Comments By Kevin K

I also read through 6 strings thread on pulling doubles for OD and I took Brett A.'s cautions therein about starting out as a city P&D driver to heart. I was anxious enough about P&D already without him chiming in :) I have no other discernible job skills so this is my whole career I'm putting at stake.

I feel like OD is setting me up to fail while Averitt is setting me up to succeed.

Averitt uses 53 foot dry vans for their linehaul, which they call "shuttle"

Most other LTLs use doubles - OD, Saia, Estes, R&L, ABF, as well as UPSF, FedEx...

This is one of the factors. I'm 45 and looking long-term. Is pulling doubles in the Midwest something I want to be doing 5 years down the road?

I'm a recent Class A driving school grad with a ton of Class B straight truck experience. I applied at Old Dominion and Averitt and was offered jobs (conditional pending background check, etc.) at both.

Now my (incredibly-fortunate-to-have) dilemma:

OD wants to start me right off the bat as a city P&D driver. Averitt has a combo drop-and-hook/linehaul position available. I really, really don't want to do city P&D but my foot would be in the door at OD for a doubles linehaul gig down the road. The position at Averitt, however, is exactly what I'm looking for.

I'm having trouble deciding between the high-risk, high-reward job at OD or the lower risk, lower reward job at Averitt. I'm heavily leaning towards Averitt.

Would I be certifiably nuts turning down Old Dominion?

6 string,

I filled out an application for linehaul at OD and have an interview with the terminal manger tomorrow. Reading through your thread now but I'm only on page 5. If you see this post and could give me a few interview tips it'd be much appreciated.

Life is strange. Just ran into an OD driver at a dock and he had time to chat. Set my mind at ease about some things and gave me a shot of confidence too.

Please dont put all your hopes in one company.

Nope. Just two - Averitt and OD. I'll happily get my experience and hone my skills anywhere, though. I'm patient...

Check out "my linehaul job" by sixstring on here. Everything you need to know is in there.

Awesome. Thank you.

I'm a recent truck school grad. I applied online for linehaul at Old Dominion on a Saturday afternoon and the phone rang Monday morning. I have an interview with them on Friday.

I would love to work for them. Any insights on the interview or physical from those who have been through the application process would be much appreciated.

That's excellent advice and something that wasn't stressed much in school. Slowing down and holding up traffic makes me anxious and I start missing and grinding gears which just makes me more frustrated and anxious. I'm kind of dreading backing into tricky docks as a newbie and holding up the pros who just want to get their route done and go home. It's good to know that I did nothing wrong. I re-take the road test portion on Tuesday.

For the last eight weeks I have attended what is allegedly the top tech school truck driving program in the state. I'm on track for a 4.0 and perfect attendance yet I failed my road test yesterday because I followed the instructions our instructors have been instructing us all class long.

The day started well enough. I got Form A (engine) on the pre-trip and hit 44 out of 47. I missed two because I didn't physically touch the part I mentioned.

Skills test went smooth as well. One pull up each on the offset (nerves) and 90 degree. No GOALs. A perfect "zero."

Road test went well too until the last stoplight on the course. I was told to turn right and the light went from yellow to red the moment I stopped at the line in the right turn only lane. There was also a "Stop" sign at that line. Kinda like this if you can picture it:

I have been told throughout the class by the instructors, "don't turn right on red, there's no law that says you have to turn, better safe than sorry," yada yada yada... I have stopped at this particular light and sign multiple times and waited through the cycle while cars stacked up behind me.

I failed because I was "impeding traffic." I have nearly 20 years experience driving vans and straight trucks for a living and have always turned right on red at lights and signs when it was legal and safe to do so. It was only when I got to this class and followed instructions I didn't agree with or feel comfortable with that it caused me to fail.

I'm ticked. My instructors are ticked (if a little chagrined). If you read all this - thank you -- and what say you?