Comments By Highway Grunt0311

It's a company sponsored school. They give you what you need to pass the exam, nothing more, nothing less. Private schools teach more. So to answer your question. It teaches you what you need to get started, and experience teaches you the rest.

Hey Larry, have you had the pleasure of EMJ yet? in schaumberg IL

Lol. I remember the first time I heard someone say "look at that reefer" I was dumbfounded thinking holy **** they can't be safe to pull all the pot heads getting a whif of it. then I got called a skate board and it started clicking. Although it isn't as bad as the nick name, tanker yanker.

Using wifi at truck stops can be costly. and they suck half the time even when I park right in front. Yup I am one of those guys that shut down as early as possible and run around 3-4am. oh and if your on I95 in lets say Virginia, shut down early Ray. because after 6pm you will not find a parking spot anywhere you want to be and those scale house/ rest areas stand clear. every morning I had to use those they had the portable scales out near the exit.

Some medications have an exemption, if your doctor can write off it doesn't affect your driving, BUT this is a major one. it falls on the company's insurance and the medical examining you. But as stated above, try yoga, I left the Corps with back pain due to the BS we went through in a **** hole of a country over seas and yoga does pretty good.

Most company's dont let you customize the out side. for a workout, get into flatbedding. theres a few company's that take students and its heavy manual labor, keeps you fit.

Wait, you have no OTR experience? and you're getting calls back? hang on a second, I am packing my stuff right now and moving there lol. in Tampa to even be considered for a decent local job you need 2 years OTR 1 year tanker twic hazmat spotless record. have to atleast have one world record in semi truck stunts. a complete barrel roll without damage the product and a presidential citation for American of the year.

Yeah now a days i'm not sure but back in September of 2012 I spoke to a driver going through orientation at Melton and he came over cause the Prime flatbed fleet had a wait list so he didn't wanna wait. but you are probably right. seeing as flatbed company's constantly lose drivers due to weather and injuries so after the required experience needed dry van drivers could probably switch right to the Flatbed fleet over there.

Also, what kind of Flatbeds does Prime use? just the normal open decks or do yall have step decks and RGN?

So I have picked two company's I am interested in. Originally I was going to go with UsXpress or Celadon for the training program. I wanted to give back and become a trainer, I liked Celadon's Program, 6 weeks, Student drives first two weeks then we go back to the terminal and the student takes a 2 week test, then we go back out for 4 weeks and the first two weeks of that the student drives and I observe then the final two weeks we team. The pay is nice and UsXpress trainer program isn't as good but they have a pet policy.

But The point of where I am at now I wanted a company that has growth and I just can't see myself not pulling open deck trailers. It's in my blood so I am going to stick with what I know. So I narrowed it down to Lone Star Transportation. Start out pulling flatbeds and step decks and after a certain amount of loads I'll advance to a level 1 which is small oversize loads. and advance from there. It has good and bad things of course. Pros are the room for advancement and the trucks are great. older trucks are 379's long nose rigs with 3000watt inverters. The new trucks are t660's with APU's and 3000watt inverters. Trucks are 9 speeds unless its a 4 axle truck which have the trucks with 3 drive axles one being the drop down axle for heavier loads. Downside is that LST doesn't have a pet policy and I love my dog he helped me when I got out of the Corps. He is pretty much a therapy dog.

The other company is Anderson Trucking Service. They have a dry van and flatbed fleet. same setup as LST heavy haul trucks but they have a pet policy.

Anyone have any info on either of those two company's? I will be making calls tomorrow and talking to a recruiter before I make my final choice but as always it's better to talk to drivers to get the best info because recruiters are there to sell you the best info and they don't tell you from the perspective of a driver seeing as they sit in a office and not in the cab.

Any info would be appreciated and as always stay safe out there and thank you for your time.

Oh yeah, Freight shakers have a lot of room on the inside, is it a single bunk or double? 10 speed? Welcome to flatbed man, if you enjoy hard work you will definitely enjoy this line of work. Just remember, it's better to over secure than not enough securement. Be safe out there and its a hellouvatime to start out flatbedding haha. frozen tarps are the best.