Is this a good job?

I have 5 months experience local driving and been having a difficult time finding a good job with a company that has integrity, transparency, and not taking advantage of new drivers. I lack the experience to get the better jobs so not a whole lot of doors are open for me.

I found a local company out of Denver that is a small operation who hauls reefer. Reefer isn’t my first choice at all, but it is what it is.

The office is 3 guys that been in business together for 10+ years together, and 2 of them are family. They seem like pretty honest fellows and not the typical hard ##### I have met in the trucking industry. They also seem to be transparent from what little I know and seen. I don’t think they ######## a lot and pretty direct folks.

They were thinking of closing up shop because as everyone knows freight for small business just sucks right now, has for a while, and will for a while. They have 2 trucks running, and the 2 drivers they have running them have been there since their inception for the most part.

They made the choice to not close doors and bring on another 2 drivers, me being one of them, and try to ride out the storm. In order to hire me, they need to go purchase another truck to put me in. From what they said, they will be getting a used ‘20 or ‘21 international with Cummins engine to put me in with probably 350k miles on it.

The position will pay $.52 a mile, W-2, with no benefits. I will be carrying a fuel card from them.

The position is OTR, I can run as much as I like, and they said they could probably get me 3000+ miles a week without a problem if I want to run hard. I am not a family man, older, and don’t have much need to come home a lot. They primarily focus running reefer in mid west, but run most states if needed, and pretty much stay out of the north east.

Of course I would like a job with benefits, but I need experience more than anything. There is no layover or hourly rates when sitting on docks and just straight .52 a mile with taxes taken out, paid weekly, direct deposit. I haven’t seen Megan’s really paying much more than that price anyway. The fuel card is for TA’s and limited gas at Loves.

I do have some reservations that they were thinking of closing shop, but at the same time, them going out and getting a new (used) truck shows commitment to move forward, and the folks there seem pretty straight up about things.

The other nice thing about it is that I don’t have to train with anyone and be locked in a cab with anyone for training. They also don’t use inward facing cameras, and in fact, use no cameras at all. The inward facing camera is a deal breaker for me and rules out most jobs for me. I have my own dash cam that I will carry with me that at least records everything forward.

I am not thrilled with pulling reefer because of the constant noise like I posted about in another thread I started, but I am hoping I can get use to it.

I need experience and it seems like a possible good opportunity from that perspective. The guy dispatching of the 3 seems pretty cool also, and they spoke a lot about trusting each other and supporting their drivers a lot.

Does this sound like a good opportunity for a newer driver with 5 months of experience to get OTR under their belt? Are there are other things I should be thinking about and/or asking?

 

I am kind of sitting on the fence about it. I would rather be local, but finding a good local job has been difficult. At the same token, I really like driving and traveling so there is a big part of me that wants to go OTR also. I am just not thrilled about living at truck stops and dealing with all the shenanigans there. I will probably find places I can park outside of truck stops and mark them on google maps as time goes on so I have a bunch of places to park that is isolated and away from truck stops as time goes on, and utilize truck stops for showers with a mix of a national gym for showers too. I want to do OTR for the travel and I like the scenery change, but I have read and seen enough over time where I am not thrilled with being at truck stops all the time.

 

Yes, I have thought about this…but with the maga carriers, I am only getting about .45-48 cents a mile to start, I would probably have to be in a cab with someone for a bit, strong chance of inward facing camera unless it’s Swift (and swift won’t hire me), and it will be a crap shoot of what type of person I am dealing with for dispatch kind of stuff.

But I hear you…that’s why I am posting and asking.

 

With only 5 months experience?