what I'm looking for in a company driver OTR position

If it's out there, go get it. And good luck to you.

 

Try Greatwide.


I drove for Greatwide as a company driver and it was pretty good. You can also be an 0/0 there.

 

Sorry pal, you were born about 20 years too late for all those expectations, not these days. You can't have boundries, like you mention, and want OTR. You have to go anywhere, anytime, or get a local job, and that's going to be a jellybean truck ( but the money is there). Nobody runs cool trucks anymore, and if the gubment has it's way, they never will again.

 

(Warning...long post. For you short post lovers, stop at the dotted line)

The trucking owners who advertise online and on TTL all believe that truck drivers make too much money. Why should they pay you, Mr 10 Year Driver, when they can hire some fat, greasy, smell like arse, sidewalk sissy off the street and put him in a POS truck chocked full with cattleprods.
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There are some areas of this industry where they have to pay you for what you know. Tankers pay better because you actually have to know how to drive. Everyone thinks that they can drive, but the majority can just hold a steeringwheel. Those that can actually drive will get paid. And those places that tankers go...with all the security, armies of safetymen, big oil propaganda and nature films...many are unable to adapt and fit in.

Now, there are some tanker companies with straight up largecars and matching trailers. Wow! Easy to have pride in that ride when that ride is a largecar. So why dont more companies buy nicer rigs and hire better drivers? Because the vast majority of people coming in to this industry dont have enough pride to shower and wipe their arse. Why buy a $200k rig when you cant find a solid driver? "Snowflakes"...I thinks that what they call sidewalk sissies nowadays.
(Long post by Six. Be sure to click away now if you dont like long posts)
@"semi" retired did a good post. You're 20 years too late. Years ago, companies bought big rides. Fast trucks. And the guys that drove them were bad arses. Full on, old school TRUCKER. Tough as nails, lean and mean, boot wearing, gun toting, weather beaten, fearless, take no crap, to hell and back and got the tee shirt to prove it, SOB. These guys were real simple. 2 questions they'd ask in an interview, 1.) What does it pay? 2.) How fast is the truck?
Didn't matter where the load went. Didn't matter about the weather. They didnt have discussion about tire chains and company policy. In those days, you hired a machine. You say, "Go!" He'd say, "Gone!"

When and how did it all start downhill.

Well, the world started to change. The Duke was gone. The Dukes were gone. And Magnum PI was the rage. And the 80's sucked! Well, to keep up with the demand, some companies started looking in different areas for drivers. they found a new market..."Hey, this guy doesnt care about how fast the truck is and how much it pays, he wants to be treated like a person." So they started advertising. It caught on. Guys with no self esteem started flocking in droves. "Get this! We dont have to pay them, we just have to pretend to listen to them and care about them!"

Well, it's not just the trucking industry...everyone else does it. The police dept. years ago, we had to qualify every couple of years. Like the medical cards the drivers have to carry, we had to prove that we were physically and mentally fit every couple years in order to keep our job. The military now...those Time Out cards? That's to get sidewalk sissies to enlist.

Anyways, the guys who were in when I got in are getting up in age. That toughness we knew is dying out rapidly. It is a rarity in the States now. No one is tough. Everyone takes the path of least resistance. Why do people join the megas despite everyone in the business warning them? Because it takes no effort. Recruiter came to the school and handed you a prehire letter. Why do so many people divorce? Because it takes no effort. Why do people take what the news media says as the gospel truth? Because it takes no effort. Why are there so many Braindeads in the world? Because it takes no effort. Why do people abuse drugs and alcohol? Because it is the path of least resistance.

It's been 40 years. In 20 years, the last of the tough guys will be gone. What is going to happen then? They will need autonomous trucks because no one will be tough enough to drive. What about soldiers and police?

 

Maybe look at Western Distribution Transportation Corp. Out of the Denver CO area. They run all long nose Peterbilt 389's with Cummins under the hood. Their ad says they run the 11 western pulling reefer freight. I'm not sure about the pay but I assume it would be average. They've been around for a long time. I tried to get on with them but I'm not 25 yet so I went out and bought my own truck.

 

My demands say you can’t send me to Chicago. But they don’t listen.

 

Kaiser out of Janesville wi ...?