more newbie drama

Nav, I don't mean to sound "mean", brother, but you really ARE in the dark if you don't even know about M.S. Carriers.

My advice to you, at least for now, is keep researching the industry. Make sure you REALLY want to do this before jumping in. There are a lot of reasons not to make that jump. Driver unloading, DOT hassles, the hours of service bull, dispatchers playing games and/or favorites, dispatchers pushing you to make unreasonable deliveries, dispatchers getting you very little home time, good ol' DAC......on and on and on.

Take a few weeks, or even months, and research, research, research the trucking industry. Visit websites like this, talk to drivers, and maybe even go with a driver on a run if you can, especially an overnight run or even a multi-day haul. Make sure you can handle living in a truck cab before doing anything else. Then ask yourself if you can handle the rest of the baloney in trucking. If you can, then take the next step--go to the driving school.

You didn't mention if you're going to a driving school or have already gone. I assume you've not gone to a school yet. Before going to just any ol' mill, know that the expensive "mills" are usually rip-offs started and maintained by big companies like Swift. Thankfully, you don't have to settle for one of these. There are cheap driving schools out there. Don't spend more than about $700.00 on a school. That's about all you should be paying to learn to drive a truck. Driving 18 wheels around isn't flying the space shuttle, after all. It's almost "easy" to learn if you have a good attitude, are determined, and pay attention to whomever is training you.

Know this--if you're going OTR, and I know you are as this is the only option really available to 'green' drivers like yourself, you will be living in a truck cab for days, weeks, and even months. Can you do this? Some greenies believe truck drivers bunk in hotel rooms each night. Yeah, they are THAT far away from knowing exactly what they're getting into. Some drivers, namely LTL drivers, DO spend some nights in hotels. But these are guys with years of experience and who probably belong to unions. You aren't one of these guys, so you'll be sleeping in "hotel Freightliner" when you hit the road.

Also know that although summer driving is fine, winter driving is a pain in the ###. And you'll still be livin' in a truck cab. If your company has on-board auxiliary power units, cool. If not, your company may pressure you to not idle the machine at night because of high diesel prices--meaning the cab will turn into either an ice box or an oven, depending on season, after about an hour after shutdown.

I wonder why you would want to get a job driving trucks at 23, save money for two years, and ?.....

Yeah, what happens AFTER you get the two years in? Why are you doing it, if you don't mind me asking? You're saving money for....?

Are you going to college? Nothing "wrong" with that. That's what I used driving for--to pay college tution. However, I found that if one has a "worthless" degree, he will have to continue to drive trucks after graduation. If you ARE going to college on 18 wheels, make sure your degree is a good one. Make sure you're marketable after the big cap and gown day.

If not college, why else are you going to be driving for only two years? If you work, work, work, and save, save, save, the money you save will last you only a limited time. What happens after you arrive back where you are now with very little in your savings? More driving?

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. Try not to get a job with a company that will train you to drive for free if you agree to drive for 'em for a year. Those are usually bad news as well. Go to a CHEAP driving school and learn to drive that way. This will give you the freedom to walk away from driving later (or sooner) if you don't like it. It'll be hard to walk away from trucking if you do like I did and drop several thousand on tuition. This is the reason a lot of companies like driver mill grads so much, especially those who've dropped thousands on training--companies can 'force' the grads to put up with their crap, meaning the grads are more likely to be exposed to abuse if they can't walk away from their first company. Who'd walk away from his first trucking company after dropping a pretty penny on training? Knowing the first company will 'burn' him on his DAC, only an idiot would. Big players like Swift know this and will rape you economically because they know you can't leave 'em if you just dropped 7 K on tuition back at the rip-off driver training mill.

I dropped 5 THOUSAND on a driving school 11 years ago and should be caned for it. I knew I'd made a big mistake spending that much probably 3 weeks after starting solo (with Swift). Not only this, I missed out on work while at the driving school, meaning my"opportunity cost" was probably another two thousand. So, it cost me 7 thousand just learn how to drive a #### truck, and then I went to work with one of the worst companies out there--Swift. I spent three months driving for this god-awful company, had a couple minor incidents green drivers will have, quit 'em, and couldn't get the job I really wanted (with M.S.) because Swift burned my DAC for the 'DACcidents' I had. Not only this, but Swift probably gipped me out of at least 1500 bucks on various things, such as the Rand McNally scheme. I wish I would have avoided all this B.S., but I didn't know. I just didn't know. I thought all companies were alike when I graduated from my mill.

Don't let this crap happen to you. You still have the chance to make sure your first company is a good one.

It may be best for you to learn how to drive a bulldozer if you're gonna be driving for only two years and then get out. I know this is the route I should have gone. It wouldn't have cost me 5 thousand to learn to drive a D-9, I'm sure. And I may be still doing it. I quit driving trucks over three years ago. I probably won't ever go back.

By the way, M.S. Carriers was a great dry-box company based in Memphis, Tennessee Swift bought out in like 2001. I think 600 drivers quit M.S. Carriers the day the deal went through. I guess it was a GOOD thing I didn't go with M.S. for my first carrier. If I would have been driving for them when Swift bought 'em out, there would have been 601 drivers quit the day of the deal.

Keep in touch.

 

Nav, I'm as blind as a bat. I missed the very first statement in your post. You DO have a CDL.

Now make sure you go with a GOOD company, such as Crete. Don't settle for a ######## company, brother.

 

I'd avoid Werner and U.S. express. Werner uses an electronic logging system and U.S. Ex goes with automatic transmissions. You'll lose shifting and logging skills. This'll make you less employable with other companies. Many of the "training" companies don't treat their drivers very well, but they'll get you the experience needed to drive for a more reputable outfit.

 

I agree with Ranger. What, 95% of all companies out there use manual trannys? I think it's probably this high. You'll want to learn how to shift the gears. Learning to shift without a clutch is something you need to learn as well. This wil save on both the clutch and your knee, especially if you have to go into downtown NYC. Once I went to Manhattan in a Swift truck and probably made over 300 shifts going and coming. My knee hurt so badly when I got out I walked with a limp for a day. That run gave me the incentive to learn to shift without a clutch, which I did only a day or two later. It's easy. You'll pick it up in an afternoon.

If you get on with USX and never learn how to shift a truck, you'll be setting yourself up for a screwjob later. If you ever quit USX, and I believe that's pretty much a sure thing based on all the cleaned-outs gathering dust on their terminal lots, your next company will want you to go with a trainer for a few weeks just so you can learn how to shift. You may even have a year's experience in, but they won't care. You'll still have to go with a trainer for a while. Understand they'd not really be putting you with a trainer because you need somebody to show you how to shift. They'd be using your temporary lack of knowledge as an excuse to pay you 300 bucks a week training wage for a month. And they'd want to keep you on a training truck for a month, I'm sure, even if you DO learn to shift in only a day or two.

Learn to shift a manual first, and then go with an automatic outfit. Take away what could be just another excuse a future company can use to screw you.

 

Sure thing. Just keep in touch. Don't leave people hanging like some do. Let us know who you go with and how your training goes.

Good luck.

 

Please continue.... This newbie wants to hear your experiences.

 

Well you did. Come on, lets hear all about it.

 

I wanna hear what happened during that 6 months.