New Guy Checking In

Have you figured out which companies you want to apply with? Get all the endorsements. Get passport & TWIC if you want Canada, Alaska, tanker/hazmat. System Transport has terminal in Phoenix & hires new CDL grads; that's just one option to consider.

 

trans-system is the website for System Transport. 3 companies under the trans-system umbrella; tanker/flatbed/refrigerated. Best wishes.

 

Boo, be careful of folks here who tout this company or that. For any company you want to consider, you'll probably find a thread in the 'Bad' and the 'Favorite' and the 'DAC'. By all means read all of them and don't fall into the, 'How bad can it really be?' syndrome. Do your own research.

Just because you see trucks going down the road every day does not a happy trucking industry make. Best go out and 'meet and greet' the companies in your area in person armed with the idea that trucking recruiters make military recruiters look like boy scouts or saints. (In-house mis-representatives. IMO.)

If you Google 'Arizona trucking companies', you'll come up with lists of most every trucking company in your area. See, for example: http://www.fleetdirectory.com/bylocation/arizona.htm. http://www.quicktransportsolutions.com/carrier/arizona/mesa.php#.Uleknmt5mSM

If you're not already familiar with the CSA, start looking up the scores of the companies you're interested in. Study them. You can see ALL the tickets a company got for the last two years for Driver Safety, HOS (Hours of Service), Vehicle Maintenance and more. Valuable comparative info. You want to protect your CDL. See: http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS/Data/Search.

Be especially careful of anyone who PMs you at this point. The megas around here look for newbies like sailing ship goons roaming ports for the unwary to drag off to sea. Look at the parking lots of companies you're interested in. Do the cars/pickups look fresh and new like their owners are in good fiscal shape or do they look like they're about to fall apart?

There are 15 million of us truckers and the turnover rate in OTR is over 100%. Less than 10% in LTL. One reason is that drivers leave jobs that don't pay well. Or companies that treated them poorly.

I hang out at Surfer Joe's thread: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...drivers/169873-otr-pay-poverty-wages-146.html

And at my own: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...on-culture-one-drivers-experience-gordon.html

 

Be careful of guys touting their own threads in here ... .. bottom line is find one with good equipment and csa scores.. what works for some may not work for you and what you may like others hate..get your first year in safely...

 

Ha-ha. Any hints for the OP, tow? Hey!! We're still waiting for YOUR thread. 'How to Succeed at [Company Name].

Good advice, tho. Park CDL where you can get your first year in safely. Now, where did you come up with that? Maybe I'll add that...

Oh, no, don't have to 'borrow' that.

Been saying it all along. You're using my stuff, tow.

: 0)

 

Welcome to ttr. And the industry! Good luck!!

 

How to succeed in a nutshell: stop whining, do your job, don't hit anything...

 

Now, is that ex-cop humor, or not?? 6 eggs so far, tow614. Two lost, fell too far. Good on four, though. One in the refrig uneaten. Bought $500 worth of 9 gauge chain link from Habitat Restore today for $105. My girls' range is about to expand. It's about 400' of 6-foot, commercial-grade chain link.

O-oh, yeah!