Comments By Dan F.

If you are joining the service to become a truck driver, you will learn that military driving is very different and nothing like OTR driving as a civilian. There’s also the chance that you may like the military enough that you decide to stay a while.

If you’re joining the military because you like the military itself don’t let the idea of driving a truck limit your choice of jobs in the military.

Loving to travel may not be enough. You have to decide yes or no before you start because it is a big commitment. This isn’t just a change of job, it is a change of lifestyle which for many is much harder than any of the regular skills you will be applying.

Anything worth learning isn’t going to be easy.

You are very nice people here, it will tell you don’t quit. I’m not one of those people. I’m going to tell you you made a huge mistake.

Your mistake was not doing research first and learning that this is a commitment and as a commitment you either do it or you don’t .

So you either man up, and take the bad with the good or you find something else.

Trucking is not just a job where you hold the steering wheel, it is a lifestyle and the lifestyle is not easy on everybody, and this is where your big mistake was not talking to people and learning this first.

I started learning about the trucking industry several months before actually getting a CDL.

One of the first things I learned is that your first year is going to suck no matter what and so will training and it’s there you have to make the decision do you commit or not.

If you’re going to do this, do it safely and do it with a real commitment that no matter how bad it gets you can go to bed get some sleep and then approach the problem again tomorrow. Otherwise you’re too dangerous to be on the road, not because of lack of skills but because of lack of decision making ability.

Umn no.

I pay fuel.

Lol. Why do truckers care about the price of fuel. It's called fuel surcharge. Truckers don't pay for fuel, shippers do.

Price of fuel goes up, fsc goes up, rates go up, cost of business goes up and it all ends up at price of the goods or service.

Receipts will always have amount paid, item paid for(or service rendered). They will also have a physical address of that location and name of company. They also require dates. If the name of the business and the address do not match then you do not have to pay regardless.

They cannot kick you off the property either for nonpayment if they fail to provide a real receipt with the above requirements. If the police to show up you tell them that they did not provide a receipt, and ask them if they are empowered by the property owner or if this needs to be reported to the IRS. Scammers will not call the police. Stupid people may call the police not realizing they are shooting themselves in the foot.

Law is very specific. Any transaction must provide a receipt upon request for any item good or service if payment is rendered.

There are only two choices and if you have less than five years experience in the last three are not accident free you only have one choice really. You either be a company driver or an o/o. You should not even consider becoming an owner operator unless you have five years experience with the last three, being incident free.

If you’re not smart enough to have started working on your credit score, being out of debt, and having money saved up in the bank, then being an owner operator is not for you.

A lease is much worse than being an owner operator. You earn way less per mile, you still have the vast majority of the legal liability, you’re still responsible for maintenance, fuel, and Insurance in most cases.

Lease operator never thinks about ALL THE COSTS.

You should be saving at least four cents a mile just for tires. Do you know how many people don’t even know that.

Let me give you an example about a horrible company called Landstar (my opinion based on my dealings with them in their double brokers) Landstar will pay registration. You are on the hook for

The $7000 is if you attend rails training program in Marshfield Wisconsin. For the purposes of the school technically it is a separate company. The loan you’re getting is to pay for that training. You must abide by all of their rules even at the hotel they have you stay at, to include no firearms. We had a dumbass bring firearms in his personal vehicle to training and was subsequently released.(many years ago for me).

I was in Joplin last week talking to a guy who’s in his mid-80s and still driving( o/o ) He only does about 50,000 miles a year and since his truck has been paid off for about 15 years he’s been able to take it easy.

Obviously you can’t take it that easy at a big company because they have to make a large portion of money to make the truck payments, but The idea is still the same

National carriers is owned by national beef. Beef loads are top priority and I have had to deadhead 500 miles for a beef load before. They have a terminal in Irving Texas and it is tiny with a few amenities. They drive Kenworth T680s. They Install inverters. They have APUs or in some cases kims(A type of auto start). If you are getting a beef load from Dodge city Kansas or Liberal Kansas you may get a reset waiting for your load. Miles is dependent on how you run, where are you live, and how you deal with the planners and fleet managers. On the weekend I would pick my own loads sometimes if I was in the terminal at Irving by talking to Richard Ross. I am one of those guys that does a 10 hour break and then gets moving, And communicates before I even take a load what issues may arrive based on pick up or delivery times.

Since Lauren, Al love, And a few other seniors there left, I don’t know how things go anymore.

Don’t lease from them, like has been said previously. They are not a lease purchase anyway(straight two-year lease with no equity built only)

The head of safety is a tiny little woman that goes back-and-forth between Texas and Kansas named Jill. She is also the head of safety for national beef and she’s not someone you want to lie to. The next in line for safety is John O. (A fair guy but strict)

One of their biggest benefits was at the time they paid well and they ran into Florida(possibly not a concern for you).