Profile For Daniel

Austin, TX removed those this past year. The total count of accidents dropped with it.

Marc Lee wrote:

Yes. The best company to drive for is the one which will pay you to drive their trucks!

And the best truck to drive?

The one they will pay you to drive!

I know you mean well with this Marc, but honestly, there are many Mom & Pop companies barely surviving, that I would not drive for...and for many reasons. Primary of which; the equipment is typically inferior, in need of significant repairs they cannot afford to perform. So yes, "the truck you are paid to drive" isn't road worthy. Is that the "best company" to drive for?

The best company to drive for is one which has top-notch training, newer/well maintained equipment, a professional driver support team and ample freight moving through or near your chosen home base.

Any company listed in this link, matches the above criteria: Trucking Company Reviews

To avoid working for "Ma and Pa" companies creates a... Well: We're both old enough to know.

If the scale weren't so horribly sliding one way as of 2020: I would work for Ma & Pa with their 5 trucks that are 10yrs old and even offer to repair what I can.

If you have never worked at Wal-Mart in any department: You would not understand the severity of that lavishly self-centered, mildy arguably demonic, yet perfectly logical statement.

I feel strong enough about this, I will go as far as to provide an equivalent analogy: You can either save the 75yr old mother of your children and 10 grandchildren who are of breeding age or you can save 1,000 terminally ill strangers.

Ma and Pa mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, right? However: Ma and Pa in trucking are now in their 90s and nearly crippled to the point of no recovery (without government interference).

i have no faith in the govt and less in the media.

Media? Okay. Business of money (private sector). Gov't in response to a (what appears to be deliberate) defector? Spy vs. spy!

I won't even consider this being due to trucking, but a literal act of God.

Is that you in the bottom photo?

Hello, Nick. I believe I started out with the type of trucking work you're looking for. I started with Swift, but most companies are like this. I drove dry van exclusively. Most of my loads were already sealed which is as close to "no touch" as you can get. I never had the responsibility of even counting the stuff in back.

If you don't get a Hazmat endorsement, you probably won't be sent on a Hazmat dispatch. Simply ask the recruiter if Hazmat will be required.

So just stick with dry van and you'll do ok.

Companies don't let non-HME drivers haul under 1,001lbs of class 3 or anything else?

Corona, H1N1, swine, Cyrus, Y2K. We survived them all.

You forgot anthrax and mad cow.

Hi.

I went with the company-loaned 'paid' training route in 2015. Very happy. New baby. Zero debt. Zero issues. Zero complaints. Brand new (1k-5k miles on the odometer) trucks all the same.

I ended up quitting for the sake of my new family and landed a local 'cement truck' (ready-mix is another name or barrel truck) at around $22.50/hr (before 10-15hrs of OT a week) here in Texas. I had just under 12mo of OTR experience (thanks to jury duty in Nov. of 2015).

I was making $0.36 CPM (split 50% due to co-driving; 18 CPM; nearly maxed out on miles per week all year long).

The local job itself was fun, exhausting and quite an experience. It paid far better, but was overall less rewarding.

If you have experience with motorcycles, manual (5-spd? 6-spd?) transmission vehicles (ATV, "car" or whatever else): It really doesn't translate that well into a 10-spd transmission in a semi-truck.

The general awareness of having a large and tall truck (box truck; which I also have years of experience with) is all that really translates. My $0.02.

In fact: I have a wide range of experience in this industry now.

Personally: Study the CDL questions from the mobile program that Brett A. made. Aside from being on the DOT written test: They may save your life like mine while OTR.

I'd go with a company sponsored training any day before I go private. If pay or home time is your concern: Stick locally with a class B.

As it has been stated many times before: OTR is literally a life style; as are a myriad of other comparisons (the US Navy comes to mind).

Celadon. Crst. Cr england. Millis. That's about all I can think of..

CRST's pretty cool.

100mi north? What city off of I-17? I just cut through there last night.

I applied at TMC three times and they keep telling me that they are going with somebody else they dont want to give me no explanation to why but all I know is that I have a gut feeling that this is where I need to be.

Have you tried with CRST? Randy Gill is a great recruiter!

The part of the truck where you sleep/chill, how big is it usually speaking? Is video gaming even possible in off time? There enough space?

Yes; You have plenty enough space for a TV/monitor, console, microwave, etc. all at once.

An APU/inverter is likely needed, depending on what you want.

My thinking about the speed limit is that I have the understanding that there is a 5 mph buffer. Since trying to keep exactly perfectly steady on an accelerator isn't humanly possible....even on cruise control there are variances when you encounter uphills and downhills. So any reasonable person or (cop) shouldn't fault you if they clock you doing say 63 in a 60...because were only human and we need time to be aware of the subtle increase in speed and make the proper adjustments. However a more than 5 mph difference should be detected easily by a driver.

Anyway, my experience also tells me that there is alot of people who drive 10 mph or more on a regular basis because police scanning the highways are for the most part not often. If you say traveled say 10-15 miles back and forth from your (old non trucking) job on a major highway you would maybe encounter a cop once every 20 times and more than half the time you saw them they already have someone else pulled over for whatever reason. So to get to my point is that as a cop I would not waste my time with a 5-7 mph law breaker because there will always be someone coming along doing 10 mph or faster in addition to a higher dollar amount fine that comes with it. Plus it allows the cop to on occasion to act like a good guy and say "I clocked you doing 72 in a 60 but I'm ONLY going to ticket you for going 65. That way you really can't complain about the 65 because you know you were going faster than that, maybe not 72 you think but certainly at least 65. So you don't complain or "fight" the ticket and the cop appears to be the "nice" guy. In order to do this you have to be going more than 10 mph. Do people get tickets for doing exactly 5 mph over speed limit and ticket for that exact speed, im sure they do but I think its very very rare and usually happens by those ego-driven small town cops that are desperate for money for their borough.

However, You have to be careful, with a tractor trailer, if you staying with the flow of traffic and everyone around you at the moment is going around 5-10 mph over. Any reasonable person(cop) if given the choice would pick out the tractor trailer to pull over rather than a "4 wheeler" due to being more dangerous at that higher speed.

There is no "buffer". The speed limit is the speed limit. A cop can pull you over for doing 1mph over if he wants to. Will he? probably not but there is no "buffer"

That's actually quite incorrect. Perhaps you should brush up on your law books.

Texas law is greater than 10% (10.0000...1% over is illegal; 10% over posted is not illegal).

Simplified: 66MPH in a 60MPH (6MPH faster) is perfectly fine.

One of my class mates called them up for a pre hire. He was ecstatic about the brand new fleet with bells and whistles however he didn't like their 30 cpm starting pay for newbies. Maybe the miles are decent? Don't think anyone here drives for them.

Ya that does seem low but if the miles are there maybe some pay raises every so often? It's hard to say. I am going to call them tomorrow and see about a pre-hire while I finish school and see what they can offer me if anything at all. Schneider offered .41 CPM this morning which was outstanding!

CRST pays $0.33 CPM after ~6mo (split pay). I generally average 5k miles every week. Pretty decent pay. ~$600+ every 7 days.

Okay, so once again, I thank you all for helping me through this. I really mean it. And once again, sorry it is taking me awhile to catch on. But, I think I got it. If I want to work in a different state, move to that state, get a driver's license in that state, then apply for trucking jobs in that area.... I cannot (cannot is a most unusual conjunction of words) get a job in a state other than Indiana, because I am limited by the licence I currently have.... Well that is doable too. I can survive for a short while while I do relocation on my own... So, I will now consider where it is I want to be, locate there, and go from there... If I am still confused, please let me know.

Straight from the military: "If it sounds good on paper..." I was homeless when CRST hired me.

Papers say otherwise, but, hopefully you understand the meaning. A P.O. box works great. You can update your new WA CDL 90 days after "moving." This way it's the best of all worlds.

Good luck, and thank you for your service. :)

Hey Daniel I drive for crst to.... What's your truck number... I'm 4681... Been with crst 10 months...

Current truck is a temporary O/O that I'm being kicked out of at Riverside. Truck number is: 101660.

Previous trucks:

4743

6166

4463(?)

I'm just out of Richmond, CA. Load to Riverside due by Monday(?), is what Scott B. said.

Who's your FM? :) Saxon I hope!

Knight has both manual and Automated Manual transmissions in their fleet. Most of the newer trucks that they are purchasing have the Automated manual transmissions.

These new transmissions that you refer to as "automatic" are still manual gear boxes but instead of the driver changing the gears the computer does it. I drive a Volvo with their proprietary "I Shift" automated transmission, and it works like a champ. You can also set it into the manual mode so that you control when it shifts whether up or down.

IIRC: Paddle shifters. At least for non-semi-trucks.

Computer controlled shifting (no clutch). Person controlled shifts (with a paddle).

Miss Red, in cold slushy conditions, when you stop for a bit, DONT set your trailer brakes because they'll freeze up and be hell to break loose. There will be water on them, because your wherls are warm. The truck sits and that water will freeze and your brakes won't release.

On your tractor, make sure you have power going to both drive axles. Take off slow and easy and use your mirrors to check that your drives are actually turning.

it's a preventable thing that just takes attention that many rookies haven't been taught.

Sort of related: Make sure you aren't parking on water... Ice under the tires makes for a rude awakening when trying to drive off with your load at 07:00. Lol

I second that. My trainer (not going to personally slander Joseph; Although he does belong in a mental facility) NEVER showed, nor let me back the truck up once; I was also on his truck for 2 extra weeks (free of charge to him). To top that off: I might have done partial paperwork (see: Qualcomm messages & protocol) 3 times total.

I was then put in a truck with a complete imbecile for 2 weeks, then it got better after I got a new co-driver (who I remain in contact with monthly).

Definitely thrown to the wolves with CRST! Thankfully I'm a fish out of stones in a river. :)

I'm from Texas, so: The white stuff I find fascinating (and elevated ground levels period).

Hey sometimes you have to do what it takes to get the load there.

Including driving with defective equipment, am I right?

On another note, I spent last night in Chemult, OR. The place was iced up, especially the parking lot, its no wonder his tires locked up.

I just came from (near) Portland, OR. I agree that it is pretty bad up there, and in Yakima, WA.

Unsure about Knight, but CRST does.

This 2016 Cascadia has < 10k miles. It down/up shift jumps 2-3 gears at a time, utilizes jakes for normal brake application as well.

Nothing against them, just not a fan.. Especially in the rain.