Comments By Troy V.

Thank you all a ton for the words of encouragement. It really means and has helped a lot. So far this week has been tough. Had a midnight delivery in the middle of a snow storm on sunday night/ monday morning. After that we went to a hotel which was at 5 am monday morning. We got up at 10am and we were snowed in. We were parked on a little service road that had semi parking for the hotel. Well we are sruck and can't get out. The tow service said they can't get to us and we are at the mercy of the city plow trucks. The hotel said that could be a coyple days. Lovely! We are still at the hotel and the truck wouldn't start this morning. Its -11 out with wind chills at -35. We are still sitting here. Good times.

But again thank you guys for the words. It has really helped.

Thank you Larry. Yeah this weather is not making it easy on me. If only I had a few days to just drive on dry pavement. Jeez thats all I want right now lol.

Troy,

The issue you are having is one of the reasons I chose Prime over some other companies. They have reefer/flatbed/tanker divisions. So just in case I didn't like where I started, I could at least try a different division & still stay with the same company.

I was in the reefer division from Oct 2011 until Aug 2013. At that time I switched to flatbed. So far, I really enjoy flatbed (not being out in the cold mind you, just the challenge of it). But in case for whatever reason, I can still change if I want/need to. That is the beauty of a multi division company.

Ernie

I was actually just looking at Prime. How does their training work for someone with only a month experience. I dont think Im gonna move on because i wanna last at least a year there because the company is AWESOME. Just curious.

Is your company straight flatbed, or do they have other divisions?

Dave

Its a flatbed only company.

Just seems overwhelming. Im having a hard time figuring out where my loads need to be placed on the deck. Good thing is a lot of the loaders know what they are doing. I think its just this weather is just getting to me. I should of possibly waited till It was not winter. Its nice having a trainer with me right now but even then I would just like some time on dry roads or even rain to at least get use to driving. This snow is CRAP!

Dont let the nerves get to ya. I had those same nerves when I first started which was not but a month ago. Those go away after a little bit. You will do fine. Just keep a positive attitude and learn from everything they say. Im sure it will be a lot of info thrown your way like it was mine and dont worry about making mistakes. They will happen its only normal. Obviously not huge mistakes but I think you know what I mean. You wont be perfect every time. Good luck man and keep us updated.

Ok so its been about a month now and Im just not sure Im gonna like this flatbed thing. Some parts I do and some I just dont. Im outta school and straight into this job and have heard to stick with that first company for a year before you switch. What do I do if I am not sure I wanna do flatbed for a year first? Is it bad to jump now to something else? Really confused right now.

I don't work for Schneider but there are lots of people here who do. My opinion is, if the job title is OTR then you'll get to explore the entire country. I'm not positive that Schneider does Canada but if you take the OTR job then you'll be everywhere. I wouldn't worry about this. There's no way that a OTR driver only gets held to a small region of the lower 48. Regional driving jobs usually only do a few states so just make sure that its an OTR job and not a regional job and you'll be good to go.

As soon as ThinksTooMuch sees the title of this thread he will jump in quickly! I'd await his response since he'a a current Schneider tanker driver. But like I said, if its OTR then you'll be everywhere.

Forgive me if Im wrong because Im still new at this but at my company we are considered OTR and we mainly run Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio. Sometimes Kentucky and Wisconsin. Again excuse me if Im wrong on the OTR thing but I do know that they say we are OTR drivers.

OTR means you basically live out on the road. So yes, you're Over-the-Road but you run a certain region. So yes, you can be called OTR. But it's so much less confusing for OTR to mean 48 states, and regional to mean only a handful of states (like in your case).

ahhhh haaaaa. Ok I get it now :) Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I don't work for Schneider but there are lots of people here who do. My opinion is, if the job title is OTR then you'll get to explore the entire country. I'm not positive that Schneider does Canada but if you take the OTR job then you'll be everywhere. I wouldn't worry about this. There's no way that a OTR driver only gets held to a small region of the lower 48. Regional driving jobs usually only do a few states so just make sure that its an OTR job and not a regional job and you'll be good to go.

As soon as ThinksTooMuch sees the title of this thread he will jump in quickly! I'd await his response since he'a a current Schneider tanker driver. But like I said, if its OTR then you'll be everywhere.

Forgive me if Im wrong because Im still new at this but at my company we are considered OTR and we mainly run Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio. Sometimes Kentucky and Wisconsin. Again excuse me if Im wrong on the OTR thing but I do know that they say we are OTR drivers.

Good stuff man! Good luck with Prime. I have heard they are pretty good. I almost went with them instead of the flatbed company Im at now.