Starting pay

Just went back and read some of K's posts. There is one more thing I would like to address that he brought up.
Why would I go to Stevens, after so many years experience, especially after being an owner op?
Well there are plenty of reasons, but there are 'rules' at Stevens that I enjoy.
1. If I never throw another set of chains in my life, it will be too soon!
2. I ran during the years of 'outlaw' trucking, and I did have multiple logs. I don't want to deal with any of that anymore, especially after coming to understand the repercussions and liabilities as a business owner. I love running legal.
3. I don't want to be in business anymore. I'm too old, too tired and the IRS and CA State Board of Equalization wouldn't let me anyway.
4. I like driving newer equipment and letting someone else worry about the depreciation, receiveables, payables, taxes, payroll, line of credit, customer complaints, etc, etc, etc!
5. I promised my wife I wouldn't let Max talk me into another hair brained idea like starting a business again. When I told her I wanted (needed) to go back to work, she said, "you can do anything you want, and I'll support you, but you can't have employees again!"

Now go pick on someone else, child!

 

Ain't youth wonderful? These are all reasons I picked Stevens and they remain #1 on my list of possible starter companies. I am also totally stoked about an Alliance lease. The only, and I mean ONLY, bad thing is they don't have much of a Western Michigan presence. They're the only national company I haven't seen on the freeway outside my office. That concerns me.

And being an older guy myself - I have children older than many of the posters on TruckersForum.com and even older than E's 38 years of experience - and though I really do enjoy youthful enthusiasm, which helps me stay "young," when it comes to making important career-related, post-retirement work, I value the wisdom and experience of people old enough to remember that Viet Nam was a nasty experience many of us shared. A place to which hundreds of thousands of us went on orders and from which 58.000 did not return.

 

Well I'm glad you've finally responded and set the record straight.
I'm not 100% convinced but I most likerly never be. About anything.
The only people who never lie are in movies and we all know how to tell a truck driver is lying. His lips are moving.
And some of your earlier posts indicated that you might have this trucker's lip moving disease.
I apologize if I offended you in any way. I know I can be an a-hole but fair is fair.

Now on a different note. And I apologize to moderators for off topic. But... this thread would be dead without this petty debate anyway.

Emulsified. Your thread about those K and M letters...
You were pretty wrong did you realize that?
I didn't read the whole thread till the end but your "academic" explanation was totally off.
You were btw mixing Roman and Latin numerals which is a mistake a person who studied ancient languages shouldn't make.

Not to litter this thread with more details, I can explain it to you privately or we can go re-hash your old thread. Lemme know.

And to answer your question about me, I'm 46, drove for Stevens 3 years, before that 8 years straight trucks but I took a break from driving after that, so I'm not even mentioning it here.
My lease was up and I refused to sign a new one. My ex-wife divorced my ### coz I was on the road all the time and I don't want it to happen again with my new beautiful wife.
So right now I'm looking for a driving job which would bring me home more often. I was hoping for a local gig but that's pretty hard to get. Especially where I live.

 

Now we know where kokot's bitterness comes from. Blames his choice of trucking for his divorce. While it was a factor it was not the only reason.

 

Sorry but you're wrong. I'm blaming myself for choosing wrong woman.
But I don't want to take any chances this time. Nobody's perfect. And I'm not bitter. I'm just born and raised skeptic that's all.

 

Alas, that is a lesson many of us learned too late.

 

Yep blame the woman. A skeptic accepts facts.

And if you truely worked at stevens for 2+ years and have a clean record then a local driving job is easy. Yet you say they are hard to find. Skeptcal of your story am I.

 

Skeptic accepts proven facts ONLY.
However, will doubt everything else until it'll become proven fact you know?

I didn't blame the woman per se. She just is what she is. A cheating xxxxx.
When one is trying his best to put some food on the table and gets the "I want a divorce" phonecall instead, who would you blame?
I couldn't even go back home coz she moved her lover in meanwhile.

Finding local job might be easy in some parts of the country. Here, in central Fl it's not that easy. One company is hiring constantly but that's only coz they have revolving doors. Reasin being they will work you to death and pay is ridiculous.
The good ones aren't hiring at all or have some ridiculous requirements like 10 years experience and such.
Btw would YOU work for $10-12/hr? Remember you'd have load and unload yourself.
And as someone posted somewhere else, there was 3000 applicants in first 3 days for a job in TacoBell.
I'm not really surprised that I didn't get any callbacks. Can you imagine how many drivers are applying for those good local jobs?
And contrary to popular belief, your previous experience with Stevens won't help you much.

 

I have 2 friends who both worked for stevens for one year. They both live in cental florida and both have local driving jobs now. So skeptical I am of your total story. Besides your numbers were so far off on the lease I know you do not know what u are talking about.

 

Well so you don't believe my story? Well it looks to me like your problem.

Those numbers I posted elsewhere were my actual numbers.
If yours are different, more power to you. Congratulations.

Friend of mine, who still drives for Alliance does ok. His average miles per week is 2700. He stays out for 10 weeks and puts $60/wk to his T/O escrow.
I'm sorry but I don't want to stay 10 weeks out anymore when other OTR companies don't have a problem to bring their drivers home every 7-11-14 days WITHOUT them having to pay ~$600 for staying home and with paycheck comparable to that from Alliance and AFFORDABLE health insurance.

I'm happy for you that you doing so fine driving for Stevens. Much too many drivers aren't doing that good.

Your friends got lucky or they knew someone who knew someone. Or they live in Orlando or Tampa. (both over 100 miles one way away)
I could've get a job in Jacksonville but I refuse to commute 200 miles a day esp. with price of fuel nowadays.
Try to look on any job board for Ocala. You'll see.