Please Help Me Decide Between 2 Companies

I have 2 job offers straight out of CDL school. This would be my first trucking job ever, after a 15 year career as a Deputy Sheriff. I'm in Colorado Springs,CO thanks in advance for any advice.

The details are as follows,

One is with ACE Hardware starting as an extra board driver regionally, .49 cents per mile $16 per hour detention/break $15 dollars per stop $30 sleeper pay 3,000 sign on bonus. -Good but expensive medical dental vision. (600 per month cost.) -6% 401K match -Will start as yard dog until trainer is ready for me. -2021 freightliner manual trucks -on road 3-4 nights per week

The other is a very small and new trucking company in town I would be employee number 2 driving a flatbed regionally. ( owner is very nice and has bent over backwards to try and hire me)

.48 cents per mile. $75 tarp and strap pay. $25 per hour detention/break $25-30 per hour if doing local runs. $20 sleeper pay -No medical, dental, vision but gives $500 per month towards it to get your own. -3% 401k match -flexible with schedule -takehome 2018 Peterbilt 579 automatic transmission. -will allow me to pick loads further out l, example to go visit family in another state. -allows riders and pets. -5000 sign on bonus.

I feel blessed to have these two offers both seem amazing to me and I'm having a very hard time deciding.

I really like the appeal of the small company. The owner is the kind of person you can sit and talk to, he seems very flexible and understanding.

ACE is appealing because it is the safer job with full benefits. I have also read there indeed reviews which are pretty decent.

I appreciate all of you on here I have gained a ton of knowledge from this forum!

Thanks,

This is my opinion, but to me both of these don't sound particularly great.

First, ask if any of these are paid 1099. If so, then immediately it's a terrible deal. I'd think any of the mega carriers can beat the rate that these places are giving you. The mega's doing otr are up to like .60/mi. The accessorial pay to me is low. Personally when i see a bunch of accessorial stuff it's smoke and mirrors but that's just me.

Good luck.

I dunno about the small company. The 1099 deal might be your future there. Also as a freshly minted CDL driver you won't get the training and support you will need.

I think Ace Hardware would be a good deal. You will certainly be a W-2 employee there. In my opinion, I think driving a truck for a non-trucking company (Ace, Ashley, Tyson, Walmart) might be better than driving for a trucking company.

Thanks for the reply, I'm sorry I forgot to mention both are W2 positions. The training portion for me is huge I know that the 160 hour school I attended taught me just enough to get into trouble and I need more training.

I dunno about the small company. The 1099 deal might be your future there. Also as a freshly minted CDL driver you won't get the training and support you will need.

I think Ace Hardware would be a good deal. You will certainly be a W-2 employee there. In my opinion, I think driving a truck for a non-trucking company (Ace, Ashley, Tyson, Walmart) might be better than driving for a trucking company.

Thanks for the reply, I forgot to mention both are W2. I didn't realize that the mega carriers were paying that much to newbies maybe I need to actually give them a look, I was told by a friend of mine who used to work for Swift to stay far away from them but I'm not sure about the others.

This is my opinion, but to me both of these don't sound particularly great.

First, ask if any of these are paid 1099. If so, then immediately it's a terrible deal. I'd think any of the mega carriers can beat the rate that these places are giving you. The mega's doing otr are up to like .60/mi. The accessorial pay to me is low. Personally when i see a bunch of accessorial stuff it's smoke and mirrors but that's just me.

Good luck.

I was told by a friend of mine who used to work for Swift to stay far away from them.

Smile when you say that, Jerad. There are a few Swifties here who will take issue with that. I'm one. I went through Swift's training program, then drove Swift, then taught at the same Swift Academy I started at.

I'm glad you understand you're still not ready for Prime time (oh, Hi, Kearsey!). Understand you need to ride OTR with a trainer for roughly six weeks before they'll let you out on your own. Ask Ace Hardware about that. With a CDL , you can Apply For Truck Driving Jobs and be rolling with your trainer in a week or so.

Personally I would look at other laeger OTR companies and see what else you can find given the area you live in I would want as much support as possible.

If those are your only options I would go with Ace. Being the 2nd employee at a new company while having no experience is a recipe for disaster. Infact I'm not sure how he can afford to have you on his insurance the rate would be insanely high, which is why those small companies usually require experience.

Here is an example. CFI just raised pay. Students, while on a trainers truck, 21 days are paid 32 CPM on upgrade they start at 38 CPM and get a few other raises during your first year.

They offer full benefits, health, vision, dental, life, disability, 401K with match, pet insurance and some other disability.

It is not difficult to average 2500 miles per week. I usually get more.

There are other bonus pays, extra stop, hazmat , fuel, safety, etc. These are not on every load.

There are many other companies who will take you out of school and train you.

After at least one year of safe OTR driving your local job opportunities open up.

Good luck.

If you're anything like me, once you get done with school, you've probably realized that you don't have the skills and experience yet to succeed at this, much less deal with a local type of job. Driving in city traffic, negotiating retail parking areas, tight docks probably multiple times a day.

The big companies got to be big companies by doing things well, like training their drivers. I'm just starting my second week solo, my first 30k miles solo are under the care of a driver developer and DM that works exclusively with us new guys so we can continue to get trained and learn. It's great to have the resources to grow into this career instead of just being flung to the wolves.

Ace will give me a full training program 4 weeks backing as a yard dog, then 4-5 weeks with a trainer OTR. The small company said they will put me with their other driver for 1-2 weeks and cut me loose which scares the heck out of me as a newbie!

I was told by a friend of mine who used to work for Swift to stay far away from them.

Smile when you say that, Jerad. There are a few Swifties here who will take issue with that. I'm one. I went through Swift's training program, then drove Swift, then taught at the same Swift Academy I started at.

I'm glad you understand you're still not ready for Prime time (oh, Hi, Kearsey!). Understand you need to ride OTR with a trainer for roughly six weeks before they'll let you out on your own. Ask Ace Hardware about that. With a CDL , you can Apply For Truck Driving Jobs and be rolling with your trainer in a week or so.