New Podcast From "The Road Home" - Why Stick With Your First Company One Full Year?

Hey folks, we have a brand new podcast on a subject many of you will be familiar with and it's called "Why Stick With Your First Company For One Full Year?"

Why Stick With Your First Company One Full Year?

Sticking with your first company for one full year is one of the core concepts we teach new drivers coming into the industry. But why? What's the big deal? Why not jump around from company to company until you're happy? Well there's a long list of reasons, in fact, and in this podcast we'll go deep into why it's to your advantage as a driver to stick with your first company for at least one full year.

Enjoy!

Why Stick With Your First Company One Full Year?

I have to disagree with only 1 year with your first company. Most tuck companies that hire new drivers from schools or have their own truck driver ping schools are what a lot of us call training companies like Swift, JB, and Schneider. You can learn the ins and outs of driving and how to handle the equipment. They will run to death and leave to sitting forever and you don't make a lot of money, but if you stick with your training company for 2 years and maintain a good record then you can pretty much write your own ticket. Many good companies that pay good and have good equipment require at least 2 years experience, some require more. Yes you can get your 2 years experience working for 2 or more companies, but then you aren't showing staying power. Other than driving and dealing with all the stuff OTR has to throw at you and good company wants to know that you can put up with the crazy stuff they or their dispatchers, managers, and etc toss your way too. Two years proves yourself in many ways. Remember it can cost a driver a couple thousand dollars to switch jobs, but it can cost the company that hires you $10,000. or more to bring you on. No one wants to invest in a driver who has a record of not staying around.-------just sayin

Good message, Brett. I'm new, started driving in September and learning like crazy. I've read, and heard, various opinions on staying vs leaving a company within the first year, and your position makes a lot of sense. We tend to only look at how we personally benefit, or not, from our decisions, rather than considering the bigger picture, like orientation /training costs, and such. Having hired on with a company that pays a hiring bonus, the bulk of which is paid after 6 mos, I'd be crazy to walk away sooner, though from what you just said, I would be wise to buckle up and continue learning with this company until reaching the year mark. I've spent a lot of time on your site, and have learned a lot that helped me decide to pay for school myself and what to ask and look for as I looked at various companies out there. I've learned more on this site than any of the others and appreciate the wealth of information you offer here. Thx!

Thanks for the insight. Good podcast. Sounds like a little like seniority districts in the railroad industry. Am hungry for more.

So for you or anyone else out there, what are some examples of "leftover" jobs/runs that are given to beginners and lower performers? Also any stories of unfair treatment. Just curious.

Best yet Brett!

When I was thinking about getting into trucking full time, a a good friend of mine, a 30+ year driver offered me a lot of good advice and guidance. Two things he constantly reinforced; don't job hop and always manage the space around your truck.

I firmly believe until a driver has been with their employer for a year or longer, only then will they begin to reap the benefits of their tenure.

Good info. I have been a driver for 8 months now. I drive flatbed. There are things that you won't know about trucking until you get into it. Like how flatbed has a slow season during winter. Like how you go from making 2400 miles plus to 1000 miles. Lol. Yes this is true because it's happening to me now. Believe me I fight respectfully for every mile and every extra pay like layover. The money is not always there in this industry and it certainly does not cover to cost of you being away from home at times. I am doing everything right and I'm not getting what I deserve. The industry is not fair and DM' s and companies will try to get over on you. The trucking industry is a fight. Plan, learn as much as you can at all times and work hard. I agree with staying on for at least one year. Experience is earned not given.

Showtime wrote:

The industry is not fair and DM' s and companies will try to get over on you.

How so? What's your beef?

Part of your job is to build and positively maintain professional relationships with the people you interact with. Much has been written about this at TruckingTruth. What have you done in this regard? You claim to be doing everything right...please tell us more.

I am doing everything right and I'm not getting what I deserve.

If I wasn't getting the miles I expected, the first thing I would do is talk around with some of the other drivers at my company to see what they were getting. If the miles were available but I wasn't getting my fair share then I would make some phone calls to find out why. If no one is getting miles right now then it's a slow patch for the company. It happens.

You said you won't know about that kind of stuff until you get into trucking but that's not true at all. We talk about the ups and downs of the freight cycles and how they affect different types of freight at different times of the year.

The industry is not fair and DM' s and companies will try to get over on you.

Showtime, we are pretty good here at helping folks make a good start in this business. One of the major things newcomers to this industry have to be able to overcome is the prevalence of misinformation and ignorance about how this business actually works. Your statement above could be heard from 50,000 different drivers all across the country in just about any driver's lounge you chose to sit down in. Yet, it is absolutely false.

Your main complaint is that you aren't getting the miles you "deserve." So my question is, "How does that benefit the company or your DM , or how do you perceive that as getting over on you?" The success of every trucking operation is bound up in their ability to move freight, and lots of it. Having a driver sit does no one any good at all.

I am on record here many times as stating that there are no benevolent acts of fairness in this business when it comes to handing out assignments to drivers. We all have to prove ourselves daily, and our driver managers will unfortunately remember us most vividly by our last mistake. There is a very competitive nature to this business, and I liken it often times to being self-employed. The top performers reap the rewards out here, and the path to success in this business is found by those who know how to consistently out perform their peers.

You sound like you have some good understanding of how things work, but you also sound like you've let yourself be overly influenced by the flood of negative attitudes that are prevalent among most drivers. If you can think independently, and formulate your own ideas, I think you'll find success at this. Don't allow the prevalency of ideas to cause you to believe they are necessarily correct. Conduct yourself like a self-employed person would do, make things happen in your favor, make the sacrifices that help you get ahead, and above all be focused on customer service.

Great topic ! First, I'd like to thank Brett, Errol, and everyone of you "old timers" and even you "newbies" for sharing your stories and advice. I found this site while I was in trucking school, and it helped me immensely! (Sorry for the Grammy acceptance speech)

I just went over 1yr with Prime, on the 11th.

I'm from the old school thought of its not good to job hop anyway, but in this case here is why.

1) You're learning a business

2) You're building business relationships, and your reputation

3) Companies want to see that your not gonna bolt, as soon as you see signs of a slow week.

4) Just like the Navy, and offshore... The best ship in the fleet, or company to work for is the company you just left, or your next company. (If you have questions, I can explain)

5) The totem pole.... you work your way to the top. Why leave and have to start over ?

Just my $.02.