My Experiance with Watkins Shepard!

I didn't mean regional as in regional I meant as in do they sort of divide up the country, seems you're on the east coast for the most part like Chris on the west...If I had my druthers, I'd prefer the center but will go WHEREVER they send me without complaint!...

 

I agree with Walstib, you did good, Yes sir, I understand completely, I'll call dispatch try to get it fixed in the future(aye,aye capt. Bligh) There are some folk that need to be kept away from the public!

Good Luck going west
Randy

 

Hey A/T quick ? Does how do they measure miles pre determined or are they figured from the odometer, and do you have a pass card for toll roads and weigh stations? Just curios, I'm sure they go over all that at orientation.

We start CDL @ tech school in Jan.(they go by quarters instead of every Monday) Roxy went ahead and took our apps. Now we study the handbook, get our ducks in a row and away we go. Susan's hoping, when the time comes we get a truck with an easy clutch.
Here's to smooth roads and many miles
Randy & Susan

 

Yeah hopefully I'll be starting up in Jan as well.

 

Miles are predetermined, Zip code to Zip code. We have PrePass for weigh stations and tolls are reimbursed.

 

Hey good deal wulfman you going to tech school or private school.

Thanks AXE I thought that might be the case. Do you find them to be fairly close, and how much freedom is there to the driver to plan his/her route if road conditions should cause you to detour( bad accident, closed road or bridge or whatever) all things being relative to deliver on time and as economically as possible?

With God's help OTR pretty soon,
Randy

 

In my limited experience (little over a month) it's been pretty close. Most of my out of route miles have been due to me getting lost, or bobtailing while stuck at a terminal to do laundry, eat, etc. Those miles are not paid. I did have a big OOR near St Loius due to an accident that had part of I70 shutdown that I may or may not get pay for. Your route shows on the QualCom as well as fuel stops. I use a GPS and compare that to how they want it ran, using an atlas as well.

 

AT,
What money is out of your pocket? You said that you are repaid for tolls, but I thought they had things like E-Pass ect. on the trucks.
When is payday, every week or every two weeks?

 

They pay all miles dispatched by the miles you submit if I recall. At least that's what my paystub shows....and they are OK with OOR miles and will pay for them as well unless it's way too much.

Out of pocket may mean CAT scale fees, small things you buy to fix something, like a light bulb or things like that. I've only had 1 thing they did not reimburse for and it was a tool that I had to buy to replace a light on a trailer. But I still own the tool and have seen the TORX type screws on other things as well.

As for staying in route, we were told in orientation that in/around large metropolitan areas we can figure other ways to get from point a to point b. Example is the Qcomm routing shows you going straight thru a big downtown area when there is an interstate loop around it. You can take said loop and nothing will be said. Now if you go hundreds of miles, another story