Wanted to ask a question about US Express trucks!

Hey folks.

I've been looking at going back over the road for awhile. A few things about me. First of all, I don't think I'm better than anyone else, quite the contrary. I will say though, I've done my best to keep my nose clean. I've got about 5 years experience driving, both locally, over the road, with dry vans, doubles, flatbeds and even containers. No tickets, no accidents, clean personal record (I'm super boring and enjoy the slower things in life like Fly Fishing). Because of that, I hope I bring just a little bit to the table.

I know for a lot of drivers the important things understandably are home time, when you drive, where you go, etc. I totally get it, but for me none of those are a factor. I'll drive all night, in the snow, to NYC, to California, I'll stay out for 6 months, I don't care. I'm easy to get along with, pretty mellow person. The only thing I'm get my panties rustled over is that I want a nice truck. The missus will be coming with me (she doesn't drive) and as silly as this sounds, having a nice truck for us makes driving hard for long periods of time (both daily and on a consistent basis) more worth it for me. I like having nice equipment. I hear US xpress has a lot of nice trucks, all around and I know to most this sort of thing is far down the list of what they want, over the other things I mentioned like pay and home time. For me, I really want to get behind the wheel of one of these 18 or newer Cascadias. I'd actually be happy in one of them, a T680, one of the new Volvo VNL's or one of the new prostars but I know for US xpress out of those they just have the Cascadias. I don't care if it's not BRAND new, I just want that new style of truck.

What are my chances of getting into one? What would be a good way of expressing before I joined up the importance of this?

Aside from that, I was told with my experience I'd start at about .36CPM + a .5CPM bonus for not having flipped any trucks recently! Is this accurate? (.41CPM) Also, I've heard about bonuses for HazMat endorsement and heard something about some bonus for staying out for long periods of time? Does anyone know?

Thanks a bunch for any answers!

 

Yeah, I really love the T680's, the 660's never really did it for me but the 680 is just an all around good truck. I had a pete for awhile to, a 579. Good trucks but nothing that special about them aside from reliability and easy to work on.

Basically they said .36CPM +.5CPM bonus for no tickets or accidents. I'm guessing that means no reportable DOT accidents at all or tickets in the past 5 years (I have a minor speeding ticket in my own car from many years ago and that-is-all) and not some bullcrap some company might put on the DAC report (HE SCRATCHED A CHAIN LINK FENCE!) etc. which I heard not many people pay attention to anymore. So essentially .41CPM. They said I could expect 2500 to 3500 miles a week depending on how I run. If I could keep it near 3000 that would suffice, as long as I was in a decent truck.

They said with my experience passenger could come along from the get go. I've found this is usually the case when you have 3 or more years experience. It'd be a deal breaker for sure if she couldn't.

But yeah, I was told they have a LOT of these new 18' and newer Cascadias, the newer model. That's what I'd be looking to get into with US xpress, just curious what my chances would be and how to go about it.

 

They are super nice, but I haven't seen a lot of companies getting them so far. Do you know of any? I know US xpress is pretty much just Freightliners.