Comments By Crawdaddy

TMC pays primarily percentage, with an option to go with cpm. I have a couple friends that run percentage and like it. They tend to make a tad bit more, on average, over cpm. But nothing to dance a jig to.

Would you happen to know if TMC is a good company to work for? Such as respect for their drivers, not pushing their drivers to falsify their log books, willing to work with their drivers on getting home, honesty, do they offer plenty of miles, or anything else that makes a company good.

When I started Flatbed for Prime I made .39 cpm, and was making .41 cpm after a year with them. So I think you have a good deal. I made decent money that year with Prime.

If I start with a company and I volunteer to take all the crappy loads for a while, do you feel that my dispatcher or the company would be more willing to give me more miles and more challenging loads? I ask because I don't want to be driving with a company and then I am only getting like a 1000 miles a week pulling flatbeds or whatever it may be trying to make ends meet. I really want to try and do the best I can and be the best team player I can be for whatever company I decide to go to. I would even forgo home time just so I can start making deceit money.

.43 cpm is good for a new driver and you'll be paid for empty miles as well. Percentage pay will vary when figured out by the mile. You won't get paid empty miles but may make more per loaded mile. You can't go wrong at .43 cpm, but with out knowing what past loads paid its hard to say what percentage would pay.

So as a new driver I would lean towards cpm, without knowing average load pay. I'm currently working for percentage for a small company but I get 35% as an experienced driver. That being said I've had good paying loads going one direction, but had to take a low paying load to come back.

Again leaning towards cpm for new driver, hope this helps.

Thanks, this does help out quite a bit. I put the wrong info it was .40 cpm to start and then after 6 months it goes to .42 cpm. I will take your advise and go with the .40 cpm. This was for a flatbed position, does that sound like pretty good pay or is this on the low end for flatbed. Thanks.

Hello Everyone,

First off, I would like to thank everyone that has helped me so far with all the questions I have had. I am glad to be apart of this forum. Here is my question. I have been looking at trucking companies. I have noticed that some give you the option of percentage pay or pay by the mile. How can I make an informed decision on what is the most beneficial to me. Is there a formula for determining if .43 CPM is greater or equal to 26% of the revenue. I honestly do not know what the price of a load would be. Thanks

Well first of all since it's been 16 years you're completely starting over from scratch as far as most companies are concerned. So expect to do the full training program wherever you go. If you still have some skills they might be able to push you through a little more quickly. But otherwise, just approach it as if you've never driven in your life.

I don't really know anything about the Troops To Truckers program other than it's a non-profit organization that provides career counseling for troops looking to get into trucking. They're not going to have any impact on your schooling or your chances of finding a job. They're simply going to make recommendations to you about what schools and companies to look at.

As far as what companies you should look into, that will depend mostly on:

1) What type of freight you want to haul

2) How often you'd like to get home

3) Where you live

I see you mentioned Miami. If you're going to be based out of Florida your options are going to be very limited. Most major companies will not hire out of Florida because they don't run freight down there. There is very little freight coming out of Florida so a lot of companies avoid going there altogether. There is also an extremely high level of crimes against trucks (stolen trucks and freight, mostly) south of Interstate 10 so that doesn't help either. If you were based out of Tennessee you would have a much longer list of options to choose from.

We have an excellent listing of truck driving jobs that will give you an idea of who is hiring in different parts of the country:

Truck Driving Jobs

I want to be able to do flatbed, reefer , and tanker

If you want to try a bunch of different types of trucking jobs then your best bet would be to find one of the major companies that has a large variety of choices like Swift, Werner, Schneider, and Prime. It's far better for a driver to move within divisions at the same company than it is to job hop all the time trying different things.

I must have communicated it wrong. I am not staying in Florida, I am just going there for the school. Once I finish the school I will be going back and living in Tennessee. As you spoke of the hiring of with in the company is exactly what I was trying to refer to. That's why I am not looking at Werner or Swift because of the fact their is no tanker division. Is there other companies that offer the trio beside prime. I know Schneider doe not have a reefer division. I cant really seem to find a lot of comes that do. Can I work for a company that is not in TN or am I stuck with being hired from just there? Unless a lot has changed, I use to live in Texas and worked for an OTR moving company that was in Utah they sent me up there got me trained up and let from the company. Troops 2 truckers is a totally different one then what I am doing.

The website I am referring to is http://troops2transport.com/

As far as counting your experience, many OTR companies will only count OTR jobs as driving experience. They often times don't count even Class A tractor trailer jobs where you ran locally within your home state or any sort of Class B jobs. So whether or not they would count your experience at a moving company will vary from company to company. Some will, some won't.

And most companies are only interested in what they consider "recent" experience which is generally in the past 3 - 5 years. So if your experience was more than 3 - 5 years ago they might not count it anyhow.

But regardless, you don't have your CDL now so the fastest way to get back out on the road making money would likely be through one of the Paid CDL Training Programs. They want to get you out there as quickly as possible so if they can shortcut some of the training, get you to the test center to get that CDL, and get you on the road quickly they'll do it. You're still going to have to go out with a trainer and all that but that's just how it goes.

Now you could just get your permit, rent a truck, have someone drive you to the test facility, and pass all the tests to get your CDL back but that probably wouldn't be worth the hassle. Most of the major companies would require you to go on the road with a trainer anyhow because you have no recent OTR experience and no recent certificate of completion from a legitimate school.

So it's likely the fastest, easiest way to get back out there making money is through one of the company-sponsored programs. If those companies don't appeal to you then make some phone calls to companies you like and ask them what it would take to qualify to work there. They'll certainly let you know.

Thanks for the information it has been about 16 years due to being in the service. I do plan on attending the troops 2 transportation that helps veterans get their CDL through "The CDL School" that is in Miami, FL. Do you happen to know anything about this school? I know that today I was informed that Schneider and Stevens Transport Pre-hired me. Would you happen to know of companies that haul similar freight like Schneider. I really do not want to be a one dimensional trucker. I want to be multi-faceted but I also do not want to just have Schneider as the only option. I want to be able to do flatbed, reefer, and tanker. I have already done dry van for 2 years OTR. I know prime is another but from the research they do not really fit what I am looking for. Thanks

Welcome Crawdaddy.

I recently lost my license due to being in the service and the Department of public safety not let me keep my license cause they said I have to be working with a company

To be honest I've never heard of either of those things happening to anyone so I'm not sure what to say about that. In fact, they have an exemption for people who have been in the military where they waive the skills test to get your CDL. And I know for a fact you don't have to be "driving for a company" to keep your CDL. You just have to keep your DOT medical card current.

Then they said I had to take a road test to transfer it over

Ok, transferring your CDL from one state to another can sometimes require a road test but those laws are being superseded by Federal laws and won't be around much longer. That's also the third different scenario you've presented:

1) It was taken away because you were in the service

2) It was taken away because you weren't working for a company

3) It was taken away because you didn't take a road test to transfer it

So I'm not sure I'm following any of this but regardless it seems you apparently do not have a CDL right now so I don't know how you expect a company to hire you without it. To anyone who has a CDL license but has no recent verifiable experience, or to those who used to have a CDL but have given it up, we normally recommend looking at the Paid CDL Training Programs because they'll get you whatever training or refresher they feel you need to pass the CDL exams and get out on the road as quickly as possible.

I know just yesterday people were saying that Western Express has a refresher course for anyone who either hasn't driven in the past three years or never used their CDL professionally but both of those refresher courses require you to currently have your CDL.

But even if you had your CDL you would still have to go through some sort of refresher course if you haven't used it in a few years. That's what most trucking companies require.

Ok to clarify what I was saying is that I had my Class A CDL from Texas. I was stationed in TN, my license was about to expire and I went down to the TN Department of safety and they said that because I was transferring my license that they would not renew my CDL because I would have to take a road test which would require me to have to find a truck and get a new license. Which I was under the impression as long as you had your license then that did not normally happen. The second part was that I was told be companies that I would have to do training all over again because one your are right I do not have my license and 2 that I guess they have some kind of issue with my 2 years OTR that was for a Household good mover. Is it a problem to count my 2 years of experience OTR for the requirement or is it because it was household goods and not freight? Some clarification would be great. Thanks

I am writing this because I see a lot of trucking companies that I have applied for say that they wont hire me or I have to go through their driver program. I recently lost my license due to being in the service and the Department of public safety not let me keep my license cause they said I have to be working with a company. Then they said I had to take a road test to transfer it over. But if I have verifiable 2 years OTR experience, why does it have to come to a dead end? Even though I have spent 2 years OTR they still wont hire me.