Greetings everyone,
I’m a rookie with zero experience besides a 3.5 weeks training sesh with Western Express. Wasn’t the best, but wasn’t the worst either. Drove a little under 10k miles. Most of the bad came from the fact I was sleep-deprived the whole time and not at 100% because I’m a light sleeper and found sleeping in the moving truck almost impossible. They have been trying to find me a truck to go solo for almost a week now. They basically kicked me out of my trainer’s truck and gave him a new trainee since there was a bunch of ppl waiting for a trainer. I feel ready enough to go solo but at the same time feel like a little more time with a trainer wouldn’t hurt either.
I’m considering leaving WE for another company though. Either Knight or Schneider. So my dilemma is:
Should I start over with a new company that is overall better, where I would be paid more, but would have to start the whole thing over and go through another month or so of sleep-deprived training hell?
Or:
Stick it out with WE since I’m familiar with them and the routes I’d be getting, but make less money and have to deal with their complete disaster of a terminal in southern CA.
Logic and horror stories throughout the net are telling me to leave for greener pastures before I get in too deep with WE. However, one thing about WE is that they are a very beginner-friendly company that’s nearly impossible to be fired from- whereas others are not so lenient. I don’t really see myself screwing up that bad, but you never know what could happen to a rookie solo driver out there. It would suck to quit WE, be blacklisted by them, then get sent from the new company for whatever reason, then not have anywhere to go. I want to give Schneider a shot, but their orientation/training/road test process actually sounds pretty scrutinizing and more intense than most starter companies- to the point where being sent home for something other than a failed drug test is actually a possibility.
Any thoughts?