SWIFT or Stevens ??

Not unless you are asking about parking behind someone's house.

Ask him to provide you with the address of where you are authorized to park your truck during your home time.
Also, can you bring the trailer as well or do you have to be bobtail?

 

Ahhhh ok, I didn't know they make you park at the yard. The trucks are slow, that's for sure. I think every company thinks their major profit is in fuel. My company definitely gets anal about using assigned fuel stops because of the discounts. There was a member on here sometime ago that started with Raider and stayed there past his year. He was getting good miles and hitting all the bonuses. He was happy there and I've heard of other stories that are similar along the highway. Makes me think they're a stand up outfit.

 

Companies will either pass you through the house while you have a load, or do it just like the recruiter said. In my case, I rarely have to be home that long so I almost always go home with a load. If I have to be home for several days, then I'll deliver in or around Memphis and deadhead home. It all depends on what your needs are. If you have to park at a trucking stop, do so. If you have to drive to a terminal then drive home, that's what it is. The onus will be on you to figure that out after they give you hometime.

 

Dry van is great if money is at the bottom or your list of priorities.
Reefer outfits have very good accessorial pays. Old timers pulling reefers back in the 70's & 80's didn't get paid for waiting or extra pay for drop & hooks or stops, pickups, deliveries, like they do now.
~
Dry van is ok for those driver that post on here that "I don't really need the money" or "My wife has a good job, so I don't have to make a lot of money." or "I have a small pension from my time at XYZ company, not trucking, so I just want to be a trucker so I won't be so bored, so the pay isn't really important."
Yes, drivers do post those about pay.

 

I think you can make money running dry van, but really depends on the company. I think something like Firstfleet would be a good dry van company, because of their connection to Kroger. I see a lot of their trailers at Coke down in Waco. Averitt Express wouldn't be bad either. I'm a reefer guy through and through, but if I had to go dry van, I'd look to the smaller, lesser known companies with decent customers. Venture Logistics out of Indianapolis, Titan Transfer out of Shelbyville, maybe M&W out of Nashville. These monster dry van companies, I'm not so sure. Sometimes i wonder if they're too big to keep every driver busy.

 

A friend of mine who is currently driving for Stevens says they have drop yards in Laredo and San Antonio, and that drivers can leave the trucks there while they go on home time.

 

Yes -- this would in fact be correct.

Other fleet examples that pull dry van loads...& pay very good to excellent money for those loads:

• Fremont Contract Carriers (70+% drop & hook, $90k+)
• Barr-Nunn Transportation (mostly to almost all drop & hook, $100k+)
• Walmart Transportation ($100k+...all drop-n-hook)
• Crete Carrier Corp (CCC): Drop and Hook - Crete Carrier Corporation

Crete also has a company profit-sharing program.

Dry van = the industry's "easy money".....

-- L

 

The next question is: why didn't the Stevens recruiter know this -- & volunteer that information up-front?

Bad karma....


-- L

 

I ve been a commercial driver since 1979, Started with Sam Tanksley out of (doing refer) Cape Girado Mo, Drove line for Roadway a couple of years, tanker for Apex Bulk Commodities, & Valley Bulk, IWX refer, most recently I drive for Heartland Express. Over the years been there done that, I also drove flatbed pulling government loads.
For a new driver the pay isn't going to be greatly different till you get the first year done.