Is this a Trucking forum or an ANTI-trucking forum!?!?!

If you REALLY want to drive, stick it out. Many companies will treat you with "kids' gloves" when you first start. The honeymoon phase is sort of a 'trial period' you have to go through as your company feels you out. Understand your company doesn't know you from Adam, so they may be cautious about trusting you to deliver a critical load on time when you're green. This is because of the trouble they have had in the past with green drivers. I'd do the same, and so would you, if the roles were reversed.

Again, if you REALLY want to do this, just hang on and bite the bullet. It'll get better fairly soon. Make your deliveries on time, every time, and you will reap what you sow later (or sooner, even).

Good luck.

 

Magic, Im not sure of the actual miles that you need to get to the heavy haul but I was told at my drivers interview that you did have to haul a ceertain number of the nest "level" of loads successfully before you could go to the review board and get approval fo that nest level. I think they have 4 levels, starting at 4 and going to 1, then 1a for the REALLY big stuff. I agree wuth you that they seem to be a good outfit. I actually liked that they had some standards in place for moving up. As long as they dont apply those standards like some of the co.'s we read about here! Just wondering, have you tied calling them?

 

Let's look at the facts....and this is a blanket statement for the industry...

There are many companies that still think that life is still below $1.50 per gallon of gas and the cost of living is what it was 3 years ago....and they still pay drivers .36 cpm or lower....and to include short miles...so...if a company is paying short miles instead of practical miles this is bad for you....a short mile company will dispatch you approx 2750 short miles but actually you are driving approx 3100 practical miles...and you will probably log practical miles.....this is a loss of approx 4000 bucks a year plus a dinosaur pay scale doesnt help...any company that dispatches on short miles is being deceptive from the start and it puts a bad taste in your mouth from the get-go...all the telephone references are always made to the short miles,whatta reminder...I moved to a company that increased my pay from 36 cpm to 42 cpm and from short to practical miles..with a 47 cpm cap and a 3 cnt pay increase to be expected across the board soon...and....when I get dispatched...I get 3 loads to choose from...in other words I will be making approx 55g-58g per year...top pay I heard was 65g p/year...so for an approx 10g-11g increase per year,thats a nice house in 10 years....If you are curious,you can contact me at this website using private email.....go practical miles!...search the companies and find them...

 

Dance
You are so right about the bs. I know some o/o leased to companies that do a lot of broker. They get 70% of linehaul. That's 70% of what? If these brokers take their cut ( and they always take a big cut of fsc, some of these drivers are only gettting .25-.29 a mile).Then the company takes 30%. whoa no wonder they can't make it.
$1000 line @$1 mile (and yes thers are LOTS of brokers offering these crap prices) minus 25% broker leaves $750 now minus companies 30% leaves $525 for the driver. Gee at .525 a mile and fuel at 2.85 the real question is how long will it take these guys to go broke? You are so right!!

 

And you're assuming brokers are honest. Some (maybe even MOST) will lie to drivers about how much loads pay. These guys will claim a load pays 2500 when it really pays 3000. They stick the 500 in their pockets, and then take a commish on the 2500. All for about ten minutes worth of labor (if you can call talking on a phone actual labor).

 

Hey Magic, who knows you may fall in love with your current co., stranger things have happend. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes with ATS, assuming I actually do. But they are my first choice for now. I just paid my tuition today, start school on Oct. 1, already passed my general knowledge, combo., air brake, doubles/triples, and tanker tests. From what I gather on this site I'll probably wait for the hazmat until I need it. Let me know how things go for you. All the best!

 

in my first year only making 0.19 cpm plus per diem(25.00 day) i made over32,000 taxable income.this was in 1999.i ran hard and legal,took every load possible,didn't worry about home time,etc. at 0.30 cpm running 3000 miles per week you will gross 900 per week.if you crybaby about working all week for two weeks at a time,expect your miles to fall considerably.i started with a small reefer outfit that never had a problem giving me loads.within 2 years,i was lead driver for the company and had an un-governed,500hp truck.then by learning how to optimize log book times and using the full capabilities of that truck,grossing over 1100 per week was easy.and this was at 0.24 cpm plus per diem.the bigger outfits will keep you in slower trucks for safety reasons but as long as you get 450 miles per day average,you will make those 3000 miles per week.

 

They paid you a per diem?