff.

Pre-loaded Trailers

Like I said, most of their loads are preload and tarp, and they haul sheetrock 95% of the time, I like that because I don't wastes much time doing live loads. Some drivers say Cypress is not a real Flatbed company because of that, well, if they're not a real Flatbed company then Flatbed is definitely not for me lol. I don't have the muscles to secure these loads.


*Things I don't like about Cypress*

The most important thing is their incab camera, hate it, I don't mind, cameras on the outside but the incab camera seems like an invasion of privacy.

Their trucks are slow, slow to accelerate, it's crazy, they go 65 mph, and they can't climb hills and mountain for nothing. My truck do 35mph climbing the mountains... I get frustrated the most when I'm trying to pass a car or truck that's slowing me down, then we come on a hill, I lose speed and they just keep going, frustrating...

They pay Zipcode miles not the actual miles you drive.

That's about it for Cypress, I have a few questions if you guys don't mind answering.


*Questions*

Routes: Reading this thread, I got some idea of what the routes are in IRT, so what is the route like? Like I said with Cypress, we mostly do a load per day, since we haul 95% sheetrock, we mostly deliver to supplies stores like L & W, and they accept deliver all day from 7AM-3PM, what kind of customers does IRT have? What kind of appointments do you guys have? How much of the Northeast do you guys go? NY, NJ, PA do you guys go to these hellhole a lot? Do you have night deliveries or early morning ( EX: 2 AM ) deliveries?




Eupipments: I've complained about how much I hate how slow my truck is, and reading the early pages of this thread, IRT trucks can go to 71mph, which is great but I've read that they don't have APUs, and when we idle them their speed go down, is that's still how they are? If so that's one of the dumbest stuff I've heard, so I gotta choose whether to stay hot in Florida or cold in North Carolina over my speed... Hopefully they change that or install APUs in them trucks. What do you guys do when you go home? With no APU, do you take stuff out of your fridge so they don't go bad? I need some clarity on this. Can we bobtail? Can the trucks climb hills and mountains? My truck do 35mph on the mountains, if you guys trucks do at least 55mph, that's good enough for me.


Pay, Miles: Last and the most important part, I've read on here that they pay about .46CPM but on their website, it say they pay .60CPM, is this something that's recent that they just added? I'm getting .52CPM right now, averaging about $1200 take home pay Definitely need some answers to that. And how many miles/pay can I can expect as a rookie, as you guys know already, I like the long haul loads, and at 25, my goal is to run hard for the next 10 years, save, buy a house, then get a local job. Last thing, do you guys like it at IRT?

If you made it this far, and read all of that, a big thank you! I'll buy you a beer if I see you on the road!

 

They got rid of that system. The trucks are 70mph regardless of idle time. You do need to empty your fridge and turn it off when you're on home time or your batteries will go dead in 1-2 days, maybe 3 if you're lucky. I feel like my truck pulls pretty good considering it's only a 450hp. I don't feel like it's neutered like a lot of the company trucks I've driven in the past. You'll still go up some hills at 35mph but that's when it's really really steep. Pay depends on experience, and this is CDL-A experience, not tanker specifically. As of right now, less than 6 months is 53cpm, 6-11 months is 57cpm, and 1yr+ is 60cpm. Miles will vary. At Indian River you could get 3600 miles one week and 2000 the next. As @Tanker_82 always says, 2500 miles per week is a good average, but that doesn't mean you'll get that every week, it just means it'll average out to 2500 over time.

With all that being said, you can apply but I don't think they're trying to hire a lot right now. Things are a bit slow at the moment. But it never hurts to give it a try.

 

Thanks man, it's a bummer that they don't have APUs in their trucks, it would be much better, I do agree that 2500 miles per week is a good average.

 

Hey man @Tanker_82 You're still with IRT? If so, how you liking it there?