TransAm trucking 1 year experience starts u at .32CPM!?! What makes them worth it?

Getting back to TransAm I think they pay alright for newbies who just got out of Cdl school school and their 11 days training. Sounds like maybe a good deal for us new guys.

Would like to hear more about the training process.

One positive I did hear about them is that they do all their background and employment checking before you go there.
I have heard so much about people getting sent home from orientation on their own money.

I am 60 and would want to know for sure I have a job before I travel somewhere just to be sent home for maybe the physical or something like that.

Any TA drivers have a list of pros and cons they can share and info on how they felt about their training ?

 

Hey Dennisroc. I can't speak for the training because I didn't have to go through it. Just did three days orientation TA let me go solo with just six weeks solo at Abilene. After a month a TA, I gotta say I am pretty happy here. For a starter company,I think their equipment is pretty darn good especially those APUs. I freeze on a nightly basis this time of the year. My four week average is 2400 miles per week and take two days hometime every other week as I am a company driver. TA has not pushed lease on me. The first day of orientation, lease was introduced, but NO mention otherwise. 32cpm is ok to me when you consider CRE, Werner start at 26cpm and Werner pays just 15cpm mt miles. I have a terrific driver manager, and I like TA system of fueling where they tell you where to fuel and how much to put in. I can concentrate on learning how to drive the truck and where to stop and sleep and eat every night. I feel like I have been treated very decently here and hope to stay here for a good while (1-2 years at a minimum). God knows I need to being my third company in nine months, but thats another story best left alone. I have no premonitions of becoming a rich man doing this. But if I can survive my infancy, I hope to do this for the rest of my working life. I really enjoy the travel, and meeting new people, shippers and receivers and haven't run into anyone I couldn't get along with. I've been really lucky.
I would say to the newbies out of school, become a company driver first, learn HOW to drive the truck, learn how to manage your time, learn the shippers/receivers habits, how long they take to load/unload. Learn how the industry works before you bog yourself down with $600/week lease payments on whose truck? Know this. TransAm is a really good place to dip your toes in and test the waters. Just wait to lease. Once you commit to leasing, you cannot go back to company driver. Ouch!

 

Jesus George, I'm very impressed with what you wrote here. Very well said. It's too bad you didn't go to TA first, then came over to Abilene. Wherever you land for however long, you will be a positive asset to that company. It's a shame it worked out this way for you, but remember this, time will give you the experience and confidence one needs to be successful in trucking. It looks like you've found a home. Congrats!!!!!!

 

Thanks for the info. I am 60 and just want to move back to America and maybe drive a few years before I retire. I am not looking for a lot of money my house is paid for in the Philippines for retirement and the wife and I will travel together. Mainly for the experience and also a little cash.
I want to go OTR for a year or two with maybe TA and then get on with a better company in Indiana where I can get a little more home time with family, kids ,grand kids etc.
How are the places you have been going, have you done all the lower 48 ?
I hear their trucks are pretty nice and well equipped . You got any pics of your truck and the way it is set up.
Does TA care what CDL school you go to ?

Thanks

 

...really 25cpm eh ? ,here in Detroit Chrysler is running 7 days a wk (2014) ,drivers are in high demand ,we are not hopeless and Btw i wouldn't do a pre trip for 25cpm ....keep it !!!! .....god bless the US

 

Hey DRoc, no TransAm runs primarily east of the Colorado Rockies, don't think youll see the western 11 too much. Basically I've been in the central US and midwest. With Abilene, did all except the Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont and Maine. Lots of drop and hooks with TA. Both are good companies, but I would say Abilene has the more veteran drivers and experience level. TA is a starter company and I don't think they care where you get your cdl from as long as its not the back of a cereal box. The Kenworths re T 680 and T 700. Mine is actually a 2013 T 700. All automatics and nicely furnished though I can never get the auto release 5th wheel to work just right. Only complaint I got with that truck. Plenty of good storage. As a true starter company, I like their way of doing things and the equipment is very good. TA only uses reefers as we haul a lot of meathouses and Tyson food, but have had some dry loads too with the reefer turned off. Longest wait I have had was 12 hours at National Beef in Dodge City KS, but generally an hour or so with the drop and hooks.

 

Seems like a very short time for training. Someone posted the layout of their training in that 11 days but I will have to look for it again.
i wish someone on here that did the quick CDL school and then then the quick TransAm training and then got sent out on the road would post on here their experience.

Anybody out there !!!

 

That's so you can sit and consider your refusal to sign a TransCAM lease for a few weeks. Just ask Cranky Yankee...