Comments By AJ D.

You're not hurting my feelings, Guy.

I'm here to find all the facts I can so I can make an informed decision. I appreciate your help, buddy. :)

Come the data coming, as long as you have time, I'm listening.

Have you ever ran a commodities based business where you are competing against 4 million other companies?

Do you have an extra $20000 you never plan to use and could very well never seen again?

Do you know the freight lanes in trucking and and what the price in each market demands?

Do you know the slow times and good freight times in trucking?

Do you know what areas of the country to avoid cause of slow freight?

Well do you? I do. I can answer yes to all these questions.And I used to have my own truck. And I got tried of making only slightly better money than a company driver and now I am a company driver. My net income(take home)was about $68000 a year for the three years I had my own truck. Now I make $50000 a year. I know that's a difference of 18k but that's the cost of one blown transmission or half the cost of a new engine.

If the answer to ANY of these questions is no then it makes no sense to get your own truck.

I did not ask these to make you look like you knew nothing. I was asking them in all seriousness.

Sorry, I can't give you any info.

Just wishing you look get back into the field .

AJ

I'm counting myself in on following your journey. :)

...subscribed

I'm looking forward to keeping up with your progress. :)

Yes, I suppose this Easter is for Moon observance Christians :)

Orthodox Christians have to wait another month for Easter (or Pascha)

Dave

If you don't mind saying, what outfit was this and at what cpm did they start you out at?

I'll PM you the same question if you don't want to state it publicly :)

I am working for one of the more bashed companies that is out there, and if you listened to some of the other forums, you would think they were run by Darth Vadar and working to build the death Star to the trucking industry.

When we were in school, we would get together in the evenings at the lobby of our motel and have their free coffee and shoot the breeze. One of the things that struck me, was about how misinformed some of my fellow students were about our company, and many of them were shocked at the base pay we were starting out with. Yet every student is sent an information packet before they leave, that spells out everything, and to date, I have seen nothing working here, that was not spelled out in that information. They just do not bother to read it. And of course, those people always said that the company was a crook and cheating them. The sad thing is, this was a majority of the people there. My room mate and I had both read the material so our expectations were a lot more realistic.

One of the other litanies I hear is "My recruiter said..........." and then again, "they are big crooks and ripping me off". My recruiter told me that to start, the pay was low, the hours long, and I would not be home for weeks. He also told me if I stick it out, it gets better fast, and you know what, we get our first raise in 3 months. At 6 months we get a big raise if we are still around. That second raise will put us within 2 cents a mile of what they pay drivers with experience to start, and there are experienced drivers lining up to get jobs here, because in a well run team truck, we can out a lot of miles in.

Another reason I came in with very real expectations is I found this site first. I have not seen anything in the info from here, that was not true. Expectations play a big part in what is posted in those other forums. That and the idea of instant gratification kind of pervades peoples belief set these days. I came from a profession where I started at the bottom, and after 25 years with only a high school education, I was making 50 grand a year. I now find a career where I can start at the bottom and after only 2 or 3 years experience, get back to where I was after 25 years, I am actually kind of amazed.

Is there any time when leasing is a good option for a Rookie?

Seems like too much of a commitment for someone who hasn't even sat in seat yet.

It looks like there are basically four load types.

Reefer Flatbed Tanker Dry Van

Would it be advised for a rookie to stay away from any of these?

This place looks really good, guys.

http://www.driveforprime.com/

Ernie S. pointed me to Prime.

Seems like a good operation with Refrigerated, flat-bed and tanker divisions.

Would dry van freight be a better start for rookie? ... or does it not matter much skill wise...

Thanks Ernie :)