Posted: 10 months ago
View Topic:
CB radios and seat cushion advice
Hi Jacob, I'm new going OTR soon too. I'm looking into CB's too. I'm waiting to see some answers to your question by our Professional Friends on TT. Anyway, being a carpenter most of my life, I'm not new to the back fire. I got this pretty thin cushion at walmart, not the fat ones, this one's like maybe 1-1/2" thick and it does wonders for long sits. It's contoured to the shape of your bottom. Try it. Jason
Hey guys and gals!
So new into OTR life been local/regional for 5 years. Looking for a good CB setup wanting to know what yall run. I'm looking to get some good distance. Going to have my company shop install it for me and get it running.
Also, Seat cushions. After a long day near bottom of spine/top of but crack is on fire! I'm built like a 2x4 so i have no cushion lol. What do yall use to keep your rears from falling off due to pain.
Posted: 10 months ago
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I know a little about that Brian. In New York, Class C license, (14) passenger, I'm trying to think back cause I did have to take a roadtest like driving a class B with people. You definitely have to stop at ALL RR crossings, have a first aid kit, and know how and when to evacuate people and keep them away from the vehicle in emergencies. I'm sure it's the same throughout the states. It's still commercial.
Question. I have a Class A CDL in California. I went to DMV and took the passenger endorsement exam. Other than doing the PTI, manuevers and road test at DMV, is there anything additional needed? The local truck driving school told me i needed to do an online class through JJ Keller to be able to test at DMV for passenger.
Thanks
Posted: 10 months ago
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Apparently I'm my own worst critic...
Great job Pianoman, I can't wait to start making .31 a mile at my new job ! LOL
So I still need to make a thread showing what I do but I'm lazy when I'm off work so I'll get to it eventually lol. Anyways, I've been working this job for a little over a year and I recently made a thread talking about how even now in our "busy" season we're not as busy as I would've expected and I complained to dispatch that I wanted more work. Literally later that week I saw my paycheck for the last pay period and realized I had been doing better than I thought. Well after that convo I've been helping out a different division doing the same thing but hauling for one of our oilfield customers and occasionally still doing loads for my regular dispatchers (it's been weird but I've been working with two different dispatch teams and half planning myself lol) and while it was great at first, I was again getting frustrated because there have been lots of days I'm only doing one load a day and ending my day with several hours still left on my clock. I haven't complained though and after doing some looking around I settled for the fact that I have a great job and unless I significantly change my lifestyle and go on the road I'm not going to do much better than where I'm at.
ANYWHO... to finally get to the point of this post... so far I've made it seem like I'm doing ok but not amazing right? That's how I felt. Until I looked at my YTD gross income so far this year and decided to figure out my average weekly gross income. I was shocked. Apparently I have averaged over $2k per week so far this year, which is great for the amount of work I do and the schedule I have and where I live. I fully expected my average to be around $1700 or so per week which still is pretty good. I'm well aware there are lots of people who make more than me so believe me, I'm not trying to brag. I was just very pleasantly surprised and realized that I tend ignore the good weeks where I've made alot and focused on the weeks where I didn't make as much. The other really nice thing is I have the best schedule and home life of any trucking job I've ever had. I have every Sunday and every other Saturday off (unless I choose to go in on one of my off Saturdays), we have great equipment, 100% employee benefits paid by the company, 401k, weekly guaranteed minimum pay, and most holidays off. It's pretty sweet.
Idk, I guess the grass isn't always greener on the other side lol
Posted: 10 months ago
View Topic:
Is it a bad time to start a new career?
True Lucas. I'm kinda in the same boat as ya. I'm watching and listening to all my new Friends on here. Thank's for asking the questions. Good luck to you and I'll see you out there buddy.
And I only ask because I know if it is causing me concern, it may be concerning for others looking to make a career move. So if I ask it here, others can benefit from the answers, whether they are reassuring or confirm the concerns.
Thanks Lucus
Posted: 10 months ago
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new guy contemplating on going OTR
Steve, Yea. There's nothing here or at my school. New York is hiring but every company wants experience. I guess there are a lot of people who do not drive so well after school. All I can say is HOLY, this is gonna be an EXPERIENCE !
I'm a little confused. If you graduated a truck driving school, did they not have recruiters come in? Most private schools have relationships with recruiters for multiple companies. What companies did your school recommend?
I seriously doubt Schneider (or any company) would disqualify you because you learned on a manual transmission instead of autoshift; usually it's the other way around.
You may live in an area that many companies don't hire from. But I'd still be surprised if there's no companies your school recommends. When I went to private school, we had all chosen our companies by graduation day. Why wait?
Posted: 10 months, 1 week ago
View Topic:
new guy contemplating on going OTR
BK, I was just getting down the list. Thank you too. You did make that hit home, literally. That was another question. How many miles could a rookie driver actually do? You put it into reality. And yea, that pay stinks. But I thought that's what everyone had to do in the beginning? Work hard for pennies, just to get out there and get experience
One thing to remember is that bonus pay may be dependent on having a perfect driving record. When I drove at Schneider, there was a quarterly bonus for fuel economy and several other things. But one citation or preventable incident, no matter how small, would cancel the bonus for the entire quarter. I don’t know if this policy is common among companies.
My point is that counting on bonus or accessory pay can be iffy.
And .31 CPM for 2500 miles a week is only $775. Can a rookie average 2500 miles a week? Maybe, maybe not. If that amount of income for a 70 hour week is ok, then go for it. My math says it amounts to $11.07 per hour.
Posted: 10 months, 1 week ago
View Topic:
new guy contemplating on going OTR
Hey, Thank you Ryan. Absolutely up my alley. I'm ready, not ****y, but confident this would be for me. I would rather be a good company driver though. The driving school I was in was very good and thorough. It was a lot of practice. One student, one truck, one Trainer. Of course you don't have the same Trainer everyday. You got to see all their different perspectives. Every lessen always started with pretrip and airbrake checks. I've never known anything about tractor trailer driving at all before I went there. My first day they started me in a bobtail (manual). A couple days with that, and before I knew it was an auto-shift trailer. They definitely made sure you could operate the tractor first. A few days of that, the rest of my training was back to the 10 speed with trailer. A lot of days with that, driving, driving, and more driving. I'm stressing on that point because you said you fail if you hit something. If you did that in this school, YOU WERE OUT ! Including all the numerous backing techniques. ( I had a hard time with that, until I really got great advice and tips, and a lot of youtube at my hometime, and got it through my head). Before I knew it, it was my actual roadtest. Nervous but confident in the way I was taught, did really well on every aspect. The Examiners were very intimidating. I did't let that bother me. I knew my Trainers were very talented. And what they taught me. NYS just tries to make it hard for people! As for what someone commented on here. They were doing pre-trip so much. That's where another Driver on TT told me, when I was panicking about pre, " if you're not waking up in the middle of the night, thinking you missed an item, you're not working hard enough !" It was great advice. Well thanks for giving me the rundown on what to expect Ryan. Be safe, and see you out there !
Here is the relevant information about TransAm that will help you decide if it's something that would work for you.
You will spend a week in orientation and training where you complete your onboarding paperwork and DOT drug screen. You will learn their ELD system, which is a system they have created specifically for TransAm.
After a couple of days in a classroom environment, you will go out to their practice pad where there is a course set up. It simulates driving around shipper and receiver property, so emphasis on swinging wide to avoid bollards, etc. The course has 3 backing maneuvers, which are an off-set, a 45, and a 3rd (can't remember what it's called) that simulates backing into a slanted parking spot. The trainers will cover the reefer settings for the trailer, sliding tandems, and coupling. Once completing their entire maneuver course 3 times without a fail (the only fails being hitting something or unable to complete a portion in a timely manner), a trainee is assigned a truck. Being assigned a truck might mean being given a truck on the lot or being flown out to another part of the US to recover your truck. TransAm pushes lease hard and part of this is that drivers who decide to go lease will get trucks right away and right off the lot.
As for the pay, $.31/ mile is the base pay. TransAm leans heavily into the trucking is performance based because a driver can get up to $.55/mile with bonuses. Different bonuses pay out on different schedules, whether it be weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
My information comes from speaking with TransAm recruiting, as well as TransAm drivers.
Posted: 10 months, 1 week ago
View Topic:
I need to learn the log book rules
I thank you all. It's a little more clearer, But one more question. How does anybody know if you're in the sleeper, the truck, or camping outside in a sleeping bag ? Another thing is I never rested 10 freakin hours in my life! I'm lucky if I sleep 4 or 5 tops...that's all I need. It's funny though. The Pro's are even nicely checking on each other ! I understand we have to rest to be safe. You can't overdrive. How many miles could you really get in a 11 hour drive period usually, with that break after 8 ? Like average? And once again thank you all.
Jason what specifically are you struggling with on the HOS regs? Ask away and we’ll do our best to answer. Nae nae gave a great summary of the rules.
Nae Nae, Sandman is correct. You were taught wrong. Unless you’re doing a sleeper split (or team driving and trying to spend some of your break off duty in the passenger seat while your codriver is driving) there is no regulation requiring you to spend a certain amount of your 10 hour break in the sleeper. The regs just require 10 consecutive hours off duty. Off duty not driving and off duty sleeper berth both count as “off duty” (I know you know that but hopefully that clarifies for other readers). Here’s link so you know I’m not just making stuff up lol
Posted: 10 months, 1 week ago
View Topic:
new guy contemplating on going OTR
Okay, BK. I heard other places were paying a lot more. I liked them at that (unknown company lol) because, to even answer Old Schools question, they got back to me fast. And there aren't a lot of places hiring. I don't know what everyone's saying. There's like nothing out there. I must have had at least 40 applications out the on Zip, jobcase, indeed, etc. Them and Melton got back to me fast. But of course it's hurry up and sign here, let's go. Schneider, they basically told me to literally, "hit the road". I'm a good candidate too. No tickets, accidents, drugs/alcohol, nothing. Just a graduate from a manual CDL school. Maybe that's why they don't like me. I don't know how to drive an auto-shift...LOL. All local companies too around me. XPO, YELLOW, WESTERN. Unbelievable!
Jason, what phase is the .31 cpm for? Training time? Do you know how long you would have to drive before you get a raise? Are there other incentives involved?
On the surface, .31 is very low, but other factors can alter that perception.
When I started out as a rookie for Schneider in late 2018, my pay was .48 cpm. I didn’t rack up very many miles per week with them, so even at .48 my weekly checks were, well, weakly.
Posted: 10 months ago
View Topic:
OTR
Hi everyone. OTR it is and I'm taking you all with me. Signed up with TAm. I'll be at orientation by Tuesday. Just telling you because you probably won't see me babbling on TT for a bit. I'm nervous, excited, and all those fun feelings. I wanna thank everyone of you for making it clear to me, and all the new guys that you're not just gonna jump out of CDL school and find a good driving job, locally, No Sir ! Lord knows I've tried to defy the odds. Ain't happenin'. Anyhow I hope to be as safe and as good as you all are out there. Hope to see any of you on the road. If I can get wifi, I'll keep you posted with my progress. Thanks again TruckingTruth, HERE WE GO ! Jason T