Greetings, Need Career Advice, Looking At Going Out On The Road.

Truck GPS systems are very good. And by the way, there's no such thing as cheating when it comes to navigation, communication, or safety when you're on the road. You do whatever it takes to get the job done safely and efficiently.

Any GPS system is a good tool but of course you should never rely on them completely. What most people will do when getting directions to a customer is compare various sources of information to make sure it adds up. For instance, I used to call the customer and get directions over the phone. Our company normally had directions to most customers built right into the load information on the Qualcomm also. So that's two different sources. Sometimes they would match up, sometimes they wouldn't.

By the way, always read the directions back to the person that gave them to you. You won't believe how often people accidentally say "left" instead of "right" or give you the wrong name of a road or something. When you read it back to them they'll often catch their mistake.

I would then look at Google Maps to plot out the directions on there to see if what I was given by the customer and on the Qualcomm worked properly. Also I would check in the reference section of the Rand McNally Motor Carrier's Atlas to see if there were any low bridges listed along my route.

Finally I would check on Google Maps for turnaround locations in case I somehow passed the place, and I would get a feel for the area in case some construction popped up and you had to take a short detour somewhere.

Once you are pretty confident with the directions you can then program them into your GPS and follow them. A lot of people will make a backup set of directions on a piece of paper in case their GPS suddenly dies along the way.

Even after all of that you might find something along the route you're unsure of. Make sure you have a CB radio and you can always give a shout when you're in the area to see if a local driver or a driver that just happened to go to that customer might know the answer you're looking for.

So as you can see it's best to check out many sources of information and use all of the tools at your disposal. In a car you can wander around aimlessly all day if you like. In a big rig you absolutely do not want to be wandering around looking for a place. There are way too many low bridges and restricted routes to be doing that. You want to know exactly how to get somewhere before you head off the interstate and toward the customer.

Truck GPS are sometimes good things to have. I have 2 in my truck plus my rand McNally book and of course my phone. The cb trick works good too if there's anyone around who happens to have it on. I spent an hour driving in circles in Boston because I couldn't find this one customer. Definitely no fun let me tell ya.

If I understand you right you're looking to get away from the physical type of driving. That will likely have a big impact on pay. I.e. The more you gotta work, the better the pay.

If pay is a significant factor, you need to make sure the type of driving job meets your financial needs.

You may also want to ask recruiters what the pay cap is for the job you're considering. If you're looking at a job that caps out at $.48/mile, will that satisfy you?

Having said all that, I've been very satisfied with dry van for Schneider and there are enough different divisions to allow me to transfer within the company.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

Just got a call from a recruiter at Knight Transportation. They have a refrigerated position available out of Dallas. It sounded like a good job, but wanted to run it by you guys here first, the experienced ones. :)

It would be a super regional job, 14 days out, 2 days home, but she said I could stay out longer if I wanted. Avg of 2200 to 2500 miles per week on a sliding scale. .40cpm for longer runs and .49cpm for shorter runs. She said I'd just have to do a week or two with a trainer to get acclimated, and then would be on my own. 40% drop and hook , 60% dock load but mostly no touch freight.

This is the first call I got so I told her I'd call back later (I'm at work now and have some things I have to get done) but wanted to get with Schneider and Melton first, but since I don't know much about the OTR side of things, her offer sounded good to me.

What do you guys think?

Sorry for any typos, I'm on my phone.

Phone interview with Schneider tomorrow. Dry van job starting .41cpm. :)

Phone interview with Schneider tomorrow. Dry van job starting .41cpm. :)

Good for you Sam! Good luck.

I'm actually leaning toward the knight transport right now. I know Schneider is a much bigger company, but the lady at knight made it sound like a good offer. Of course, that's her job, but she did it real well.

Was hoping for some feedback on knight and running refer before I jumped on it

I'm actually leaning toward the knight transport right now. I know Schneider is a much bigger company, but the lady at knight made it sound like a good offer. Of course, that's her job, but she did it real well.

Was hoping for some feedback on knight and running refer before I jumped on it

Running reefer isn't bad as long as you can sleep with the reefer running behind you. Everything you said as far as miles and the percentage of drops vs live loads sounds about average too. With dry van your gonna get a lot more drops which keep you moving but typically the pay is a few cpm lower so you make about the same amount.

Yeah, the only thing about Schneider is they are offering a sign on bonus, and they are also saying between 2300 and 2900 miles per week avg, and it is possible to get over 3000. Knight is saying about 2200 to 2500 per week, but as you said, the pay is different.

With knight, it's about an average of .44cpm, with the possibility of bonus cam on top of that, running 2200 to 2500 versus Schneider offering .41cpm, but they also have things like safety bonus, fuel bonus etc..

Guess I just need to stop milling about and just do it. Good thing about the trucking industry is that if you don't like where you are at, you can move to a new company.

I think the only advantage I may have here is that I have no bills, other than a truck payment, rent, and utilities, which will be minimal if I am on the road all of the time.

I know that truck driving isn't going to make me rich, but, do most truckers get to save a lot of their money? Since you are on the road all of the time, you really don't have the opportunity to spend a lot of money, other than meals and supplies, right? Thrifty shopping and eating stuff you make yourself will help a ton in the food bill I assume.

I think the money would work out the same between Knight and Schneider. No way to know exactly how many miles you'll get but in the end the difference in salary will be minimal.

if you don't like where you are at, you can move to a new company

It's far more likely that you will like where you're at if you're a really solid driver. The better drivers get taken care of pretty well. They get great miles, they get home on time, they get opportunities at freight and divisions that most drivers don't get, and they get special favors from time to time.

So most of the time you hear someone complaining about their company, especially about the major companies, it's either because the company isn't a good match for what they're looking for or that person isn't a very good driver. Every large company has a group of drivers near the bottom of the safety and reliability chart that don't get nearly the miles the top tier drivers get. They're not the happiest of people as you can imagine.

Just pick the company you feel suits you best or flip a coin if they're that close - and they very well may be. Go in there with the attitude that you're going to be an awesome driver and you can be sure they'll be happy to have you around and you'll be happy to be there. It's quite common to move around and try a few companies in the first few years of your career but most of the time it isn't because people feel they're leaving a bad company. They're just looking for new opportunities or new experiences.