Newbie needs help with decision!

CFI is now with Con Way don't go with Swift Warner is ok TMC good Maverick Good don't really know much about the rest

 

I am a Werner driver so I am bias there. But if Werner were not on the list:

Crete
TMC
Maverick
Watkins
NTB
CfI
KLLM
TransAm

Nothing on gods green earth could get me to work for England, and I'd have to be pretty desperate to apply for Swift... or they would have to have a hell of a pay package.

 

I think its got a lot to do with Werner being a newbie company that alot of drivers just getting into trucking go into. If you look all of the big companies that take new drivers have bad raps. I believe the greater portion of which are from people who went into trucking with lollipop dreams of seeing America, getting paid for a great big road trip, making crazy amounts of $, and/or that they'd be home every week.

While a great deal of those 'lollipop dreams' can happen NONE are going to happen to a new driver. All of them will take at least 1 year, most likely 3 years of preference before you can find a company that meshes with your preferences and is willing to pay well, or buy your own truck.

Everytime I stay at a training motel, aka one a school's students are boarded at, I always hear the same bs no matter WHAT company is training them. They are going to buy their own truck in a year and make hundreds of thousands, they are going to see all the US, etc etc. And I believe that pound for pound there are just as many or MORE happy drivers with Werner then unhappy ones and that if you do some research you will see the greater majority of the 'unhappy' drivers went into it with hopes that were a wee bit high of heaven.

One has to keep in mind that Werner has alot of policies, and they are not the same as a smaller company. The dispatchers don't even have the ability to call con/shp like most companies can. They have to go through CSM to do stuff at smaller companies the dispatchers do. And alot of the time people get frustrated with dispatch, even I did it. But getting rude to people just gets you more rudeness. At Werner there are THOUSANDS of drivers and HUNDREDS waiting to get in, they really don't NEED to cater to rudeness. And thusly they don't try. I have found that being friendly and polite to my dispatcher has completely changed the way he responds to my problems.

You have to look at things from both points of view. Sure the truck doesn't go anywhere unless a driver drives it, but you don't get loads without being assigned them. You can't make anything without getting loads, and the company doesn't make anything unless you drive them. You both NEED each other as a company driver and alot of drivers forget that these days.

Now the sad part, that alot don't like, is Werner doesn't need you as badly as you need them. Especially as a newbie. They have literally hundreds waiting to take your truck and do the job. For the company thats great, for the driver that not always so great. Sometimes its awesome. But its all in how you deal.

 

KLLM is a good choice, treats you good.

 

I decided on NTB. They will give me 5 days on with 2 days off, plus a chance to get home one night during the week. I live in Michigan so I guess I will just be doing Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana drop and hooks at Meijers and Target stores...

Wish me luck
Dave

 

good luck man, but get that home time in writing...

maverick would've been my first choice. from what i remember anyhow, but it's been prolly 2 years since I looked into them. tmc is out simply because how their recruiter came across to me when I was in school.