Good Starting Package For New Driver?
 

Merry Christmas, everyone.

One option that I am considering to unretire would have me attend a truck driving school in my vicinity on a WIA grant during the late January - February time frame. One company that I am considering hiring on with following graduation offers the following as a starting package:

* 29 CPM with 2 CPM raises every six months to a maximum of 37 CPM.

* 10,000 - 12,000 miles per month.

* Average $200 monthly bonus for safety, log book accuracy, fuel conservation, etc.

* Medical, dental, vision, prescription, life insurance after 90 days of employment.

* 401(k) plan with company match after six months of employment.

* One week vacation after one year, two weeks after three years, three weeks after five years.

* Assigned a year 2005 - 2007 Volvo VN 670 or Freightliner Cascadia truck. All have stand-up sleepers and are equipped with Qualcom, AM/FM radio, CD player, CB radio, PrePass, standard 10-speed transmission, Cummins and Detroit 370 - 430 horsepower engine governed at 65 MPH.

* 60% - 90% drop-and-hook freight; pay for live unloads.

* Layover pay after 24 hours.

* Out three weeks, home for three or four days.

* This company does not allow drivers to take their trucks home for home time. Their nearest terminal to me is 70 miles away. Is this standard for the industry, or a bum deal?

All in all, should I consider this a good starting package for a new OTR driver?

The driving school that I would attend helps place their graduates with these companies, among others: Werner (I know to avoid Werner); Eagle Tuscon, Covenant, May Trucking, FFE. Anybody have any comments, positive or negative, about these companies?

Basically your average run-of-the-mill OTR carrier. Toss a dart, they're all the same. Expect to perform lots of freebies: drive for free, work for free, wait for free. Mileage pay sucks, so does percentage of the load. They're piece-rate pay structures designed to rob you of your valuable time.

.29 cpm starting wage is a joke. There were company drivers at Kimberly Clark back in 1985 getting .25 cpm.

Welcome to OTR contract carrier trucking. It's a good job if you've got nothing. Otherwise, there's no money or future in it. Just long hours and low rates/wages and lots of headaches and getting jerked around by dispatch/brokers/shippers/recievers/LEO's and never seeing home. An hourly daycab job is the best. Haul US mail, LTL, foodservice, private fleet, union gig, tankers...whatever. Either that or stay away from trucking altogether. Nothing but a big labor racket. Got a good contract/rate/gig/run? Someone sooner or later will be around to undercut you and haul whatever you're moving for nothing. Now THAT'S truckin'!

Stay away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure enjoying all this paid time at home for the holidays. If I were OTR I'd be in a truckstop right now along with the rest of the mobile homeless.

STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!

.29 a mile is HORRIBLE!!!!

Out three weeks, home for three or four days is also torture.

Do your self a favor and really research all your info on here and ask a lot of questions. There are A LOT more bad companys than good out there, so choose wisely or you will be miserable.

Man, all this hatred for the outfits I'm trying to get back into.

If anything, stay away from the Mom and Pop carriers, and keep your nose clean as well.
Not to mention get plenty of sleep to avoid getting into the sorry state I'm in.

Don't know about everyone else, but being treated as an indie-contractor by your supposed employer is a joke.

I'm otr and I'm home with my family where I belong, making far more money than I did when I was local and hourly. it all depends on how it works out..

Argueing with a guy like that is senseless Free. He was to lazy to find a decent driving job, to self-important to "put in his time" to gain experience enough to call himself a professional....so now he comes here to berate those whom chose to drive truck for a living and make it.

The cpm seems a little below average and the out three weeks home for three is also a little hard, there are better home packages. There are alot of companies that pay higher cpm but you you might not get the miles(especially right now) works out about the same then (high cpm+low miles=less work more wait or low cpm+high miles=more work less wait) If they can guarantee the miles then the lower cpm is survivable as you start out and since you are coming out of retirement I take it you have other income.

While Mr. Hunts main purpose in life seems to be blasting OTR, alot of people like it and I know I make good money at it. What he seems to forget is that you are a starting driver and right now the job market is tight but remember the more experience you get and if you keep your record clean, more and more doors open in trucking and you can find your niche.

Has anyone else noticed how it seems that he is almost always the first person to find new people and starts blasting away with negative instead of constructive honest answers.

I can get any number of local hourly paid jobs - for $8-10 per hour. Hate ta tell you, not everyone lives near a large city where the pay rate is higher. I make an average of $800-1000 per week where I'm driving now. That's a WHOLE lot of hour to work per week at the hourly places.

Typical response from CFM/LBJ/whatever he changed his name to this month:thumbsdown:. Once again he(and a few others here) fail to realize that not everyone lives in an area were local jobs pay well and that not everyone enjoys local driving.

Nope. Not always. There are some local jobs that are far worse paying then the mega OTR carriers and treat the drivers worse. Also, a lot of private carriers pay their drivers per mile and some of the rates SUCK.

Now go back to that little fantasy world of yours.

It sounds like a pretty decent pay package to me. Some of the otr carriers seem to start inexperienced drivers out at around $0.26-0.28/mile. They are going to give you regular raises until you get up to a good pay rate and do so within a fairly short time. Once you put in a year or two without any dings on your mvr and keep have a good work history you can go pretty much anywhere you want and you should see your income rise. Companies look for a good mvr and work history. Some people prefer a larger carrier while others would rather work for a smaller company. You can do well with either. I would not pay much attention to some who constantly want to put otr drivers down. Some of these people probably could not make it themselves so they put everyone else down for doing what they enjoy. You will be away from home from 1-3 weeks at a time with most otr carriers. Once you gain some experience you may want to switch to a regional carrier or a company that can get you home more frequently. After a year or two you may want to see if you can find a local position. There are drivers who have been doing this for several decades and would not do anything else. There are others who didn't last 6 months. It will be a major lifestyle change. You will not start at top pay but this company has some good benefits and other ways in which you can earn more money over and above your mileage pay. They will raise your pay as you learn. You normally don't start at top pay in any new career change.

The only down side I see is that you cannot take the truck home and live 70 miles away. I once worked for a carrier that was further than that away but it was a good carrier and if I were again in the market for a company job this company would be the first I would call. There were times when I did stop at home if I had a load that was going through the house. Often I just commuted most weekends. Sometimes carriers like to have the truck at their yard so that they can check it out while you are at home. It is a good opportunity to check the truck over and repair anything that needs attention.