What should I be asking the recruiters?

Forget the Recruiters.

Talk to the drivers themselves at the company. If you are physically present in your local truckstop with certain company trucks coming and going you can ask drivers questions about the company in such particular clarifying details recruiters will never give out.

Me? I aint met a recruiter I liked yet. I think there was only TWO in my time out there that I could meet halfway and have a good talk with, only because they showed particular interest going against corperate tests that disqualified me otherwise.

 

Remember you will have expenses. That payroll will evaporate if you spend too much in the truck stop.

Also retain your perdiem. DO NOT ALLOW COMPANY to PAY or CLAIM Perdiem against you. It;s worth an awful lot of deductions in your favor come tax time. Our last use of Perdiem was almost 14000 dollars applied against taxes on 65K gross.

Stay out away from home, accumulate your days. Accept that you might not be routed home on demand.

Make sure your spouse understands that when you DO get home, do not bury you with honey do this and that and housework. Kiss, greet and get rested before anything. There is a period of time where you have to stop being a trucker and start being a family man again that takes about a day. Which is why I stated accumulate your home time. Take it every 6 to 12 weeks.

It goes without saying your spouse is to be protected from STD's and infectious blood illnesses etc transmitted in a variety of ways among strangers anywhere. Shower stalls come to mind and really bad prositute infested truckstops (Memphis is one, Jersey city and rochester is another... etc) is a threat to you and all you call family. Leave em alone. You can get seriously sick from infections etc. All of that will kill your earning potential if not your marriage etc.

Whatever bonus pay over and beyond STANDARD pay you get on that paystub? Put that ASIDE. DO. NOT. TOUCH. THAT MONEY DAGNUMMBIT. Put it. ASIDE. No touch. No look, no licking on it. None of that. In two years you will be a far better position to do battle with substansial savings.

It is also a form of savings against being quickly fired for a stack of preventable accidents and incidents. You are full of gumption ready to GO now. But whoa nellie... you are fixing to go out into the world in which you might hit people or they hit you. Then cry wolf to your company managment. be very careful and alert each minute of your working time. Do not relax for anything until those parking brakes are set, curtians closed, logs filled and qualcomm put under your bunk for the night.

 

any outlandish statements that sound to good to be true as the saying goes "if it sounds to good to be true it probably isn't" If your signing any contracts take the time to actually read all the fine print if not get a qualified contract attorney to do it for you.

 

Red flags. Ha.

Sleepers with 120 volt power, hot and cold running showers, butler service on demand... free Uber car with National access...

 

Roger that ...

 

x1Heavy - Are you a driver now, by chance?

 

Medically retired. Am a pain management patient as a result of wear and tear on the various body systems.

I will always be a trucker to the day I die after about 30 years of my life playing with the rigs. But it's going to need a few parts replaced someday like the old 6 million dollar man to get medically past DOT and get back out there. There is no point.

What I do choose to do is when I am sentinent enough I try to help others here. Im not perfect and am not that pure but it is what it is.

I don't think I met you before today, your post regarding the process of decision making on your end really made me very happy to see that some of us know what the hell we are talking about even if I sometimes don't

I could still make dispatcher someday, but I don't know yet. Herding 100 cats to delivery on time would cause me to turn to vices unspeakable.

See you on the flip side.