Can You Go Straight To Solo Driver With 1 Year Experience?
Topic 2966 | Page 2
Chris, I'm in Nebraska right now with 2 deliveries to go and a pickup to do tomorrow morning. I won't be there anytime soon. But I will be taking 80 to 84 through ID. Send me an email I'll give you my number. I can't be on TT 24/7 when I'm running hard (which I will be) so only way to really communicate with me is phone.
My appointment for my delivery south of Seattle is 3/10 so if all goes well I'll be going through ID on the 9th.
Eh, what am I thinking... Seattle??
I deliver in Woodburn, OR. So South of Portland. We're bound to meet up along the way, just keep in touch. Again, I'm not going to Seattle I'm going to Heyburn, OR. I've been to WA too much lately been confusing myself. HAHA!
Since you did a regional LTL type route, they might consider it OTR , but they might have you take a shorter training period. Where someone straight out of school goes with a trainer for seven weeks, they might have you take four weeks. It depends on the company.
Dave
Regional:
Regional Route
Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.
LTL:
Less Than Truckload
Refers to carriers that make a lot of smaller pickups and deliveries for multiple customers as opposed to hauling one big load of freight for one customer. This type of hauling is normally done by companies with terminals scattered throughout the country where freight is sorted before being moved on to its destination.
LTL carriers include:
- FedEx Freight
- Con-way
- YRC Freight
- UPS
- Old Dominion
- Estes
- Yellow-Roadway
- ABF Freight
- R+L Carrier
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
From what I understand, if you are keeping a log book, that is OTR experience.I'm not sure how Prime sees it. I did 3 years with them, lot tougher than what I do now. It did teach me how to plan trips and locate addresses. There is nothing like trying to find a dark restaurant for a key drop in a snowstorm, IMO.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
From what I understand, if you are keeping a log book, that is OTR experience.I'm not sure how Prime sees it. I did 3 years with them, lot tougher than what I do now. It did teach me how to plan trips and locate addresses. There is nothing like trying to find a dark restaurant for a key drop in a snowstorm, IMO.
Does not matter if you log 3000 miles a week if you do not cross state lines it's call intrastate and not really looked at as otr experience. Now if you cross state lines that is Interstate driving and does count as otr experience. Logging miles in a log book does not determine otr driving. State lines do.
OTR:
Over The Road
OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.
Interstate:
Commercial trade, business, movement of goods or money, or transportation from one state to another, regulated by the Federal Department Of Transportation (DOT).
Intrastate:
The act of purchasers and sellers transacting business while keeping all transactions in a single state, without crossing state lines to do so.
I make deliveries in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I called Prime and the recruiter said I would have to go with a trainer for 4 weeks/15,000 miles. I'm ok with that they will pay me $600 a week till I go solo.
My buddy who is 400 lbs...[is] going to be driving a LW truck
I think he's going to have to! 
I make deliveries in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I called Prime and the recruiter said I would have to go with a trainer for 4 weeks/15,000 miles. I'm ok with that they will pay me $600 a week till I go solo.
By all rights you should not have to go out with a trainer and most companies wouldn't have you do that. But Prime uses their students in training as "inexpensive labor" to help the lease drivers and owner operators make their truck payments. And their lease drivers help the company make pretty solid money which in turn it uses to pay their drivers one of the better pay packages in the country.
So I guess you can look at it like this: You give them one month of good hard running as a team at a lower pay rate in order to help them keep their lease drivers in the black and they'll give you a great pay package for the rest of your time with them. That's what it amounts to. If you like the company and you think they're worth it then go for it because long-term that month will mean absolutely nothing. You'll forget you even did it after a while.
Almost every decision we make in life is a compromise of some sort. It's simply a matter of weighing the pro's and con's. If I found a company I thought really suited me well I wouldn't mind putting in a month of running team knowing I'll be in a great position from that point on.
Owner Operator:
An owner-operator is a driver who either owns or leases the truck they are driving. A self-employed driver.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
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I wish I wasn't working tonight I would come check it out. Jubitz is not to far from me, but I'm leaving for work around 5:30 for my Boise Idaho route and need to try to get a nap in before I go. I appreciate the opportunity to check out your truck. I'm kinda bummed that the timing won't work this time.
You never know, if your going east on I-84 tonight we might be on there at the same time. I try to leave Sygma which is in Clackamas between 7 & 8 pm but it all depends on if my trailer is loaded and ready.