NJ Newbie Looking for a Good Company

Check with Carlisle Carrier out of Mechanicsburg PA if your serious. They used to occasionally train rookies, one at a time.They are not no touch as they mainly haul groceries, but they had good pay, insurance, and you were home very weekend. You'll probably deliver to your local Shop Rite if the ######## aren't on strike ( I was refused at C.H. store for that reason). Make the phone call or show up in person, not any type of online app, and once again it was a while back when I was there.

 

rtrchnj , if you would post your location on your profile someone might know of potential employers in your area .

 

I don't know where you are in NJ but there are several schools if you have the 3G to pay for training(Smith Solomon in Linden ,Jersey Tractor on RT 17 in Rutherford) If you don't have $ for tuition several of the big outfits will train you for your CDL. Swift, England;you sign a contract with them and have to pay them back out of your paycheck.

 

Sorry if it sounded so harsh. I can tell you from your post that trucking is not for you. When someone asks about trucking and their number one question is home time then they need to go no further. Obviously this is their main concern. This a concern you can't be concerned about or you won't make a week! I have heard from recruiters themselves that this is a red flag when they are talking to potential new employees.

IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HOME TIME THEN YOU NEED TO FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO! This will just eat you up every day you are out there and you will eventually quit losing all that money and time you had put in to get started.

If you have a family then it is going to be EVEN WORSE!

Your second question was what kind of truck you will be driving?! You will be driving a P.O.S. because you have already told your company you are concerned about home time so they are going to give you the truck that's perfect for sitting at a truck stop! You will be issued something that will be perfect for 300 mile runs so you can deliver and pick-up all the loads that the drivers who stay out run.

As far as pay goes, you should be asking what drop pay and detention pay is going to be! You could be paid .52 a mile but at 300 mile runs this doesn't add up to squat!

Yes this sounds harsh, and isn't necessarily directed just at you. This is a formula of which is right on the money 99% of the time a newbie asks these questions. Its good though because it really counteracts what those recruiters all telling you!

Now if your serious about trucking and making money I would change your approach. I'm not being mean to you just giving you the cold hard facts about the industry. Hopefully this will make you put some hard thought into this career choice and possibly save you a ton of time and money!

 

the problem with that is that most local jobs require allot more physical work then OTR jobs do. And you said you'd be fine going OTR for a little while meaning you want a local job asap.

Local LTL jobs require loading and Unloading, and Dock work sometimes. Yes there are those that are on LineHaul and just drive but those are hard jobs to get.

Local Fuel Hauling: your going to be outside dragging hoses around loading and unloading fuel/gas all day

Local Flatbed work: Is going to be very physical work

Local Construction: even driving a staight truck like a dump truck requires you to get all dirty and sweaty. These jobs are often VERY long days and can be very physical as well.


Some of the Best Paying local work requires allot of work, The other easy local jobs either dont pay very good OR they are VERY hard to get and will require allot of expericnce, as you'd be competeing with drivers with 20+yrs OTR that are ready to come off the big road....






American Trucker

 

rtrchnj

I seen that you're not looking to do as much work as you once did while working in a warhouse, I can relate I'm still in a warehouse and cannot wait to get out. Have you looked at TMC? I have seen they run alot of freight to the NYC area, and if I'm not mistaken dirtyjerz runs for TMC and he is in a day cab and runs the NYC area alot. Im guessing by the NJ in your username that you're from that area. So you may want to PM him and ask him what he thinks. The down side of TMC is that you WILL have to trap most of you loads and the tarps are around 100lbs a piece so you'll get a work out but when you get accustom to tarping you'll be only truely doing manual labor about two hours a day. Also, don't quote me but I have read that alot of shippers have tarping racks to help you tarp your load but I could be wrong.

Hope this helps.

 

If they don't have tarping racks, most of them will lift your tarp up ontop with a forklift. This comes not only from my bro who's a flatbedder with a small company, but also from Kelby, one of TMC's recruiters.

 

And we all know we can believe a recruiter.

 

Yes I know, I thought about that after I posted. What I meant to point out was, it is surprising that TMC would even mention using a forklift to help lift the tarps. They seem to come off as you have to carry them up.