New Grad, 1st Job Search, Application Frenzy

And to throw a company out there for you to check into, on the smaller side but has the freight of a mega carrier and APU/pet policy/satellite and flat screen, microwave and inverter on the truck... Jim Palmer/Wil Trans. They start with great pay for new drivers and they are WAY more of a family type atmosphere than a mega carrier.

 

You can check out Beelman over by Flying J in Belleville. Most of that is local I do believe. There’s Dino’s Truckin in Affton MO and Vee Jay in Sauget has local work. It’s dry bulk tank so you shouldn’t need a tanker endorsement. Gully Trucking in Quincy IL used to post on STL Craigslist a lot. They shuttle trailers from Quincy to Bridgeton MO back and forth. There’s a rail yard at I-44 and Arsenal I forget the name of the container company that works there they used to have a banner on the fence hiring. Antler Trucking downtown at Broadway and Branch Street does a lot of STL - Chicago and STL - KC turns. Lanter Distribtion is in the area too I’m not sure of their work type tho if it’s lumping cases into restaurants or if it’s dock work. Brenntag Mid-South at 2nd St and Chouteau downtown used to be hiring drivers same with Harcros on Kingshighway in the Union Bussiness Park. Last time I was at those places they’d train you and reimburse you for your hazmat. And good starting pay too and those guys are home everynight. There’s also Holtgrave Distributing in O’fallon IL. They deliver milk to a lot of the big box stores around St. Louis. I cut my teeth at a local private company when I first started driving, and in my experience it paid off 10 fold. You’ll get a bunch of experience fast and without the “mega” company headaches. Good luck

 

@RedRover nailed it. Siedhoff Distributing in Union will get you home every weekend and they take recent grads. They specialize in deep freeze loads and have APU’s and are a small company. Probably about 60 trucks.

 

Otr is overrated. The only valuable thing you learn is how much you are not appreciated and how most companies will treat you like sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyit. Driving down the interstate 1k miles at a time doesn't do much for experience.

Local jobs are nice, but unless you're pretty solid on backing, and maneuvering in tight areas or backing off street into enclosed docks, it usually isn't ideal for rookies.

Put as many apps out as you like, won't hurt anything. Good luck

 

Anytime good luck. Don’t overlook the local newspaper too. I-DOT over there pays amazing as maybe would a local city municipality wanting a dump truck driver. Some of the scrap yards downtown like Cash and Grossman hire regularly too to go out and pick up their dropped containers at locations. Goodwill has a warehouse downtown and every so often they need a driver to drop and hook at stores and they start at like 23/hr and OT after 40. They can’t keep drivers cuz no one can either pass the initial drug test or the randoms. They are right by I-64 under the bridge.

 

As long as your son is other like 12, most companies will have a rider program to cover that. If you're going OTR, that's something I would definitely be asking recruiters if it's important to you. Some do not. Some allow only a spouse. Definitely want to ask about that. If they say yes, ask if they cover rider insurance or how much of a deduction that will be. It was 30 a month at Swift, and it could be canceled at the end of the month or whatever time you didn't need it anymore.

And since you paid for school, another thing to ask these companies about is TUITION REIMBURSEMENT. Most of the decent starter companies offer some form of it. Most of them offer it because people tend to bounce from one mega carrier to the other for 6-12 months before they just quit altogether. Whatever your school told you other than "this is what will be on the test for your CDL" you can file under absolute ########. Your job will be to drive from A to B within a certain amount of time. Sit at B for however long B decides to take, loading whatever they are loading. Then you'll have a certain amount of time to drive to point C, at which time you'll sit until they get around to doing whatever it is they do. Then you'll drive some more. If you have a wanderlust or have ever listened to Everclear's "Santa Monica" and just thought about hopping into your car with no particular destination in mind other than to just drive until you reach the coast, turn around and drive somewhere else... this is the career for you.

Local driving is more of a job. OTR is more of a lifestyle. One of the upsides of mega carriers is that they tend to have many options for types of work. I did flatbed, refrigerated and dry van with Swift over a year on various accounts. Fortunately they had a lot of options and a lot of accounts if I wanted to do something different. Some people love doing the exact same thing every day. Again, it really depends on you and what you want to do.

I personally like to listen to the same song on repeat for 6-8 hours sometimes and practice my speech telling everyone I know to piss off when I win the lottery. Can't do that at a local job

 

LOL!!