Profile For Larry T.

It s more of an issue when applying with a new company. They can be strict on where you go. They sent me to cpapentra. Got a 3 month card and when I went to my place and got a 2 year card Vault flagged it and Schneider required a sleep study.

Maybe its because I do a physical job and have no issues falling alseep/sleeping however I see zero results with cpap with 4 months of use.

First off I need to move to that area. They list a million reasons that could effect pay. Tenure pay, fleet performance, mileage, hard working, being best friends with fleet manager to always get great loads(lol) etc. They show 2-4 loads a week 900-1200 miles. 91k-129k is a HUGE gap.

I've been at the DG dry account for 2.5 years. First full year made around 105k, We lost the Dakotas to Blair last year and made 92k last year due to fewer miles. DG fleet shows top drivers can make up to 95k a year out of Blair Nebraska. So it does depends on where you are located. I LOVE unloading. I love the freedom. Since Im a top driver i rarely talk to my fleet manager. I'm left alone.

I agree with Papa Pig food service would be my choice. With DG it depends on where you live. A friend did it for a couple months and was only grossing around 1100 a week. They wouldnt give or had no loads for him at times and he quit. Like papa said you have to get through that learning curve so even with Dollar Tree it may be pretty hard to even hit the 1500 gross for a couple months or so.

I have a couple of older buddies that did Family Dollar(roller system) for 10+ years. They said it never was a big issue with stores. I guess you adapt to some stores are faster and some slower. I could never do it, I would lose my mind dealing with slow clowns.

Head on a swivel, GOAL, and expect 4 wheelers to do stupid crap. That worked for me. I had a perfect first year but did tear off my bumper on a boulder at a store in the 14th month. A couple weeks ago some clown pulled in behind me while doing a blindside right into my arc at night. Slammed on my brakes and corrected. The issue is the fatigue from unloading and then doing hard backs at night watching out for the 4 wheeler clowns. But yeah I agree with most on here it can be an easy way to end your career before it even starts.

So I’ll start with this; I’m 28 years old, i worked as a tire/lube tech for 3.5 years out of high school before getting into trucking in 2018. Living in a small town it’s been mostly agricultural stuff. Got my CDL in 2019 and got on a construction gig for a couple months. Local stuff dried up in 2020 but got back into it starting in 2021.

Moved to Boise mid-2022 and I’ve been in construction (the manual labor side), overnight gas station attendant, currently delivering pizza in the evening. Drove a few months of night construction back in August-October last year.

Anyway, delivery isn’t paying the bills so I’ve been back on the job search. I have no OTR experience so there’s a fair amount of driving positions I’m not eligible for. I don’t have a solid history but cumulatively I’d say I have 4 years of truck driving. Lots of miles and lots of hours but only local. I’ve been on Indeed the past few months applying to every driving job I qualify for. Finally been turning up some leads in the last couple weeks.

The one that’s grabbed my attention the most is a Dollar Tree route for CR England claiming $91-129k per year which comes out to around 1700-2400 per week. I’m just starting out so i figure I’ll fall on the lower end of the scale and honestly I’d be happy with 1500 a week. They’re saying hourly wage is $30 with time and a half after 40. Not sure about unload/stop pay or any of that.

I watched a training video demonstrating the work involved and it doesn’t look all that bad. I’ve unloaded trailers full of tires, loaded trailers full with junk tires in the heat and the cold. It’s not fun but I was only making 15-17 at the time; it was also only once per week and not multiple times per day.

At the moment i believe if i can actually take home more than 1500 a week then the work might be worth the money. I’m just on the fence about the time away, I have 3 kids and their mom works during the day and I’m not trying to leave her without another set of hands around to help.

On the other hand neither of us are financially well-off or even stable and even 6 months on this job, a year, or even two if I could swing it, would be enough to put us in a good spot.

So idk I guess I’m still weighing my options here. I got an offer to attend training/orientation in Utah where I’ll take the driving test as well. This is all assuming I can pass the driving test I guess. I haven’t done a whole lot of city driving but I’ve done a fair bit of technical driving.

I was just doing some reading on the experiences from other drivers on this forum about this route and they’re basically all bad. I was wondering if there’s anybody that’s run the route more recently, or specifically the northwest route through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana that could weigh in on their experience. Also any advice to somebody just getting started in OTR truck driving.

Used Werner breakdown 6 or 7 times in the past 2.5 years and each time was a good reasonable experience driving for Schneider. But they get tons of loads so that may be a reason, still its DG s equipment, probably someone having bad day.

My perception when Michael worked at CR England was that Werner handed off some of the inferior Dollar General routes to CR England. I expect it would be the same with Dollar Tree.

Also, though Michael worked for CR England, he once had a trailer with brakes that were locking up and he was told to work with Werner road service to deal with it but Werner didn't seem interested in handling it since he wasn't their driver.

You just described my trainer to a T. Was it a Schneider training engineer out of Gary? Just 5 days. Thats why I chose Schneider. Good luck man. 5 days is nothing. Most have you out for a month.

My favorite thing was he let me smoke while driving and he wrote in the book that I like to drive with one hand. lol. He was a total A hole.

I just came back from 5 days out on the road training and it was the worst experience ever. First off his bunk beds were dirty , the fridge and microwave looks like he hasn’t cleaned it in years it smells horrible.

All he did was eat all day , sleep and talk on the phone all day. Anytime I ask questions he gets offended, anytime I try to take notes he gets offended. Anytime I get to a shipper or dropping off a load he never lets me go inside by myself he is always taking lead and everything he tells me he doesn’t explain every detail, he’s very vague.

I only got to practice alley docking about 3 times and most of the time he will take over and park himself. He only speaks about himself while we are on the road we barely vibed. I understand this is training. I’m not here to make friends, but I am driving 10-11 hours out the day. Some mutual conversation would be nice, but he would be on the phone instead the whole time.

If I did something wrong he would mention it a few hours later and then bring it up instead of telling me what I did wrong right there and then. He never really physically showed me anything he would just point and tell me what to do instead of showing me then letting me do it so I can learn.

When it comes to the eld I pretty much learned on my own. At the beginning he would always do it for me which I did not like because I need to do it on my own in order to learn. He basically had no patience. He also told me that I’m a perfectionist and the way he worded it was in a way he stated as if he did not like the fact I am a perfectionist and take pride in what I do.

He doesn’t brush or wash his face in the mornings and expected me to do the same. He talks way too much about things that’s not related to my training and he belittles me every chance he gets. I ended up requesting a new trainer because this was the most miserable week I ever had in my life training.

When I was in cdl school I was treated with respect. They had patience and took the time to explain everything in detail which this trainer failed miserably to do. He may be a professional driver but he isn’t a professional trainer.

I honestly feel like I was racially discriminated but I’m not going to shift my focus on that. I’m just really focused on getting the experience I need to pursue my trucking career and I appreciate anybody that takes the time to read this and hear me vent and give me advice moving forward.

He even said he is home every weekend because he can’t be on the road with somebody for more than 2 weeks or else he will feel like killing them. He told me many things that made me feel very uncomfortable and I didn’t feel confident when I was around him. I have to go in Monday and find out when I will start with my new trainer… at this point I’m not looking for a bond with my trainer I just want to get this over with.

I came in to this very excited but this experience turned me off. I’m not losing my motivation and my determination and will keep pushing forward and I want people out there to know what to expect and hopefully don’t have to experience what I experienced.

Just by going off what a Walmart private fleet driver said on a youtube video. Walmart will have you take the sleep study test again and if need be give you a new cpap.

I cracked my phone while on the road. Couldn't use the numbers to unlock it. So I bought a new phone at a DG and had to get a new number for now. I checked the private advantage site and it showed background check as cancelled. So I'm guessing they tried to contact me about something.

On a side note what a feeling of defeat and helplessness without a cell phone on the road. Saw an Amish couple and their 2 kids pull up on a horse and buggy at a DG. Had me yearning for that lifestyle. lol

Feb 1st will be 30 months for me. I've always been interested in Walmart private fleet since I was in school and was sort of my goal.

Been with Schneider on the Dollar General account for 29 months. Would seem like the perfect transition for me. I love the little down time and always on the move.

Since this site has helped me from my start I'd give you a referral Turtle. I was going to give it to 20 plus trucking on youtube but im sure he gets he s fair share since he s on youtube.

Like Larry, I will be at 30 months Feb 1 but if I add in the time from getting my CDL, it would be almost 32 months. And I also started out with Schneider.

Yesterday I pulled up their application and it seemed to be pretty specific about the 30 months, so I didn’t fill it out just yet. Only a few days to go if I want to pull the trigger.

Turtle, do you know what the Walmart policy is about sleep apnea and cpap machine usage?

Also, before filling out the application, can someone talk to a recruiter? Or does Walmart even have recruiters like most companies?

And don’t be shy about the referral bonus, you deserve it.

Feb 1st will be 30 months for me. I've always been interested in Walmart private fleet since I was in school and was sort of my goal.

Been with Schneider on the Dollar General account for 29 months. Would seem like the perfect transition for me. I love the little down time and always on the move.

Since this site has helped me from my start I'd give you a referral Turtle. I was going to give it to 20 plus trucking on youtube but im sure he gets he s fair share since he s on youtube.

Was coming to a red light and noticed my trailer was jumping and then a big puff of smoke. I didn't notice any air loss. Trailer tires all moved when I took off and then pulled over. Was done with all my stores and maybe 500-1000 pounds on trailer.

Anyone have this happen before? He was able to do some welding to get trailer back to proper height, however couldn't replace with new air bag because he needed a lift to do more welding.

Was driving my 2022 Freightliner 130k miles at night. 40 mins into my trip my headlights went off twice in a fast sequence and then back on. It didn't completely freak me out since a car was coming at me, was more of what the heck was that about.

I can't remember if all lights went out or just the headlights. Anyone know what could have caused that?

Had this happen twice each time around the 65k mark. Have a tire bank 3 miles from my drop yard. I guess thats one good thing about schneider you can just show up at any tire bank without needing approval. The guy said it was an alignment issue. I guess Schneider doesnt care to do that.

Here is what has happened so far.

I was sent to the Paulsboro, NJ, TA and waited 8 hours to get in the shop. They only have one technician on duty and he only does tire changes. Got a new Goodyear tire installed. The company is routing me back to our shop to check on wheel balance and to do a three axle alignment.