McLane?

I'm in Syracuse

 

Yeah, I'm at NTTS, lol. 18 week course... Finally going out on a road ride monday or tuesday, after 9 weeks!

Heard good things about DOT foods, they're right by the school I guess. They're sending their recruiter in Wednesday. I'll have to check out ARG, keep hearing Gas hauling is good money, no big surprise really, lol. These local companies are mostly regional it seems. I was kinda looking forward to going OTR 48 states, but it seems like it might be silly to go work for a "Mega" if I can get in with a smaller place nearby. This is gonna sound silly, but I just don't like Wadhams based off their recruiter. He's really... lame. Talked about the milk division too much. Not spending 10 grand to go make 15 to 16 bucks an hour with no real significant amount of overtime, lol. There were also a couple of smaller 50 to 60 truck companies here today that seemed ok, both regional. One guy was the owner, I'm not sure who was representing the other, but they were both really friendly and good to talk to. Lynn Scott I believe and Emerson.

Anyway, McLanes... I seem to get the gist of how they work. You're a dockworker/driver who gets paid well to do a lot of manual labor and some driving. I'm not in bad shape, but I'm not looking to hurt myself unloading and loading trucks almost every day, been warned against that before I even thought about driving.
Anyway, I wanted to meet the recruiter today, see if they had any information or anything. I walked up, introduced myself, shook the guys hand, "Nice to meet you". Barely said a word to me... Huge prick. I know people here said they only take on select students, but this guy was just kinda pouting in the corner not wanting to be there. Jeez, lol. I could deal with being brushed off (even though I never said anything about my background), or BSed, but this guy just said "Hi" and just sat back again in his chair looking bored. Whatever, guy was just wasting his own time, not ours, lol.

 

Feelin dumb now. Yeah, I remember. Rist, ARG and milk are Wadhams. I'll be applying to Wadhams most likely, but I would mostly be interested in ARG. Their regional doesn't sound terrible, but it would be really low on my list of what I'd like to take. I have a completely clean record, driving, criminal and drug, but I do have a little over a year of unemployment before going to driving school, so I'm planning to apply to a range of different companies in case my long unemployment is too much to overlook for the "better" companies on my list.

 

Gratz on the new job, good luck there.

My "better" companies isn't completely decided, but I'm strongly considering US Xpress teaming (solo rates are crap), TMC, Schneider, Emerson (local company I just met today), Crete/Schaffer, Prime maybe and HOW (decent mileage pay, high tuition reimbursement and currently have a 2K sign on bonus). I may have forgotten a couple that I'm interested in, but I think my top 3 in order are
1. TMC
2. Crete or Shaffer (owned by same people, have crossover)
3. US Express teams (on bottom because I'm not super excited about teaming, but the money looks good enough to "deal" with it)

BTW, I'm single, currently living at home and no kids. I mention that because I don't really care about home time right now. I want to make money primarily, but I'm also looking forward to seeing the whole or most of the lower 48 states over the next few years. I wouldn't refuse regional, but I'd rather do 48. National should be better money usually anyway, right?

Oh, almost forgot to ask. Did you team or Solo for USX? You mentioned a money swing. Were you making more at USX than ARG? Anychance you'd share what pay at USX was like, or what made you tired of them (if it was more than just home time).