Profile For ID Mtn Gal

Depends on what the company pays. I had my TWIC card and ran the Port of Oakland every week for a company 5 years ago and they were paying .49 cpm....slightly below average. Other container companies were in the same ballpark as the one I was driving for.

I left them and drove 3.5 years for another company and went back to running containers to the Port of Oakland. I ran 18 months for them and that company started me out at 52 cents and when I left the day before this past Thanksgiving, I was making 54 cents. Took winter off and started 1 Feb driving dry van and am making .57 cpm.

Stick with Melton for another year or two and become a top-tier driver to make more money. You can change companies all the time to make more money, but in reality you are starting pretty much at the bottom at the new company and you have to work you're way up to make better money.

Laura

Go on LinkedIn, Indeed.com and any other websites that do applications to a massive amount of companies. If you have no accidents on your DAC record, you might get a hit that way. Otherwise, check Craigslist to see what might be there for your area.

It has been tough and getting tougher to find driving jobs in this economy. Many companies are laying off and small mom and pop companies are closing down.

Good luck

Every small company I have worked for and there has been five of them, don't pay as well as the bigger companies with 250+ trucks. For me, being a widow, and making more money than I have ever made in my life, I can accept the lower cpm.

As for fewer rules to follow, I about blew tea through my nose! HAHAHA It doesn't matter the size of the company, everybody has the same FMCSA rules to follow. I have a friend that worked for Swift for 13 years until his division was closed down where he was at. So he went to the company I was at hauling fresh beef and fresh pork in containers to the Port of Oakland every week. Old School started out with Western Express and did very well there but then moved to flatbed with Knight. He's been there quite a long time and does very well. There are a number of other drivers here that have stayed with their company for many years. That's what you need to do with Melton.

Most old timers that I know want to go back to the old days...no ELDs and no HOS. Life progresses and as drivers we have to stay up with the changes. I used to build computers, I like having an ELD. After my one small company got shut down by DOT back in February 2017, I vowed I would never drive for a company that didn't have electronic logs. Actually I run better with electronic logs and make better money than I did running illegal.

It doesn't matter what the name of the company is on the door, it's how well you work with that company.

Laura

I watched your video. I really did not know that it was a law that locks have to be on bathroom doors. Even old people can learn new things 😉

I agree with you though. Even though I'm "one of the guys" out here, I'm still a female and don't want to have anyone walk in on me.

Laura

1st off, I have only prior wrote about the Black Ice incident. How DARE you say that my 23 + pages of Evidence is nothing. You have no clue what I have..

If you are responding to me, I know you only wrote one other post and I never brought up about more than one post.

BY THE WAY, I AM A DRIVER, ALSO... I know SHOCKER.. I've driven since I was too young to have a License and I could only drive local with the Owner of the Company or my Father with me.

Yes, I am shocked that you are a driver. If you have a current CDL, then you should know that your husband's accidents (3 backing at 30+ years experience) are serious. Accidents do happen, but drivers know how to accept responsibility. We don't know if he has or not. However, if as a driver yourself, you sure haven't.

You DONT KNOW how to be civil. I'm a dumb woman according to you that knows absolutely nothing!! WANNA BET ON THAT! I WILL be sending the MODS a screen shot and hoping they remove you

Oh, I do know how to be civil. But I have no patience for a person who does not want to listen to the advice given. Actually, if you are a driver with a current CDL, I don't believe you would have accepted responsibility for this accident. All your comments have pointed to that.

Go ahead and report me to the mods. A couple have already seen my comment and they might remove me, but I don't think so because I really did not say anything that hasn't been said before by others.

And if your 72-73.. I KNOW your parents taught you if you have nothing good to say, DONT SAY IT.

Yep, born in 1951, and you don't know my upbringing or my parents. My five brothers, sister and I had a very bad upbringing and my mother was a witch with a B until the day she died. My dad wasn't any better.

I'm sure if Brett or any of the mods want to chastise me, they will send me an email or text message. What I said, however, was to the point and factual, which you don't seem to want to accept, which is fine.

Good Evening all!! I am the Wife of a Driver that was terminated end of March 2024. 27 years with the same Company! Anyhow. I'm asking.. BE NICE He has 33 + years of driving. Great record.

We were nice to you when you wrote before. I never answered because I would have taken you to task for being a helicopter wife who is making all sorts of excuses for him. If he feels the same way as you, making light of those backing incidents, then he's done for. All accidents/incidents are serious.

However I've had to have 2 major Surgeries with a 1 year time frame. He was and has been worried about me!

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? It has no bearing on his accidents. If he was that worried about you that he was not concentrating, then he should have not been driving.

Last April 2023 he had a backing incident, nothing major 1 month later another backing issue, nothing major

You probably won't see it because you are making light by saying "nothing major". However, two accidents within a month is serious. He was lucky to not have been terminated then.

June or July 2023, he was backing out of a fuel island. Loves Tanker truck pulls by behind him, btw he got out and made sure no one was there.. He hit the middle of the tanker and put a hole in it. Tanker driver also came into the truck stop backwards.

Most fuel trucks go into a truck stop whatever way it takes for them to get to their underground tanks. Again, you are making excuses for your husband. Apparently, the hole he put in the tank was above any fuel line because then he would have been charged with a hazmat incident. In this case, probably both are to blame.

The termination, was BLACK ICE in Nebraska, he laid the truck over, the load was meat and it was saved as soon as the truck was set back up.

You don't know what happened to that meat load. More than likely, the receiver refused it and it got sold pennies on the dollar. I hauled containers of fresh beef and fresh pork to the Port of Oakland from NE, IA, MO, CO, KS and OK every week for 3 years. In the past couple years, the beef loads were valued at $250,000 to $500,000. We had a driver that was by Big Springs NE in a construction zone, when a Crete driver went through the cones and hit our guy head on, pushing him off the road into a tree. The trailer was not damaged and stayed upright. The receiver, a company in Japan, refused the load, which is their right to do so. So our company, had to turn around and find a place to buy it pennies on the dollar. This happened in October 2022. So this accident of your husband's was very costly and VERY serious.

His termination report states all the accidents even though 1 is falling off tomorrow. What Company or any Company gonna be willing to hire him??

When he had his accident in March, it was more than a month to when it was falling off. So why would you think that it would not be put on the report??!!

As for him getting hired again....not by any serious companies that look at DAC records. In this economy, companies are struggling to get loads and keep their drivers running and if there are any incidents, and there's an attitude with it, they are letting them go. My company just sent a message yesterday about attitudes and letting a driver go because he did not want to go to New Jersey with a load. So I'm not sure, because we have not heard from your husband, only you and you are not a driver I can tell, what his attitude is about the three backing incidents and the layover. If he's not making excuses or downplaying the three backing accidents, he might be able to find a company, either a 1099 or one who's scores with FMCSA aren't very good....but pay won't be very good. However, the layover will keep him from getting hired pretty much by even those companies because the insurance on him will skyrocket.

He needs to look for Class B type driving jobs. Your 23 page email that you sent to FMCSA will keep him from being looked at as a Class A driver. Companies, even second chance companies, will shy away from him as being a troublemaker, especially with all your excuses.

Please no snide comments, Reminder ... BE NICE. :)

OMG! Are you for real??! The guys were more than polite, with no snide comments in the previous post. I can tell you're an only child! Your attitude is one of entitlement. Because you don't like what we have told you, you have bombarded us with facts that don't matter and then tell us to be nice. Lady, at 73 years old and still driving out here, I don't have to be nice to you. Now, if your husband has some questions, I would be happy to answer them just like the other guys have answered you. I presume you are showing him the comments. If he's not accepting responsibility for those accidents, then he's done in this business.

Hopefully PJ will come in here and will be able to answer your questions. I believe he's the only OO at the current time.

With the economy the way it is, I would NOT even be looking to be an owner op or lease op. When companies are letting go of their good drivers, because there is no freight, this is not a good time to be striking out on your own. Insurance is way high, especially for a beginner owner op and freight rates have tanked. Hundreds (if not thousands) of OOs and LOs have had to shut down and many lost their trucks.

Many CEOs have been watching this, and they are thinking it may come back at the end of the 4th quarter or the first quarter next year. But no one knows for sure.

Start with these... LOTS of good info:

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road CDL Training Program
• CDL Practice Tests

What state are you in? How old are you? Are you married or single? Are you working now? Any tickets in your personal vehicle?

Answer the above questions, so the guys have an idea what to recommend.

We do recommend that prospective drivers go thru company paid training...especially in this economy. Once you complete training, you will have a job. A lot of guys will whine that they don't want to commit to a company, even for a year. Some companies are a little bit less and some are a little bit more. The thing is though, most of the mega companies are self-insured, so if you have a little incident/accident, you are not giving your walking papers like you would be at other companies that want 3 months or more experience. Plus, it takes a good year or more to get used to driving in different weather, backing and other things that go with this business. A year goes by fast. On top of that, if you like a company you can stay with them. Yes there will be other companies that pay more, but every time you change a job, you are starting at the bottom and you could be making more money at your original company. I knew a guy that stayed with Swift for 13 years. He did rail yard intermodal and when that moved out of his area, he then changed jobs to stay with intermodal. He was making pretty decent money.

Get started reading and you will find a lot of your questions answered. However, if it's not, come back here and ask.

As long as you are not put on BP meds, when you go in one year, if it's normal (140/90 is considered too high) then you will get a 2-year card.

Did they recommend that you see a doctor about your elevated blood pressure? I would get it checked in a couple months and see what it's doing. If it comes down, you're good. However if it's still over the above pressure I posted, then you need to go talk with your doctor about getting it down.

I didn't know what it was so I did a search on it. That looks to be a foreign made Volvo cabover. I would hazard a guess that no one here knows much about them, but I could be wrong.

This site is mainly to help new people getting into the trucking business.