Comments By Marc Lee AKA The 100k miles Champ

Congrats Daniel B....

Mark already won Rob D, he is already flirting with Allyson, so he has a leg up on you

Did you start orientation this week Marc?

Confirmed today for 3/9 as per below:

2. First one to 100,000 safe solo miles buys the other dinner.

I said that wrong:

First one to 100,000 safe solo miles, the OTHER one buys dinner!

2. First one to 100,000 safe solo miles buys the other dinner.

I said that wrong:

First one to 100,000 safe solo miles, the OTHER one buys dinner!

2. First one to 100,000 safe solo miles buys the other dinner.

I said that wrong:

First one to 100,000 safe solo miles, the OTHER one buys dinner!

Its a very clean company looking at their FMCSA reports, they just renewed their policy with Sentry Select using their high deductible program (self insurance).... Knowing Sentry's guidelines , you have to be more than clean for them to insure you and tghey normally require a minimun of 2 years experience but they will allow up to 20% of the drivers with less experience..... For Sentry to have written them, they must be very financially stable since they would have had to present 5 years of profit and loss statements, loss history, vehicle and mileage historical etc....

Rob T can you please stop bragging to your colleagues now??? Pop the champagne later on lol Congrats Pack Rat and PJ .... i will send the 2 of you the classified intel on how you got your promotion later.

I fully understand why you are having such a hard time getting your CDL

Not really sure how you would go about this with DACA, I dont know much about it. I imagine you would have to speak to your counselor or representative or whatever you call it? With the program? I thought Trump cancelled it?

It also depends upon how long you have been in the country for? I mean no disrespect but your english is rather broken which leads me to wonder how long you have been here #1 ; #2) Do you have a valid CA Driver license? If so, how long? You need a minimum of a year Driver license before you can try for a CDL in most states (maybe CA is different? - I don't know, I dont live there)

I respect your desire to work hard and succeed, but you should really think this through and make sure this is the right time for it or if this is the right industry for you. You need to make sure that you have a solid grasp of the rules of the road here in the United States BEFORE you sign up to drive an 80,000 pound truck down our roadways, your life and the lives of others depend on it.

NOW that that is out of the way - I would first work with your DACA (EAD?) folks on this, second understand that many companies out there will train you to get your CDL and you will have a job waiting for you when you are through with training. It'd be a great thing for you actually. As for the CDL from CA allowing you to go across state lines. Yes it can allow you to do that, on the application you will mark non-exempted interstate and this will allow your license to be used across state lines.

As for what obstacles are there specifically for a DACA recipient, I have no clue. Ability to read, write and understand English is key, an understanding of the traffic laws and road rules in the US is as well, if you haven't been here long nor driven very long in the US, then I'd reccomend putting the trucking plans on hold until you have solid driving experience under your belt. Here is why I say this. As a CDL holder you are directly responsible for the operation of that truck, you CAN and you WILL face fines, penalties, even jail time if you have an accident and someone gets hurt or God forbid killed. I respect your desire to work, but if you have a family of your own, you wont do them any good being thousands of dollars in debt or in prison because of a mishap.

Maybe work at a warehouse around trucks or perhaps become a yard hossler (this is where you would be allowed to operate trucks, drive , back up etc on private commercial property) while you work on sorting all of this out? A good advantage to being a yard hossler is that you wont be driving drive on public roads, thus a CDL is not required - this means you are getting necessary operation experience and truck familiarity while you work out the DACA and CDL training stuff, that would be a win win for you AND you get paid doing something that interests you, how cool is that???

Hope that helps, good luck....

Dear All,

I am a DACA Recipient and living in CA. I am considering switching my career into truck driver and would like to hear some advises from you. As far as I know, I can get CDL in CA with EAD only but not quite sure if it can get me a job. Also, will there be any problem with driving across states if I have earn CDL in CA? Additionally, what other obstacles will there be for DACA recipient as a truck driver? Please share your experience or knowledge. Thank you.

In my little traffic brush ups , i will elect to have the case reopen and have a lawyer represent me... Ran into some trouble in GA that was more complicated than that a couple of years back 20 mph over the speed limit and child not secured in a safety seat (the mom was too tired to do so , got no kids ao not an expert on those) , paid all the fines and thought i was done only to be pulled over one day by a small town officer in illinois for driving under a suspended license for a case that happened in GA... Come to find out, even though i had paid all the fines, the charge with the smallest of fines... The $25.00 one for the child seat case carried the heftiest of penalties .... since i di not appeared in court personally, it turned into a child endangerment case with more dire penalties ... Called a lawyer to whom i paid $500.00 who went and reopened the case and was able to get everything dismiss and the verdict got transmitted to the IL Secretary of State who reinstated my license 2 days later. Reopening the case was worth it and i have never regretted that $500.00

On the FMCSA report every tow shows up as an accident

For me this a great piece of advice, go after your dream .... if it doesnt work you can say i tried rather than spend a life full of regrets beating yourself up that you wish you would have tried...m i spent a good part of my life trying to become a doctor rather than follow my own dreams of sales and marketing...i finally did and boy am i having fun doing it.

I am already at a real disadvantage because I was homeschooled full time and did not have the opportunities afforded to me as a private or public school student would have had. So I did not get a chance to enroll in the academy or into college early.

Howdy young man,

You are making excuses. Having lived in s.e MT where many kids were homeschooled, I personally know of a number that joined different branches of the Military as enlisted after graduating from high school and three that went on to college to get their Bachelors. Of those three, 2 joined the Army as officers and one was in helicopters. If you want something bad enough you will find a way to do it without excuses.

You have had all kinds of opportunities that I didn't have back in 1972. Women were in very few career fields in all branches. When I got out in 1975 to have my son and came back on active duty in 1976, many career fields had opened up, including LE, which I wanted to get into. However, since I had not been overseas, my retraining was denied numerous times. I finally got a "remote" (1 yr) assignment to a NATO base on the island of Sardinia, Italy thinking it would be enough and I could get into LE.

At the 10 year mark, I stopped trying because it would not be approved. I could blame an ex-husband in personnel for me not getting into LE, but I don't. It was my lack of knowing how to get around his road blocks and not trying to find out that was my problem. That's okay because at my 14 yr mark Congress didn't give the military a pay raise but DOD did. So all branches had to discharge people and the Air Force had to get rid of 22,000 stateside individuals. I fell in that group, got out 31 Mar 1988 and went to driving for May Trucking after going to a fly-by-night school. Life is what you make it.

This was written in 1998 and if I figured your age from your different posts, you are 24-25 yrs old, so in high school about 2010-2014. Should a home schooler wishing to enter a military academy take certain academic courses? Yes. A strong foundation in math and science is a basic requirement for any applicant. Taking community college classes during the junior and senior years of high school would be a good way for a home educated student to demonstrate competence in the appropriate course work. It is important for a home schooler to have taken laboratory sciences and one or more calculus classes. Are there specific admissions policies for home schoolers? No. Home schoolers are treated in the same manner as public schooled students. However, each student is handled on a case-by-case basis, so the admissions process varies slightly with each applicant. Admission requirements are similar to those of most four-year colleges, but parents and students are encouraged to call the admissions office of the service academy in which they are interested to discuss their situation and address their questions directly to a counselor. While no specific policies for home school graduates exist, the Air Force Academy has issued guidelines which offer suggestions for home schoolers who want to tailor their high school education towards an appointment to the academy.

Workers Comp is mandated by the laws of the land and are more costly for the employer, but companies with L/O and O/O that are considered independent contractors offer them the Occ/Acc. Lawyers have found a way around that and are very successful into turning an Occ/Acc claim into a WC claim which is why most companies get a contingent liability policy to cover their back. If you are a Motor Carrier and provide occupational accident insurance for your 1099 drivers, make sure that you are completely covered. A smart occupational accident policy includes a contingent liability provision that protects you if your leased/contracted drivers get injured and claim that they are actually employees and should be covered by your Workers Comp policy.

Make sure that your limits are high enough to meet all the minimum requirements in your state.

So aren't the drivers legally bound to carry Worker's Compensation, or have it provided by their employer, whomever pays for it?