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Originally Posted by wsclinger
What I'd like to find out from the experienced drivers on this site is in their opinions what company has the "BEST OF" in the following categories. This will not only help me, but hopefully others thinking of becoming drivers also, with determining what trainning companies have the best in certain areas of interest and depending on what is important for one person to another, they will be able to determine which company may be better suited for them to consider hauling for.
Which company has the "BEST OF"........
Trainning Programs, whether their own schools or just their OTR finishing
programs.
Trainning/Newbie Wages:
Hometime for Newbies:
Equipment given to Newbies:
Freight Lanes available for Newbies:
Support and assistance for Newbies:
Respect for Newbies: meaning that dispatchers/managers don't just run
the newbies into the ground.
Best Company In Your Opinion For First Company A Newbie Should Work:
I appreciate all of your input and I think that others reading the responses will be helped out by it also...
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Training Programs, whether their own schools or just their OTR finishing programs:
I think most of the standard training companies have roughly the same quality school, though, I do hear that TMC does offer an above average quality training program, but they're strictly a skateboard operation from what I know.
Trainning/Newbie Wages:
Again, most of the trainer companies will be within a few cents for van drivers. One company might pay 31 cpm, whereas another pays 26 cpm, but you can't base your earnings off of just the quoted cpm. You'll make far less running 1000 miles a week at 31 cpm than you will running 1700 miles at 26 cpm.
Hometime for Newbies:
This really depends on a lot of factors. What type of freight, where in the country you run, if you do 48-state, regional, dedicated, etc. Most companies will get you home every 4 - 6 weeks. I do know there is at least one who offers a 21 on, 7 off program, but I can't think of who it is right off the top of my head.
Equipment given to Newbies:
I never drove for them, but when I was still OTR (local now), I was always envious of the guys from CFI and TMC. I did drive for Swift, and I had a Freightliner Columbia and later a standard issue Volvo. The Volvo is actually a decent truck, but I still "oooh" and "ahh" at the CFI / TMC trucks. As a newbie, no company is going to give you a brand new truck right out of the gate, but for other companies you're almost guaranteed a POS that will get you shutdown if you ever get pulled behind the scale house for an inspection.
Freight Lanes available for Newbies:
Yet again, the majority of the training companies are all roughly the same. Swift being the largest carrier has more available lanes overall from my experience. Werner has a lot of freight, but not as much as Swift. For flatbeds, TMC has a pretty good variety of all the types of runs.
Support and assistance for Newbies:
CFI, from what I heard from guys I talked to was awesome in this area. TMC was pretty good as well. Swift is decent, Werner not so much (hence the "Big Blue Screw" nickname).
Respect for Newbies:
Good luck with this one.
Best Company In Your Opinion For First Company A Newbie Should Work:
Being a newbie, you'll be limited to maybe about 8 - 10 companies if you want to go with a major carrier (Swift, Werner, etc), So it's more about finding the company that fits you best. You might love it at Werner while someone else left after 2 days. Conversely, you might hate Swift whereas the guy driving a Swift truck at the next fuel island thinks they're the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Personally, I would have loved to drive for CFI instead of Swift for my first OTR position, but Swift has a terminal here in Albuquerque, and I figured I would get more hometime because of that - turns out I was wrong. I drove for them for a while, got tired of OTR and attempted to go back to school. For financial reasons I wasn't able to do that.
Now, I drive a bobtail fuel truck for a local construction company. I get home every night, work 40 hours a week and get paid for 40 hours a week, the hardest thing about the job is getting the fuel hose from my truck to the equipment, and I get paid almost $20 an hour.
Although, local work is usually hard to come by as a newbie, and that usually leaves no choice for the aspiring trucker other than the major carriers who will take you.
"BEST OF" Question
