Username:

Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Crazytrucker77, post: 4528838, member: 154750&quot;]I am sorry that it has been a couple months since my last post. So here is what has been going on. I have been all over the U.S. and have logged almost 25K miles. I have seen some beautiful scenery and met some interesting people. I have gotten pretty good at driving my rig and am getting much better at backing. There are times I will purposely choose a parking spot that will require me to be extra vigulent in an effort to fine tune my backing in close quarters skills. With that said lets get into the grit of my experience. So I have had two driver leaders now. When you go out on your own you will be put with whats known as a development driver leader. After you hit 90 days on the road you are switched to your permanent driver leader. I got along great with my first DL great, but she could be difficult to contact sometimes. My second DL was the exact opposite. Easy to get a hold of, but I did not get along with him at all. He was one of those who wants you to run your ### off and that&#039;s not what I am about. I will say this about my second DL he was on top of keeping me rolling and making sure I got what I was supposed to get for my pay rather or not I asked for it. I basically learned you have to find a common ground with them and accept each others faults. </p><p><br /></p><p>So lets talk about loads for a minute. I found myself running loads that were short (400-800 miles) more often then not. I did run a few good loads that were at least 1000 miles. The problem I had with my DL is they would not get another load for me until I delivered the current one. This would cause me to have to wait for awhile before picking up another load. Which is fine if you just got done with a full day and needed to take your 10 hour break, but that was rarely the case. I generally would try to get to my receiver within the first few hours of my day so that I would not have to worry about running out of time to find somewhere to park for my break. Most customers didn&#039;t allow you to park at their facility.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>An example for you would be this. I had a load that was due to be delivered around 8am. I got up around 5am and was starting my day by 6am. I drove to the receiver and got there around 7:15am. I was there for almost three hours while they unloaded my truck. That means I left around 10am. Now I am 4 hours into my day and waiting for my next load. I go to a truck stop to clean out my trailer and deal with paperwork. I get my next load notification around 12pm and it picked up around 100 miles away the next morning. So now I have only gotten around 50 miles for the day due to having to wait for my next load. This happens a lot. Another version would be a situation like this, but the next load would be scheduled for pickup that evening and they expect you to drive until your 14 hour clock runs out. I don&#039;t know about you but I am getting tired after being up for 10 hours so trying to stay up for 14 while driving is really pushing it. </p><p><br /></p><p>When they plan trips they plan on you maxing your hours out so if you can drive like that all the time then more power to you. I really think the most of the planners have their head up their #####. I had to deny several loads that if they would have took the time to look at the requirements of my current load or my HOS they would know I can&#039;t do it so don&#039;t send it to me. There were several times I would be sent a load that I couldn&#039;t pick up because I didn&#039;t have enough hours of service (HOS) or it was due for pickup before my appointment for my unload. Just last week they sent me a load that would have had to been picked up at the end of my 14hr clock for that day. Which means that I would have had to stay on site for my 10 hour break. On top of that I had a family emergency and was going home after delivering my load that day. I would have been happy to pick up the load and tcall it, but I wasn&#039;t gonna wait 12 hours to get it. Anyway I was averaging around 1800 - 2000 miles a week which is garbage. My truck was in the shop five times in three months for things that could have been fixed the last time I was at a shop. I talked to several drivers while I was out and the mileage I was getting was average for a company driver. My favorite was someone that has worked for them for over a year and was averaging 1500 miles a week because he wouldn&#039;t go owner operator. </p><p><br /></p><p>About the owner op program. My mentors were all owner op and told me with the acception of gas their expences for the truck were around $1100 a week. So I did the math and showed them the figures. The owner op program pays $1.08 per mile. The truck averages 6.0 mpg so if you do the math your making $0.63 cpm after fuel cost. If you have an overhead of $1100 a week you would have to drive 1750 miles before you make any money. So if your averaging 2700 miles a week you made $600 dollars after overhead, but not including your maintenance and repairs cost. So take 10% off that and you end up making $540 a week profit. This is fine if you have no bills and no family to help support. Especially if you factor your living costs into the equation. I averaged spending $150 a week in food, laundry, personal needs, and eating out. You will do a lot of eating out because you don&#039;t have time to cook very much. Even with getting less miles I was making more then </p><p><br /></p><p>So I am actually leaving Swift now and going to James Clark so my time with swift is over. I would not go back due to all the problems I had with getting the pay I was promised and the way they plan there loads. There is no reason for you to have to sit for 12 hours before picking up your next load unless you were taking your 10 after putting in a full day.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your username or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?