What is important to you in a driving job?

No SmartDrive camera system.

 

A well equipped tractor for driver comfort and convenience goes a long way with drivers who really live in the truck for the long haul and don't do much home time. Fridge and APU come to mind, also I will not drive into certain parts of the country, mainly the NorthEast due to lack of truck parking and roads that were not built for 75 foot trucks.

To make it easy on me, as I don't like to be my own accountant on my off time, don't be a 1099 company.

 

Written company policies
Respectful dispatch
Low turnover
Affordable medical
Regular route
Full loads and a lot of them
No sitting waiting for loads
75 mph governor
Newish, well maintained equipment. I like Petes.
13 speed manual
1800w inverter
APU
refrigerator
Minimum $.65/mile or 25% of verified bill
Generous accessory pay.
A shop with knowledgeable techs
NO CAMERAS INSIDE
NO AUTO CORRECT STEER OR ALARMS
3 Days HT for 2 weeks on the road 4 days for 3 weeks
No NE or Chicago routes.
Decent ELD/GPS
Pay weekly W2

 

Of course, I have nearly all of this now.

 

Percentage pay is a good concept but trust issues

 

I only have experience as a company driver, so I cannot intelligently comment on getting a percentage of the load as opposed to CPM. Generally speaking, mega companies always short change the drivers on the actual miles involved in a trip, that was my experience. Drivers know when they are being short changed and they don't forget it. I'm from the old school of values, meaning that honesty and fairness goes a long way in how you treat and deal with people.

Most of the megas I've worked for pay every week and that helps to even out the budget. Some weeks are big checks, other weeks are not.

Also, fueling is something that a driver does nearly every day or every other day. Make that an easy process for the driver, most the megas use a fuel card for that purpose. I'm not sure how a small company does it, but I can recall being at the fuel desk a few times and waiting behind a guy with a personal check trying to buy fuel, I could only assume he was driving for a real small company. The facts may have been something else, but that is what I inferred.