Comments By ACO476

I'll be done with cdl school in a couple weeks. We always have recruiters come in and give presentations, but they're mostly mega carriers. I keep hearing about big money in the oil fields. I don't care if I have to work for 35k/year for a couple years before I make good money. I don't care if I'll live in the middle of nowhere. I just want to put myself in a position (get my foot in the door) where I can be making big money down the road. Any suggestions on companies or ways to get working in this? Thanks in advance.

If you live in Texas, try Schlumberger, Par 5 Energy Services, 9 Energy Services, or Basic Energy Services. There are numerous other water haulers for the oil fields too. Where do you live exactly?

When I stopped worrying about what other people thought about me or my profession and started seriously concentrating on being the best employee that I can be for my customers and my employer, I realized that not much else matters. It doesn't matter what other truckers think about me, my company, my truck, the fact that I use electronic logging, or the fact that I keep my company provided truck in showroom condition at all times (I catch a lot of grief from coworkers about this). The only things that matter to me are my wife and my daughter, and to make sure they're well taken care of, I make sure my employer and my customers are well taken care of. Everything else sort of falls into place. In the end, it doesn't matter one bit what others think about you or your company. Surround yourself with positive individuals (i.e. the folks here on TT, friends, family, etc.), make your job and your customers the most important things that you "stress" about during your workday, and everything else falls into place. Leave everything else at the rest stop.

I’ve been green lighted for that much over on the steers. Make sure your tires are rated for the weight. You’ll be in more trouble if your tires aren’t rated for the weight on the front (I’m guessing you’re fine though).

Full fuel tanks? That makes a difference as well. When I drove an international, all of the fuel weight was at the front of the truck.

Your call in the end. You’re the captain of your ship and you’ll be on the hook for the citation, if it comes to that. If it were me, I’d roll with it.

Waiting is unfortunately the name of the game. I waited for 4 days for a load in Seattle once. Nobody would answer my Qualcomm and when I called dispatch, I was placed on "hold" and the line would mysteriously disconnect. This happened several times. I ended up just waiting it out and eventually got a load out of there. When I did get a load, I didn't get upset with anyone and didn't take it personally; I just assumed it was a lack of freight. Oh, and for the record, this happened over a weekend with weekend dispatch running the show.

Hang in there. You might have to wait a little longer, but they'll get you on the road as soon as they can.

Clean the pigtail connection on both your tractor and trailer. I use Valvoline starting fluid to clean mine and it usually clears up the ABS light problem. Probably just a dirty connector. The ether cleans all of that road grime off of the pigtail connection.

If not, and the ABS trailer light stays on, get it checked when you can.

Brett wrote:

If my company wants to reward me they'll do it by keeping my average weekly mileage about 3,000 miles.

^^^This times 1,000^^^

Keep me moving and keep me doing what you hired me to do.

FWIW, my current company automatically pays detention after one hour if the driver is on time, but I never worry about it. I’m more concerned with how many loads I can pull a week, which is where the real money is at.

Hi, I was told by SWIFT that they pay $16-$17 an hour for any type of "detention" issue as long as its not the drivers fault. When I asked if I can get their complete pay policy and detention policy before I sign the bottom line to join them to go to their CDL school, they told me I can't because all that information is in their Drivers Manual, and you cannot get that until after you sign up etc. When I asked what the different types of detentions were he said its just "black and white", either its your fault or its not. He also told me in response to my question if drivers get paid if the truck breaks down or blows a tire, that such things never happen 95% of the time. I take that as a "NO"?

They’re pretty much going to pay you 36 cents per mile and really nothing else. I sat for 5 days in Denver waiting on a B service once and got paid $10 per day for my troubles. Nice of them to buy me lunch every day, but I could have made way more than $50 turning miles. This was the one and only time I was ever paid anything other than my agreed upon cents per mile. Put in your time with Swift, learn how things go out on the road, learn to be a productive employee, don’t tear up equipment and be on time all the time and you won’t need to worry about detention or breakdown pay.

To directly answer your question, I didn’t keep my drivers manual when I left Swift, but I don’t recall there being anything in there about extra pay. There was other info in there that I was more concerned with, like terminal locations, company policy, points of contact, etc.

You’ve never driven in Texas, have you?

I called my loacal police department, explained where I would like to park, included a map for clarification, and explained how long I might be parking there. I also asked for alternative locations if the one I had chosen was no good. It took about two weeks for the Lieutenant of the traffic division to get back to me with an OK to park where I first suggested. Might be worth a try in your case. Whenever I take my equipment home now, I tape the email from my PD in the window, just in case someone for some reason doesn’t like where I’m parked. FWIW, I found an out of the way hidden place about 1/2 block from my house that works perfectly.

Don’t do it. Stay far away. Read this: http://www.landlinemag.com/Magazine/2009/DecJan/BottomLine/want-to-avoid.aspx