Comments By RedGator (Nalee)

Hello old friend 🥰 Glad to be back! I'm bringing a few more old timers with me. Be on the look out😉

Of course we remember The Legend! Welcome back stranger!

OMG! HIIIIIIII PJ! It's been sooooo long but I remember you 🥰 I can't believe you are still hanging out here. It's so crazy because I feel like that Long lost cousin that moved to California and resurfaced a decades later. The warm welcome make an old gal feel good💓 I still have several pairs of pink shades but my husband steals them. Your fur baby is so cute😍 My husband is a Flatbed driver and carries a 8 lb ****zu🥴 Masculine men and their little fur babies eh😉 Here's a pair of shades (stolen by my husband's)

Welcome back young lady!! I remember you, where are the big sun glass’s, lol. Great to hear your doing well, no pun intended.

Life does get in the way of many things as we make our journey through it. I’m still around and doing my thing. I too have had periods of absence, but find my way back. Everyone here helped me get started back in the day, and I try to pay it forward.

My little occassional ride partner.

Great hearing from you, try not to be a stranger!!

The law recently changed as it pertains to endorsements. I'm not 100% but if you choose to get your endorsements later on you will have to take a course to add any. My recommendation is to get all of them (Hazmat, Tanker, triples and Doubles). It makes you more marketable. There are several online practice test including here on this site. If the test are still the same then all endorsement test are about 25-30 questions. Hazmat is the only thing you need to be fingerprinted for. I had lived in 3 states and every state has a different order. I recommend getting fingerprinted at your local Identigo and then taking your test at the DMV. My 1st go round fresh out of CDL school I did all of the test in one day.

Whew girl, That's a ton of stuff. I hate to be a downer but the reality of you being successful at this driving thing seems highly unlikely. You have 2 years, 2 company's and a whole bunch of situations. That doesn't sound good. As others have stated if you can't accept accountability then you can learn from your mistakes. If you insist on continuing your journey then I wish you luck. You could definitely benefit from wayyyyyy more training before you go solo again.

My recommendations around this time of the year is clothes for every season. You can experience all 4 seasons in one day. It sucks when it's hot and all you have is long sleeves or cold and you only have shorts. (Trust me on that, a 34 in FL during Dec when it's 100° but you only have jeans and sweater isn't any fun). Enough chargers and cords. I can't tell you how many of those things break. And just in case you wondered those truck stop prices are not what you want to be paying on a rookies salary. Emergency supplies or necessities can be procured with a quick trip to Wal-Mart but definitely call first! A lot of places aren't allowing us to park anymore. Also, pack you some DUDE wipes (or baby wipes). They will definitely come in handy. I would also keep an emergency stash of easy open can goods, granola bars and water. You never know when you will be stuck out here with no facilities, food or electricity. Good Luck on your journey 😁

Also, I forgot to add I drive a Freightliner. Our fleet is half Freightliner and half KW. I'm only 5'1 and can't see over the hood of a KW so they don't let me have a cool truck. Yes we do have holiday pay. Christmas is $330, Thanksgiving is $220 and New Years plus a few others are $110.

Hey BK👋 Very cute pupper. I'll post a pic of my Poe. You should also join Trucking Fur Babies on Facebook if you haven't already. Now on to trucking lol I have briefly met Karl the day I got back into my new truck but didn't officially know who he was. He recruited the lady I was in orientation with. It seems that him and Valerie Sparkles (another former Helwig) are trying to recruit y'all whole fleet🤭 I personally don't actively recruit. Let's face it, every company isn't meant for everyone. ASL is a great company but it's not for every driver. As drivers we are conditioned to MILES, MILES, MILES. We think if we aren't running 3K miles a week we aren't doing something right. I was that driver. Reading through my old posts I was hella mad at a 2K Mile week. Coming to ASL really changed all that. I don't have to run hard to make money. Between their base pay (1,400/wk), their extra pay extended delivery ($200), Layover pay ($160), their drop pay ($25 per stop) and their detention ($20/hr) there are plenty of ways to rack up those $$$$. Karl from my understanding runs in our fish division which is primarily out of Boston, NJ and NY. I run general freight. Since our company is a private service line for American Foods Group we primarily haul our own freight (about 80%). The objective is to get back to our plants (Yankton, SD, Long Prairie, MN, Green Bay,WI (terminal), Gibbon,NE and Omaha,NE) to grab another load and head all points East of I35. We do have customers that we service backhauls for and a handful of brokers that we get consistent freight from. In the span of my 7.5 years here I have lived in PA, LA and NC and have never had issues with getting freight or getting home. I'm pretty sure we get paid zipcode to zipcode on the miles or at least thats what it looks like but you could verify that yourself. We are responsible for routing so getting as close to what you're getting paid is on you. I have always been an OTR driver. I stay out 4 to 6 weeks and I go home for a week or so. It's been that way my whole 10+ yrs. Everyone does it differently and depending on where you live you can go home more if you like. The time out is up to you. If you have anything else you would like to know don't hesitate to reach out and I will do the best I can to answer you. My name is Nalee. Thank you for reading my post and making me feel important 🥰 Good Luck with your decision!

I remember reading so much from you while I was kickin the tires to see if this industry would be a good match for me. Glad to hear things are working out for you.

What Rob says is the same with me. Glad you have resurrected yourself on TT because experienced drivers are my driving lifeblood and the more, the merrier.

This is of particular interest to me because I recently met Karl from ASL. He used to drive for the company I’m with, Helwig. I think his mission in life is to recruit more Helwig drivers to ASL, lol. He told me that ASL has about 13 former Helwig drivers.

Where are your common destinations on the East Coast? Where do you pick up your product from? Are you paid hub miles and paid holidays? Do you drive a KW?

I know how you feel! This life is very lonely at times. Glad to be back😁

"Been a long time been a long time been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely time"

Hey BK👋 Very cute pupper. I'll post a pic of my Poe. You should also join Trucking Fur Babies on Facebook if you haven't already. Now on to trucking lol I have briefly met Karl the day I got back into my new truck but didn't officially know who he was. He recruited the lady I was in orientation with. It seems that him and Valerie Sparkles (another former Helwig) are trying to recruit y'all whole fleet🤭 I personally don't actively recruit. Let's face it, every company isn't meant for everyone. ASL is a great company but it's not for every driver. As drivers we are conditioned to MILES, MILES, MILES. We think if we aren't running 3K miles a week we aren't doing something right. I was that driver. Reading through my old posts I was hella mad at a 2K Mile week. Coming to ASL really changed all that. I don't have to run hard to make money. Between their base pay (1,400/wk), their extra pay extended delivery ($200), Layover pay ($160), their drop pay ($25 per stop) and their detention ($20/hr) there are plenty of ways to rack up those $$$$. Karl from my understanding runs in our fish division which is primarily out of Boston, NJ and NY. I run general freight. Since our company is a private service line for American Foods Group we primarily haul our own freight (about 80%). The objective is to get back to our plants (Yankton, SD, Long Prairie, MN, Green Bay,WI (terminal), Gibbon,NE and Omaha,NE) to grab another load and head all points East of I35. We do have customers that we service backhauls for and a handful of brokers that we get consistent freight from. In the span of my 7.5 years here I have lived in PA, LA and NC and have never had issues with getting freight or getting home. I'm pretty sure we get paid zipcode to zipcode on the miles or at least thats what it looks like but you could verify that yourself. We are responsible for routing so getting as close to what you're getting paid is on you. I have always been an OTR driver. I stay out 4 to 6 weeks and I go home for a week or so. It's been that way my whole 10+ yrs. Everyone does it differently and depending on where you live you can go home more if you like. The time out is up to you. If you have anything else you would like to know don't hesitate to reach out and I will do the best I can to answer you. My name is Nalee. Thank you for reading my post and making me feel important 🥰 Good Luck with your decision!

I remember reading so much from you while I was kickin the tires to see if this industry would be a good match for me. Glad to hear things are working out for you.

What Rob says is the same with me. Glad you have resurrected yourself on TT because experienced drivers are my driving lifeblood and the more, the merrier.

This is of particular interest to me because I recently met Karl from ASL. He used to drive for the company I’m with, Helwig. I think his mission in life is to recruit more Helwig drivers to ASL, lol. He told me that ASL has about 13 former Helwig drivers.

Where are your common destinations on the East Coast? Where do you pick up your product from? Are you paid hub miles and paid holidays? Do you drive a KW?

I'm glad I could help you make your decision. I see you're still trucking so hopefully it's working out😊

I remember reading so much from you while I was kickin the tires to see if this industry would be a good match for me. Glad to hear things are working out for you.

Hey OS! One of my favorite people of all times. I can't believe I was never able to stalk my way into a meet and greet. I guess life just kind of got in the way for me and I kind of forgot all about coming back here. I guess after some time I didn't think I had anything positive to contribute. This industry does that to us. There's no one more surprised that me that I'm still out here🤭 I honestly thought 5 years tops and I would be done. I'm currently sitting in St. Paul, MN in the dock I slept in last night. While I haven't gotten my nails done in since COVID, I still get my toes done and rock the pink steering wheel cover🤭 I'll definitely try to stick around even if I hang up my keys. Reading throughout my old posts reminded me of how far I have come but also how far I have strayed from that Hopeful young woman that steeped into trucking all those years ago......Maybe y'all can help me get her back😉 I have many old TT members on my Facebook page and have pretty much managed to meet up with every last one of them over the years. I have long since forgotten their screen names but our foundation is solid. It all started here😊 Glad to see you're still around whiping these young folks into shape😉

Hey Red! It's really cool seeing you in here!

I guess I tend to assume people got out of trucking when they dissappear like you did. It's silly, I know.

I'm still out here doing the flatbed thing. I've been with Knight Transportation on a dedicated flatbed account for about 8 or 9 years now. My wife wants me to retire, but I'm having too much fun!

I'm thrilled to see you are still out here.