Just curious about the difference?

I agree to a point. After driving for twenty years, including for the Department of State, I can pretty much pick what I want.
The problem is that it is too easy to ask for too much. It's always easier to find someone that will ask for less. If there were a lot less drivers it would be a lot easier to ask for more. The companies would still go with the driver asking for less but the new less would be a lot more than the less is now.

 

Yea that is why I said with in reason. Like if they offer me .42 a mile and 1 day off for every 7 out I say .48 and home for my resets every week. I will budge on the .48ca little to start with them(let em talk me down to .45/.46) but stand firm on the off on weekends.

 

2 points....one is trainers have way more horror stories about trainees than trainees have about trainers. I've trained a lot of guys over the years, and I've had some doozies. All of those trainees I have had had an excellent trainer. Even the ones who didn't have enough experience to know better and thought they didn't have an excellent trainer. As for Watkins and Shepard, I've never worked for them. I have met some guys who did. Seems they make that system work by micromanaging like crazy. Driver pretty much makes no decisions whatsoever. Even when, where, and how much fuel to put in. You'll be dictated there every bit as much as if you had another guy actually in the truck doing the dictating.

 

didn't Watkins Shepard just get purchased by one of the megas maybe Schneider?

that will ultimately negate with no training policy

 

Kind of back to your question OP, I believe much of training duration is dictated by each carrier's insurance company. Some carriers are self insured and can do as they wish. Others fall under the insurer's terms.

 

Just my 2 cents, but I believe you are coming into this industry with the wrong attitude, and for you to think that because your are gonna be a regional driver, that you can get away with less time with a trainer is kind of scary, but hey good luck....

 

Oh Lord, never mind negotiating around truck stops, rerouting, working your clock with real world situations like accidents, traffic, weather, adjusting fuel to stay within legal weights etc. I drove truck locally for over a decade where I live. When work got slow, I came out on the big roads. Company I chose mandated a month with a trainer. I dreaded the thought. But I'm mighty glad I had to go with him. He showed me the ropes and how to run. There was so much I had no idea about out here...even after driving that long locally. I went home and hauled for a logging company last year but came back out running the north corridor of the country with the company I originally OTR trained with this year. Keep it safe, listen to experience, and take your time.....and many avenues will present themselves.

 

Somebody's in for a shock...
Driving a truck isn't cut and dried, "point A to point B". The number if variables you encounter will be at times staggering. I've been at this twenty three years, and it would be foolish of me to say I'm even close to knowing all of it. A good driver realizes the learning never ends, and while being knowledgeable, still maintains a level of humility (based on what you've posted here and elsewhere so far, that is something you could use a little more of, especially being a rookie. I've trained drivers before with attitudes similar to yours. I would make it very clear to them that it would be in their best interest to save their ####iness for someone who might be impressed by it, because I wasn't.).