Comments By Phox

There is freight nearby where my sister lives just not as much as the big cities. she lives in Midland, TX.... major oilfield city that and oddesa. First home time I had togoto Lubbock for a load, 2nd plainview, tx and this last time Oddesa. lubbock is like 2 hours away, plainview bout an hour and half and oddessa about 25 min away.

Not all autos are the same.... I have been in a volvo's ishift auto since march and it does just fine. while I was in training I had the chance to try a couple others from my company and yes they handled differently.

in the end it's down to your preference but you can't judge all autos based of of the experience of some. the volvo ishift works quite well. It would probably be even better if my company didn't neuter the trucks.

I'm a little late to this topic but like Old School Although I didn't know till just now that he drove for Knight) I too drive for Knight. Have been since Feb.

For the most part I'm happy. Every so often something happens that makes me unhappy but the fact I'm still here should show how good Knight has been. Tulsa at it's current location is kind of small and lack luster in amenities. I work out of the Katy, TX terminal in dry van division. It also is small and not much in amenities. My favorite terminals (and you can go to any of them to do your 10, 34, road ready services, etc) are Carlise, PA, Salt Lake City, UT and Las Vegas, NV. All 3 have always had plenty of space for me to park rig, nice terminals and plenty around them to do.

As a new CDL holder you'll have to go through training. length varies based on need, think I did 3.5-4 weeks with an otr training but he did such a poor job training me with backing they had me work with a couple of their local dedicated account drivers to get better at backing. first guy just didn't have the time with his account to help train me so they put me with a 2nd guy who had more time available and he did an awesome job. I went from being horrible at backing to being able to do it at least. Went home for my birthday and to finish packing up apartment and putting stuff in storage plus a couple days wait for truck then bam I was solo in a brand new (1400 miles on it) Volvo truck, auto tranny as of March 31st. I will say Knight is going all auto. I don't think any of the new trucks are standard so hope that doesn't bother you because it gets harder and harder for drivers who prefer manual to get one.

Once you're solo you'll be a squire. basically probation for 30k dispatched miles. not driven miles but dispatched, those are the miles you're paid for. takes about 3 months. I did about 33-34k miles driving before I reached 30k dispatched. During squire your sliding pay is 32-38 cpm after squire you'll be 38-44 cpm.

I started running mostly SE region which is easy driving and all but it started getting boring. sometimes I did loads in midwest and far ne as Penn, once in Jersey (which wasn't as bad as I have always heard). After squire program though I started requesting to go out west or more north cause I was bored of SE... miles were not what I wanted either and was having to hunt for empty trailers a lot. Well August I finally got a load from St louis area to Ontario, CA area. Spent almost 2 months out here (i'm back as of this past week) and my miles were better, loads better and hardly ever having to look or empties. When I do need one DM has me relay a t called load for one. Only reason I went back east was because I needed A Service for truck and none of the terminals out here had availability so home terminal couldn't approve it and I had my 3rd home time ever scheduled for late sept / early oct. soon as home time was done I was back out here as of last week. 2 weeks prior to home time I did 1800 and 1200 miles... I was not happy. the 1200 one was because I was home half the week but 1800... no that was a poor week. This past week here in the west I did 3445 miles in 8 days.

Some other hard truth I'll tell you... Knight's trucks are prety naked for amenities. no APUs, can't install a battery terminal inverter, no tvs included or anything. They are getting Inverters installed but it's a work in progress over what I have heard is 3 phases. no idea which phase my terminal is. Also they're in process of install front facing only dash cams. not all terminals have them yet... mine doesn't. so just be prepared you're limited to a 12v inverter and whatever you can run off that for now. If I didn't like my DM so much I'd probably switch to our mothership terminal in Phoenix to increase chances of getting an inverter sooner haha. A lot will tell you it's not that important, but let me tell ya... I miss having access to a microwave and having a fridge with a freezer (even if only a small one) would be great. APU isn't important but I hate having to idle all night in warmer climates.

Alright I think I have given you a fair insite into my experience with Knight. I do dry van myself. Been considering flat bed but not sure if I want to or not. I did haul a reefer load once... Knight didn't have any reefer drivers in the area so they had a few of us dry van drivers do the loads. had to crash course learn how to operate reefer unit and what not. not something I particularly want to do again. maybe... I don't know. Def don't want to unload my own reefer freight again. they (customers) made me restack pallets because they only allow them to be stacked x boxes high but shipper ships them more than that... so I would have to remove 3-4 rows worth and restack on their own pallet. lot of work but I got paid $40 for each stop I did that at.

The petro's not much better either. Royal pain to get in and out and even more so if you are going into fuel aisle. Then because time of day I would be there I paid in advanced for reserved spot.... lets just say I did better than someone else attempting to get in a spot but it still took about 10-15 min to get in. They're in a great place if you're doing a 34 reset though. lots of good places to eat within walking distance and even a movie theater across the freeway (yeah I know...oh my god I'm telling you to walk somewhere! that's unheard of from truckers haha)

Covenant has been known to reassign your truck if you are at home longer than 7 days, or just because they want to trade your truck in to freightliner and get a new one.

1. Why do you need to be home for a week? Most home breaks are 4 days, give or take, and happen about once every 4-6 weeks.

2. That happened to me. I was happy with my KW T680, they told me to bring it in - it had been sold. OK, but I left with a Freightliner with what I consider the smallest sleeper area short of a Lightweight. Bo hoo. Then I kept driving, only a bit cramped in the back.

I took 8 days off in July because my sister was having a baby. it was a bit unpredictable as to when though. they were planning to induce it about 2 days before I got home then decided to wait 1 more week, so that was 5 days of home time, then it took like 20 hours for the baby to be born from time it was induced, and me and my mother (passenger with me) wanted to visit with baby so 2 more days and then it wasn't till next day that they had a load for me (sister lives in rural area, well compared to the big cities, so not as much freight nearby). So 8 days total.

Just giving you a good reason, since you asked.

There is also a very nice app that will provide that info along with a basic calculation per hole.

Truckers Slide calc ver2.2.6

I have and use this app myself... it's bloody awesome because not only will it help you get your axle weights legal, it'll help you have the best balance too which makes for a smoother ride and better fuel economy.

Also keep in mind not all tandem hols are the same. my company's trailers have 2 different kinds of spacing. 4" and 6" apart on the holes. So the amount of weight per hole is not the same on all trailers. for the most part it seems our older ones are 6" apart and newer ones are 4" but I check every time and I use that app.

That's a lot of questions... that's ok though!

First one I can't fully answer as I don't know what the company has in their trucks, but as for the 12v coolers you do not need ice. as long as they're plugged in they will keep an internal temp of about 40 cooler than the temp around the outside of the cooler. Keep this in mind in warm climates because if the inside of you truck gets hot, that cooler is not going to keep your food cold. Imagine if inside of truck is 100º... then inside of cooler can only get down to 60º which is not a safe temp for food in he fridge.

I have saw a flatbed once in northern California who had a small motorcycle on like one of those scooter holders you see on the backs of RVs. I'm guessing he owned the trailer because I don't see a company allowing you to modify their equipment and what would you do if you had a drop n hook. A for a bike there's multiple options, some buy folding bikes and store inside cab, other will hang them on the back of sleeper on outside between cab and trailer.

knife policies depend on the company but I don't think any would have an issue with a small pocket knife or Swiss army knife.

your next question is a bit complicated to answer because once again you have company policy, but then you have state and federal laws. There's to many possible things to list so you'll need to check on a case by case basis.

As for bobtailing out of a shipper (which can happen quite often) and going to walmart or a local park, 2 things to say on this. One I hope you don't have that kind of spare time to go for a walk haha, spare time means you're not making money. second it depends on the walmart and city ordinances. Quite a few cities that won't allow trucks (even bobtail) to park at walmarts or other places and then various walmarts have their own rules too. It's always best to call and ask for a manager. just because there' a truck there already doesn't man it's ok... you could find truck getting towed while you're inside, or security / law officer waking you up telling you you can't be here, etc

average pay can fluctuate on to many variables. Heck I work for Knight and I can say my average net pay when I run on the east coast has been about $650-$700 net per week, sometimes more, sometimes less. When I run on the west coast I average closer to $900 net, once again sometimes more... hardly ever much less. There's a lot that can factor into it. Being knew you probably won't run as hard as a more seasoned driver (i'm still a rookie myself). When I started I thought 300 miles was a long hard day, then it became 400 miles, then 500... now 550 is a decent day for me, not the best I have done, no the worst but anything less than 400 and I'm upset except in california because your legal speed limit (55mph) limits the amount of miles you can do in a day and so does the traffic. so 400 miles in a california day is pretty decent. Then you ned to factor in things like company pay scale, doing mostly drop n hook or live load / unload, etc I see no reason you can't make more than $500 net in a week, even as a new driver.

Don't worry about pushing yourself too had either. you don't want to get burned out and hate the career super early on. Take it easy and focus on getting delivery done on time, you can work on early later for now just worry about on time and keep in communication with dispatcher.

Also keep in mind while it's plenty easy to make $500 net per week.... you'll have plenty of expenses too, like food mostly. Try to get a cooler / fridge asap so you can buy your own food and then look into your cooking options. lunchbox oven, 12v crockpot, etc. If you do get an inverter (either truck comes with it or you are allowed to have one installed) a microwave or toaster oven and a skillet could be very nice. Cooking your own food with lower your food expense by a huge amount.

Been a very very long time since I have posted here (many many months) but every so often I lurk here.

Figured this was a decent topic to chime in on. I drive an Auto Volvo with the ishift (I think that's what it's called).

I don't have any of the lurching problems you guys mention the other trucks having. Except when heavy loaded up a hill it has no problems with acceleration. It shifts really smooth and quiet. Some things I don't like are the location of the shifter... it's attached to the side of the seat and has the manual shift buttons on inside side of it so if I have stuff in my pocket it'll push the up or down shift button on me. I also don't like that it downshifts all the way to 1st when you come to a stop even when light loaded. because then it waste time having to go back up in gears, it'll skip some but not as efficient as the freightliner does with it's auto tranny.

overall I am really happy with my auto. I did manual in cdl school, learned it, still know how to drive manual but loving how much less I have to worry about, especially when winter comes. shift into drive and go!

I will say though the Volvos my company (knight) has are the smaller ones... much smaller than our internationals but I make it work just fine

My company knight uses Zonar for their on board elogs, messaging and gps and the gps sucks... badly. I myself don't use it and never have but I have never heard any good about it. also because of where zonar is mounted you have to take your eyes way off the road to see themap and audio directions sound horrible.

I use googlemaps, garmin truck gps and will be buying a motorcarrier atlas next week. also Knight does give you a list of directions you can use as well.

Congratulations on moving to solo driver. Your comment about your training being finished is concerning. Training is not over, not by a long shot. However, now you need to learn it without a teacher to guide you. Good luck, be safe.

yeah I meant that in the sense of being done of being with a trainer. I could go on and on and on about rhe miseries (some of them not legal) that I went through for my 3.5 weeks of 1st trainer but I'll spare you. I decided to just bite the bullet and deal with it since it was only for a short time and was better then ending up back at terminal or home and having to wait longer for trainer. I got assigned and on the road with that trainer less than 5 days after orientation... lets see friday after I went home, tuesday night I was on trainers truck, that's like 4-5 days, by my count. Tell you what though, it was a huge relief to be done with being on his truck. He was a decent person to have as a friend, just a poor quality trainer imo.

Then needing additional help with backing and my deadline for moving out of apartment coming up I was getting worried. But it's done now and I'm ready to be solo. I know I still have a lot to learn. The day you think you have learned everything, that's the day you need to turn in your keys and cut your CDL in half. There's always something new to learn or improve upon.