What questions to ask the companies hiring new drivers

Ask about assessorial pays; they are more important than milage pay.

 

Yes, what you mentioned plus breakdown pay, layover pay, etc.
Millis is dry van & has rave reviews on this forum. He should try to stay away from the mega starter companies because of low annual pay. Get all the endorsements, passport, TWIC for the better paying jobs with flatbed or tanker.

 

about any question you can think of to ask them. perdiem is the top question. at .33 cpm. you have to take out for perdiem which is about .08 to .10 cpm. so the base pay is .23 cpm. so that works out to be a gross pay of $230 per 1,000 miles. which takes about 2 days to due now so $115 a day before taxes and insurance. so the net end per day is $85 dollars. or about $6.07 an hour. other pay like detention,loading,unloading,and lay over pay. is great. but 90% of drivers don't ever get it. so mileage pay is what you have to look at the most. and I believe Schneider! the driver pays there own lumper fees for unloading the load. that is a red flag to me. lumper fees can be a few hundred dollars per load.

I would ask mostly about if the truck can be taken home? or if they have a nearby terminal or drop yard? or if they pay storage fees for the truck when he goes home. about all trucking companies require the trailer to stay with the truck at all times. even home time. other companies require the truck to be left at the terminal during home time. so tell him not to carry very much stuff. simple rule most drivers have. is no more then 2 bags.

don't bother with mileage. or how many miles drivers run each week. instead learn to build a weekly base pay that he will be getting. I al ways used $300 a week gross. and paid the way based on that. any thing over that. i considered extra. which is rare at best.

another question is home time. use to be companies would let drivers bank home time. now, they have changed to no more then 4 days off no matter how long drivers stay out.

if your father is using a private training school. tuition reimbursement. some companies do. other don't.

ask about the experience of the trainers? these days. they are making trainers out of one year wonder drivers. sorta like the blind leading the blind. which is one of the main things that has gotten the whole trucking industry into the strict regulations they have now.

ask if they pay tolls other other related cost questions.

plus ask about pay for oreintation and hotel stays and meals.

things to ask dm,fm, or what ever title they use. instead of asking if they ever drove. ask them how long they have been in fleet management or operations. 2 drivers don't agree on the price of a free cup of coffee. and they tent to question everthing and procrastinate everything. I would rather work with some one on a proffessional level that i don't get along with. then i would some one that i do get along with. the age of the person does matter some what. younger people tend care about less important things. age group is between 18 to about 32. over that age group. the persons mind changes. and they care more about the important things in life. It's called like minded. so they tend to work harder and keep the people that work under them busier. which makes for a better more stable work enviornment.

the gime question are

insurance
vacation
hometime
401k
and stuff like that.

 

Don't ask a recruiter anything, they'll tell you the sky is green. Then when you show up for training 1000 miles away from home it all changes.

If he wants to ask questions the previous posters gave a very good list, but it doesn't mean they won't lie to him. Even if it's on paper what's he going to do sue them?

Schneider isn't a horrible company to start with, I worked for them. I almost never suggest a guy start at a trucking school and a mega outfit, but if I had to Schneider is at least somewhat fair.

 

Ask the Recruiter if when his mouth is moving if all he does is lie!

 

When you are Dealing with a Trucking Company The Policy is "ask and thou shaln't receive" These Smoochers will sing you your song until you find out different

 

What's perdeim and how's that figured?

 

I haven't quite figured this per diem myself, Schneider recruiter told me student pay is $.28 cents a mile but for 3 months you are per diem for $.26 a mile. After 3 months you can remove yourself from per diem.