Comments By Larry T.

Great post. I would also like to know.

I've been extremely lucky. In my 20's and 30's I drove a box truck and had a terrible temper.

I'm 44 so I did start chilling in my middle 30's. I've been doing a lot of rural driving in Minnesota and getting extremely angry with cars pulling out in front of me lately. Made a pass on a solid yellow line just entering a small town. I need to get this in check now so I don't screw up my career.

Thanks for your response. I read your diary a year ago when I was thinking of switching and also Papa Pigs DG diary when I started there. I'll go through your diary again.

It's been an evolving job. November they started sending me relays to my drop yard. I would do the Dakota's and Northern Minnesota stores. Be out 5 days. We lost the Dakota's a couple months ago. They have been sending me a trailer a day and doing 5 in five days. Home daily. Doing mainly Minnesota and a sprinkle of Iowa and Wisconsin. Pay is down 25% because of less miles.

Was notified 3 weeks ago that the relays would be stopping and I will have to travel 300 miles to start my week. Still in limbo when that will start. Not really keen on doing short loads around the DC, staying out and hope they can get me somewhere near home. Yesterday I was 218 miles from home, 148 from DC. It will work out since I will get a relay, however in the future that would have been 400 miles of unpaid deadhead. no way im doing that.

Mclane and yes 2 wheeler fun, They have an office and a tiny fleet of 3rd shift drivers at my drop yard. The $15,000 bonus and 4 day work week is nice. However much more intense than the DG account. I can do a DG trailer in 4-5 hours depending on the stops. Drop key is sweet however doing 3rd shift in Minneapolis/Saint Paul is not appealing to me. They have extended Fargo trips and shuttle. I know I'll get the crap since I will be new.

I see a new regional intermodal option with Schneider. I also inquired with Ruan with that Rogers MN to Gwinner ND dedicated bobcat mon-friday home daily. No sign on Bonus. If I stay with Schneider for 3 more months I get 80 hours of PTO. I should probably do that.

But yeah I'm totally lost. lol.

My employer runs MVR yearly which i believe is the minimum. Larry what type of food service gig is it? Is it 2 wheeling a load like Sysco/PFG? Bumping docks like Dot Foods, Walmart, supermarkets? If it's shuttling/linehaul for Sysco/PFG/ US Foods etc. Make sure you understand what you're getting into. Some warehouses all drivers hold the same position and bid yearly based on seniority for those shuttle positions. That means you may get hired and start as a shuttle driver but could be bumped off it next year and be 2 wheeling.

Those dollar accounts are always hiring. With your experience level anybody would take you on to do those accounts if it doesnt pan out. Would you really be able to give it your all with a fall back plan? Starting any new job regardless of the industry is frustrating at times because of different policies and not as efficient as your previous job. It takes a while to get in the rhythm.

If you're getting on with a food service company would you be running out of the warehouse/terminal location or a domocile/drop yard that trailers are shuttled to? At PFG drivers that were based out of the terminal weren't guaranteed hours, other than 40 guaranteed from union contract, until they had a set route. You'd basically be on call and could be sent out to other domiciles to cover for vacations or call ins. They also had several layover routes that could have you out for 3 days at a time, just to turn around and go back out when you were legal to do so.

If it's a 2 wheel unloading check out the diary I did of Food service as a rookie

If it's drop/hook how are you getting paid (daily/CPM/Hourly)? Some of those gigs look at a run and say it'll take you 5 hours to turn so you get paid 5 hours at your hourly rate to complete it. It doesn't matter if it takes you 8 hours to actually do because of traffic or anything else you're only paid 5 hours.

You didn't really share what has you looking for something else. Those dollar accounts are tough and we don't fault you for wanting a change. Heck, lasting nearly 2 years (if I remember correctly) is a great accomplishment. Unless there's a dire need it may be best to just hang tight where you're at for now. The economy is in the trash and many members in OTR and even LTL have shared their struggles with having work available. Running for the dollar type stores I expect them to only get busier until things turn around. When most people need to tighten the budget dining out is usually one of the first things to go.

Looking at a drop and hook mon-friday to and from the same place home daily. Also looking at a food service company. I don't have any pto left at current company, however probably could take a leave. Would that be a bad idea to take a leave and see how the food service goes for a couple weeks?

I went with Schneider out of CDL school. Choose them because of only 5 days out with trainer. However had to attend Schneider Academy for 2 weeks prior to being sent out with trainer.

My trainer was worthless. Didn't learn a single thing from him. He refused to help with backing. It was all about the paycheck for him. I was driving 500+ miles a day from day 1. He didn't drive. I never stopped, only for his pee breaks probably why he was somewhat bearable. I couldn't imagine being with him for 4 weeks.

It's a total crapshoot if you'll actually get a trainer that'll teach.

I'd go with a mega carrier out of the gate. They have more resources and help. They also don't expect great things out of you right away like a mom and pop might. Also with a mega may get a mulligan or 2 with minor incidents. You might get canned from a smaller outfit if you're taking a lot longer to get in the flow and then have a minor incident.

I went thru roehl cdl school they sent me home because I didn’t pass the pre cdl test I didn’t do all 3 backing maneuvers in 20 minutes I kept timing out on the alley dock which I only practiced 3 times because the class before me all failed their pre cdl and then took extra time backing and also it took me an extra day to learn the offset. Roehl is on my DAC report I’m rehireable but I have to get my cdl elsewhere. I’m having a hard time getting into a school because roehl is on there what company would training me?

Went to their Marshfield location back in March of 2021. Literally the last class of using manual trucks. Was to much for me, I couldn't even do an offset. Passed my pre-trip and driving on Friday, I did 6 pullups on my straight line back and was so ****ed I just went to try the off set and the instructor starts yelling at me, and I said I'm done. It was 1 trainer for the 2 of us. My buddy was struggling with shifting/driving and I was struggling with backing. So the middle of the second week they gave each of us 1 trainer for 2 days. I still made no progress with backing.

I saulked for a month and still had a desire to get my cdl. I paid $5,395 out of pocket for Interstate trucking school in Minnesota. They use/test on pups. They also have an outdoor backing range. You schedule 1 hour sessions. I did 13 1 hour sessions in 3 weeks. This program was a Godsend for me. Not sure I would have picked up backing if I went to another regular company/school.

3+ inches of mud, compacted snow and ice. Trailers usually have a slant to them. Lately there has been no room, been dropping these in tractor and even car parking spots. Last couple times I've beat my relay by an hour and just had him drop it in the mud, at least its level and not on uneven snow/ice and I got a clean hook.

When I was taking them from the DC I witnessed a couple guys drop their trailers. Managers just scramble and cover it up. But yeah a little different when youre out on the road and have to call SEM. lol.

Question is how dangerous is it to move somewhere to solid ground when you haven't fully connected and you can see your locking jaws haven't "fully" latched?

It's very dangerous and consequential. You can have a roll over accident, there's the possibility of the trailer rolling away because it still has air in it, the glad hand can snap off and go flying. You never know until it's too late.

If you can't move the equipment, don't move it. You're better off inconveniencing somebody than being in the position of the OP.

I'm not sure what you mean by "complete nightmare", but there are still proper ways of doing these things without the risk.

This is an interesting discussion. If I’m understanding G Town correctly, there are two types of high hooks. I didn’t know this previously, but now I know.

I think that with time, many drivers lose their fear of a high hook. A high hook where the king pin goes completely over the 5th wheel can be costly in terms of both time and money to get out of.

I have been in several situations where I would have high hooked if I didn’t GOAL before finishing the backing-in process. But I regularly see drivers back up to trailers and slam in without ever doing a GOAL. Very risky.

I'm not an anal person and pretty disorganized in general. However I'm extremely anal about checking my fifth wheel.

I pick up trailers from a company drop yard that is a complete nightmare in the winter. Question is how dangerous is it to move somewhere to solid ground when you haven't fully connected and you can see your locking jaws haven't "fully" latched? Pin is half way in and you can see half an inch of the clean locking jaw.

Lmao.

It's pretty frightening how much little experience is considered "experienced". I've been at this a year and a half. Looked like a clown trying to do a simple sight side in the yard this week. Also was heavy and my tandems were all over the lines on a rural windy road. LOL.

Good luck at Paschal experienced driver.

Been driving for 17 month's. All on the DG account with Schneider.

Made $102,930 . Roughly 4 weeks of unpaid time off. Includes 8, 2 week periods over the road. All off duty unload until they started a new pay structure in November where you had to log unload time to get somewhere close to what you made before.

I saved around 50k this year. Not worth the headache dealing with stores and running illegal. I guess I should count myself lucky for my stupidity.

With the new pay structure probably a hard task to make 90k this year if I stick with DG.

Very impressive number's Rob T.

Walco. 2 failing batteries. On my second call to the trailer shop they had looked up the records. They weren't holding a charge and should have been red tagged by previous driver. 3 weeks back a trailer was brought to me in Jamestown ND. Sat there for 12 hours in -25. Got to my first store and it crapped out right away. Used handwarmers and a hairdryer to no avail. On my 3rd call to TMF they had 4 drivers in the Dakotas with liftgate issues. On my 4th call the issue was a mesh. It crystallizes in those temps and has to be removed. I was with a trailer that hadn't had that removed yet.

The past 7 weeks they've been relaying me everything. So I'm only averaging 3 loads a week, so I guess its sort of a break. lol. I guess it probably would make more sense to travel the 300 miles to Janesville to start my week and get/demand more miles but I don't care at this point.

Looking into McLane. Or maybe some local linehaul jobs.

What were the liftgate issues? Walco or one of the max pro? It wasn’t always possible but I did my best to learn how to fix as much liftgate stuff as I could on the fly because road breakdown didn’t seem to know crap or Sunday Evenings when we didn’t have anyone in the trailer shop