OK, so I have been writing on here about the many , many jobs I have had this past year! I don't know why I have had such bad luck getting hooked up with a good company, anyway, I realize now that I am sick and tired of running OTR and all the games that come with that, so I have decided to take ...........one last job! Now I think I set my own personal record here, 8 jobs in 12 months, so here comes lucky number 9 ! Only this time, I will be running LOCAL! Yes thats right, I found a job running local where I can make just as much, well almost as much as I was making running the road, except that I will be home every night!

Just my luck, I put in an application to Pritchett Trucking out of Lake Butler Florida about a month ago, and they recently called me and offered me a job, after speaking with the safety officer, I agreed to come to orientation this past week. orientation was long and we watched many movies on the trucking industry, safety, defensive driving, etc. Monday and Tuesday classroom training and yesterday was road testing and delivery of products etc with a company driver. I did great as usual, and really enjoyed the work. We will be hauling garbage out of Sarasota transfer station to the Arcadia Garbage dump. Once you can get past the smell of garbage, its really not that difficult. Besides, we are all getting brand new 2012 tractors and trailers, all Macks with super tires and auto shifts. not sure how I feel about the auto shifts yet, they told me they have improved them and these are the newer versions of the old autoshift. Well the tractors look great, all shinny and new, cant wait to get some dirt on them.

Three loads per day is what we have to do, the yard opens at 7 and closes at 5 so my days should be pretty reasonable, I am hoping that we can pre load the next days load before we go home, we shall see. So I guess the moral to my story is, he who waits and has patience will eventually get the job he has always wanted! I am looking forward to starting my last job next week, wish me luck! So far everyone at Pritchett has been great and I like what I see, the best of all, every driver I spoke too said they love working there! Now thats a great sign!

Safe driving everyone!
Instigator!~:lol:

Hmmmmmm.


:bigthink:

There used to be a guy here on CAD whom works or worked at Pritchett. I forget his moniker.

Good luck.

It was millersod. He doesnt post here anymore. He is over on one of the other trucker forums

Yes it was Millersod, He left Commercial Carrier about the same time I left them and went to Pritchett, He and I lived pretty close to each other for a while so we talked on a consistent basis about the good and bad of Driving for Commercial Carrier. I remember he liked working for pritchett a lot more then he did CCC however he said the money was not much better. I think he talked about making 600 to 650 a week which at the time 7 years ago was not to bad considering at CCC we were making anywhere from 500 to 600 a week depending on work levels.
I would imagine it has gone up since that time..
Good luck instigator I hope it works out for you, I have worked local from day 1 and have never looked back it is the only way to pull... However thank you to all those guys who make that sacrifice...

Timberwolf

I have a brother-in-law that did work for them....

Thanks for the well wishes. yes I too read his posts about working for Pritchett, he seamed to like them and from what the drivers I met the other day at orientation, they all seamed to like working for them. The pay is not that great we are guaranteed about 700 per week, the benefits are cheap and after a year you get a 401 and they contribute up to 1% of your salary or 25 cents per dollar. Its better than nothing and I will be home every day and working maybe 10 hours per day at best. Cant wait to start.

When you figure out the hours you are on the road in a OTR job, you are lucky to make minimum wage so at least I will be making more money for less time in the truck. This whole industry is going down the toilet but at least I can drive now until I retire for the last time.

I worked for Pritchett a while back. They are not a bad company. If you get out on the road around 0300 or a lil earlier you can be home around 1400 - 1500 hrs. Weekends off. The pay is loaded only. I also drove east coast as far north as N.C. for a short while with them. Thats a good option also if it is still avaliable. Hope you like the company. Come Christmas you'll probably receive a nice jack. I still have mine. It's perfect for the North Fl. South Ga. weather. Good luck with Pritchett. P.S. If ya get a live / shaker bottom go get ya a tarp and a load lock, set the load lock forward towards the cab area and place the tarp over it and let it cover part of the floor. Helps empty more bark or what ever your hauling out the back. Less to sweep out. Less work means happier driver.. lol

Glad to hear that you liked it. Actually we will be hauling mainly construction garbage. Start this coming Monday, cant wait to get back to work.

Ugh, I hate to say it, but, it does not look so good for Pritchett and me! you know the old saying, they say one thing and when you actually get out there you learn its a whole different ball game. I was made the lead driver, oh boy, which consists of only me having a key to the yard gate so when anyone is running late I have to wait for them, on my dime with no additional pay! I also have to collect all paperwork form all drivers and mail to corporate each week, again for no extra pay! They told me 3 loads per day, thats a joke, I cant get 3 per day only 2 per day and maybe pre load one for next day, so I can only do 12 loads per week. That means my pay is below minimum wage, I will be working for 8.oo dollars per hour!

They are getting paid more money to haul form where i am picking up from (further away from the dump) so I dont understand why they wont pay the driver more money? I think they will have a hard time getting anyone to work for 8.oo per hour for long, I know I wont last very long at this rate. I did not get a choice of where I haul from and it pisses me off when 2 other drivers can get in the 3 loads per day but I cant! Plus I have to deal with the other bull**** of waiting for drivers to get back in???? WTF is wrong with these people? Why do companies think its ok to pay me less than my 18 year old son is making? He makes 9.00 per hour doing bull**** work! Something is just not right here!

Oh ya, and we were supposed to be getting brand new tractors! Not! they sent them up to Jacksonville because they had automatic transmissions and they did not want to spend the 5k to get a pto put on them! So we end up with used tractors, full of dirt and crap (Took me all day to clean mine out) and to boot, I got an old trailer! Piece of crap keeps getting flats! I waited 6 hours today for a tire service so of coarse I made no money at all! Oh they pay you by the hour for service breakdowns, big freaken deal ! So far I do not like this job! I mean I like it and I can do it, but for 8 bucks per hour they can keep it! I will work thruogh the holidays only because no one is hiring now but its back to the job hunt for me. Maybe I should get out of the trucking industry all together since I cant seam to ever get a job that pays more than 7 to 8 dollars per hour, Florida Sucks!

think you should get out of the trucking industry Sam (Self appointed manager)