Stevens????

Dont go there.. N E how i lived in Fl for quite awhile. You need to look in the yellow pages. Their are alot of companies in fl that will hire students. However most dont have websites. So you will have to do some searching. Look in Ocala, lake butler, lake city, starke, Mccleny you can find one that will take you... Peace/ oh yeah i dont believe LCT takes student.. i could be wrong however

 

I agree with you they don't want to hire out of Florida because they say is hard to get you back home with a load.I even told one of the company that I dint mind getting back to georgia.

 

If you are just getting started in Trucking Stevens has alot to offer. I've been working for Stevens now for 10 months. Yes I've had my eyes opened to alot of the pitfalls as well as the advantages. But that is all part of the learning curve. In short Stevens will make a truck driver out of you. The benefits are having good well maintained equipment to drive. You will apprieciate that when you get on the road and see what alot of other guys are driving. Lots of miles. I average between 2400 to 2900 miles per week. You will end up having to sit up to 24 hours from time to time. But you try the best you can to work it into your daily trip planning and strategies. Some times you really need to shutdown for a while. The biggest drawback is the pay. It is only .26 cpm. That does'nt cover much more then daily expenses. Hopfully you don't have too many bills to pay every month. If you are willing to apply yourself Stevens is a good place to start. Its like anything else you have to work at it. The days are long and its 24/7. That's just the nature of the business. Expect to be on the road as long as 6 weeks in the beginning. Hope this gives you some insite. Good luck wherever you decide to go to work.

 

True but who wants to work for food and cant pay the bills..that or if your wife works and can manage on her own and you can get your time in to move on sure... i can tell u i saw them at TA west pratice on parking..was fun to watch

 

I'm not trying to play the Devil's Advocate and I'm entirely new to the trucking industry. My start date is Jan' 5th. But, could you please clear something up for me?

You said that you are truckin' at 26cpm and average between 2400 and 2900 miles per week. So, on the average you make $690/week (rough estimate based on the numbers provided). You also said that your weekly income doesn't cover much more than your weekly expenses.

How much are your weekly expenses as a trucker? I'm barley getting by making half that much now. I thought trucking was an industry that I could make a little more money. But, from what you wrote I'm having second thoughts. Please help me understand. Thanx

 

Puggsly brings up some very valid points. First of all I don't want to discourage anyone from persuing a career as a truck driver. There are truly many high points to the job. I was trying to convey the point that in the beginning it is going to be difficult getting started for several reasons. The numbers you crunched are accurate. It was my expectation that I was going to earn $600.00 per week. After all Stevens promises to keep you running 3200 miles per week. But in reality you dont have the stamina yet to run that many miles consistantly, week after week, fresh out of truck driving school. Stevens has a very well planned out strategy for bringing new drivers up to speed. And that is . . .Gradually. So with that in mind they don't want to burn you out in the first couple of weeks. You will be making alot of adjustments to a new life out on the road. As a student with a trainer you will only be making about $320.00 per week. This pay rate continues for 6 full weeks. You wont start getting paid .26 cpm until you go solo. After that the company will increase your CPM by .01 every 3 months til you reach the .30 CPM after 1 full year of employment. Some of the guys I went through Stevens driving academy with are earning from $600 to $800 per week and are very happy with that. It just is not going to start out that way in the begining. Your going to have to jump through a few hoops first and pay some rookie dues. And your going to find out that with limited places to park a big rig, Truck Stops are very expensive. You can easily spend about $25.00 to $30.00 a day on meals and snacks. So on $320.00 minus taxes per week you really need to have solid money management skills. I have a hefty car payment and insurance so it was a challenge for me. But, it can be done! When you think about it Stevens is putting alot of time, money and trust on the line. Driving a big rig comes with alot of responsibility. Your success will really depend on your work ethic and how you approach and resolve problems. And believe me, problems will arise and you are the only person there who can correct them. That's part of the reason why we are truck drivers anyway. We are self starters who don't need supervisors looking over our shoulder all day long.

I hope this clears up any questions.

Good luck and Merry Christmas to all.

 

Thankyou JerryC,

That did clear a lot of it up for me. And, it is also consistent with what I had imagined after talking with other drivers. So, I hope I have the right mind set. Just reading your response and it not being an awakening helps to build confidence that I do have the right perspective. So thanx again. Keep on keeping on......wave to me on the road!

 

Thats all you make starting out ? Wow , you can make more starting out at some low rate job like bk , are you kidding me ? 320.00 then you have your taxes , then food for the week , then what ever bills you have back home ??? What kind of sh-- is that , i'll keep laying brick if thats the case . Im bringinig home 400 to 720 now it just depends on the weather , hell road master told me i would be making an average of 35,000 to 40,000 . ( if i could make 40,000 every year i could be very content . ) but 320.00 a week isnt worth the sacrafice of missing your wife and kids . Hats off to ya , i guess

 

I have a good friend that went there, and still is. he got his start there after going to roadmaster. He lives in the florida area and trying to get home when he puts in for it, has been a nightmare,he has only gone home 3 times since april, they even tried to make him pay for a plane ticket from dfw to florida and told him his truck would not be there when he got back, that he would have to get another truck. His pay has been about 300 a wk and he is single and runs all the miles they will give him(about 2400). I went there and after orentation, left, they treat experianced drivers like students fresh out of school. I would look like the one person said in the phone book, watch and see what companies trks you see therealot as well and often. Good luck

 

Hi there. I went to Roadmaster too back in 2000. I went to the Tampa, FL location. And I actually was hired by Willis Shaw Express. Its parent company is Comcar, based out of Auburndale, which is about 20 some miles from Orlando. They have numerous divisions and you've probably seen them out there (CCC - Commercial Carrier Corporation, and CTL, which is mostly tankers, as well as MCT, which is their owner-operator division). I got recently laid off, so I am looking into getting back with them, since everyone treated me with respect and courtesy, unlike the big carriers, where you are seen as only 'a driver' and treat you like a second class citizen.

Other companies to look at? LCT (previously called Lester Coggins) out of Okahumpa, FL. They do hire students as well. Stevens seems to be a good company as well though, and their trucks are superb.

What have I learned? That's it's best to work for a smaller, privately-owned company than to work for a large, publicly-held one. Why? Because the public ones have shareholders to worry about, and as the company CEOs are under pressure to 'perform' to keep the stockholders happy, it is the driver that pays the price by being pressured to...you guessed it....'perform'.

Remember that there is no such thing as the 'perfect company'. Just the perfect company for YOU. After all, there are quite a few happy people working for the big carriers (Swift, Covenant, Werner). Otherwise, you wouldn't see their trucks out there.

So in sum, Stevens, Willis Shaw Express (or any of their Comcar divisions), or LCT are good choices if you are in FL. I know because I am looking at all of them myself as well.

On a side note, Werner keeps sending me these postcards telling me to give them a call. If I can't get anywhere else, I might give them a try, since their terminal is like 5 minutes from home. ANd since I have been off the road for 8 years, my choices are somewhat limited. So we'll see.