Stevens Transport aviary

Got my first load going into Vegas. Thinking of taking a 34 there. Where is a good casino to park at? Suggestions?

 

Sitting in laredo for a morning delivery.

This student I have talks CONSTANTLY lol. He is gonna drive me nuts. He knows everything and had done everything. he has been a millionaire but lost it all. He has all these grand plans and when I try to give him facts about stuff he doesnt believe me lol.

He is going to "team" with another student once he gets to grad fleet. Then he is going to sign a lease and pay the guy .35 a mile to team with him. Get this, he wont drive at night. Its all I could do to get him to drive till 8PM the other day. he says his first trainer (im his 4th) never drove at night and his DM worked his loads around it lol. It ruined him I think.

He says that when they do the team thing they are going to only run from midnight till 6PM then shut down for 6 hours every day. His partner will drive from midnight till whenever in the morning, then he will drive during the day only lol, and they also intend to take 2 days off after every 6 days wherever they are because theyre going to be running so hard they will "have" to do a reset and relax some.

Ive tried to explain how this wont work but Im told Im just being negative and he doesnt want any negativity lol. So I said go for it. lmao.

 

4th trainer, millionaire but lost it all(bs), knows everything, won't drive at night, won't listen; = a recipe for success. LOL

 

Clegg... it is obvious you can not teach him anything... you are his fourth trainer... if you knew what you were talking about you would have been his first... See the problem?

 

I am one month short of having a full year in at Stevens, yesterday at a TS in Santa Rosa NM, I ran in to my D&D partner... shockingly he is still with Stevens too. I stayed company, he went Alliance. He is struggling a bit but being a Texas boy, he signed a one year lease and by God he is going to finish it. I respect him for that. He did not blame it all on Stevens either, has had some bad luck with the truck among other things.

With the turnover rate being what it is, I just thought it might be a bit unusual that both of us are still here.

 

Update.
I feel I need to share my experience. If you are considering Alliance, please read this with an open mind. I write this, not to sway you one way or the other, but just to share. Nothing in life is cookie-cutter. My experience is my own... Actual results may vary ...

I spent about 4 months with Alliance. My first few weeks were ok... Maybe on par with company pay. I wasn't making "more" money, but I wasn't going broke either. That was where I was when I posted last. But everything went down the toilet.
My reasons for leaving the program included:
Too many negative settlements, not enough miles, a "Support" team (DM, BM) that was unhelpful and unreachable, and defective equipment (A T660 that struggled to get 6.5 and climb hills, even empty, and Paragon and KW said nothing was wrong and it must be me. On Company side in a T700, I'm on my way to 7+ Club...).
I know I coulda hammered some of these issues out if I had stayed, and coulda possibly made more money for the effort, however consider this: I hated my job. I don't dislike driving, I don't dislike Stevens, and I don't dislike the industry. But I hated being a lease operator.
Why? There is so much to keep track of. Unless you are a numbers person and extremely organized, you get overwhelmed quickly.
I was overwhelmed, and there was no "business support team" to help me.
I have a wife, and 2 babies under 2 at home. I work, she takes care of the kids. They depend on me to get paid.
Of the 4 months I was with Alliance, my family was served 2 eviction notices, we almost lost the car (we only have 1, and we live in rural NE Texas. We NEED a car), and if it wasn't for WIC and foodstamps, they would have gone hungry. The stress was very literally making me sick. And I never once felt I got paid what I was worth. I never once felt I was evenly compensated for the work I was performing.

So I left the program.
Now, almost 2 months later, I get a call last week from Mike Somer regarding my final settlement. He told me that before the tractor was retired to the company fleet, the shop performed the following:
Tire and brake wear prorate (expected), filters (also expected), and DPF cleaning; all to the tune of $600+, and "how much would I like to pay per week to settle this amount?"
Well I was thinking $0...
The DPF was a surprise. Leslie said that it was my responsibility, as "Cummins requires the DPF to be cleaned at 300k miles. This was never done. I had been on that truck for over a year a it should have been done."
I wasn't on the truck for a year. I was on it for 4 months. And when I received the truck, it had just under 350k. The shop didn't catch it then. Or in Brownsville when it broke down less than a month later. Or in San Antonio when it broke down again 2 weeks later. Or when the Cummins guys on the yard replaced the turbo 3 weeks before I quit and said the DPF was clean...
Now they say they'll credit me $275 of the $375 it cost...

I was considering trying Alliance again after I qualify as a trainer, but I don't think I will.
I actually get paid, and its more, on average, than I ever brought home with Alliance.
I can call my DM and he actually answers and provides help.
I don't have to think about fuel, maintenance, heavy loads, mountains... None of this effects my check.
I actually get home to see the wife and kids without fighting for the right to do so, and without breaking the bank when I do.

I'm not saying Company Good, Alliance Bad... I'm just telling it like it is for me. FOR ME, company makes a lot more sense -- and cents...

So that's my story. I'll let y'all know how it all turns out.

 

Good honest assessment Disco...

I stayed company and have no regrets, I get all the miles I can handle. Alliance is great for some, not so great for others. Most things in life are like that.

Hope the company side works as well for you as it has for me.

 

From what I've been told Mandalay Bay has truck parking. You can also catch the tram from there.

 

The Orleans has a huge truck parking area. Go west on Tropicana to Arville, turn right, go a couple blocks and turn left on Tompkins into the parking lot. The truck parking area is to the right.
I always stayed there as they are across the street from Dakota Packing. I delivered there quite a bit.
If you have some time you can catch the bus on Tropicana and go east to the strip, if that is in your plans.

 

My wife kept asking if I was going to become a trainer when eligible. This is exactly the reason I kept telling her NO!