Not a newbe, or am I ?

I sort of did the same thing - dropped out of trucking for a while. Had to get my CDL renewed and then - well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I have a friend who has a friend who owns a construction company. That guy let me use his truck to freshen up on driving a semi. His truck had an extremely long wheel base - which was good, if I could back that thing up, I could back anything up in terms of tight situations.
Anyway, I worked for that guy for about 6 months hauling dirt, pee gravel - whatever he had to do, including some time down in the ditches assembling water pipe.

After getting 6 months "under-my-belt" (felt sort of strange that I was starting at the bottom after so many years of driving, but - what they hey), I starting applying at all kinds of other local construction companies. I had lots of offers, but took one that had me driving about 425 miles per day driving up to a mine in the mountains, getting gypsum rock and bringing it back to a drywall production plant in the big city.

Something like 8 months of that and I was looking for more money. I was looking for local only. I went with a - well I almost feel embarrased to even say this because I knew better at the time and did it anyway - I went with a JB Hunt dedicated fleet that was local only. That job - well, there's plenty of junk on JBHunt in other threads and I have contributed my share of junk to them some time ago - just to say I had to go to California in a sardine can, get packed into a hotel with another guy, go to 5 days worth of "training". Without going into all the gory details, I ended up back in Phoenix running roofing tile for JBHunt which was contracted out to a local construction company. I started out okay at first - in fact, the pay was quite good - I was grossing about $1,300 per week. That was a LOT more pay than I was making hauling the gypsum rock.

Fast forward, middle management comes in, tells all of us drivers one morning that we're being paid too much, they take away about $400 per week. Of course, we all got together after that s*** was dumped on us and collectively decided to quit - as soon as we found new jobs. I did find a new job - with yet another construction company who was paying $23.45 per hour to start plus $7 per hour in retirement fund payment, plus a lot of overtime. I was taking home almost $1,200 per week at that point in time - life was good, even if their trucks were total junk. This job was hauling 2 -- full-length belly dumps on a freeway project. The trucks were minimum 20 years old, brakes mostly didn't work and they were sno-coning the trailers with dirt - in other words, they had a giant loader that was dumping the dirt up til it was peaked at the top. We were guessing around 180,000 gross weight on those trains, they liked to call them. We were definitely earning our pay driving them things under those conditions.

Fast forward again. It's a month before Christmas, everyone is happy - who wouldn't be taking home that kind of money - and we were brought before the boss before a shift - who informed us that after this shift, we were all laid off. You wanna talk about some looks to kill - there was no fore-notice of it, we were just plain laid off.

Several of us had come from JB Hunt together - this time we all went our separate ways (oh, and we had some gratification that all of us quitting that JB Hunt gig ended up with Hunt losing that contract and millions of dollars worth of special equipment for the contract was sold at pennies on the dollar). I immediately applied at a temp driver place so I would have some income while I went out and tried to find another good paying job.

The temp driver place sent me to some pretty shabby operations. One place wanted to hire me on full-time - at $13 per hour and only 7 to 8 hours per day. Junk trucks, too. I "lasted" there 2 days and told the temp place to send me somewhere else. Meanwhile, I was lining up job offers at more construction companies. One started out at $18 per hour with lots of over time, another at $19 per hour with mandatory overtime and you had to sign a contract saying you would agree to spending at least 25 days of the year at an out-of-town construction project.

Meanwhile back, I was sent to another operation and then another (I kept telling them these places basically sucked) until I got with a place that I liked. I had interviews set up at the construction places, I just wasn't sure what I was going to do. I was at this newest place through the temp agency for about 3 weeks - when I told them nice playing with ya, I"m movin' on. They were only paying me $13 to work here as well - though admittedly it was the temp agency dictating my pay, not the companies I was actually working at.

They told me to hold up, Nelly, they didn't want me to move on. I had no intention of staying at that place - great people to work with, yes - but no way was I going to stick around after making the pay I had started getting accustomed to at the other companies. Once you get up there, you definitely don't wanna come back down, no matter what you have to do to keep it. So, my immediate boss tells me I need to speak with the big boss. Why, is all I could think of, I had my eyes set on greener - much greener pastures. The big boss comes out - so I engage the man in conversation about this company, it's future, what benefits are available, what kind of position is this company in in the market, on and on and on. Heck, I was getting paid to talk to the big boss - for almost 2 hours. My sticking point was money, and I already had 2 job offers - solid offers btw, they were giving me a job if I wanted it - I was in the driver's seat, so to speak.

He wanted to "meet me in the middle" in terms of pay and then in a couple of months, we would talk about more money.

I walked away from that conversation with a hard decision to make. Now 3 companies wanted my services - who to go with? Did I go for the highest dollar or did I go for the place that seemed to have a real future in it, albeit less money? Did I go for the place in the middle of it all? I lost some sleep on that one. I decided that - those other 2 companies I had been offered money at weren't going anywhere - they would take me in the future if I wanted the jobs, no guarantee of that, but if not, there were other companies out there. I decided to stay with the temp job, which that company had to buy me out from the temp agency. They forked out 3 grand for that priviledge. I suddenly found myself in a company whose culture is family oriented. Whose ideals are employees are their number one asset. Whose benefits were more than I had ever personally received at any job. Heck, it's 9 months into this year, I could take a month off right now and get paid for it!

I'm almost 3 years at this place and - I said all of that to say that you really might not have to get dumped with a friggin' trainer and have to live with all that person's odditities, personal habits and whatever other nightmarish conditions that might be present. There are options out there - you just have to find them if you really take the time and energy to do so. It was a long road to haul - but I am making great money now and when I look back on all those companies I worked for in a rather short period of time - well - it's a wonder I ended up where I'm at now. Sometimes, I think, fate has as much to do with anything as much as pure luck or just the "odds" of getting into something good.

Whatever you end up doing - good luck to you. The present economical factors that are present aren't exactly the best - but there is always something out there even in the worst times, you just have to find it.

 

My pleasure, sir.

I think you're going to find most companies will be starting you at, or near, the bottom. However, the duration of the training period may differ from company to company.

I used to be a driver trainer for Schneider. I loved that gig.
Being unmarried, and Schneider having too few women trainers, guess who got most of the female trainees?
YuP!
I think I learned as much from them as they learned from me, --- strictly professional, of course. There's good money and security in training. Would you consider training again? If so, I wouldn't hesitate to mention that to a potential employer.

That should help a bunch.

"For the better"?
Hmmmmmmmm
Define "better".

You mean back in the day when a driver informed dispatch that they were out of hours, and the dispatcher's reply was The solution to that problem costs about 79 cents, and can be found at most truck stops. (?) Meaning purchase another log book.
YeAH, I'm sure there are still those who are book keepers of many books. Personally, I didn't do that, but I have known those who did. I suspect there are more O/O's doing that than company drivers though.

Ahhhhh --- memories.
Sweet, sweet memories.

WhaT?!
You did it for PaY?
Hmmmmmmm
Some drivers seem to do it just for the "thanks".
No wonder they were so popular.

Well then, ....... I'm happy to report that those daze ARE gone. But only in our dreams.
If sitting and waiting USED to bother you, be sure to study the new logging rules. Now-a-daze thay expect you to stay on the clock, burning up your precious hours while waiting. And that refreshing nap in the middle of the day?.......... well, you can still do that, but it will be ON the running clock.
No more stop watches.
Once they're started, only a required break can legally stop them.
Although now you can legally drive for 11 hours as opposed to 10 hours, and the 34 hour re-set back to 70 hours is nice --- if I had a choice of running the old rules or the new rules, I think I'd pick the old rules.
Others may disagree.
I've been off the road for awhile now, and haven't actually run under the new rules, but I sure appreciated being able to stop the clock for a mid-day nap from time to time. Or to lay low in order to go through heavy traffic areas at a better time --- without the clock still running and burning up my hours.

Desk drivers are still telling us how to (better?) do our jobs.
I doubt that'll ever change (for the better).

 

Some companies might offer a refresher course

 

Shock - there IS the split berth option. I've been known to make use of it now and again

 

I thought I read that they don't allow that anymore.

If they DO, it sure can work in some instances for a solo driver.
And even better when teaming.
When I first started team training, we ran 5 on --- 5 off, which worked all right. If it's still legal to do that, I would think trainers, like at Covenant who run as a team for training, would opt for the 5 & 5 idea.

After getting more team seasoning, especially while on a dedicated military account that ran 6,700 miles in 7 days, then 2 days off. I preferred 10 hours on and 10 hours off. Each driver took one hour, or so, break in that 10 hour period, usually when we changed drivers.
Fuel, if necessary, eat, and shower during that time. We sure didn't wear out the doors on that Big truck.
YuP!
Split logging came in handy from time to time.

 

I don't think the 5/5 spilt is legal anymore.

I train my students to work a 12 hour 12 hour split. What ever happens in that 12 hours that driver is responsible for maintaining. The main prurpose for this is the essential part of maintianing a sleep cycle.

If you run a 10/10 hour split, you will never sleep at the same time every day. Your body will easily become fatigued during your driving.

I have tested this with all of my students and have had a couple who were out woth another trainer before riding with me and they commented that it worked better and they felt better.

I have run solo a number of times and my hat is off to all of you, because in order to make your times IE, p/up and del. you will almost never sleep the same time. I absolutely appreciate and respect those who run solo against teams.

 

It's not. If your going to split 8-2 is the only thing you can do.

 

I have driven trucks since I was 17 yo, starting with dumps for the county... no CDL and have run heavy equipment as well. I got a CDL A in 2004 and drove again... 2 months.. and was forced to quit for family reasons. I now want to drive but am told I must start over. I do have my CDL, all endorsements, and a updated and current medical card, but still am told I must go back to school and go out with a trainer. Hope that helps.

 

As a solo driver, I drive - on average - about 10 hours a day. And I usually fill up my 14 doing it. Among other things, that keeps your working hours fairly consistent. Not that jumping all over the clock bothers me - never has. But most of the places I deliver to seem to have daylight hours, so it seems rather silly to arrive at midnight on a Saturday when I know they won't open until 08:00 on Monday.