Comments By Bolt

My Walmart parking story. I live in NW Arkansas the home of Walmart where we have a Walmart or branded Walmart store on every corner. I was working for a construction company that was building a new super center. We we're at the point where the store was almost complete. WM management was setting the store up but the construction company still retained the property. I was working security and a driver cones in and asks If he can park for the night as he only had about 15 minutes left on his clock. I said I couldn't give him permission but the store manager was inside. I also told him there was a truck stop at the next exit about 5 minutes away. He drive off in a Tiff circles a light pole and taking it out with his trailer went through the unopened exit getting one of our barrels hung up on his landing gear.

All he had to do was go in and ask the manager or drive 5 more minutes to the truck stop, though it is usually very crowded.

NW, I will be in Memphis in a few weeks for training. Or at least I hope to be.

Jaime, what part of Arkansas do you hail from?

I'm glad to see this post. Good job Big T. As a future swiftie it's nice to see what can be achieved.

Keep the wheels a spinnin and the beavers grinnin

Question to Old School, I have heard you guys talk about moving appoints up. Does that work well in the skateboard division? That's where I want to go when I get out if training.

The training manual states that the driver must inspect his or her tiedowns every 150 miles or three hours, is this trackable? Now please don't misunderstand what I am asking, not looking for vindication to not stop, just curious if this gets overlooked is recorded somehow?

Thanks G-TOWN for another amazing read. I also see another "benefit", and that's the benefits themselves. Most companies require 3 months for their benefits to kick in. If one is constantly changing jobs then how could he or she ever stay covered or collect some of the other Bennie's that companies offer?

Man I love a cab over. I wish I could buy an old K 100 just to have and restore.

Excellent article G-Town, really great stuff!

I just now finished my busy day and had a chance to read it. Many of you know that I started my career at Western Express. Despite all the online horror stories about them, I did remarkably well there. I learned so much by working at a company that was bringing in approximately 150 new drivers every week, because they were also losing that many each week.

I learned that good solid drivers always manage to come out on top - it makes no difference who's name is on the truck's doors. I also learned that trucking companies quickly recognize those drivers who exhibit a consistent ability to keep things moving efficiently. Those drivers are consistently favored and put in the best positions for maximizing their pay.

The outrageous falsehoods that people believe about trucking companies begin to be verified in their minds the very moment they hit a little snag in their job. Now who doesn't hit a few snags when trying to start their trucking career? But when we start it with the ill conceived ideas that we allowed to be planted in our mind by fools we've never even met, we do ourselves a real disservice. Most trucking careers are doomed because of foolish online lies that have morphed into legendary "facts" concerning this whole career. It's hard enough overcoming the mountain of difficulties inherent with this career, but on top of that, today's rookies are up against a virtual flood of misinformation that hamstrings most of them right from the start.

I have invested a lot of my personal time over the years trying to raise a standard against the flood of Bovine Excrement that has literally destroyed many budding truck driving careers. I think it's sad that a career that I have found to be extremely rewarding is so maligned by the riff raff who never had what it takes to succeed at this stuff in the first place. I know what we do here has helped so many people, but it is just alarming at how many are still being blown off course by all the bad information that they find when researching this career.

Just yesterday I was sitting in a terminal rat's nest at our terminal in Atlanta, GA. Two driver's were discussing how they started their careers at Western Express, but they both quit within 90 days because of how bad the company was. They couldn't get any miles, their pay was never right, their driver manager wouldn't answer their phone calls, blah, blah, blah, until I wanted to vomit. One of them told me he was waiting on his driver manager to route him to the Gulfport, Mississippi terminal because he was "quitting the company." (Knight) When I asked him why he was quitting, his response was clear and bold, "I told myself that I would give these guys three months to show me what kind of operation they had going here, but so far it's been the same old bull s**t type of treatment I got at Western Express. I'm moving on to someplace that will show me some respect. There's a big demand for drivers right now, and I'm going to find me someplace with a nice fat sign-on bonus."

Haha! He had stepped right into it at that point. I calmly told him, " I've worked for two trucking companies who treated me with great respect and big fat paychecks." "Which ones were that," he asked. I paused, looked him in the eyes, and said, "Western Express, and Knight Transportation." They looked at each other and pretty much fell silent. One of them decided he needed to go outside to smoke a cigarette, and the other one said he would come out and join him.

While it is quite sad, Old School that last paragraph is rather humorous.

I don't mind this freightliner. I definitely like the color better than the other company trucks lol

How did you score that tractor? I plan on going into Swift's flatbed division.