Please help picking out of these companies...thanks!

[madaxeman]

I have 25 months experience doing OTR 53' dry van (with Hazmat, Passport, Tanker, Doubles/Triples). I live in the Chicagoland area. I am not too familiar with most of these companies. Basically, I am looking for good, consistent pay (paid miles per week and cpm) and reasonable hometime (not out for 3-6 weeks at a time). The last two companies I worked for completely sucked. They kept laying me over (paid practically nothing for that), drop and hooks with no empty trailers, crappy mileage each week, low pay per mile, short mile pay, forcing me to do local loads for no pay to get empty trailers, didn't want to get me home, etc. Anybody have any experience with any of these companies? Which are a few of the better ones? Which should I avoid like the plague? Thanks for your help!

All of these places called me after filling out the application on this site:
JR Schugel
Celadon
CRST Dedicated
DeBoer
TransCorr
Hill Bros.
Conway
JB Hunt
McLeod
Gainey
YRC

[Malaki86]

I currently drive for Celadon. They're a good company and you'll definitely keep moving. My average length of haul is about 820 miles per trip. I run on average 2,500 miles per week, with some WELL above that. You're required to stay out 14 days. You earn 1 day off (a FULL day) for every 7 days you're out. You also recieve 1 weeks vacation (paid) for every 30,000 miles you run. This is paid @ $300 per week without HazMat and $600 with it. So far I've pulled 1 HazMat load (extra $0.02 per mile) but will get the extra pay for the vacation. We do about 70-80% drop and hook, but if there's no empty, who cares? We get paid to bobtail to get one. I'm at home EVERY time I ask to be, but I've been a day late getting there a couple of times. When that happens, the day I return to service is pushed up to match. I think I've done 3 loads that were under the 100 mile "shag pay" requirement, but those were ONLY to get me headed for the house. Also, the equipment is very good condition - you'll get either a 2009+ International Prostar (most likely) or a 2009+ Freightliner Cascadia. They're phasing out the Volvo 780's.

I don't know anything about the other companies on your list.

If you have any more questions, feel free to send me a PM.

[Steel Horse Cowboy]

I worked for Transcorr for 2 years as an O/O..... miles are low and pay is crap but u will get home a loyt, but I would suggest somewhere else.

[Griff]

Why not look at a local job and be home every night? You can make a good living being local and sleep in your own bed.

[Steel Horse Cowboy]

Why not look at a local job and be home every night? You can make a good living being local and sleep in your own bed.

Please find me one of these LOL

[Steel Horse Cowboy]

To elaborate on Transcorr.....

90% of all they haul are paper goods. Either finished paper rolls or scrap paper. Either way, the loads are VERY heavy and they load you 80k just about everytime. Now being a company guy, that doesn't really matter i guess. They have dedicated clients (not runs or lanes, just companies) so the freight keeps going, but every load is about 200 miles in length. So you might get 300-400 a day, but you will get home weekends and some nights. I know their pay was around .36cpm for Company ($1.15 for O/O when I was there)

[madaxeman]

Why not look at a local job and be home every night? You can make a good living being local and sleep in your own bed.

Jobs are very slim pickings these days! If you know someone hiring locally, let me know. Thanks!

[madaxeman]

To elaborate on Transcorr.....

90% of all they haul are paper goods. Either finished paper rolls or scrap paper. Either way, the loads are VERY heavy and they load you 80k just about everytime. Now being a company guy, that doesn't really matter i guess. They have dedicated clients (not runs or lanes, just companies) so the freight keeps going, but every load is about 200 miles in length. So you might get 300-400 a day, but you will get home weekends and some nights. I know their pay was around .36cpm for Company ($1.15 for O/O when I was there)

Thanks! 300-400 milles a day is pretty low for OTR (unless you are making like 50cpm+). I've hauled A LOT of those big finished rolls in the past. Those aren't too bad. Usually, I got unloaded a pretty timely manner with those. The scrap paper kind of sucks (unless you could just use a leaf blower to clean the trailer). LOL I had one place (in or near Cincinnati) loading me to 86,000! I was like...I DON'T THINK SO!

[madaxeman]

I currently drive for Celadon. They're a good company and you'll definitely keep moving. My average length of haul is about 820 miles per trip. I run on average 2,500 miles per week, with some WELL above that. You're required to stay out 14 days. You earn 1 day off (a FULL day) for every 7 days you're out. You also recieve 1 weeks vacation (paid) for every 30,000 miles you run. This is paid @ $300 per week without HazMat and $600 with it. So far I've pulled 1 HazMat load (extra $0.02 per mile) but will get the extra pay for the vacation. We do about 70-80% drop and hook, but if there's no empty, who cares? We get paid to bobtail to get one. I'm at home EVERY time I ask to be, but I've been a day late getting there a couple of times. When that happens, the day I return to service is pushed up to match. I think I've done 3 loads that were under the 100 mile "shag pay" requirement, but those were ONLY to get me headed for the house. Also, the equipment is very good condition - you'll get either a 2009+ International Prostar (most likely) or a 2009+ Freightliner Cascadia. They're phasing out the Volvo 780's.

I don't know anything about the other companies on your list.

If you have any more questions, feel free to send me a PM.

Thanks, Malaki! I will keep them in mind. The one thing I didn't like was the cpm. It seemed a bit on the low side (around .31-.32).

[pronghornracer]

Check out Gilster Mary Lee....

[madaxeman]

Check out Gilster Mary Lee....

Hey stranger! Still teaming with Hogan? I was at the Glister website but I didn't see anything about driving jobs. All of their listed locations are far from where I live.

[Steel Horse Cowboy]

Thanks! 300-400 milles a day is pretty low for OTR (unless you are making like 50cpm+). I've hauled A LOT of those big finished rolls in the past. Those aren't too bad. Usually, I got unloaded a pretty timely manner with those. The scrap paper kind of sucks (unless you could just use a leaf blower to clean the trailer). LOL I had one place (in or near Cincinnati) loading me to 86,000! I was like...I DON'T THINK SO!

TransCorr is NOT an OTR company, they are regional.

A typical run for them is Cleveland, OH to Maysville, KY or Indy to Chicago, or St. Louis to Maysville, KY

Maysville is a paper plant. You will see Maysville, Streetsborro, Indy, St. Louis and a tiny hole off US41 just south of I-74 the most. they have steady freight tho and are super easy to deal with.

[crb]

I would stay away from celadon, bad bad news there, the old man worked there many moons ago. I wouldn't work for them if they were the last company left

[Malaki86]

Thanks, Malaki! I will keep them in mind. The one thing I didn't like was the cpm. It seemed a bit on the low side (around .31-.32).

I'm making good money driving here. My average since I started is a bit over 2,400 miles per week (that includes the short weeks for my time off). When I'm out, I'm running. I very rarely sit waiting on a load. Also, you can't forget about their vacation package: every 30,000 miles dispatched and you get a paid week off ($300 w/o hazmat, $600 with). I'll have my 3rd weeks vacation before I head home for Christmas. I started April 1st. On top of that, there's a $0.01cpm safety bonus. I'll be looking at around $1,200 for that. Also, the length of haul is outstanding. My average is around 750 miles per load. I've had plenty of loads 1,250+ miles. Beats the hell out of the 400-500 mile average hauls I had when I was at USXpress. Nothing like an unload/reload every single day.