Profile For Noobie1217

So I don't know if your not supposed to talk about money and miles or what...but when I was looking into this I did not feel I could ever find what I was looking for when it came to actual pay...below I will list the miles loaded and dead that I have had along with what my checks are....If i keep the pace I'm running I should be able to break $70,000 this year....so that's not horrible....unless you figure in the amount of time away of home...but it is still pretty descent wages I think..as I get more experience I should be able to move this number up as well...One thing I put a bunch of thought into when I first started was how the companies pay....It seemed like everyone at my company was really pushing a person to go on percentage pay(25.5% for noobies like me)..at first I thought it was a great idea but as much as they was suggesting it I was becoming skeptical....the other option was .45cpm loaded and .42 cpm unloaded....well for the first five months I chose the percentage and wish I would of went mileage...I'm still on percentage but may make a change soon....any thoughts on percentage vs mileage would be greatly appreciated...so on my miles I keep an excel spread sheet every week of the places I go and what each load pays...as well as how much I would of made vs mileage and as well as O/O..any questions thoughts on how I can increase it or general feed back let me know..I could not figure out the best way to put all the information on here so sorry if its hard to understand..the mileage number at the end is what I would of received if I would of picked mileage pay

Jan week 1 (my first solo week) 1618 loaded miles 412 empty miles, 2925 load pay, 738 my cut, 40 tarp money, gross $778,mileage pay roughly 953 Jan week 2 1923 Loaded, 554 empty, 3958 load pay, 999.54 my cut, 143 tarp pay,gross $1142, mileage 1257 Jan Week 3 1897 Loaded, 367 empty, 3850 Load pay, 972 my cut, 105 tarp pay, gross $1077,mileage 1124 At the end of January I would of made $337 more on mileage than percentage

Feb Week 1 2302 loaded, 420 empty, 4495 load pay, 1135 my cut, 107 tarp pay,gross $1242, mileage 1332 Feb wk 2 2177 loaded,609 empty, 3897 load pay, 984 my cut, 80 tarp pay,gross $1064, mileage 1334 feb wk 3 2551 loaded, 296 empty, 5510 load pay, 1391 my cut,gross $1561, mileage 1451 why I only have 3 weeks in February I do not know..lol Feb would of made $249 more on mileage, for the year I'm down $586

Mar Wk11620 Loaded,302 empty, 2858 load pay, 722 my cut, 170 tarp pay, gross $ 891.58, mileage 1035 Mar WK 2 2148 Loaded, 567 empty, 4721 load pay, 1192 my cut, 200 tarp pay, gros $1392, mileage 1422 Mar wk 3 2254 loaded, 839 empty, 4227 load pay, 1067 my cut, 134 tarp, gross $ 1201, mileage 1525 Mar wk 4 3076 loaded, 431 empty, 5734 load pay, 1448 my cut, 100 tarp, gross 1548, mileage 1678 Mar wk 5 ?? 2853 loaded, 702 empty, 5720 load pay, 1444 my cut, 0 tarp pay, gross 1444, mileage 1600 well found that missing week in february for these 5 weeks I'm 784 dollars less on percentage than mileage, with a running total of about $1370...not looking good

Apr wk 1 2120 loaded, 92 empty, 4022 load pay, 1016 my cut, 40 tarp pay, gross 1056, mileage 1035 Apr wk 2 2473 Loaded, 444 empty, 5002 load pay, 1263 my cut, 40 tarp pay, gross 1303, mileage 1352 Apr wk 3 3295 loaded, 243 empty, 6891 load pay, 1740 my cut, 120 tarp pay, gross 1860, mileage 1712 Apr wk 4 2317 Loaded, 149 empty, 3954 load pay, 998 my cut, 212 tarp pay, gross 1211, mileage 1322 At the end of April I actually made $7.00 more on percentage than mileage, but for the year was negative $1363

May wk 1 2342 loaded, 382 empty, 5009 load pay, 1265 my cut, 50 tarp, gross 1315, mileage 1276 I have been paid for the 2nd week of may but have yet to update my spreadsheet....

so I feel like I'm getting in a descent amount of miles...and I'm getting home on majority of weekends...just need to push the percentage up or go to mileage or something..lol...any thoughts or suggestions aprreciated..Also for anyone thinking of getting into this....this is just my experience so far...I'm sure lots of people do better than what I have done...I'm getting old so probably can't put on as many miles as some folks....

I have been prepping all my food for the week on the weekends, my goal daily is to spend $0 dollars of my personal money at the truck stops…I do pretty good but seem to break down once a week and have fastfood…So far my favorite stops are Loves, they seem to be cleaner than TA and Pilots/Flying J, I have found parking is a little easier in most of the Loves as well, but that is just my opinion. The fuel points thing seems to be a pretty good deal…right now our company gets .10 cents per gallon at flying J/Pilot so I have been getting my first 1000 gallons in a month at Loves and then the rest at FlyingJ…although I’m not sure what I’m going to buy with all the points I have..lol....I do like having the unlimited showers at both places and Loves gives you 2 drink refills a day if your buying enough fuel…I have been drinking waaayy too much soda..My first five months I have made a few mistakes….no big wrecks but I did smack a deer going north on HWY 75 at 5 in the morning, I guess beings the company just swapped the bumper on my truck and there was only bumper damage that does not show up..but I still felt like an idiot, first deer I have ever hit in my life….I also broke my arm one windy day in Oklahoma…got frustrated and wrapped one of my legs around a strap and nose dived off my trailer…bet I looked like a fool..lol..broke my styloid process right off the ulna….good thing was they didn’t have to cast it and I didn’t miss anywork….Beings I don’t have any prior experience with other trucking companies I can just speak to the one I’m working with, I have enjoyed my dispatcher over the last five months, he seems to keep me moving, I don’t get home for as long as I would like but that seems to be the industry, I’m usually lucky to get home for about 34 hours it seems…I know it could be worse..I have only done one reset over the road and I picked a not so good place to do it…lol…was nothing around but the truck stop, no showers no laundry facility and the truck stop closed at 11…was very boring and not so good planning on my part….as of now I have only had to wait for my next load 2x’s, which I don’t feel bad about, once it was for 2 hours the other times was only 30 minutes, so I think he does a pretty good job…the rest of the company I have not been that impressed with, but after reading posts about other companies it seems pretty standard…most people are not very nice and most people I have met in the offices don’t even ask my name just my truck number….just as a test I have given two people at the office the wrong truck number just to see if they would ask my name neither did…both situations they said that can’t be right after pulling it up on there computers and said I needed to go look and double check the number on my truck…it amazes me how impersonal that makes my interactions with people at the company…I have worked there a little over 5 months and I don’t believe more than 5 people know my name….I bet less than 2 know if I’m married or have kids or anything like that..lol…crazy…as far as miles driven I feel like I have done pretty well….looks like I average well above 2300 per week….I have been as far east as New York, not very far west, all the way up to the Canadian border in North Dakota and as far south as Mexico ….really wanting to go to the pacific northwest and up into the new England states…hopefully someday! Overall the experience for me so far has been just what the doctor ordered!!! The biggest surprises have been how unfriendly everyone in the industry seems to be….Shippers and receivers for the most part are not nice…least to me they don’t seem that way….most wont have a restroom they allow you to use or they will send you outside to a port a potty ….which is crazy to me….I know you work 8-10 hours shifts and I’m sure there is a restroom in there..lol…I have met probably 5-10 shippers/receivers that seemed to be friendly and welcoming…the rest not so much…I’m sure over time truckers have done some things to deserve the treatment but I think its silly to punish the whole industry for the actions of a few..the money so far for me has not been great, but I will post money and miles next

As the journey continues…After all the negative of my last few posts I figure I should just put my head down and work a while…but today I’m bored it’s been a few months and maybe I can post some helpful information and get some good feedback…or maybe just kill a few minutes..lol…First part of this just some randomness from the past five months…I will make a second post with actual numbers….miles money ect….I got started in my own truck the second week of January, the company issued me a beautiful Kenworth t-660, I made probably a rookie mistake and went out and purchased a bunch of stuff to fit that truck and make my life more comfortable, refridge, microwave, power invertor, fan, new bed cloths and electric blanket. Unfortunately I only had the T660 for a few months and was moved into a 17 T680…amazingly much smaller of truck, I don’t care what anyone says..lol…so now my fridge doesn’t really fit anywhere and my microwave does not fit the cut out;( but very hard to complain about the nice equipment…I do like the hydraulic clutch in the t680, much easier in traffic….One of my big concerns when moving into trucking was the sitting on my butt all day, that is why I chose flatbedding, read that it was much more work…I’m happy to report that I’m getting an average of 7miles of walking per day!! Some of the toughest days I have are in the bone chilling cold in north Dakota or lately the heat in and around Midland Tx, either way when the wind blows its makes folding tarps a nightmare!!! I have really enjoyed the new adventure, but the wind and tarps has made for some rough days…I’m a pretty happy and friendly person so even throughout training when I would see someone folding tarps I would always ask if they wanted help, I do the same thing when I’m out working during the week, whenever I see someone pull tarps I will stop what I’m doing to help them, really we are all in this together no matter what company writes our checks….it does amaze me how many drivers will just sit and watch people struggle with tarps, I mean really they are in that truck for probably 24 hours a day, why not get out and spend 5 minutes helping the guys around you..lol..I also figure regardless if people help me or not…I need all the good karma I can get;) The extra 5 minutes you spend helping someone fold tarps is really no work on you and saves that driver probably twenty minutes and in high wind a lot of headache. I will say like this posting board, most of the other drivers I have met out on the road are *******s, I will meet the occasional nice person but more jerks than not, I believe overtime the road has made most of these people very bitter! Regardless I stay happy, smile, hold doors for people and try to be friendly to everyone I meet….but maybe in a few years I will get the bitter, I know it all super trucker attitude…I really hope not! All the different places I have been seems to be my favorite part of the job!!! It does not seem like you get much time to stop and smell the roses but I have enjoyed driving throughout all the different places I have been…The other thing I really like about flatbed is all the different stuff I have hauled…equipment, lots of gypsum materials, coils, rebar and just all kinds of stuff…I did have to pull a dry van one week and just was not the same…I also did not get nowhere near the exercise the week I pulled the dryvan..As far as the driving goes that part has been fairly easy, I enjoy the time to listen to lots of podcast and have learned to listen to lots of different music..I also get lots of time to think, which is both good and bad..lol…The most stressful part of this for me has been Parking!!! Not only finding parking but backing into stalls…..I’m still horrible, I’m wondering if it just takes years to get good at or if I just suck..lol..I do believe the spread axle’s add a degree of difficulty, but I have watched people in the truck stops do it flawlessly, so I really need to work on that..On that note I try to find easy spots…pull thru’s and rest area’s being my favorite, unless my clock runs out early and I can get to a truck stop early before they get busy…I know I'm long winded....(cont)

Lots to read....thanks for pointing me in the right direction...I'm also a huge podcast fan so will load the podcast on my phone

You have it all figured out, so good luck.

I wish I had it all figured out..lol....I have soooo much to learn....and even after that I will never have it all figured out..lol...Merry Christmas;)

Btw....how would you get a part time job while driving 2500 to 3000 miles a week?

"i have yet to get paid but start on monday" makes me wonder if you exoected to get paid before even starting training? If so, please rethink yourself.

try to answer both your questions with a short reply....as far as part time job....My orientation was monday thru friday....was over at about 5pm...if I needed I could of went and worked evening shifts in the restaurant or whatever was available...During the training period while working with my trainers its only 5-6 days a week...leaves 1-2 days to fill in with other work..again I have some family I could fall back on and pick up restaurant shifts if needed....there is always work out there if you need it...me personally on my days off have went and written a few insurance policies with some old leads I had just to cover any bills and keep money flowing in..

On the pay expectation thing....As of today I have been thru orientation and one week over the road with my trainer...I think my first pay day is monday for the training pay...I did not expect any money up front..lol....also I will add that if I did need money the company I'm working with offers an advance you can take a couple times a week...I just put and estimate on what I think my paycheck would be for 5 days at 100 minus taxes....If that was all the income a person had and was expecting to feed there family on 325 a week take home I believe it would be pretty tough...holy cow i'm long winded..lol

Are you serious? You already know how they should cut their recruiting expenses and put those funds into their payroll?

I tell you one thing in your post that really stood out to me. Your uncle didn't bother to tell you how you need a certificate of training to land a job in this business, and neither did the school that took your money just to show you how to drive in reverse! Yet you went on and on about how nice those people at that school are. They did you a disservice! I hope you realize that by now.

Usually people like you, who already know people in this business, have a really hard time making a start of this. Does that seem odd to you? Have you figured out why that is so? I'm hoping you have, but I can't tell for sure because there seems to be some mixed messages in the things you've posted.

Very nice!!! I must be coming off a little misunderstood..lol....seems I'm getting a little hostile feedback from you fine sir....I can be totally honest and tell you I'm just getting started out in this and don't have many high expectations and I'm learning a bunch of this as I go;) As far as the recruiting and all that jazz....I honestly believe there is a problem with the amount of turnover...I also believe if you treat people right and fair they stick around....that has nothing to do with the industry it has more to do with life, but that's just my opinion. Any industry that has that amount of turnover has an issue! Is it bad attitudes or bad business models IDK, or is it greedy companies that know if they keep churning people thru the system they can get freight hauled for cheap..IDK...but its something..

As far as no one telling me I would have a tough time getting hired without a certificate, I was told that..sorry I did not put it in my post...I also will stand by the statement that the people that own White Cdl school did me right...did exactly what I wanted...let me use there equipment to take the driving test and taught me how to back...I called a place in Kansas City for this same type of service and they wanted 450.00 just to use there equipment and take the test at there facility...learning to back was on my own...so the few dollars I gave the people at Whites was well worth it...and they were extremely nice people....

the mixed message part...I don't really have a message...just my thoughts on what I have been thru so far.."people like me"? Not sure what that means...hardworking people? Americans? what does that mean? ...I have had ups and downs getting into this industry like most people do I'm sure...by no means is anything I type meant to be hostile or meant to show I know anything what so ever...Just my observations...and I hope to learn and grow from all of this to be successful someday in this industry....but I will say I have lots to learn

Random Notes about training orientation and hiring One weird thing that all the companies I applied with requested my tax information from previous 5 years….and pay stubbs from this year…I guess it has something to do with DOT law requirements and beings I was self employed they needed it…..so I did send it to them but felt kinda strange….my w-2 earnings from one of the companies I wrote most of my business with in those years showed over 100k each year so I figured that would be good…then in addition to that I needed to get someone that knew me to write on a piece of paper they knew me and knew I sold insurance the past 5 years…..lol…funny because all of this information can be seen thru the state of Kansas website, but I did as requested and had my start date of Monday December 11th, 2017…..the actual start of my new career!!!!!!! One of the other things to keep in mind all of these companies offered a training pay while I was in training or daily money you would receive until you was qualified to get your own truck…As of now I have not received any pay but I’m sure I will on Monday….the pay is not much and a few of them I’m not sure its even legal..most stated between 60 and 100 perday!!!!! WTF!!! That is in between 7.50 and 12.50 an hour..lol….most restaurant workers earn more an hour starting out and they don’t have to pass any test’s or need special licensing...lol…but it is what it is! Keep in mind I’m sure this money is taxed…so that 5 days orientation pay is 500 bucks….after taxes probably around $325 a week take home…then if your like me you have another 14 to 28 days of over the road training at the same $325 a week…this is where they are all probably breaking the law…you work a minimum of 14 hours a day…at 100 dollars per day that is 7.14 per hour, but you are required to be at work 24 hours a day so that gets you to 4.16 an hour..I’m using the 100 dollars a day method..if you go with the 60 dollars a day places it will be much less…most states the very minimum you can pay is 7.25…lol…crazy but like I said not really in it to get rich…just want to get my life into perspective….and I don’t blame this on any certain company and I’m not upset about it…..just make sure you plan well in advance financially for this….if you know what your bills are and what your minimum you need a month is…you might have to pick up a part time job while you are in training..out of your $325 a week training pay you have travel expenses…like meals and showers….parking and tolls…scales…ect….some of this is reimbursed but the meals and showers are out of your pocket…Most of the companies I spoke with about orientation do provide lunch daily and a room to sleep in through out orientation. A few other expenses to keep in mind! Clothing, beings I’m going into flat bed I needed some extra stuff, work boots that are steel toed, these can be pricey and is very dependant on taste, I’m partial to Ariat boots and spent 250 on mine…gloves…long johns…coveralls and socks! I researched a lot of socks and am trying out Merino wool socks! According to Joe Rogan they are best for cold weather for smell and warmth;) The socks was 8 dollars a pair but I personally would rather have warm feet than 8 bucks so I’m hoping they work well….gloves is another thing I didn’t skimp on I spent 15-25 bucks a pair on a few different types of winter gloves…got 3 different sets altogether….not sure what is going to work the best…I also am not a big fan of fast food or truck stop food so I purchased a bunch of food for my first week out on the road which I will get to on the next update…I owned good long johns fleece pants and a great coat and coveralls but you will need all of this from my understanding for flatbedding!

Mid November thru 2nd week December 2017 So after getting my cdl class A it was time to find a company to train me! My first pick was an uncle of mine, figured he was close to retiring might be a good place to start, he had 4 trucks going, traveled through the Midwest and I generally looked at him as a success in the industry. To my surprise he was not looking for to train any new drivers and was rather confused why I would want to leave the insurance world for a career in trucking! Best I can tell people is I needed a big change and this seemed like a good fit for me or at least something I always wanted to do and now had the chance to give it a try. My uncle did point me to a few different companies that he respected and believed would be a good place to start. As I read more about trucking and asked people lots of questions I figured out there was many different kinds of trucking or lanes of business. Refrigerated, box vans, tanker, hoppers and flat bed….from everything I read flatbed was the most work! Sounds like just what I’m looking for, so I started researching flat bed companies….this is where my ocd took over and I invested wayyyyy too much time looking into companies!!! I have charts and graphs on different pay scales home time average days worked equipment types and average miles a week and pay for training and orientation. In researching this I ended up into some site called Drivers Pulse, basically somewhere I filled out some information it slapped me in this system and my phone, email and text messages started blowing up…..I started to fill out crazy amounts of applications for different jobs and started speaking to recruiters for about 5 hours a day for 10 days! After all the research I had done I knew the company I wanted to work for was Keim TS, my uncle suggested them Don Losson told me they was a good company and I could not really find anything bad about them on the net. When going to their company website it appeared small family owned business with nice equipment and lots of talk about the importance of family time. These are things that made Keim the first company I applied with! I will say there communication thru the hiring process was not very good and had me worried that they was not actually hiring! Beings I knew I wanted to work at Keim I did not really waste much time the first four days of my job search applying at other companies….then in a panic on the fifth day after not hearing back from them I applied with every company, I would not suggest this unless you want lots of phone calls, emails and text messages. Most of the companies I spoke with told me the same thing, beings I didn’t go to a school and had no over the road driving experience to call them back after I get 6 months over the road and they would love to hire me…..what a crap concept…..we won’t help you now..but let someone else train you then call us and we will put you to work…I have marked these companies in a notebook and would not work for them just because I think that is a horrible business practice.....this is where my attitude started to go down hill a little about the trucking industry….and being the skeptic that I am I started to think about the business concept as a whole, just the dollars spent on recruiting in the industry is shameful! If companies would spend more time taking care of the employee’s they have and less time recruiting new employee’s they would be much better off…I also researched the turnover rate for truck drivers and that number is gross as well, believe I read upwards of 80%….leads me to again say….why not pay the people you have more money and not worry about chasing down new people, if you treat people right, pay them well other people will want to work there…all that money in trainers equipment paperwork ect……such a waste! They say the average cost of training a truck driver is $8234, if your a smaller company training on average 8 drivers a month, that is $65,872 in cost a month or just shy of 800k a year, I believe if you split that money between the working drivers the retention rate would be much better again that is saying they are only training two drivers a week, I'm guessing most are training many more than that... In speaking with several recruiters I did find about 5 companies willing to hire and train me…just to name a few: TMC,Maverick,Swift,C.R.England….my heart was really set on Keim so I kept calling in trying to figure out when I could start…they assured me I had a position and would get back to me with start date…to actually get the start date took 3 weeks….I actually filled out the full application with TMC and Maverick and had start dates with both companies within about 3 days, then decided to give Keim one last call …..I explained I didn’t want to be a pain but needed to start working and I had a couple of places lined up to start at Monday…..and what do you know they gave me a Monday start date!!!!

https://www.ugpti.org/pubs/pdf/SP146.pdf The average cost of turnover per driver for these carriers was $8,234; with a range from $2,243 to $20,729.

ATA - Truckload Turnover Rate Plummets in Fourth Quarter www.trucking.org/article/Truckload-Turnover-Rate-Plummets-in-Fourth-Quarter Mar 29, 2017 - Today, American Trucking Associations said the driver turnover at large truckload fleets sunk 10 percentage points to an annualized rate of 71%, the lowest point

I will start by saying I'm just wanting to share my experience with other people so maybe it will help them and maybe it will just get things off my chest;) I'm sure not all of my spelling will be great and some of what I say is probably just complaining..who knows.lol... so this first part of the blog I will try to explain what I have done in my past and where I'm at now. I have been in the restaurant industry most of my life, owned a few different concepts over the years, some good and some really bad experiences. After and during my restaurant life I some how fell into the love for sales! I know it was the money, eventually I found myself in insurance sales making well over 100k a year! After 5 years of insurance sales and knocking on over 120 new doors a week I had enough of sales! My families money requirements are at the lowest point in the last 20 years so I figured why not get into truck driving, I was used to be gone 4 days a week already, usually working 15 to 16 hours a day and already driving 2500 miles a week, which became my favorite part of the job, so trucking it is!

October thru November: I have always had a pretty good test taking mind so I just studied on a phone app for the written test and went down and took the written test and past in early October. With not a ton of miles behind the wheel of a semi I decided to go ride with my brother moving grain around north central Kansas for the month of November so I could pass the driving part of the cdl test. I'm so glad I had this experience with him! I quickly found out that grain haulers don't do much backing! When I scheduled my driving test I failed the first time because I had really no clue how to back a semi...lol...I was under the impression it would be much easier than than backing my boat and I was a pro at that, boy was I wrong. I'm very competitive and failing this driving part really took the wind out of my sails! I took a few days to rethink this truck driving opportunity and then through a few friends contacted Don Losson at White Line CDL school in Topeka KS and asked if they could teach me how to back a semi...Don and his wife Vickie are some of the nicest people I have meet and for a very reasonable fee they showed me the basics of backing a semi and gave me enough pointers to past the test. During the test I did have to parrallel park the tractor trailer which to me is silly, but it must be useful somewhere! To be honest I have never even parralell parked my car, so doing it in a semi was a treat! This time I did pass and receive my full CDL Class A license! I do want to again point out that Don and Vickie Losson from White Line CDL school are some of the best people I have meet in the industry so far! They seem very down to earth and very reasonably priced if you are looking for a school to get training! So if you need a good school reach out to them!!!!!

During my time hauling grain with my brother I started to research not only business models of trucking but companies to work with to gain experience....Over my insurance travels I had meet many truck companies and many truck drives so I started calling on people I knew who owned semis operated companies that had semis and so on...I found out that starting as a new driver felt very helpless...Even family members that have multiple trucks are not really willing to help a new driver get experience...I understand to a point that they are using older equipment and cant afford the beating a new driver puts on the equipment, but I really expected more! Over this 8 week period I spoke to about 30 different people in the industry, took pages of notes on different theories and different lines of trucking as well as different types of trucks, I feel like this may be useful later in life if I decide to stay in the transportation business. One common thing I got from most people was that trucking was a crappy business why would you want to get into it..lol...which cracked me up because this was from a bunch of people that had been in trucking there whole lives...most common things said was the pay is not good...the time away from home....equipment problems...traffic....mean shippers and receivers .....and the list went on and on....but this is what I wanted to do so I can't be talked out of it...The next post I will go through hiring on with my first trucking company and how many calls I made and different people I spoke with! Was fricking INSANE!