New Guy Contemplating On Going OTR

BK, I was just getting down the list. Thank you too. You did make that hit home, literally. That was another question. How many miles could a rookie driver actually do? You put it into reality. And yea, that pay stinks. But I thought that's what everyone had to do in the beginning? Work hard for pennies, just to get out there and get experience

One thing to remember is that bonus pay may be dependent on having a perfect driving record. When I drove at Schneider, there was a quarterly bonus for fuel economy and several other things. But one citation or preventable incident, no matter how small, would cancel the bonus for the entire quarter. I don’t know if this policy is common among companies.

My point is that counting on bonus or accessory pay can be iffy.

And .31 CPM for 2500 miles a week is only $775. Can a rookie average 2500 miles a week? Maybe, maybe not. If that amount of income for a 70 hour week is ok, then go for it. My math says it amounts to $11.07 per hour.

Yes, the pay at TransAm is low and they make you hit every bonus to be able to get decent paychecks. Company drivers are required to follow the provided fuel solutions for each load in order to qualify for the fuel bonus. Don't go lease. They sell drivers on leasing by telling drivers all the things you can do as a lease driver that you can't as a company driver. What they don't tell you is that you can't go home at all and have any chance of making money leasing. They don't tell you that one unforeseen issue can set you back weeks in actually turning a profit.

The only reason I would give any consideration to TransAm is that they have dedicated routes that are much higher paying, and still offering bonuses. TransAm hires from within for those dedicated routes before considering outside experienced drivers. Drivers on those dedicated accounts really like TransAm. You can definitely do better starting out, but getting on one of those dedicated accounts is going to put you in top notch pay.

Steve, Yea. There's nothing here or at my school. New York is hiring but every company wants experience. I guess there are a lot of people who do not drive so well after school. All I can say is HOLY, this is gonna be an EXPERIENCE !

I'm a little confused. If you graduated a truck driving school, did they not have recruiters come in? Most private schools have relationships with recruiters for multiple companies. What companies did your school recommend?

I seriously doubt Schneider (or any company) would disqualify you because you learned on a manual transmission instead of autoshift; usually it's the other way around.

You may live in an area that many companies don't hire from. But I'd still be surprised if there's no companies your school recommends. When I went to private school, we had all chosen our companies by graduation day. Why wait?