New driver ..options..

Really, honestly, to me it depends on what you're looking for. Some companies would be better fits than others. Forgive me, I haven't read the whole thread, but what are you looking to drive? OTR? Regional? Local? Flatbed? I see tanker interest but that may be hard. Reefer also? That is going to be big in your decision. I'm new as well. I graduated in June. Started off with Schneider. I have a thread you can check out of my goings. Warning: most of it is bad. I don't post all the good. So far, I'm still here, so the good has outweighed the bad. The thing I liked about Schneider was they have everything. Well except reefer. At least I don't think they do. But they have intermodal, tanker, regional, OTR and dedicated. So it's wide open. Safety is a priority. Almost to a fault. But a company that has EzPass usually means they are "trusted" (for the lack of a better word) with DOT. In the month I've been driving, 7200 miles give or take, I've had to roll through one weigh station. It's a time saver. It really is. So that was big to me. There are plenty of companies that have it as well. I know RBX does too. But your area is also to take into consideration. It just all depends.

Now I'll read the rest of the thread lol.

 

I am very happy with the training I got at Don Hummer Trucking

 

@x1Heavy - the biggest variable in hiring drivers of a different age (experience) group, is the insurance. All others are pretty much the same. From an O/O or small carrier standpoint the cost of a drug screen, application and other little particulars wont change from the standpoint of a persons age. Bigger companies run drivers through pools of training classes and orientation, so they have an actual hiring cost.

@Waggledaddy - i think you mean PrePass. The EzPass is for tolls. The PrePass Plus has both...

I went to a truck driving school for about 2 months. When I started looking for a company, I looked at earnings potential over a period of time; from the time I arrived to let's say 6 or 12 months. Next to that was home time. I was married when I started driving.

- Orientation
- Training pay - How long before I'm in my own truck receiving regular pay...
- pay raise increments

I ended up with Boyd Bros, flatbed. Back in '05 it was:
4 weeks of training @ $100/wk [i think]
First 3 months at .34 cpm
after 3 months went to .39cpm

I forget how long orientation was and how much I made, but they really teach you how to strap, chain and tarp. You received breakfast at the hotel and lunch (i think). You had to fend for yourself for dinner...

Hope this helps

 

Doh! You're right. But all it says on the device is Ezpass. My bad. Thanks!!!

 

I'd probably so Melton or Navajo for the beginning. I got a good feeling from them, and I like there trucks.

 

Then you are already 1000% ahead of most people your age. Frankly you should go for it.

Promise us all you will never drive while sleeping. If you are with a good company and have decent people, you will usually never have to do this in trucking. However there will be some weeks your endurance is tested. That is where your youth and strength comes in.

One of my Uncles hauled gasoline in the Red Ball during world war two. He recieved both official awards and some media recognition for hauling 300 Jerrycans on his 3 axle transport truck which I think was built by White in those days. Or was it a Dodge heavy truck. Im not sure. He withstood german fighters as they hunted him on the roads of France strafing to destroy him. They learned to route march seperately where possible in the day time so that one fiery blast and fire does not destroy the entire shipment of fuel for a unit that needs it badly. There was a time the Germans almost got his whole depot.

The American Engineers had to fire it all, 2 some odd millions of gallons of gasoline tank fuel that one German Commander with a unit of 65 some odd King Tiger Twos almost captured whole sale as they raced for Alfred I think it was towards a final goal of capturing a Channel Seaport and dividing the entire army in two. My Uncle called it heart breaking but it had to be done.

He ended his trucking days still hauling gasoline with a Pete in the 50's Big Savage Mountain before I-68 or any of the Interstate System really existed at all. (D.Eisenhower is the Father of our Interstate System on which you, me and everyone here has made, will make and is making a livelhood in addition to keeping these United States strong in peace and in war.

Big Savage almost killed him near Cumberland. He made it into the City, quit by Telegraph, hopped a train home to Baltimore and that was that. I think he is still with us, but I think time has not been good to him.

 

This sounds like such an awesome bar story

 

It's a awesome story, told to me by the Uncle who lived it.

He was getting ready to go into Hospice when I was 10 and he told me the story along with the windjammer sailing ship picture to be framed he made a gift of for me. I still have it. I'll have to look it up and upload it for those of you who love the sea.

His Big Savage story was one of the things that pointed me to trucking as a freedom and escape from being that deaf and stupid kid making burgers in fast food in the back because that is all Im good for in life back in the 80's

Little did I know as a deaf person just what sort of impact I will have on my family back then. several hundred of them. Uncle did not live to see me get my Class A, he was gone long before then. We had another family friend who was a owner operator with the US Government and for lack of a better story, his load was stolen we know who did it, but those who still cared are dead and gone now. Too many years have passed. A third, my stepfather was a tool man working on the railroad section crew throwing pickaxes and sledge hammers against old time railroad spikes and 4 bolts to a joined 39 foot length of steel for miles on the old Steam Boston and Albany Railroad prior to his Marine Corps days. My own father had a White Fire Pumper with a 13 speed double over out of the Luther Firehouse near Baltimore back in the 50's if he is not driving it he is feeding water to the hoses as a engine man with it. I managed to pry the particulars of that truck he drove one day late in life, Im glad I did.

Stories are good for entertainment, teaching and lessons to learn. If we did not have stories, then what do we have? Cold black and white Laws without feelings? I think not.