New driver looking for a little help.

[jmgeary]

I will be getting out of the SAGE training program soon and I will be looking for a good starting company out of the Phoenix area. Any suggestions as to if I should start out over the road or local? I have only heard that it is better to start out by gaining over the road experience first, and then moving on to a local company, plus the pay is better, at least at first, with an OTR company. Anyway, any suggestions for good local and/or OTR companies would be appreciated.

[YoungZ.W.]

U.S. Express has a local account in Phoenix. www.xpressdrivers.com They also have regional accounts out of Arizona that have you out for 12 days then home 2-3 days. I'm a going to go with U.S. Xpress when I get my CDL. From the drivers I've talked to and the info from this board U.S.X is one of the better places to start. Swift is based out of Pheonix, but I've heard many herror stories about Swift. You might want to look at Southern Cal Transportation and Central Refrigerated Services. It will be hard to get on a local accout right out of school, because many want at least 1 year OTR experience. Start out OTR in a regional or dedicated account and see how you like it then you will have more options as far as local and other companies. Best of luck.

[ColtsFan]

I am looking to start driving this year as well. Have read a lot, talked to US Express, and some of their drivers. They seem like a good company from what I have heard as well.

[autohauler06]

i worked for swift for a little bit out of phoenix and to be honest I didn't care for them at all. Their training wasn't that good it was more like a team set up from the beginning. I had a chance to talk to a lot of drivers from us express and they all seemed pretty happy. They have really good equipment some of their new trucks have lots of cool gadgets like gps and camera's. The only thing is they have automatic trucks well if you don't mind that i guess its the way to go. I never really heard any good things about jb hunt or England. Best of luck too you.

[nocomment]

I'm a recent grad as well and was lookin to go with usxpress, but have changed my mind. There is another forum on here, and a lot of the drivers have had problems with them. They are hiring too many drivers and don't have enough loads, so they're having to sit a lot and wait on new loads. They also run a sliding pay scale, which I thought was okay at first, until I was told that you run on the trailers miles. If you pick up a trailer that has already been 700 miles of its load, then you get paid mileage based on that, not what miles you take it. I've had a hard time finding a company I want to go with, I would prefer local, but know it's going to be a bit until I can get my experience in. Been applying for two months and I'm just going to have to go do it! I've recently become interested in a smaller company, Willis Shaw. Anyone with comments about them, please let me know. Their cpm isn't high to start (.3025), but they have good bonuses to make up for it. Any help or opinions are appreciated!!

[inmate1577]

I'm not dissing USEXPRESS since I dont work for them, nor have I talked to their drivers but being an all automatic company you might want to consider going with a company that runs manual transmissions. In some states, driving an automatic only could put an "automatic restriction" on your license. But check with your state, also if things dont work out with an all automatic company you are very limited as to who you can go work for in your next driving job.

SNI is going automatic, and I'm fighting the change. I guess its the wave of the future but my advice is to go to a private school get trained on manual transmissions then apply at USEXPRESS or the company of your choice.

[Lewis friend]

I dunno, it's hard to say without actually meeting you in person.

If you even have to ask wether to go local or OTR, then you probably want to go local---AND STAY LOCAL.

But the thing is, it varies from person to person; OTR can teach you alot that local can't----such as actually DRIVING the truck for hours and hours which is one thing you need as a beginner. Practice makes perfect. With local, you're not getting that many miles in.

What i did, is i got my licence thru driving school and then immediately went OTR 4 days after getting my licence. Well, that bull***** didn't last but a month and then miraculously, i got hired local LTL (overnite). This worked out great for the next year and half.


And then now what i do, is every now and then i go OTR for a while for the experience, to mix things up a bit, and i feel there is more money there, generally.

Now, you may have heard that OTR pays more than local. This may be true BECAUSE:
You are simply getting more hours (work) in with OTR; Let's face it--with OTR you are with the truck 24 hours a day. When you wake up, the work is right there.

When you're local, you're going to go home and B.S., watch tv, play video games etc. screw around (possibly literally as well as figuratively) with friends etc. These are hours you could be spending working.

So, dollar for dollar, local may pay AS MUCH as OTR, but with OTR you're simply getting more hours. It's more convienient to make more money, not to mention you're cutting out a large portion of you're commutting costs. Also, if there's no-one home, you don't need to heat/cool your place, so you're saving some money there as well.

FedEx freight, overnite (now UPS freight) and others have programs where they'll pay you to work on the dock ($17) while they gradually work you in to driving local. And i know you got these companies in phoenix.