Looking for something specific

Hey, Drivers. I'm David and I live on the Alabama Gulf Coast. I'm looking for something specific in terms of companies to look at, but my options are probably limited. So I'll give a little background.

Back in '09, I went to England and got my CDL through them. After upgrades, I decided to lease and drove solo. Naturally, I was "certified" as a trainer, but that's pretty much automatic with upgrade and I felt had no right to "train" anyone since I was brand new to all of myself. So I just never picked up any students.

I won't go into whether leasing is a good idea or not because I'm of the mind that it is what you make it. Some are successful, some aren't. I know there were a lot of things I could've done and should've done, but it's a learning process. The only thing I wish I would've done differently is to treat it much more like a business than a job.

At any rate, several months into the lease, things were ok - not great, but ok. Again, there are things I could've done to make it better for myself and I realize that. Anyway, I delivered to the Walmart Dist. in N. Platte, NE. My hours ran out as I unloaded, so I went next door to the Flying J and parked. Did my things, got to sleep and at some point heard a huge crash and was thrown from the bunk. Somebody came a bit quickly through the lot and their tandems caught the front corner of my truck, tearing the passenger quarter off. It actually moved the front of my truck a couple of feet to the side. Me and another driver tried to chase the guy and get the info, but he tore out of there. Filed a police report, went through all the stuff with England and all that. I think this was on a Saturday night, and I sat until Monday and then s..l..o..w..l..y drove to the Freightliner there in N. Platte. Sat there for about 3 days before England authorized repairs, sat while they ordered parts, sat while they worked on the truck and was then told I'd have to sit and wait for a local body shop they use to do their thing but they were backed up. In all, I sat there for almost 3 weeks. England says they have no loaner trucks, they have no recoveries to be done, they have nothing for me to but sit and rack up expenses - sleeping in the truck on the lot, out of money... you know the story. Finally I sent a macro that I was going home because there was still no delivery-date and I was broke and hungry and pi$$ed. So I hitched rides home.

About 3 days after I got home, I get a letter from England saying my lease had been cancelled. Fine.

That was the extent of my driving "career" and experience. I know my DM said I abandoned my truck but I don't know if that's the official position on it. Really don't care to be honest. I'm not here to bash England - I went knowing (as well as I could) what I may expect and was surprised in both good ways and bad (my phase-one trainer was a nightmare and my phase-2 was almost as new as me and kept asking me questions.) At any rate, I feel like England really dropped the ball on this particular incident, but I have to say that this is a rare (I hope!) situation and there are some ok things about the company. Again, it's as much up to the driver as it is the company.

So I haven't driven a truck since late in '09. I had a good record and had only one load that was late by about 10 minutes - still a late load, though. Other than that, no problems. And... other than that, no experience.

So, I'm still a new driver - and I'm thinking of getting back into it for various reasons that don't matter here.

What I'm looking for is the best possible company I would qualify for, even if it means refresher or whatever. And what I mean by "best possible" is good equipment even for new drivers and lots of consistent miles. I don't care if the company is known as a bunch of a-holes, I don't care about how they talk to me - I'll ignore them like I do everyone else as long as I'm getting miles and have what I need to do my job.

Obviously, a great company that I could stick with even past 1 or 2 years would be ideal - but I won't hold my breath.

So... out of all the experience represented on this forum... any suggestions? I've read a lot of posts on various companies and seen some of the good, bad and ugly. But I'm less interested in personal experiences than I am with consistent miles and dependable equipment.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

Thanks very much, Josh and Dave. (I looked at LW Miller and the site says they require 2 yrs. OTR - but an email or phone call never hurts.)

I'll look at Dart also.

 

I'll let you know. I challenged it when I was first told that my DM claimed abandonment, asking how I can abandon a truck that is sitting at a Freightliner center not even ready to drive yet. But I'm sure my idea of abandonment isn't the same as theirs. However, I don't know for sure that an abandonment was ever reported on my DAC.