Stevens Transport Aviary . . cont'

Glad to hear you are doing well Fieldchaser. Enjoy.

 

Im Glad your doing well to! From Widefield, CO

 

If you can pay cash for your training its a lot cheaper and your not on the hook for a potential outrageous interest rate. I went to a stevens satilite school Keensburg, CO but paid cash and I cant remember the exact amount but it was like 2,500 instead of financed 4,500

 

I agree with Milkman719. I went to Keensburg also, great school in my opinion. I did finance but left Stevens for a family medical issue and paid it off for less. I was glad to not have that coming out of my check when I returned to Stevens.
I was in retail management/owner for 25 plus years and when times got tough finding a good paying management position I went to driving. Been doing it since Dec 2012 and love it for the most part. I am Texas regional but live in Colorado so I don't get home very often every 3 or 4 months. I do take 2 days every 2 weeks or so to decompress and restart my clock, I have my car at the yard so I just stay there. I have a wife, two daughters, son in law and 3 grand kids living at my home. Plus two pits, 8 cats and a rabbit. Getting home is not always a fun time for me. If I NEED to they get me home.
I run hard and don't get to always enjoy the scenery but even once in a while I do and enjoy it. I have seen the US before and it is great driving around seeing more of it but I am a driver first and foremost and that pays the bills so I can retire and visit those sites more thoroughly. I do call my wife at least once a day. Sometimes twice since I try to keep my truck solar powered so we are on similar schedules. I call family and friends when I feel like it. Plenty of time at shippers and receivers.
I make great money and don't let anyone kid you there is money to be made. I don't #####, complain or refuse loads. Now I let my dm know if I have an issue with OTD on a load but I take it and run as far as I can usually to final. No ding on my record for late delivery because I picked up late or whatever because I relayed that to the correct people. Some people refuse to pickup a late load, I figure it's late so what it still pays and I don't have to sit and wait for a different load.

 

I tried to kind of put numbers to facts and it seems to me it may be better money than one might normally hear. The way I figured it from what seemed to be what people were saying is that your on the road about 6 weeks and off about 4 days on average. So I figured about 500 miles times the .31/mi fro 300 days and came up with better than 48k. Is that high for first year?

 

I would say that is just a little high for the first year... training pay for the first 8 to 10 weeks... then lower pay for the first 6 months along with lower miles as you learn the system and the load planners learn to trust you. And you will not average 500 miles a day, closer to 400 a day due to appointment times, waiting to get unloaded and loaded, and waiting to be dispatched.

 

I have an appointment with a counselor with my retirement system on June 1st, day after school is out. I'm not sure if I can retire in 1 year or if it's 6 years. There's been a change in the system, but my page at the retirement system website says I'm on the old system so it would be 1 year. If that's right I'll spend the the summer getting passport, and the like that I can do early. Then 6 months before retirement I have to put in the application to the system and start filling out paperwork. Once that gets moving, I'll have a date and be able to provide everything info wise a recruiter would need.

How much notice do I need to give to get in a class? Anything else I need to know about that?

 

No notice really, call and they will try to schedule you in asap.

 

FYI, if there are any drivers that live in or around Spokane, WA and having trouble getting home and looking for an alternative to Stevens, PM me.

 

Hey Fozzy! good to hear from you. I know you're loving what you're doing. Say hello sometime.