Comments By Landion

My trainer didn't have a CB in his truck and we made it through just fine so I wasn't sure that I was gonna get one. But the little kid in me won out pretty quick.

Two days after getting it, a truck with one of those massive wind turbine blades stalled out blocking an intersection on a backroad. The intersection was at the top of a hill. His lead car took care of alerting NB traffic and the chase car alerted SB. Kept us all safe as we approached.

My second dock bumo out of training, i was having a hell of a time. After taking a few shots over the radio by experienced guys, i told em it was my second bump, they talked me through the backing over the radio.

One of the best gear investments I've made.

I have one on my record too, from out of state that hasn't impacted my getting a job. As was previously suggested, be honest about it when asked. It'll look a lot worse if it does show up and you told them your mvr was clean.

Not sure about GA, but in Illinois if you go to court you can request court supervision. You pay a little more, but as long as you go a year without another one then it stays off your record.

This last load continues to be a pain in the arse. The shipper informed me that it would not be ready before the storm arrived. So past the info onto our office, and a couple hours later we were taken off that load to repower a load going to ohio.

For those of you keeping track Ohio is no where near Laredo, TX. Lol.

I explained that we could do it but needed to be routed to our yard in South Holland Illinois right after so we could get home. She did one better and routed us to the yard directly where a regional guy will make the delivery.

Called Werner and explained the situation, they were very good about rescheduling us for orientation on Wednesday in Indianapolis.

All in all with the exception of having to deal with some weather tonight and strong winds right now, this should work out better with 36 hours or so of home time thrown in between load and getting on a bus.

As for trainer or no trainer - we will have to go out for 2 weeks with a trainer. Which in thinking about it I'm okay with. I have zero snow driving time... and I'd like to do some with an experienced driver before navigating it on my own.

I'll create a separate post on the Werner orientation once we go through that.

Thank you all for the comments and feedback. After reading everything that y'all said I decided to heed your advice and make sure this last load is done the right way. I've been in contact with the recruiter with werner and explained that we're stuck at a shipper AND are expecting a blizzard this evening. So if we can't get out of here before the storm hits they will bump us to Wednesday's orientation.

Not ideal, I'm not real happy about it, but considering all I gave up and life changes made to do this; I would be an idiot to not do this the right way. And would only have myself to blame for killing my new career.

Thanks again for the info and taking me of the ledge.

However, you've only been with England 3 months. Im sure they have drivers making money somewhere or they would have no drivers and they're a big company. The 12 cpm.. did you go to their school? If so, I would honor my commitment with them. I can't imagine them running a team like a solo driver. Are you positive there isn't more to the story?

Best of luck, but don't feel pressed to make a decision that will literally ruin both your careers.

Thanks Sue.

Couple things about England and this situation.

1. No I did not go to one of their schools. We both went to private schools.

2. I know that England hired a new group of driver managers, while nobody will confirm it, I'm fairly sure that we have one of the new DMs.

3. England has all the new drivers (some exceptions based on England needs) go through a 5 month team driving period with another rookie driver at very low mileage rates.

4. Once you've reached 6 months with the company there is a lot of pressure to become a trainer. Trainers are making a really good mileage rate, plus bonuses. My trainer told me that he's well into 6 figures. I made twice as much in training that I do now, because my trainer'so truck never stopped.

5. Even when the required team period is over, rates for non trainers are well under what I'm seeing being offered out there.

I left my house to start working at England at the beginning of October and have not been home. I understand no home time during training, then after training I couldn't get home time approved because other drivers were going home for thanksgiving. After that period I was told I needed to wait and request it from my new DM. By that time it was denied because other drivers on the new fleet had home time scheduled.

The whole experience with England seems to be unique to England. I've talked to others from my class and former england drivers out on the road that just walk up and give me their sympathies for who I work for.

After reading everyone's comments, I'm not gonna rush down to Laredo, I'll wait here and see what happens when I talk to the shipper tomorrow.

I appreciate all.of the advice, you guys stopped me from headed to Laredo today. Lol

Thanks Brett. Currently with CR England and headed to Werner.

The main reason that Monday is a hard-ish deadline is because Werner is changing its policy on what they consider an experienced driver. If we get in before 1/1/16 3 months experience is all that's needed. After that we need 6 or have to go out with a trainer. I thought the last time with a trainer was gonna be the death of me LOL. Not in a hurry to repeat that process.

Really hope I'm not still wondering what to do on

Landion, firstly don't fall for the "grass is greener on the other side" way of thinking.

Also, I would do this last load no matter how much of a pain it is. I'll give you the consequences of each of your actions and I hope you make the intelligent decision yourself.

1: Your best option, but even if it takes you beyond Monday morning. You can always reschedule your orientation.

2: Oh boy, if you know what's good for you don't do it. They'll probably screw you over on your DAC report and make you unhireable by future employers.

3: Doing this will get a truck abandonment on your record. You will essentially destroy your entire career with this move.

Don't be a knucklehead, leave on good terms. Do that last load.

The reason that I (we're) leaving boils down to money. We're making .12 a mile each as a team and are only getting 2500-3000 miles a week. This is after being assigned to a new DM. Under our last DM I was the #3 driver and my partner #8 in a fleet of 54 drivers, getting 6000-7000 miles a week. Now, since the DM change we literally spend 12-36 hours waiting for new loads.

We've talked to our DM and his manager. All we're told is that our DM is doing the best he can. Asked about being transfered to another DM and thats not an option. The others have full fleets.

If we were doing something different in terms of service levels, or macros sent from 1 DM to the other I could at least attribute some of the issue there.... but that's not the case.

So we're headed to a company that's paying us .24 each, and everyone I've talked to on the road, and posts I've seen here confirm miles are never an issue.

I'm trying to leave the right way, I've never abandoned a job before and I don't want to start now. But at the same time not being at orientation Monday is not an option.

So I guess we'll wait and see what Saturday and Sunday holds.

Appreciate all the feedback. :)

Oh, I would also try to push the shipper, saying you have a medical emergency back home and need to get going asap. Light a fire under their a$$. Maybe even pay a few bucks to the guys loading so they get you outta there fast on the 26th.

The issue with the shipper is that security is the only staff that they have onsite. So there's nobody to light a fire under. :(

So I'm leaving my current company and start with another one on Monday. The company I'm leaving won't let me come back to a yard without a load and they dispatched me to get one just outside of Amarillo, heading to our yard in Laredo.

We got here yesterday afternoon, and the shipper told us the load would be ready last night. Well it wasn't ready, and it's not going to be ready until "maybe tomorrow" (12/26).

I'm not getting detention pay on this since the pick-up is scheduled from 1200 12/24 - 1600 12/28.

The company will not approve a deadhead to Laredo.

I see 3 options

1) wait here for the load as long as I can, no later than Sunday morning since I have to be in orientation Monday morning.

2) say screw it, drive the truck back to Laredo, against company wishes and return it to the yard.

3) get a rental car and leave the truck in Amarillo.

Thoughts?

Good stuff! First Christmas as a drivers and my co-driver and I are about 1000 miles from home. We won't be back to celebrate with our families till February.