Newbie FAQ

I just talked to a friend of mine who use to drive for Pepsi and he said that they don't require a cdl to be a merchandiser. Essentially driving the big trucks and filling shelves, and if hired they will train you. Don't know if it is true or what you have to do, but that could be something that helps. God bless.

 

just think about this you will have some days where you break down and things go nuts and then you will have days where you break down and get towed and the tow truck towing u breaks down lol

 

per777;2742276]Do you need to hit the scales every time you load? I'm in over my head... Don't know if that's cool to admit but I'm admitting it. I had a job with the state driving dump trucks in a very rural area. They got me my A license. Well, long story short, the state job didn't pay much so I applied for a job in the city that paid $21.00 Hr for OTR work hauling oversize LPG tanks (Empty tanks) Said they would train. Well I spent a week, weed eating and doing manual labor and the owner says they are short handed and need me to start driving. I'm taking a load to Chicago from Kansas City this Wednesday. The dump trucks for the state were autoshifts... The truck I'm taking is a Kenworth w-900 with a 10 speed tranny. I'm not sure what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. I know I pick up the load at my yard and I'm smart enough to know how to secure it with chains and boomers but don't know a thing about logs, scales, fueling and backing at the truck stop, etc... I need the job. I have a kid with a heart condition that needs the insurance and family to provide for but I have to admit, I'm scared to death. I'm gonna man up and get it done but any help or advice you guys could offer would really help.[/QUOTE]

 

a refresher course which are offered by some driving schools can help do wonders ,i got my class A in 2007 drove a week and retired lol do to family issues and illness ,took a refresher course last yr.to re familiarize with driving especially the shifting ,it was great within 3 days i was driving pretty good ,with that said i am current now starting to look for a job ...good luck

 

Wow looks like you've got just about every corner covered there partner 1 thing i might add though regarding going local is you'll learn to drive just as well doing local the only difference is that you won't spend the same hrs behind the wheel and at least your home every night if you have family OTR is more suitable to families that don't need dad or mom home every night which would be more suitable to retired, divorced or single one's.

 

Schneider will reimburse you the cost of school. They will not pay you $150/month for as long as you are with them.

 

That's what I meant. As long as I work for them, they'll reimburse me for school. Reimburse being the key word. Once school has been paid off, there's nothing else to reimburse. I was trying to compare it to other places with company schools that put you on a contract and take it out of your pay, and then require you to pay them back the rest of it if you quit working for them.

 

some company's like when I started will put you under a 8mth contract once that time is up schools payed for and your done.

 

ALL carriers (trucking companies) would go out of business if they told you the truth. To stay in business, they need to 1☞ keep their freight cost down (what they bill the client customers) by keeping drivers' pay and benefits at a bare minimum in line with what other carriers pay their drivers; and 2☞ give the clients what they demand, which is fast delivery service (schedule delivery deadlines without factoring drivers' need for rest & meal breaks) and little or no $$ compensation for delays at shippers'/receivers' docks (especially grocery distribution warehouses &#9785. The FACT that carriers are always hiring drivers is a reflection of drivers' turnover rate. Drivers quit because pay and working conditions improve 200% when they quit OTR trucking and settle down to a local or regional driving position with a private fleet.
As a newbie driver, your objective is to establish your 5 years of verifiable safe driving experience. Regardless which carrier you pull for, THEY ALL mistreat their drivers because that's what the client customers wants. You should NOT focus on earning good $$ until you've established your 3 to 5 years of verifiable safe driving experience (with clean MV printout), at which point you're now ready to leave the carriers for good and defect over to a private fleet like the grocery chains, Walmart Distribution, Coca Cola, Pepsi, etc… Private fleets are not easy to get into because they have a high retention rate of drivers. The only time there's an opening is when 1☞ they expand their fleet by buying more trucks and hire more drivers; or 2 ☞ a driver retires, quits, gets fired, gets promoted to a desk job or yard hostler driver. Until there's an opening with a private fleet, you grab whatever local driving position is available with a smaller private fleet or carrier that pays hourly plus overtime.
This is why OTR carriers are always hiring newbie drivers; they CAN'T compete with driving positions that pay hourly plus overtime pay. Factoring overtime laws, OTR drivers pay is between minimum to $10 an hour. Most will tell you to take your gross pay and divide by hours reported on your logbooks, which is totally wrong. If you were an hourly paid local driver, you'd be on the clock and paid when you're standing in line at the shipper/ receiver docks, waiting to fuel up at the truck stop, sitting down to do your logbooks or trip report, etc which most drivers don't report on their logbooks. When you exceed 8 hours duty, you're paid time and a half overtime. As an OTR driver, regardless whether you work 12 hours a day (or more), you get no overtime pay. When you run into into traffic delays or held up at the shipper/ receiver docks, you're pretty much working for free.

Most carriers require you to commit yourself to them for 1 year, after which they'll waive the training cost. This is reasonable, considering you're primary objective is to establish your 3 to 5 years of safe driving experience. After this one year, I strongly recommend you stay with them. Defecting over to another carrier, you'll find the pay and work conditions are not any better. As I've stated before, ALL carriers can't stay in business if they don't pay their drivers low and give what the client customers demand. If you quit one carrier and create a work history of job hopping from one carrier to another, private fleets are likely not to hire you. A job hopping history means you not capable of committing yourself to one employer, and you're likely to resign after they've invested time and $$ to train you in a private fleets' local operation. If you must defect to another carrier, an acceptable reason is because you're not getting enough miles and there's too much layover time because they don't have the loads. A giant carrier like JB Hunt, Schneider, Swift, etc… with over 5,000 trucks and drivers must have a large clientele base to stay in business. When delivering to giant retailers like Walmart, Target, Kroger, Safeway, or manufacturers like Alcoa Aluminum, Del Monte Foods, Chrysler Automotive, etc… pay attention to which carrier has the heaviest presence at their distribution warehouse.

What makes the training period intolerable is the driver trainer; some are verbally abusive with newbie drivers. Some will take the wheel all day and let the newbie driver vegetate and learn nothing as he sits in the sleeper, then the trainer will get some rest at night and let the newbie driver drive all night. A good trainer will not address you like a drill sergeant would talk to a recruit; he'll treat you with respect and always remembers what it was like when he was a driver trainee himself. I've also heard of trainers who will take advantage of a newbie by getting a motel room, then ask the trainee to pay for half or he's sleeping in the truck while the trainer gets a motel room for himself. There's an Oriental adage; no such thing as bad students, only bad teachers. Don't hesitate to complain to dispatch you want another trainer. This is why some trainers are abusive; not enough trainees complain, so they get away with abusing their position of power.

The majority of most carriers who take newbies are either dry van or reefer. I don't recommend flatbed unless you're OK with climbing 14 feet to the top of a load to tarp (sometimes in the rain) and risk falling off to suffer permanent injury. Working with chains and binders is also hazardous. I'm a former flatbed driver and had witnessed a newbie driver hurt himself when the binder snapped open and broke his jaw. Bulk tanker is the easiest, but most require at least 1 year OTR experience. Very important to always ground the vehicle when loading or unloading flammable liquids. Some drivers had died from fiery explosion because they forgot to properly ground the vehicle. With reefer, you'll experience more delays at the shipper because clients will have you make multiple pickups to fill up the trailer. They'll have you drive to different shippers to pickup partial loads, so it can take an entire day driving from one warehouse to another to fill up the trailer. Because you're hauling perishable food items, delivering to a grocery distribution warehouse is an adventure in itself. When driver recruiters say "travel and see the country," they mean see the USA from a truck stop, rest area, and shipper/ receiver docks' point of view. If you want to minimize "driver unload" freight, where you're expected to restock the load onto the receivers' pallets, I'd recommend dry van. If you pull for a giant carrier like JB Hunt, Werner, Schneider, etc then you're likely to get drop-n-hook loads. This is where you deadhead to a shipper, drop your empty trailer, hookup to a preloaded trailer, then you're out the exit gate half an hour later. Giant carriers have local hourly paid drivers to delivery live unload, so you haul the preloaded trailer to the a terminal near the consignee (receiver), then drop the trailer and hookup to another preloaded trailer.

I STRONGLY don't recommend you lease a tractor until after you're proficient with driving, AND talk to as many owner operators as you can to investigate this endeavor. Much as carriers need newbie drivers to replace experienced drivers who defect over to become local hourly paid drivers, they're always trying to entice drivers to become owner operators to replace those who had gone broke and filed for bankruptcy. When talking to owner operators, pay close attention to the way they dress, whether they can afford to keep up with the cost of maintenance on their tractors, their spending habit at the truck stop (are they having biscuits-n-gravy, or whatever is the cheapest on the menu?). When people are earning good $$, you see it in the way they dress (pricey clothes and jewelry), the cars they drive (fairly new model), and what they order when they sit down at a restaurant. Myself, I went broke as an owner operator when the price of diesel had spiked in the early 2000s, and most client customers refused to pay the diesel surcharge on their freight bill. I learned from that experience that the vast majority of client customers who rely on the trucking industry to haul their freight have a very low opinion of owner operators, which is why they refused to pay the diesel surcharge. As you survey the number of owner operators who had leased a used tractor from the company, ask around to ascertain how many had paid off their tractors, and are still hauling for the same company that had leased them their tractor. A common scam I've heard is when a company will initially give you plenty of loads to haul, then starve you by not dispatching you enough loads on the last year before you pay off your tractor. They're trying to force you into defaulting on payments so they can repossess the tractor, then lease it again to another driver.

The worst experience of theft that any driver will run into is a truck highjacking. You get a knock at the door, you look out to stare down the barrel of a gun held by a masked gunman. This is a sensitive topic most trucking companies prefer not to discuss. When dispatch instructs you not to park at secluded places or rest areas, and only stop when you're at a crowded truck stop, then you're hauling a sealed load that thieves want because the merchandise is easy to resell at swap meets or over the internet like Ebay or Craigslist. After they tie you up and leave you behind as the hijackers drive away with the tractor and trailer, the police will treat you as a suspect and assume you're the inside man, working in tandem with the hijackers. This is why trucking companies refuse to discuss this topic. After careful investigation, the FBI concludes some drivers realized they can make more $$ by working with thieves and staging a fake hijacking instead of hauling the load to the consignee. Until proven innocent, they'll hook you up to a polygraph (lie detector) during interrogation and look at your bank accounts for large deposits (pay off from thieves for selling the load). To avoid being the victim of a truck hijack, NEVER park in a secluded area when you're hauling retail merchandise (products that are ready to be sold to consumers). Truck hijackings are never reported by the news media, fearing it would discourage newbies from becoming OTR truck drivers.

In the late 1970s and prior before trucks were equipped with power steering, the industry was not only male dominated, but it was hostile to women who decide to become truckers. To harass and discourage women truckers, idiots would pull the release on the 5th wheel while the women are not looking. These idiots are still out there, thinking its hilarious to watch the trailer fall off and the landing gears and support frame suffer structural damage. When parking your truck, engage the trailer brakes while leaving the tractor brakes disengaged and hold down the clutch as you put it in gear. Slowly release the clutch to give a slight tug on kingpin, then depress the clutch while holding down the brakes, then engage the tractor brakes. The 5th wheel tension on the kingpin creates a locked jam on the release mechanism. Anyone who pulls the 5th wheel release will find its locked in place and won't release until you backup and relieve the tension on the kingpin. If you discover someone had pulled your 5th-wheel trailer release, lower your trailer's landing gear before pulling forward, then backing up (trailer brakes engaged) to re-engage the trailer's kingpin with the tractor's 5th wheel.

Turn off the CB radio and concentrate on your backing. The insults and negative remarks are intended to distract you from what you're trying to accomplish.

Most interstates post signs that you're approaching an exit with services. Always keep your CB radio on channel 19, and you'll pickup heavy radio traffic as you're within 5 miles from a truck stop. The truckers' CB channel is 19 until you reach I-5 in California. Don't know the history, but the truckers' channel gravitate from 17 to 21, then back to 19 again depending on what part of California you're passing through. The larger truck stops sell a truck stop directory book for about $10 to $15. You can also order them online at Amazon.

Don't carry a lot of cash, keep it to $40 or less. If you have more than this, keep the rest in a money belt (hidden beneath your pants) and don't let anyone see you reach into your money belt to replenish your spending cash. People had gotten robbed by flashing a thick wad of bills when they paid the restaurant cashier, and not realized someone was following them as they walked back to their truck at night. If you pay with a credit card or debit card, always have the toll free number written somewhere if you need to report it lost or stolen. You only need to give your name, birthday, and social security number to pull up your file when reporting a lost or stolen credit/ debit card.

When you purchase 50 gallons of fuel at large truck stops, you're entitled to a free shower and they issue a shower voucher. If you're on a tight schedule and don't have time for a shower, the voucher is good for 3 days. Say for example you fuel at a Flying J truck stop and the shower lines are too long. Just get back on the road until you come to another Flying J truck stop to redeem your free shower. If you don't intend on redeeming your shower voucher, get on the CB radio and ask if any driver wants it. Some drivers have large 300 gallon tanks, so they can only get a free shower once or twice a week, depending on how many miles they're running. Its the decent thing to do to help another driver save $$ instead for paying $10 to keep themselves clean.

Make a habit of locking the doors with your keys. Some drivers had locked and shut the door out of habit, only to realize the key is still inside. After locking myself out once, I had a spare key made and hung it around my neck when I travelled.

From personal experience, the only bad food I've eaten are the ones at the ready-2-eat deli. They're suppose to have an expiration date code on cold food and the hot food should be moist. If the hot food appears dry, don't chance it. Ask the store clerk when it was prepared, and pay attention to their body language as they respond. If they hesitate to answer, it usually means the food was prepared before they came on duty. As for cooking in your truck, under DOT regs, its illegal to have an open flame source in your tractor. One legal trick is to wrap food in aluminum foil, then lay it on the engine's exhaust manifold. Drive for half an hour or 45 minutes, stop at a rest area and turn the wrapped food over to distribute the heat evenly, then continue driving for another half hour. Another legal trick is to get a voltage inverter and slow cooker. You pour a can of beef stew or soup into the 110-volt slow cooker, then plug that into a voltage inverter (plugged into the cigarette lighter) to provide 110-volt AC power. Place the slow cooker in a snug fitting box with rags in the bottom to catch spills, then place something heavy on the lid to keep the food from splashing out as you drive over rough pavement. Myself, I would prepare my meal late in the morning on a slow cooker, then drive for 5 to 6 hours until late afternoon or early evening. As I pull into a truck stop, my dinner is ready. I'd have beef stew or Campbell's Chunky soup with a sandwich or burrito I buy from the truck stops deli.
When selecting a voltage inverter, look at the amperage rating of the appliance and select a voltage inverter that exceed the appliance's power demand by at least 50 watts. Say for example your slow cooker is rated at 250 watts (2.3 amps); you'd want to purchase a voltage inverter rated at 300 watts or higher. Voltage inverters will carry two power output specs. It might say "300-watts continues, 600-watts peak." When you turn on an AC appliance, there's a momentary power demand surge as the heating element comes on for the first time. This momentary power surge demand will last for less than a second, which is what the "600-watt peak" rating is suppose to handle. As you continue to use the appliance, the power demand levels off, which is what the "300-watt continuous" handles. If your AC appliance only gives the amperage power demand rating, you convert this to wattage by multiplying the amperage number by its voltage demand (110 volts). So a slow cooker with a 2.4 amps rating, multiplied by 110 equals 264 watts. You'd want to buy a voltage inverter with at least 320 watts continuous power rating or higher.

Its not healthy to sit for hours at a time, any medical doctor will attest to this. Although some drivers will claim they can sit for 5 hours (or more) and drive non-stop, you would still need to empty your bladder periodically. Drivers who push themselves to sit for hours at a time eventually develop poor blood circulation in the legs. For health reasons, its best to stop every 2 or 3 hours to walk around and stretch your legs.

Technology had addressed this. First, there came the CB radio, which initially had 23 channels, then the FCC expanded it to 40 channels in 1977. If talking (or playing mind games) to other truckers over the CB radio is not your cup of tea, there's handheld game consoles like Nintendo DS or Sony Playstation. If the latest and newest versions are too pricey because you have $$ issues, you can pickup used older versions on Ebay or Craigslist. When you're tired of that, and reading a fiction novel is not your cup of tea either, you can drop the trailer and bobtail to go sightseeing, although you might want to fudge your odometer readings because most carriers don't want you wasting their precious diesel fuel to see the local sights. You're going to be sooo fired if you come back and realize someone stole the trailer, so it's highly advisable to invest in a kingpin lock. Buy the heavy steel model, not the light aluminum one, which cracks easily when someone hooks up to the trailer and doesn't realize there's a pin lock on it. Another option is to bring a small flat screen TV and DVD portable player. You can drop the trailer, bobtail to the nearest DVD rental store when the TV reception is lacking, or there's nothing good on TV. Myself, I go to the nearest indoor shopping mall or Super Walmart and just walk around browsing at merchandise. Most shopping malls have movie theaters, so you can catch the latest flick to kill 2 hours. If you find it necessary to check out the porn places, park the tractor at least a block away, or someone is liable to report your tractor unit parked outside a porn place, and complain the company is hiring perverts to drive their equipment.

Stay away from parking in the very back lot, unless you don't mind lot lizards knocking on your door to solicit your business.

Your MV record is a reflection of your character and habits. A DUI or open container violation implies you have a drinking problem. Speeding means you don't pay attention to posted speed limit signs, and you'll likely carry this same driving habit when you upgrade to a commercial vehicle. If you were cited in an accident, it implies you're the negligent party who caused the accident, unless it was for not wearing your seatbelt. Get a copy of the accident report to show you're the victim, not the negligent driver who caused the accident. Most carriers require a clean MV record because that's what the insurance company demands from their newbie drivers. You'll need to call around and find a carrier who'll accept 2 speeding tickets and non-chargeable (you're not the negligent driver) accident. Otherwise, you'll need to wait 3 years until these come off your record, assuming the carrier you're applying at doesn't ask to see a 10-year MV report. I know for a fact that all bus driver positions require a 10-year MV report, but the trucking industry's driver turnover rate is so high, their hiring standards are not as stringent as bus drivers.

Laws are different in every state concerning firearms. In gun-hate California, firearms must be carried unloaded, in a locked container, and the ammunition stored in a separate locked container and placed in a separate area of the vehicle, away from the locked firearm. So if you carry the unloaded gun in the trunk of the vehicle, the ammunition must be in the passenger area of the vehicle, or vice versa. I'm assuming you're a prospective owner operator. If you're a company driver, you are sooo fired if they learn you have a firearm in their vehicle. If you feel you can't leave home without a gun, I suggest you carry a replica or airsoft pellet gun that looks real. If you run into trouble, you can pull out your replica or airsoft pellet gun and bluff your assailant. Just show the butt of the gun on your waistbelt and say "don't force me to use this." If you cross into Canada or Mexico, they can search your vehicle and personal possessions without your consent. You're going straight to jail when they find your firearm. In Mexico, you're going to jail just for having the ammunition (or just one cartridge round) in your vehicle or your possession. If you're in Mexico, you can bribe the officer to let you go, but he'll radio the other officers you have contraband, so you won't get far before another officer stops to search you and you'll need to pay him off again. Turn down any loads that will take you beyond USA borders. Getting fired for refusing a load is better than doing prison time in a Mexican or Canadian jail. If the load is bound for Mexico, its usually going to a drop yard on the USA side. American truckers have been robbed going into Mexico, which is why most carriers will have you drop it on the USA side, then arrange for a Mexico domiciled driver to take it to its final destination, but not Canadian bound loads. On Canadian border, they'll check your documents, then search your vehicle because American truckers have a reputation for keeping firearms in their trucks. To avoid becoming a victim of crime, NEVER park in a secluded spot where there are no witnesses to call 911. Every driver who had been robbed or their load hijacked made this same mistake; park in a secluded spot. You might pull into a crowded rest area, but soon as you hit the sleeper berth, the people depart and leave you vulnerable. Sleep only in crowded parking areas.

If you're contemplating to live in the truck and you rent an apartment or house, then yes, you'd put everything in storage. If you own real estate (or making mortgage payments), then you'd want to rent out the property to generate $$ while you're on the road. Having a relative or trusted friend to hold your mail would be cheaper than getting a PO box. However, if you're renting a PO box from the post office instead of a private box from a private mail center, then the cost is not that much. Bring a laptop or smart phone to access the internet using wifi, which is free at some truck stops and restaurants like McDonalds or Starbucks. With the internet, you can plan your routes using Google map or Mapquest. On Google map, you can bring up an image of what the place looks like, or if a particular route has a low bridge that won't clear your trailer. Chicago, Illinois is the low bridge capital of USA; you'll appreciate Google-map-image to scout your route ahead.

Driver recruiters are like used car salesmen; they'll tell you what you want to hear to get you to sign on the contract and legally commit yourself. If the $$ is as lucrative as they claim, why are they hiring so many newbies? To replace the experience drivers who had defected to a local hourly paying job with a private fleet maybe? An hourly paying job is safer, however, these positions require at least 3 to 5 years of verifiable driving experience AND a clean MV record. Like all the other ex-OTR drivers who quit OTR trucking to become an hourly paid local driver, you'll have to earn your wings to establish your verifiable driving experience.

Ask around and see if you can find a driver who stayed with Prime over 5 years. Most carriers will give you plenty of miles, but as your mileage pay increases due to merit increase pay raises, your mileage begins to average around 3,000 to 4,000 a week (or less) after 5 years. This is because you're making too much $$. If a 1,000-mile load pays $1,300 in revenue for a carrier, and it was dispatched to a newbie driver who earns 38¢ a mile, then the carrier pockets $920 after paying the driver his $380 pay. But if the same load was dispatched to a 5-year+ veteran who earns 50¢ a mile, the carrier only pockets $800 after paying the 5-year veteran his $500 pay. Now if you were a trucking company, would you rather earn less $$ and pay $500 to keep the 5-year veteran from quitting? Or would you rather maximize your profit by paying $380 to the newbie driver, then hire another newbie driver to replace the 5-year veteran because you figure eventually, he will defect over to become a local hourly paid driver. Why travel and be gone away from home, friends and family when you can come home every night, now that you have established your 5 years of verifiable driving experience, and be paid overtime after 8 hours on the clock? As you drive off the main interstates, passing through city traffic to perform live load/unload, have you noticed some of the local drivers parked under the tree, taking a short nap. These drivers are milking the time clock. Instead of heading back to the terminal after making all their deliveries, they're staying out an extra hour or two to maximize their overtime pay. Look at the name on the truck, and its usually a grocery chain like Kroger, Super Value, or Safeway markets; or an LTL small-package carrier like UPS. These drivers are with the Teamsters, so management is powerless to keep them from milking the time clock. The markets recoup the loss from paying too much driver overtime pay by jacking up the price of groceries, which is why they can't compete with Super Walmart, a non-union grocery retailer.

The sun comes up from the east, then sets in the west. So if its morning, and the suns in your eyes, then you're going eastbound. If the sun is to your left, you're southbound. If the sun is to your right, you're northbound. If the sun is behind you, you're westbound. If its late afternoon, the sun in your eyes means you're westbound; the sun to your left means you're northbound; etc… Another way to navigate is the mile markers and interstate designation. The mile markers begin either in the farthest south or west of the interstate and the numbers increase as you head north or east. Interstates that have odd numbers run north-south, and interstates with even numbers run east-west. So if you're on I-40 and the mile markers are going down, then you're westbound. If you're on I-95 and the mile markers are decreasing, you're southbound. From west to east, north-south interstates begin with I-5 from Tijuana, Mexico to the Canadian border at Blaine, Washington. The farthest east interstate that runs north-south is I-95 that begins at Miami, Florida and ends at Houlton, Maine (crossing into New Brunswick, Canada). On the farthest southern end of USA, I-10 runs east-west from Santa Monica, CA to Jacksonville, Florida. The farthest northern interstate running east-west is I-90 from Seattle, WA to Boston, MA. So if you wake up in the morning with a hang over and have a case of amnesia, looking at which interstate you're by is a clue to your location. If you're by I-35, the odd number says you were either driving northbound or southbound before you got off to find a place to sleep. Look at the license plates of the 4-wheelers parked around you, and they identify which state you're in.
Now say you've arrived at your destination to deliver. Look at the gate entrance to see if there are heavy cracks on the pavement to indicate truck traffic. The absence of cracked worn out pavement and only 4 wheelers in the parking lot means there's another entrance either in the back or the side for commercial truck traffic. As you drive around and enter the gate for trucks, you find numerous doors with no sign to tell you where the shipping/receiving office is located. Look for a door with numerous 4 wheelers parked nearby. People like to park their cars as close to their work as possible to minimize the walking distance, which leaves to reason that the shipping/ receiving warehouse staff will park their cars near the check-in office.
Now if you're pulling a reefer trailer, you arrive to find a row of warehouses with no names to identify the business. If you're picking up frozen or refrigerated goods, then this is a refrigerated warehouse you're seeking. Frozen and refrigerated warehouses use ammonia gas as refrigerant. So you distinguish which warehouse is refrigerated (or frozen) by looking for white heavily insulated pipes along the top perimeter of the walls that pump the ammonia gas (usually, the word "ammonia" is written on the pipes). Another clue is a large white vertical tank with the words "ammonia" printed on it. A warehouse with this vertical tank on its side means its a frozen/ refrigerated warehouse.
Although GPS devices will help, bare in mind they're programmed for 4-wheelers, not semi 18-wheelers with almost 14-foot high trailers and grossed at 40 tons. You're OK so long as you stay on the interstates, but when the GPS tells you to take the next exit, be on the lookout for signs restricting commercial truck traffic or overpass bridges that won't clear your 13-feet 6-inch high trailer. If you're hauling hazmat, remember you're not allowed to enter tunnels and must route yourself to avoid the congested downtown city areas. Bring a laptop to exploit the free wifi offered at some places. You can use Google-map, Mapquest, or Yahoo-map to plan your routing. Google-map offers "map image" to see what the street view looks like. When you see an overpass bridge on your route, you magnify to street level, then double click the mouse to see the street view, then you can pan the camera view to read the clearance height on the overpass bridge. Drivers with oversize permit loads use Google-map street image view to scout their route ahead before they get there.

As a newbie EMPLOYEE trainee, your employer is responsible for your lodging cost. This is stipulated under labor laws, but some will claim OTR drivers are exempt from labor law protection. Your training cost includes the motel cost, so the only out of pocket expense you should expect is food. If there's a shuttle van that picks you up from the motel, ask if its OK to stop at a large grocery store that has a deli where you can buy drinks and sandwiches to go.

The UPS Store is pricey at $50 a month ($600 a year) just to receive and hold your mail. Call around and price compare. Private PO boxes allow you to write "Apartment number" or "Unit number" instead of "PO box." Best is to have a trusted friend or relative to receive and hold your mail until you get home. I'm sure they'll do it for $20 a month or less.

The only reason flatbed drivers are paid more is because there's more manual labor involved with flatbeds. You'll need to climb on top of the load to cover the entire load, and the lumber tarp weighs 100 pounds. After you've secured the load, you need to stop twice the first 10 miles to check for slacks on your chains, ropes, or straps. Ever open a box of cereal to find its only 70% full ?? The box of cereal was full to the top when it left the factory, but as it traveled in a truck, the load settled. Most freight loads will settle, just like the box of cereal. This creates a slack on your straps, chains, or ropes. You need to stop and re-tighten your securement until the load had fully settled. After delivering, you'll need to roll up your straps, fold the tarp, lock up and secure your equipment, all of which means you'll get dirty, so you'll need to have coveralls when securing and un-securing your flatbed load. This is why flatbed drivers are paid more than van or reefer van drivers; to compensate them for the extra manual labor. Only advantage to flatbed is faster loading and unloading. A forklift truck can load/unload a van or reefer van trailer one pallet at a time. A flatbed load doesn't need a loading dock, so the forklift driver takes the load off faster, especially when there's a 2nd forklift unloading one side while another forklift unloads the opposite side. Another negative side to flatbeds is when you pickup, and you realize its late in the afternoon, meaning parking will fill up at the truck stop. So you secure the load and rush over to grab a parking spot to layover for the evening. Its suppose to be a tarped load, so you decide you'll tarp it later after you secure parking to layover for the evening. But as you drive over, it begins to rain. You need to tarp the load before it gets drenched in the rain, or the consignee will refuse the load due to water damage. So you look for an overpass bridge where you can drive under and shield the load from the rain while you climb on top of the load to deploy the tarp. Problem is, other flatbed drivers are doing the same routine because they came from the same shipper you did, and they're rushing to the nearest truck stop to secure parking before it fills up. They're thinking the same plan as you, but you and them didn't expect a downpour, and there's only room for two trucks to park beneath the overpass bridge. I'd talk to flatbed drivers and get their input before you sign on. While dry van and reefer van drivers simply close the doors, you'll be doing intense manual labor to secure and tarp the load, which means you'll be tired and look forward to parking the truck and getting some rest. You're recuperating from all the manual labor, while a dry van or reefer van driver can put in 200 miles (after leaving the shipper) before finding a place to layover for the evening.

With dry van and reefer van loads, the client customer can care less about drivers' need for rest and meal breaks. All they want is the load must arrive at 7am sharp, or forklift drivers on the time clock will be standing around idle with nothing to do. This is not the case with tankers. When loading and unloading, you're hooking up lines and grounding the vehicle. No one is standing idle with nothing to do if you're running late. A good statement to sell yourself to a refueling company is "safety." Tell them you'd rather stop and sleep to avoid an accident than to push yourself beyond your safe limit to deliver the load on time. Warning; the "safety is first and priority" is only good on tanker operations. On dry vans and reefer vans, you'd tell them "I'd do what ever it takes to deliver on time." Telling them you'd rather stop to sleep to avoid an accident will have the opposite effect; they won't hire you.

The $59 per day is the standard meal deduction when you travel on business as an OTR driver. You substantiate this claim with your logbooks. If the IRS audits you, you'll need to show your logbooks to prove the number of days you were traveling. So if out of 365 days in a year, you claim being on the road as an OTR driver for 7 months (210 days) and claim $12,390 in meals, then you'll need to show a year's logbooks showing 210 days of being away from home as an OTR driver. Say on these 210 days, the tax auditor finds that you claimed a full day when the logbooks show you left home late in the morning (9am) on 30 days, and returned home in the afternoon on another 30 days, for a total of 60 days of partial travel; then the auditor may only give you 50% credit of the $59 per day standard meal allowance. So 60 x $59 = $3,540. Deduct 50% = $1,770. Of the $12,390 in meals you had claimed, you're only entitled to $10,620. You'll now pay the tax and penalty on the $1,770 you overstated as your meal expense. To fully qualify for the $59 meal allowance deduction, you must be away from home the entire day. So on the 30 days you departed late in the morning, I'd claim 50% of the daily meal allowance, or $885. On the 30 days you arrived in the afternoon, I'd claim 33% of the $59 daily meal allowance, or $584. The key is to pro-rate the time you were away on business. A state registered tax preparer knows how to properly pro-rate your meal allowance. Part of the fee you pay when you hire a state licensed tax expert is, you're not liable for mistakes made on your tax report. To make it easy on computing your meal allowance, mark the pages on your logbook when you're home leaving for work or coming home from the road, and the total number of days you were away from home. The tax expert will pro-rate the days you departed or arrived home from work. Supplies such as pens, notebooks, laundry, shower, flashlight, batteries, etc… are work related expenses and should be recorded on a separate notebook. Some drivers will make a memo of miscellaneous expenses on the top, bottom, or side of each page on the logbook. Large expenses such as a laptop, GPS, a thick heavy jacket if you're a reefer driver, uniforms, a smartphone, etc… that you use in your work as an OTR driver, you'll need to substantiate by providing receipts. This includes small appliance like a 12-volt refrigerator, a portable DVD player, a flat screen TV, a portable Sony Playstation, etc… are personal entertainment related to your work. This is how you kill time while waiting for the shipper to load the trailer, the receiver to unload the trailer, or when laid over at a truck stop waiting for your next load from dispatch. You can't claim snacks and other food expenses if you're claiming the $59 daily meal expense. You have the option to either show daily record of how much food and meal expenses you actually spent, or simply take the standard $59 meal expense. Most OTR drivers will choose the standard $59 because its easier than keeping daily records and most don't spend that much on food and snacks.
Keep all your tax report, logbooks, and receipts to substantiate expenses together in a portfolio or container, labeled "2012 Tax Report." Keep it in a safe place and anticipate a tax audit. IRS website recommends 3 years if you claimed a tax credit or refund, but I'd keep it for 6 years. When you hire a state licensed tax expert, ask their professional opinion on how long you should keep tax records in anticipation of a tax audit. There's a statute of limitation on how many years they can go back to audit your tax report.

Good paying companies (private fleets) DO NOT hire drivers with job hopping history. It means you can't commit yourself to one employer, and you'll likely resign after they've invested so much time and $$ into your training. IMO, it sounds like they laid you off from your electrical job because of your medical condition. From a management perspective, you're an accident waiting to happen if you forget to take your insulin shot. You're liable to get hurt on the job when you neglect taking insulin, then the employer has to pay for your medical cost and job retraining if your injury prevents you from continuing to do your job as an electrician. In contrast to an electrician, carriers are desperate for drivers because too many 5+ years experienced drivers leave OTR trucking for an hourly paying local job. The job hauling Rubbermaid, a drop-n-hook operation; it's perfect for a person with a medical condition. If you get the local flatbed job, stay with it this time. Don't leave when they call you for an electrician job because they likely don't know of your medical condition, and they'll lay you off again when they find out you're diabetic.

From my personal experience and observations, people who disrespect others often play mind games; trying to provoke a hostile reaction from you, or testing to see if they can put you in a state of emotional stress and depression. If you look at these people with an expression of pity, then walk away without giving them the satisfaction that they can succeed in manipulating your emotion, then you've scored a victory. Spiteful people had a dysfunctional childhood; they grew up surrounded by people who insulted and disrespected them, so they're conditioned to believe that disrespecting others is normal social behavior. These people have toxic personalities, which is why they have verify few (or none) people they can call friends.

Under federal DOT, yes, but you're setting yourself up for HOS violations. If I were in your shoes, I'd keep the interstate job a secret. Let people believe you're a local driver only. When you work with your other employer who sends you across state lines, don't let them know you have a 2nd job as a local driver. If anyone ask, just say you're a construction laborer only.

Private fleet beverage companies like Pepsi, Coke, etc… have a unique operation. The class-A driver delivers the products to the retail stores and leaves them in the inventory storage area by the docks. A merchandiser arrives in a regular company vehicle (class-C license) and sets up the promo display, restocks the shelves, then fills out forms to give the retail store credit for damaged or expired products. Other private fleets like Frito Lay or Hostess Brand Bakery has their drivers double as merchandiser. They deliver the products, restock the shelves or setup the promo display, and write up the credit voucher for damaged and expired products. However, companies who have drivers who double as merchandiser only require a class-B or class-C license, depending on the tonnage capacity of their vehicle. An example of a driver-merchandiser position that only requires a class-C license is with Anderson Merchandiser, which distributes books, magazines, and audio CD music to Walmart stores.

 

I was sent home from C.R. England to take care of a warrant in LA county, during this time I came in contact with some bud cookies without me knowing, I returned to C.R. the next day and tested dirty for low count THC. Am I screwed or is there something I can do to be able to work? I don't care what type of trucking work I do, I have all my endorsements I just want to work. Any help?