Comments By Leeva804

Im a cautious /safe driver, l love driving, i have great work ethic, i dont complain much but i also dont take a liking to not receiving what was promised if i pulled through on my end.

What you typed above I thought I should just give me input about being promised expectations vs reality.

These so called Mega carriers will tell you everything you need to hear to get in the door. You’ll hear many things from a recruiter that just might not be exactly what you will get when you start on the road.

For me there was many promises never delivered. Rookie mistakes on my part maybe. Who knows.

1. Promised a sign on bonus and never received. Should have gotten a email saying I would receive

2. Promised I would be home daily and trained on a local account that I would work on. Was put on the road with a trainer for a month.

3. I’ve done things that were promised by my superiors and what they told me I would receive vs reality I had to swallow and chew.

4. What I’ve learned from the two mega carriers is promises are always made but specific things you expect them to uphold are never delivered. In your first year you gotta bite the bullet and keep on moving champ.

You’ll likely not have many options so get use to things likely not being promised from carriers.

Ok I know, I've heard the horror stories about Western Express, I realize there are better companies out there but I need my chance to get some seat time and learn this business one way or another. After being sent home from orientation at May for failing the backing course i closed alot of doors. Werner, Knight, Prime, Schneider etc want nothing to do with me anymore lol as I probably wont be able to pass there test at orientation before I'm seated with a trainer. What are you're thoughts on this, am I making the right move by going to them? I spent alot of time and money to get my Class A and don't really want to let it go to waste, I also looked in to driving straight trucks or something but those jobs are hard to come by without experience and going back to school really isn't an option.

I might have read your story before but what’s going on with the backing?

You know no matter how bad you’re at backing if you use G.O.A.L you can slowly back up a little. Jump out and look. Back up slowly again and jump out and look again.

I did this over 20 times to pass my upgrade test. The instructor said she has not seen any one jump out the truck that much in a long time. We had 40 minutes to do a 90 and 45. Did both in 25 minutes.

Believe it or not I still use the back up a little and jump out and look often. Some spots are tight and moving slow helps me to assure I don’t hit anything. I let drivers know this might take a while as I’m not confident to back in without G.O.A.L.

But I always do this when I have a trailer or tractor on my blind side

I just accepted a local position at another company and I'm supposed to start mid December. I'm currently on the road with home time scheduled for the 6th. I'm supposed to start the new job on the 16th.

I'm worried that if I put my notice in they'll tell me to turn the truck in before I can get home and unload my stuff and would have to leave most of it behind.

I also need a couple days before the job to do prehire drug screen and orientation classes.

If I come out of home time and say I would like to turn my truck in will this negatively affect future employment? Or maybe I can give 1 week notice instead of 2 weeks?

When I was in security I gave a two weeks notice all the time. Locally I can give a two weeks notice no problem. I would have no problem being on time to start my new job.

But if you’re OTR just know there are countless stories of drivers reporting not getting them home when it’s time to take the new job.

It's me again lol writing to you guys from my hotel room in orientation before I head home. After a long almost month in CDL school and alot of money and effort put in to this, I'm being sent home from orientation for failing the backing test. The whole course threw me off since I had never done it in school and I have only driven pup trailers, never the less I killed a damn cone, plus I showed up not knowing stuff like hours of service and how to fill out logs, which I was never taught in school but is still on me I know i should have taken the initiative to learn that before hand. Maybe one day I will go back to school but for now and improve my backing and try again or maybe I will use my class A to ty and get a job driving a straight truck but for now I'm done. There is no point in applying for other jobs and waisiting time and money to just run in to the same issues. Thank you guys for all you're support and stay safe out there.

I would apply for another gig and try again. Giving up is not the answer.

Hi All,

I'm looking at starting this career, but I can't seem to find a concrete answer as to what a realistic salary would be. I understand that there are variables involved, but can you provide some guidance? I'd really like to drive, but I'm hesitant to pull the trigger without knowing what I could be making. What information do you need to know to help me out?

I'm looking at a driving schools, so I get the initial payment. I'm more interested in what happens after a few months when I'm a solo driver. I live in Arizona.

Thanks for any help. Mike

Absolutely not sure about OTR but I’m local first year and I’m on track to make 70,000+ my first year. This is from May 2020-May 2021. You’ve to know that what you make depends on your work ethic and how much you’re willing to run. And sacrifice sleep.

Honestly shocked new drivers can average 30-40K a year. I would quit trucking if that’s all I was making as I made that being a security guard.

Be careful about what company you choose. I would definitely look at Target accounts and Walmart accounts if you easily want to gross 60K plus! It’s hard work and you’ll likely hate the account, but the money is good. Personally if you care about money that much drive to a few terminals and ask some drivers about what they make weekly.

I saved my butt a while ago by driving to Darts terminal in Virginia and asking four drivers about their pay. None were grossing more than $1000 a week. The recruiter said you average about $1200 a week.

So you gain knowledge by going up to terminals near you and directly asking the drivers in your area.

Look into linehaul, no customers to worry about. Pay at OD starts at $25 a hour or 55 cpm. The other LTL companies pay about the same to start

I have heard of old dominion. Are they that good? Line-haul sounds good and the reason I got into trucking is so I can avoid people. Lol, I forgot we deal with customers an majority of the time.

Guess I was thinking of avoiding bosses at the time.

Oh oh oh. Sir hauling fuel for pilot will likely be better than hauling it to regular gas stations, but your still going to be dealing with customers. Have you met some of Pilot’s workers?? You will be loading at tank farms. Let me tell you that can be worse sometimes than dealing with shipping clerks. You will be waiting in long lines and then when you get up there, for flamables they will check everything on your trailer. Anything wrong or missing you will get rejected. Lighting in the area they will shutdown immediately. Usually will have you sitting in a shack while they load you. No phones allowed.

My point is your going to be dealing with customers all the time no matter what you haul and subject to long wait times. Just a fact of life.

You sound like your doing real well where you are. I would weigh all the factors before leaving it.

I’m glad you weighed in on that. I have not done much research on pilot. But that sounds like a headache.

I want to also update while I know I have to speak with customers and deal with them. I’m looking for my next gig to be more performance based off me as much as possible and not by others. If you catch what I mean. It’s hard I know but I’ll be looking and talking with drivers to find the best possible spot.

For the next five months until my year hits I’ll be at U.S Xpress

Does anyone know if it is legal for a road trainer to spend all of his or her time in the sleeper while I drive?

Lol man after my trainer trained me a week I still couldn’t get him to leave me alone. He stayed glued to me in the passenger seat. I wanted him gone so much I just wanted to drive and do me.

Want an idiot I was. Your trainer clearly doesn’t care enough. Get on him about it or get someone new. He needs to be up there giving you advice constantly.

The reason why is there is some stuff my trainer told me that I freaking remember to this day while he spoke in the front seat. It saved me from some big mistakes early on

Keep trucking man

Dang Leeva you're doing quite well over there. What is it about fuel hauling that appeals to you? As Anne pointed out we need drivers to do it but I have absolutely no interest in it, too dangerous for not much more money than I'm currently making. If something bad happens on the road whether my fault or not if I'm pulling a reefer I may get bumps/bruises or maybe a broken bone. If I'm pulling a fuel tanker that same accident could result in me and everyone in the area dying in a massive explosion. Truck driving is already a dangerous profession. I don't need to add more hazards to it for very little extra compensation.

I've talked to drivers from a couple different fuel hauling companies in my area and both work 12-14 hours a day and they're stuck on overnights for a couple years until they get enough seniority to go days. If that's how Pilot does it you're still not getting home more frequently which seems to be what you're looking for. Does Pilot hire without previous experience? A driver I used to work with had over 15 years experience doing food service delivery with a clean record and had a heck of heck time finding a fuel company that would hire him without the hazmat/tank experience. you could get on with an LTL company doing P&D you'd make great money and have a more "normal" schedule.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

I was interested in fuel hauling because not because of the money.... but because I like that fuel haulers don’t deal with customers. Honestly in my seven months solo I’ve clutched and squeezed my teeth more than I can count dealing with these local Walmart stores.

Employee’s dare I say. Upset me weekly how they can add so much time to my days. Honestly if I could drop & hook at Walmarts I would always work 11-12 hour days. Because of the Walmart unloading I stay around 13-14 hour days more often than not.

So fuel hauling appeals to me for the ability to just show up and leave. Pilot offered me after a year of experience a gig 30 minutes from my apartment working night shift and they train. Making $23.53 an hour with all the overtime I want. Most shifts are 12 hours and if longer I’m hourly so no complaints. So I have them on my radar seriously.

I’ve looking at some good drop & hook gigs as well in my area. LTL looks nice and I’m also looking at them. Whatever gets me to be more proficient and utilize my hours more to not waste time I’ll consider taking. But my next job must be hourly. I’ll never be cents per mile again.

To answer another's question above. I could not work for Walmart’s private fleet because I have come to dislike working for Walmarts. I don’t like dealing with customers at all and I don’t need to. I would like a gig where I do the job and it’s on my performance and my performance alone. Even if that means unloading the truck myself.