Newbie question about trucking industry

I beg to differ Ridgeline in a couple of parts of what you stated.... There is a driver shortage in regards to good...experienced drivers with a clean CSA score. No shortage of newbies or bad drivers.
The other being rates...yes of course customers are everything and they are paying but many times than not...especially the mega carriers are not paying drivers close to what they should be and I know one too many inside of a few of these companies that have stated this. Not drivers mind you but way up the food chain.

 

Regardless if you're a company driver, O/O, or fleet owner. When you're on the road you can lose a lot more than your shorts. Mistakes out here can cost you your life.
Sorry to be a downer, you have taken a lot of initiative. Safe to say you'll find success. I've just seen too many awful wrecks out here for one day of driving tonight.

 

As a noob, you'll be a company driver. Do your research and find one that offers good training, lots of miles and decent CPM.

Resign yourself to five weeks out and five days home or accept that you'll make crap wages. You may get lucky and do better, but those are the norm. Do the nasty OTR never home thing for a year and re-evaluate. If you last more than 90 days, congrats, you're better than 80% of new drivers. No, I'm not exaggerating, especially on flatbed.

There are some great opportunities making decent money and home a lot. But they usually go to either someone who knows someone, or a driver with 2+ years of safe driving experience.

 

That's the one thing that kinda holds me back. Roads seem so crowded these days. Heck even the roads out in the sticks and whether law and order will throw you in jail for a wreck if you knew it wasn't your fault. Another issue I have..not really an important issue for you guys (but for me to stay regular) is where you would take a crap in peace because I sure wouldn't be able to relax in those truck stop bathrooms.. those bathrooms get more business than Kmart.

 

The shower rooms have full bathroom facilities and are private. Lock the door and take your time to do whatever needs to be done.

You get shower credits when fuelling, but even if you didn't I would gladly pay the $10-12 for a clean toilet once a day after seeing some public restrooms.

 

I think there is in fact a driver shortage. Probably as much as 40% of company trucks are driven by people that will not drive for much more then two years. There are many reasons for this. I think the biggest is these people should have never been driving to start with. However the carriers need this influx of bodies day in and day out. Without them a huge amount of their tractors will sit and not make money. This is why every big and medium size companies have huge recruiting departments. At one time my company had almost as many people working in recruiting as was working as fleet managers. This rapid turnover is the basis of the driver shortage. Its also in my opinion why pay is so stagnant, and why so many carriers are so abusive with their drivers. Its why detention pay is so hard to get. I' ve always been honest about the fact that I was fired by USA Truck in August of 2011. My first tractor was truck #1600 a PROSTAR without APU. When I first got in it the smell of stale urine gagged me. I had three tractors all junk, and I refused to quietly drive junk. They finally fired me.

 

Freight brokers are like the well-meaning friend who sets two people up on a blind date. They usually try to misrepresent the situation by saying the other person has a great personality! Freight that needs to be brokered typically is very heavy and picks up or delivers in an undesirable location or at a place which detains drivers for an excessive amount of time. The shippers have to turn to brokers when they can't get a regular carrier who wants to deal with all the hassles. C.H. Robinson is the largest freight broker, and truckers have a saying that the "C.H." stands for "cheap and heavy".

Many companies and O/Os will haul freight out from shippers in their area that they have relationships with and rely on brokers to get them back, with the goal of at least covering expenses for the trip home. The trick is to establish relationships in both places in order to get a dedicated run set up, and not have to rely on brokers to get you back to your home turf. It is much easier for large carriers with nationwide sales teams to pull that off, though.

Sometimes, trucking companies will bid on work from a shipper and get awarded a contract to haul it. Then, when they see what a pain it is, they will broker it out so that their own company trucks don't have to deal with the problem freight. Either way, another slice of the pie gets gobbled up.

 

Just DON'T loose your shorts Gypsy (if you are a guy that is) As a newbie....some might consider you fresh fish like in prison....late at night at the TA.

 

Lmao I can hear em whispering on the CB now...
"Hey fish, I got no panties on"