Question for Stevens drivers that recently went through orientation??

It may be the crazies thing you ever heard, but answer me this. You know those books recruiting drivers you see I'm the truck stops? Those in the "Take me I'm Free" racks? When is the last time you saw an ad from Stevens in there? Grab one of each and flip through them and tell me when you find one.

They don't recruit seasoned drivers, the make minimal effort on driver retention beyond having some to train and to cover a handful of dedicated accounts. They need the Trucks freed up for the next round of trainees coming through.

Their training is very good, very thorough as a result, because that is their main focus.

 

How's training going Matt? Do you guys start on the range today or do you have more paperwork to go through for the permit test?

A little envious on your rooming arrangements lol. I came for the learning and training but can't wait to see how a $50/night budget hotel room looks like and is upkeeped. All I know from what others have said is the breakfast is almost non-existent.

 

If you are talking about in Dallas, it used to be sugary cereal, Fruit Loops and stuff like that. There is a taco truck on they yard every day that has considerably more substantial food pretty cheap.

 

Yep the one in Dallas. I am driving over there rather than using the bus since it will let me go to the store when need be and stock up on some cheap yet healthy items while in training.

 

Good thinking, more so for getting back and forth to the yard and not having to rifles their bus. Not sure which hotels they are using anymore, but it used to be Crosslands for the School. There is both a Kroger and an Aldi within walking distance, and if its America's Best there is a Walmart and a Kroger across the street.

You will be the Popular Kid though if you have a car with you. LOL

 

They will be sending me to Crossland Economy Studios. Rumor has it that, LaQuinta bought it out and will be turning it into an LaQuinta by years end.

 

That's the better of the two.

 

Yeah America's best was nasty I used to hate going there and the bus ride wasn't much better

 

Schneider also accepts your current DOT, as long as it's less than four months old.

 

That is true to a degree. Both Stevens and Prime tout their leasing programs, but I can only speak of Stevens. From the moment you walk into class, they start hammering Alliance fleet. They show you pictures of those shiny new Kenworths and Peterbilts, put you thru "business" classes, and fill your head about how you can be your own boss and make $100,000 your First year. Then you graduate and get your First truck as a company driver...only it's not shiny and new. It's a 4 year old wore out T700 with over 500,000 not so nice miles put on it by 35 other brand spankin' new drivers. But for only $650/wk, you can have one of those shiny T680's that all your buddies have. Oh, and you have to buy your own fuel and pay your own maintenance costs. But don't worry! They'll pay you $.88/mile. A married couple that are good friends of mine teamed on Alliance for slightly over a year. Their truck grossed $101,000 for the year. They netted...wait for it...$19,800...combined. That is less than $10,000/ year income for each one. Less than $10,000/year to buy food, pay bills, and live on the road.

And don't think that $.26/mi is some big paycheck. Even at 3400 miles, That's $884 gross....or less than $700 take home pay. But more a more reasonable ( and realistic) average would be around 2600 miles/week. That would net around $500 take home pay. That's not taking into account insurance or any other deduction other than Federal taxes. Heaven forbid you have child support or alimony.

My question is why did they even dispatch the driver on the load? Why wasn't the load picked up by a local driver and brought to the yard to sit for 2 or 3 days? Certainly they could have planned him on another load. And if I was dispatched on that load, I would have questioned their logic about that. Why is it my responsibility to try and position myself for the possibility of maybe getting a repower...or maybe not? But that's why I only lasted at Stevens for about 10 months. Because they dispatch drivers on terrible loads. And then when the driver complains, they blame the driver for not being in the right place for a repower or some other ridiculous reason.