[CRST] 5 Month Mark!

First home time (scheduled 5 days; Ended up staying about 1 1/2 weeks).

Just found out my co-driver (100% zero problems; He even spent the night at my house) is leaving to be a trainer in 4 weeks. He's been with CRST for ~6mo now.

From my perspective: AVERAGE 3,000mi a week. 12.5¢ a mile (CRST "split-pay system). BRAND NEW VEHICLES (this 2015 had under 5,000mi when I got on board. Up to 30k+ now). VERY well maintained.

All-in-all: Super happy with the company. Saxon's the most human FM ever! She isn't some robot. She even uses emoticons on the QC! :)

Worst part: Night shift dispatch (and worse), weekend dispatch. They both seem to be in their OWN loop of things. Freight is there. Never get anything but jokes of loads (8 out of 10 times).

I should frequent the forums more often. Sorry. :s

All-in-all: Super happy with the company [CRST]

Awesome to hear! How do you like running team? It's one of those things that most people either love or hate it seems.

Worst part: Night shift dispatch (and worse), weekend dispatch

That's always the case at every trucking company in the nation. Nothing is worse than leaving your fate in the hands of night and weekend dispatch. You learn quickly to try to make sure your full time dispatcher never leaves you in their hands.

Mind you, it's not their fault. It's not that the night and weekend dispatchers aren't good at what they do. They're just in a really tough spot. Most customers aren't open when they're in so it's hard to make changes. They have no idea what's going on before they arrive for work and look at the screens, and they have way more drivers to take care of. A daytime dispatcher might deal with 50-75 drivers. A night or weekend dispatcher could have 150-300. Add to that the fact that you also have a different set of load planners and customer service reps at night.

So it's kinda like taking an airplane in mid-flight, telling the pilots to punch out, and bringing in a new set of pilots without telling them where the plane is, where it's going, and what problems it may be having. It's like, "Here, fly this plane and don't wreck it." And they're on their own.

All in all: Under $8 pay for nearly a full 24hrs..

Luckily we have a load to Florida lined up after this, AND a load OUT OF Florida immediately after (to a high school in GA).

Trucking is one of the most inconsistent jobs you'll find when it comes to short term earnings. Either you're running so hard you're begging for a break, or you're breaking so hard you're begging for a run. But it's never like, "Here you go driver. Just the right amount of everything."

It's impossible to put a number on how many drivers wind up quitting their job or quitting the industry altogether over a few bad days or a couple of bad weeks. They either take it personally like someone is out to get them or they just get too caught up in the day to day view that they lose the forest for the trees.

I always looked at my pay monthly. I tried to shoot for about 3,200 miles per week and 12,000 miles per month, but I didn't get too concerned over a few slow days or a slow week or two. Over the long run it will all work out great if you're doing a great job for the company.

Keep at it! Sounds like things are going really well for ya.

Thanks for putting that into perspective :)

Glad I could help!

Indeed people tend to stress themselves out unnecessarily. I mean, I was one that always wanted to run hard. It's just my nature. I work hard, I play hard, and I tend to 'go for it' more than most people will. So I was always looking to keep those wheels turning. It wasn't a long vacation for me. I was out there to make some money.

So I stressed out sometimes over breakdowns or slow weeks. I'd get aggravated if dispatch took a nice, long run from me and turned it over to a team instead. But you realize pretty quickly that if you take a short term view you're going to have tremendous emotional ups and downs all the time. When you take a long term view things will average out nicely and you come to realize you were all worried about nothing.

I think a good analogy would be to your vision when you're driving. You don't look at the road directly in front of your truck. It's far too difficult to relax, keep it in the lane, and see what's coming. You'll constantly be over-correcting, the road is rushing past your eyes, and you're stressing out. Now compare that to what it's like when you sit back, relax, and watch the road 1/2 mile or more ahead of you. Now suddenly it doesn't seem like staying in the center of your lane is so difficult, the road isn't rushing by you anymore, and you'll know what's coming long before you get to it. It's far more relaxing, and safer to boot.

So just keep your focus on the long term goal. Everything 'reverts to the mean' or comes back to average over time. One week you'll be on pace to make $150,000 that year, the next week you'll have a major breakdown and be on pace to make $12,000 that year. You'll drive yourself nuts if you look at it that way! You'll have plenty of opportunities to make up for the slow times.

... Also days like today (uncommon, but it's apart of the job).

Arrived at the shipper yesterday early. The office has no bills. Nobody there deals with outside contracts (us). There's a mailbox hiding in the yard somewhere. Half faded text reading "BILLS."

None of our bills are in it. No bills in the trailer. 3hrs later: Finally get the company to fax a one-page copy of our BOL. We are required to wait until 6am the following day. No big deal. 15mi trip. ~12hr wait. Right? WRONG!

We arrive at the consignee early, only to find the BOL seal # is missing the last digit (a 9). Consignee refuses to accept it. We've been sitting in the dock yard waiting 6+ hours so far.

The cherry on top? It's a live unload. Another company driver took roughly 4hrs to get unloaded (his leaving of a few minutes ago prompted me to write about this).

All in all: Under $8 pay for nearly a full 24hrs..

Luckily we have a load to Florida lined up after this, AND a load OUT OF Florida immediately after (to a high school in GA).

I'm finishing school Thursday and heading to Atlanta for Crst. Thank you for sharing your experience with us

All-in-all: Super happy with the company [CRST]

Awesome to hear! How do you like running team? It's one of those things that most people either love or hate it seems.

Worst part: Night shift dispatch (and worse), weekend dispatch

That's always the case at every trucking company in the nation. Nothing is worse than leaving your fate in the hands of night and weekend dispatch. You learn quickly to try to make sure your full time dispatcher never leaves you in their hands.

Mind you, it's not their fault. It's not that the night and weekend dispatchers aren't good at what they do. They're just in a really tough spot. Most customers aren't open when they're in so it's hard to make changes. They have no idea what's going on before they arrive for work and look at the screens, and they have way more drivers to take care of. A daytime dispatcher might deal with 50-75 drivers. A night or weekend dispatcher could have 150-300. Add to that the fact that you also have a different set of load planners and customer service reps at night.

So it's kinda like taking an airplane in mid-flight, telling the pilots to punch out, and bringing in a new set of pilots without telling them where the plane is, where it's going, and what problems it may be having. It's like, "Here, fly this plane and don't wreck it." And they're on their own.

All in all: Under $8 pay for nearly a full 24hrs..

Luckily we have a load to Florida lined up after this, AND a load OUT OF Florida immediately after (to a high school in GA).

Trucking is one of the most inconsistent jobs you'll find when it comes to short term earnings. Either you're running so hard you're begging for a break, or you're breaking so hard you're begging for a run. But it's never like, "Here you go driver. Just the right amount of everything."

It's impossible to put a number on how many drivers wind up quitting their job or quitting the industry altogether over a few bad days or a couple of bad weeks. They either take it personally like someone is out to get them or they just get too caught up in the day to day view that they lose the forest for the trees.

I always looked at my pay monthly. I tried to shoot for about 3,200 miles per week and 12,000 miles per month, but I didn't get too concerned over a few slow days or a slow week or two. Over the long run it will all work out great if you're doing a great job for the company.

Keep at it! Sounds like things are going really well for ya.

Wow Brett I've never really thought about just looking at my earnings for the month. It's amazing how stressed out I let myself get when one of those today the tire blew, sat at shipper for 12 hours etc etc. When in reality all my bills are getting paid and I'm comfortable it really does all work out in the end. Thanks for putting that into perspective :)

Thanks for putting that into perspective :)

Glad I could help!

Indeed people tend to stress themselves out unnecessarily. I mean, I was one that always wanted to run hard. It's just my nature. I work hard, I play hard, and I tend to 'go for it' more than most people will. So I was always looking to keep those wheels turning. It wasn't a long vacation for me. I was out there to make some money.

So I stressed out sometimes over breakdowns or slow weeks. I'd get aggravated if dispatch took a nice, long run from me and turned it over to a team instead. But you realize pretty quickly that if you take a short term view you're going to have tremendous emotional ups and downs all the time. When you take a long term view things will average out nicely and you come to realize you were all worried about nothing.

I think a good analogy would be to your vision when you're driving. You don't look at the road directly in front of your truck. It's far too difficult to relax, keep it in the lane, and see what's coming. You'll constantly be over-correcting, the road is rushing past your eyes, and you're stressing out. Now compare that to what it's like when you sit back, relax, and watch the road 1/2 mile or more ahead of you. Now suddenly it doesn't seem like staying in the center of your lane is so difficult, the road isn't rushing by you anymore, and you'll know what's coming long before you get to it. It's far more relaxing, and safer to boot.

So just keep your focus on the long term goal. Everything 'reverts to the mean' or comes back to average over time. One week you'll be on pace to make $150,000 that year, the next week you'll have a major breakdown and be on pace to make $12,000 that year. You'll drive yourself nuts if you look at it that way! You'll have plenty of opportunities to make up for the slow times.

All-in-all: Super happy with the company [CRST]

Awesome to hear! How do you like running team? It's one of those things that most people either love or hate it seems.

Worst part: Night shift dispatch (and worse), weekend dispatch

That's always the case at every trucking company in the nation. Nothing is worse than leaving your fate in the hands of night and weekend dispatch. You learn quickly to try to make sure your full time dispatcher never leaves you in their hands.

Mind you, it's not their fault. It's not that the night and weekend dispatchers aren't good at what they do. They're just in a really tough spot. Most customers aren't open when they're in so it's hard to make changes. They have no idea what's going on before they arrive for work and look at the screens, and they have way more drivers to take care of. A daytime dispatcher might deal with 50-75 drivers. A night or weekend dispatcher could have 150-300. Add to that the fact that you also have a different set of load planners and customer service reps at night.

So it's kinda like taking an airplane in mid-flight, telling the pilots to punch out, and bringing in a new set of pilots without telling them where the plane is, where it's going, and what problems it may be having. It's like, "Here, fly this plane and don't wreck it." And they're on their own.

All in all: Under $8 pay for nearly a full 24hrs..

Luckily we have a load to Florida lined up after this, AND a load OUT OF Florida immediately after (to a high school in GA).

Trucking is one of the most inconsistent jobs you'll find when it comes to short term earnings. Either you're running so hard you're begging for a break, or you're breaking so hard you're begging for a run. But it's never like, "Here you go driver. Just the right amount of everything."

It's impossible to put a number on how many drivers wind up quitting their job or quitting the industry altogether over a few bad days or a couple of bad weeks. They either take it personally like someone is out to get them or they just get too caught up in the day to day view that they lose the forest for the trees.

I always looked at my pay monthly. I tried to shoot for about 3,200 miles per week and 12,000 miles per month, but I didn't get too concerned over a few slow days or a slow week or two. Over the long run it will all work out great if you're doing a great job for the company.

Keep at it! Sounds like things are going really well for ya.

You've given me a push here! Much needed ...

That's awesome man. I'm going on 8 months now 7 days a week and for the most part have had a blast. I'm definitely glad I made the leap and did it. I for sure didn't have zero problems with the person I had to run team with. Thank god that is over. Team definitely isn't my thing

I'm finishing school Thursday and heading to Atlanta for Crst. Thank you for sharing your experience with us

You're welcome. :)

I also just had a very cute young lady knock on my door (SLC, Utah). Skin lesions, teeth, tract marks. Super skimpy clothes. She had some short story about... 'My parents accidentally left me here, do you have any change?' But she said sir a lot, apologized for bothering me. I do not understand how someone becomes addicted to meth.

Keep at it! Sounds like things are going really well for ya.

Very well!! Every day is a new adventure. I have seen many people die, and dead, and seriously injured. Dead RV driver a couple of days ago. Cabin was flat.

In regards to teams: Trainer was OK. Joke of a father.

Second: Complete idiot (nearly killed us, and others, couldn't shif-- Couldn't perform any daily task required other than "drive forward" with great difficulty).

Third: He is just... *insert profane adjectives*!!!! Couldn't ask for a better one.

I am being set on a dedicated route for Conway or YRC in a week with a new co-driver. Hazmat/Tanker/Double-Triple required. Reason being personal... New co driver sounded fantastic over the phone though.

54, works out, energetic, clean, SAFE, no tickets, and lives in a neighboring city!! :)

That's awesome man. I'm going on 8 months now 7 days a week and for the most part have had a blast. I'm definitely glad I made the leap and did it. I for sure didn't have zero problems with the person I had to run team with. Thank god that is over. Team definitely isn't my thing

Hahaha!! Awesome! I understand your views on team driving, and share them. I am only bothered by a few things my current co driver does. Namely NOT locking doors, NOT rolling up windows, and in general NOT picking up after himself 100%.

As a result: My $200 sub-zero blanket (a gift from a co worker from when I was homeless) is now gone for good. He also asks that I use his Love's card for the points..... But never openly lets me have access to it (free coffee). Only if I mention showering, do I see it. He has 'diamond status' now.

$0.54 to eat a 12" at Subway. Not that it applies to *me* of course. I still pay 100% ($6+). Lol.