Improving Our Trucking Company Information

Hey all! I'm getting ready to update our trucking company reviews and information section. I want to make it a million times easier to compare companies and find the company that's right for you. We're going to add a whole bunch of new companies and a lot more information on each one. Here's the basic list I have right now of everything I'm going to find out about these companies. Is there anything you'd like to know about trucking companies when you're doing your research that isn't listed here?

And listen - don't be shy! Speak up! You guys are the ones doing the research. My goal is to make sure you find all of the information you need to make a great decision right here at TruckingTruth. If you have to go anywhere else to find the info you need then I'm missing something. That's not good. So let's prevent that from happening.

What should I add to this list?

Number of tractors

Number of trailers

Average Age Of Equipment

Driver Turnover Rate

Brands of tractors

Transmission Type

Copmany yearly revenues

Company total miles driven

Minimum Qualifications

Average Age Of Equipment

Transmission Type

Speed Of Trucks

APU / Idle Policy?

Electronic / Paper Logs?

Hiring Area

Operating Area

Company Training:

Types Of Freight

Salary

- average weekly solo
- average weekly team
- pay during training
- starting pay
- pay after 6 months
- pay after 1 year
- per diem offered?

Benefits

- list of all benefits - cost per week (single/family) - yearly deductible

Tuition Reimbursement?

Fees Or Deductions From Paychecks?

Buy equipment? (load bars, locks, tarps & chains, etc)

Hometime Policy

Electronics Policies (GPS, invertor, CB, etc)

Rider And Pet Policy?

Team Opportunities?

Canada Border Crossing Policy

Forced Dispatch To New York City?

Haul Hazardous Materials?

% Drop And Hook?

Forced Dispatch?

Local / Regional / Dedicated Opportunities?

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.

Per Diem:

Getting paid per diem means getting a portion of your salary paid to you without taxes taken out. It's technically classified as a meal and expense reimbursement.

Truck drivers and others who travel for a living get large tax deductions for meal expenses. The Government set up per diem pay as a way to reimburse some of the taxes you pay with each paycheck instead of making you wait until tax filing season.

Getting per diem pay means a driver will get a larger paycheck each week but a smaller tax return at tax time.

We have a ton of information on our wiki page on per diem pay

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

That's a great list everything I could think of you had listed, except maybe talk about fees or expenses some companies charge. Like for instance Prime company drivers have to buy the equipment we use like for flatbedders all the Securement, tarps, tire chains and such has to be paid by driver. They will take it out of our checks in weekly payments.

Hey all! I'm getting ready to update our trucking company reviews and information section. I want to make it a million times easier to compare companies and find the company that's right for you. We're going to add a whole bunch of new companies and a lot more information on each one. Here's the basic list I have right now of everything I'm going to find out about these companies. Is there anything you'd like to know about trucking companies when you're doing your research that isn't listed here?

And listen - don't be shy! Speak up! You guys are the ones doing the research. My goal is to make sure you find all of the information you need to make a great decision right here at TruckingTruth. If you have to go anywhere else to find the info you need then I'm missing something. That's not good. So let's prevent that from happening.

What should I add to this list?

Number of tractors

Number of trailers

Average Age Of Equipment

Brands of tractors

Transmission Type

Copmany yearly revenues

Company total miles driven

Minimum Qualifications

Average Age Of Equipment

Transmission Type

Speed Of Trucks

APU / Idle Policy?

Electronic / Paper Logs?

Hiring Area

Operating Area

Company Training Duration

Forced To Team After Training?

Types Of Freight

Salary

- average weekly solo - average weekly team - pay during training - starting pay - pay after 6 months - pay after 1 year

Benefits

Tuition Reimbursement?

Hometime Policy

Rider And Pet Policy?

Team Opportunities?

Canada Border Crossing Policy

Forced Dispatch To New York City?

Haul Hazardous Materials?

% Drop And Hook?

Forced Dispatch?

Local / Regional / Dedicated Opportunities?

Hey Brett, First of all, Thank you for all your hard work on this awesome site! I was thinking it would be great to see the deductibles on health benefits plans the company offers, I know that's one of the most important questions I ask when it comes to health care benefits. Cheers!

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.

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Hey all! I'm getting ready to update our trucking company reviews and information section. I want to make it a million times easier to compare companies and find the company that's right for you. We're going to add a whole bunch of new companies and a lot more information on each one. Here's the basic list I have right now of everything I'm going to find out about these companies. Is there anything you'd like to know about trucking companies when you're doing your research that isn't listed here?

And listen - don't be shy! Speak up! You guys are the ones doing the research. My goal is to make sure you find all of the information you need to make a great decision right here at TruckingTruth. If you have to go anywhere else to find the info you need then I'm missing something. That's not good. So let's prevent that from happening.

What should I add to this list?

Number of tractors

Number of trailers

Average Age Of Equipment

Brands of tractors

Transmission Type

Copmany yearly revenues

Company total miles driven

Minimum Qualifications

Average Age Of Equipment

Transmission Type

Speed Of Trucks

APU / Idle Policy?

Electronic / Paper Logs?

Hiring Area

Operating Area

Company Training Duration

Forced To Team After Training?

Types Of Freight

Salary

- average weekly solo - average weekly team - pay during training - starting pay - pay after 6 months - pay after 1 year

Benefits

Tuition Reimbursement?

Hometime Policy

Rider And Pet Policy?

Team Opportunities?

Canada Border Crossing Policy

Forced Dispatch To New York City?

Haul Hazardous Materials?

% Drop And Hook?

Forced Dispatch?

Local / Regional / Dedicated Opportunities?

the average time it takes to do OTR before you have a good shot at getting a local gig I know most Companies want one to two yrs of OTR but I have been offered a couple of local jobs just with a month OTR I would say 6 months at the least if you could do more research on that it would be greatly appreciated

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.

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.

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Definitely interested in paycheck deductions. and if any of those deductions are optional.

One thing I would like to see on the list is the company's turn over rate.

Ok the list I have at the top has now been updated with awesome ideas! Thanks guys and gals!!!

Fees or deductions from your paycheck, health care deductible, per diem pay, and turnover rate have all been added to the list.

The OTR experienced needed to qualify for various opportunities like regional and local will be included in the "opportunities" section.

Awesome ideas! Keep em comin!

I would like to know whether or not they have APU's , if you can take the tractor (with or without a trailer) home for home time. ....Darn! I had more, but now I've forgotten it!

Tarren

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APU's:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

How much $ for Tarping/ Untarping when flatbedding?

Would be cool to see 'bonus' company offers - Fuel MPG, Clean DOT inspection -- know you have that for a few companies but if the info is available would be great to compare-

Appreciate your time and work on the site Brett!!