Comments By PJ

Holy Cow, this is crazy. Thanks for pointing it out.

As said this economy is still in the tank. Several reasons but bottom line is it sucks.

Mercer and landstar do have their own load boards. They are not public. You have to either be leased onto them or signed up as a independant contractor. I have access and have done some work with them. DSV is another decent one.

The hotshot stuff I don’t have any info about. I have a 48’ flatbed.

I have a few brokers I use on occassion. I have developed relationships with one point of contact and use them to get a better rate. Another thing that has been going on the past couple years. Many brokers will require 12-18 months of an active authority before they will consider working with you. They will check your CSA score also. Poor score they will not do business with you.

I have several of my own direct customers for outbound loads. Depending on the lane I deliver in I will use a broker to get back to my customers area.

I use truckstop.com as a general commodity load board if the handful of brokers I have developed those relationships with don’t have anything.

The bigger load boards all pretty much have the same loads. It’s a shotgun effect. Shoot it out as wide as possible and hopefully get it covered. Many customers also list with several brokers to see who gets it covered first.

If you depend strictly on broker freight you will go broke, no pun intended. They all have different margins of how much they take.

If I was looking at hotshot car hauling I would look at customers like LKQ or copart on the parts market side and carmax, carvanna, drivetime on the used car market, and all the car rental places for moving rentals. They are all national and should be easier for loads. Just my thoughts.

Depends!!

Is he legally parked??

Is he on private property that is not strictly held open for truck parking??

Is it law enforcement telling him to move??

There is a provision in our hours of service where a driver can under limited circumstances move the truck while on break.

Noone was trying to deceive you. They told you the way it was, and what your talking about is a non domicled cdl. I looked it up and this exception went into effect March 7,2019.

That does explain alot about some drivers I have encountered the past few years.

Pretty much a similiar tale all around i think. I’m lucky I have picked up 3 new customers. Two of which left a large company. They said it was due to my service. They are running me mon-thur. I’m not killing it, but making money so I’ll take it.

I picked up my rgn last thur. It looks awesome and my trailer guy says what we are planning on using it for should last along time. It’s overkill for our need but was priced right. All in a 60k trailer with a 30k cost.

As with alot of things going on at the federal level these days they are passing RULES instead of legislation.

Unelected and too a degree unaccountable folks are using the rule making process to promote an agenda. All under the guise of safety.

Latest example is the speed limiters. That is such a bad rule they are pushing that congress has passed legislation out of the house to stop it. Of course it is stalled in the senate. We will be force fed this at some point.

Congressman Mike Collins fron Ga is a trucking company owner and is trying to fight the bad ideas, IE rules. I called his office friday and sent them a copy of the article so they can watch it to see if it gains any traction. He has a youtube channel where he has alot of information regarding things the fed’s are doing regarding our industry.

I just read an article stating that according to the FMCSA that there has been a 40% rise in refusals to be drug tested and drivers are leaving the industry. ATRI, American Truck Driving Research Institute dug into the causes. They report the actual cause is due to the federal ban on cannabis.

Of course ATA, American Trucking Assoc. chimed in with their standard line how much of a driver shortage there is, and the fed’s are contributing to it with their drug testing policy.

Of course they are stating how much trouble the whole supply chain is in and stating that by removing cannabis it will make everything alright.

Look for a new rule making coming from FMCSA, thanks to the ATA, which only represents mega carriers.

Again relax and change the rules to gain more drivers.

Daily I see articles of horiffic truck crashes and trucks striking infastructure. Yesterday and latest is a 21 yr old pulling an excavator doing 500k damage to a overpass in Texas and fleeing the scene.

FMCSA needs to get back to supporting highway safety in my opinion.

Congrats young lady!!! Well Done!!

I was in south GA looked like a cloudy day here. A friend was at a truck stop in OH and said it was pretty cool. I guess as it rolled by the street lights all came on then went out again.

Welcome Luke, I’m sorry to hear your having issues, BUT welcome to trucking. Things happen.

First of all your post makes several general statements and your conclusion. Hard to give you any good advise on that. Ask specific questions and we can give you much better advise.

Trailers at all companies that get passed around alot are bound to have issues. What you need to determine before you hook up to it is if it is safe or unsafe to operate. Once you hook to it, it is on you. There are always calculated risks we take everyday to get the job done. Always document any deficiencies you find along with photo’s.

Ensure your communiction goes over your ELD. Those are generally seen by several different folks and it documents the concerns.

I haven’t seen your contract so I have no idea how to advise there. Training comes in several different forms, not always in person. Video training is very big at some companies.

I find it odd as a brand new driver you would spend only 3 days with a road trainer. That seems pretty short.

New drivers don’t usually get the best equipment out of the gate. They expect new drivers to have issues, while hoping they don’t. Overall the equipment I see from WE seems decent.

Old School worked there early in his career, hopefully he will come along with some specific info for you.

As a new driver your still figuring everything out. Alot of it will be you figuring it out, not expecting someone in the office to figure it out for you. All of us have been where you are. Come ask specific questions and we will help you all we can. Take a deep breath, it will get better.