Time for a new job, Sugestions????

Sho nuff, figured he did not want to work for a living so a "dead" end job was up his alley.

 

AT,

Loves is hiring drivers for their Fort Mill SC operation.

 

Batesville Casket is one of the better company driver jobs out there. Right up there with Wal Mart in pay, benifits which as far as I can see no non-union carrier out there is better for a company driver than Wal Mart. But Wal Mart and Batesville Casket have very high standards and very low turnover. Wal Mart won't even look at you if you've had more than a couple of jobs in ten years. I know a driver who had over ten years accident free driving with ONE company and he still had a difficult time getting on with Wal Mart.

As far as job hopping goes it's a fools game and will never get a driver any better off. I've had 2 jobs in the 12 years I've been trucking. The first one lasted 11 years. I was almost 24 when I started. It was actually a job of last resort but a minor indiscretion as an 18 year old kept me from getting hired at every other carrier I would've prefered to work with. So I took the job and busted it for years. It was a regional outfit that got me home for weekends, not always a real weekend, but at least I got home and made good money. Really good money sometimes I had many weeks in a row of $1,400 gross weeks. And yes there were weeks when it was less than $1,000 a week. Put up with a lot of crap. Saw a lot of drivers come and go. There were many who had been there for 15+ years as well, it's like that at any company, even a BFI or a shoddy LTL like Central.

I can't count the times I "was gonna quit" hell I even threatened them I was quitting a few times. Sent my notice in once. But I stuck it out. I tried to make lemonade out of lemons and honestly looking back it wasn't all that bad of a job. In fact for what it was I would recommend the company to any company driver as a great job. I still think well of that company. In the big picture I did very well with them. Million miles accident free. Sure there was plenty of crap there, I often wonder who out there works somewhere that doesn't deal with BS on a daily basis. AT the problem is more you than you would like to admit. It's called attitude and yours is bad. You can;t see a silver lining in any dark cloud. I would have quit that old company a thousand times myself if I hadn;t had the ability to reason and logic.

So now here you are. You made a very poor decision going to Central, a carrier that as long as I've been trucking is well known for really shoddy equipment and poor treatment of employees. If you can;t suck it up and make it work for another 5 or 6 years I feel for you. If you change jobs and happen to get on with a decent LTL or regional truckload operation you had better suck it up and accept all the good with the bad sticking it out for a minimum 5 years.

Changing jobs is a stressful thing to do. It's also very costly that downtime between jobs you just can't make that up. As others have said you need to do some soul searching. You need to stick with a job. If a man is going to changes jobs he better be 100% certain he is making a step up and not sideways. That's the difference between guys who've had 1 job in 10 years and guys who have had a half a dozen jobs in the same time frame. The former understands changing jobs 99% of the time is more of the same old "meet the new boss, same boss as the old boss" while the latter just never get it.

I bought a truck at the old job and leased it on with them. For all the ups and downs with them I made good money as a company driver and piled up a substantial pile of savings because when I was your age I busted it and volunteered to work on weekends the crap loads everyone else complained about. I paid cash for my truck. When times were slow at that company and everyone else was griping I was content to take a few extra unpaid days off for longer weekends, I had my priorities in order.

It turned out, and I knew this going in as a contractor for them, that their payscale was peanuts and it was just going to be a stepping stone to bigger anbd better things. I toughed it out for 2 years in that situation and it dang near broke my ### a couple of times. The whole time I was doing that I was on this very forum reading what other o/o were doing and learning exactly what I could do to make my situation better. I learned a lot about dry van freight at the old carrier, I had a lot of knowledge I didn;t even realized I knew until I started winging it out here doing some true free market trucking. I came to realize either get my own authority, which I was leary of and really don't think was ready for (still not ready for that), or lease on to a good percentage pay company that would allow me to run my truck as a true business instead of just being steering wheel holding capacity for someone else like most o/o are. I spent a lot of time thinking and soul searching. I knew exactkly what the best chance I had was. I made my decision and am grateful I did. The company I am leased to now is the last one I will ever lease to. I'm learning what I am now and doing good. If I ever do make a change it will be MY company that I "lease to". You see, I am all about a man trying to better himself changing jobs. The thing is he better be 100% certain he is making a step up instead of sideways.

I took an ok job as a rookie and dealt with everything thrown my way for over 11 years. Then I took a step up with the next carrier. You can bounce all over everywhere from here til the end of your career for all I care. Ask yourself, what kind of trucking do you prefer? Do that kind of work and man up with whatvere job you have. Otherwise, you're going to end up like so many drivers out there. Most of them wouldn't know a good job if it smacked them upside the head, you just can;t please some whiney babies. And they have a snowballs chance in hell of even thinking abpout landing a job with the known good companies because they are not reliable individuals. If you aren't reliable you have nothing to offer and there are many others out there who offer up the same unreliable tendencies... Nothing special about that.. Good luck whatever choice you make and try to make it the last change you do for many years to come. You'll have a difficult time of it growing and prospering if you don't.

 

Being a reliable and dedicated worker is one thing. Taking a beating at a crap job with crap pay and crap equipment just to 'show' you can stick it out is insane! Not to mention it could be costing you a lot of money. I do not condone job hopping, but why in the hell would you take a brow beating for years just because you made a bad move? I'm sure all of us here has made a bad move at one time or another from one company to another, myself included. I've also ate the crow served from a few of the finer trucking establishments. Doesn't make you a horrible 'un-reliable' person though if you came to that realization after only a few months of getting cold turds served to you on a paper plate without a spork! AT, I would not risk my livelihood or anyone elses driving the junk for CT that you have described. Life is too short buddy. A decent carrier will understand your prediciment anyway. Do though, make a more informed jump this time though as I'm sure you will.

 

Taking a beating at a crap job with crap pay and crap equipment And who was it that JUMPED at the job in the first place and painted as the GREATEST ever ?

 

I didn't mean to insult you in any way AT, if that's how you took it apologies, just trying to give you some constructive criticism. Everybody screws up but nothing will ever change if a person learns nothing from mistakes. And in all honesty I really can't say that I would expect you to stay at a carrier like Central for years cause I know they have crap for equipment and run roughshod over employees. That has never been a big secret. There are threads on here that go back years telling how bad they are. Plus anyone who's seen their trucks just has to wonder. But again, no-one held a gun to your head and made you go there. When I say your attitude is the problem I don't mean that as a dig either. You really do need to take a look at yourself and figure out just what it is you want and what exactly do you expect out of a company. And you have to realize this is trucking - what can go wrong always goes wrong no matter what company you work for. Deal with it.


I too when I first started out had dreams of getting a couple maybe 3 years experience at the first company and then, move on to an LTL company, cause I'd heard all the propaganda "it's the best trucking there is". My original goal when I first started trucking was to land a gig with Yellow, Roadway, or the very best and most stable of the unionized imo - UPS. I never really pursued that as aggresively as you have and honestly I'm glad I didn't as far as YRC is concerned. Cause YRC's really a company that's always seemingly teetering on the brink. No-one will be surprised when it goes the way of CF. Anyways, I never really thought I'd own a truck either in fact, even though I had always thought it would be fun I always thought it didn't pay well at all. For the most part that was true. And for whatever reason I did buy a truck. Anyways, good luck in your job search.

 

AT,

Admit it, you got yourself into this mess with Central. Now you have figure a way out. I know of a company that might look at you. They run reefer betweem Asheville and Chicago mostly. Look up RO Stepp trucking. The owners name is Ryan. They run classic freightliners and run paper logs for the moment.

KH

 

I was recently terminated for being robbed at my local job. Im ready to go back otr. Would prefer long haul solo if possible anymore. Any of you guys have suggestions for me. Good work history, clean mvr.

 

Sorry to hear that! Main thing is you were not harmed! May want to check out epes transport. You may be in their hiring area? Great place to work! Pm me with any questions. Best of luck!