Bear with me Fillupsherman, I'm going to beat on you just a little but I will get around to trying to help. Read this alllll :zzz: the way through before you get to mad at me. :smokin:
jd112488: I think you hit the nail square on the head. He has another thread where he went to ATS and did a lease purchase with them then threw in the towel after two months because "he wasn't getting the good paying OD stuff". My question Fillupsherman did you ever notice that a good share of the drivers hauling the "good paying" OD stuff have lots-o-gray-hair? There's a reason for it, most companies are not going to take a relativly new driver and throw them right into specialized stuff. They have way to much invested in the account and the equipment and these shippers are fickle, one wrong move and they loose the account. I'm not slamming you, everyone has to start somewhere but it has been my experience that you cannot go from having 15 months van and reefer experience to hauling oversized loads with absolutely no flatbed experience. ATS should take some of the blame in your situation, selling you on a lease purchase with the "promise" of high paying OD loads. They have a system in place where new drivers have to haul X number of loads in one class (size) before moving up to the next. Almost every specialized carrier of any size has something similar and the recruiter/salesman who sold you a bill of goods about hauling specialized stuff right away should be fired. (But they will probably get employee of the year) I see it happen everyday and it happened to me not to long ago, I was promised one thing by the recruiters and was told something else by the safety department after I went to work there. I was fortunate to be a company driver and didn't have to worry about truck payments but I was a little p-ed off all the same. I have all the experience they require for the larger stuff but it was two years old.
I was lucky (and stupid) and got thrown under the bus a few (many) years back and got to learn oversized the hard way. I had no, none, zero, zip flatbed experience and my first load was a concrete bridge beam 125' long and 125,000# on a steerable three axle dolly. I survived and other than one stop sign and a couple of police officers underwear no one got hurt and more important, I learned really fast how little I knew about driving a specialized load.
On to helping you find a local job, there has to be some ready-mix (concrete) plants in your area I would guess. Take a drive to them and ask the plant manager who is hauling the powder into them, might be a company, might be owner-operators or the plant may have their own trucks. My point is, they use powdered cement and fly-ash on a daily basis. Most of those trucks that haul into them also pull some flatbed freight to fill in. I never see them advertise in any paper, they hire by word-of-mouth. It's not glamourus but its local work. I know in Newton, KS where I live, the guys at P&B make well over $60k a year and as a rule they are home 6 out of 7 nights a week. There are times especially in the winter where thy may have to hook up to a cattle trailer or flatbed and be gone for a few days but during the summer months they turn and burn one load right after another into the plants.
Give those carriers a call, even if they are a 1 truck owner-operator, make yourself known to them but don't try and BS them about your "experience". Walk up to them with your hat in your hand and be humble. Listen to them, ask questions and most of all don't try and pull the wool over their eyes. There are several single truck owners around my area and there are just as many drivers who do "casual" work for them and make damn good money. There's times when the plant needs an extra load hauled in overnight but the truck owner is tired and has to turn it down. If they have your number you might get a call at 4:30pm in the afternoon to make an overnight run. When I'm home I always call my old boss and let her know I'm available to fill in. More often than not while home I can knock out 1 or 2 loads for a quick couple hundred dollars.
While your at those plants looking around, see who's hauling in the sand, gravel and rock. In your area it might be straight trucks (class B) doing that work but it's still work and home nearly every day.
I know the economy is in the crapper and the construction sector isn't as good as it was a year ago but there is still going to be concrete getting poured and the season is just about to start. Keep knocking on those doors and be willing to change tires, run a shovel, drive a ready-mix truck, wash trailers whatever it takes to get in the door. Be humble, show up for work when your called and more important, keep them aware that you have your CDL, current medical and are ready to work.
One last option, Caledonia Haulers. They haul a lot of milk into Zumbrota. Not necessarily local but home a lot more than OTR. And, the cows are not going to quit giving milk because the economy went south, they milk 24/7 regardless and that milk has to go somewhere. You'll have to have a tanker endorsement and get a milk handlers license but the companies will have classes for the license. You have to learn how to pull samples and run lab tests but it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The driving part on the bulk tankers is a cake walk, mostly drop & hook, run the labs and drive. 99% of the receivers don't even want you near the trailer, they hook it up, pump it off, wash it out then tag it sterile and your on your way. Again, most of the milk companies don't advertise, take a drive out to DFA in Zumbrota and see what tankers are there then call them or find out where their office is and introduce yourself. Not high on the CPM pay but usually plenty of miles and almost no manual labor.
Remember think outside the box not all local jobs are pulling a van or reefer.
I'm not slamming you, I was 23 once and as chris1 can attest, I knew it all and could do anything. Fortunatly chris1 could see past all the bravado and made me a good (well a little better) driver. It took him 10 years of yelling at me and letting me make a few mistakes but I can tell you 19 years later I know a hell of a lot more now than I did back when I knew it all. To this day, even though he's a former employer of mine, I can and do still call him and ask his advice on things. If I knew back then what I know now (and had listened to chris1) I'd be a millionaire and be retired but now I'm too old and tired to do what I did back then.
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