Profile For Dennis L

If you have a Hazmat endorsement you may be required to redo it. Check with Texas for their rules.

When I moved from AR to MO I was required to redo my Hazmat endorsement in MO. Had to go through the expense and time to get another TSA background check and take the Hazmat written exam in MO.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

I returned home on 12/22, a day earlier than scheduled. Off until 1/3. Will visit family in SE Arkansas 12/26-12/29.

Had 2 deaths in family there recently in Oct and a couple days ago, so mixed feelings this Christmas.

I’m working on a local driving job opportunity to get off the road. Driving a dump truck (aggregate stone) and/or a concrete mixer. Will know at mid-January if I get it. Interview was positive.

Job requires minimum 2 years commercial driving experience with relatively clean record. I have 2.5 years now. Hourly pay rather than mileage pay starting at $22/hr.

Probably $20k less per year, but it’s time for me to be home to help my wife more.

I’ve achieved one of my goals to see the country having driven in 46 states (only missing the Dakotas).

I did a topic search here for “dump truck driving”. A thread came up from G-Town. As usual he provided great detailed info about how to be safe operating a dump truck compared to a tractor-trailer combo.

Very sad news. Anne made me feel welcomed on this site. She helped me get through my TNT training with Prime.

Hey BK, how did your knee replacements go? Are you feeling like a young buck now?

Stevo, sorry about your nephew.

When I worked in Angola, a National co-worker had a 7 year old son with Lukemia. He needed to travel for treatments in South Africa.

To raise money an Expat co-worker with long hair like you had volunteered to have it shaved off for donations. We had a good time watching it come off. He raised a lot of $.

A $10 #2 buzz cut every 2 months works for me :)

I'd gotten a fist pump a time or 2 out on the road from kids. Brings back memories of us doing the same thing, as kids to truckers lol....Easy to make a kid smile and make their day too lol

1 of my funniest, I was in my '69 lowered, patina'd VW Bus, @ the drive thru at In & Out burger. As I approached the pick up window, 3 little blonde girls, maybe from 6-10 years old. They came running across the dining area inside, to the windows by the drive thru. All 3 of em gave me a big wave and a thumbs up/peace sign.

Hey Stevo, were you a Hippie?

PS. I think you are not considering the mileage based performance bonuses that company drivers receive in your calculations.

Prime and Wilson are very similar since Wilson hauls Prime freight.

My base CPM is currently 57 CPM (52 CPM if in a condo). I’m 2 CPM higher than starting rate of 50 CPM after 2 years based upon rate increases for cumulative miles.

Weekly mileage based bonuses include fuel cost savings (largest bonus, mine ranges from 3-5 CPM), Service & Safety bonuses, health bonus, northeast region load origination bonus (I don’t get this very often).

There are other ancillary payments for stuff like detention time at customers, multi-stop pay, hazmat pay, shop downtime pay, layover pay, etc.

This week I got a $150 detention time payment. I’d rather have the miles!

So, my weekly performance bonuses + ancillary pay combine for about 6-8 CPM on top of my base CPM.

Hope this helps

Listen to Tucker Carlson interview with Calley and Casey Means. Then read their book “Good Energy”.

They have been advising RFK Jr and Trump about the chronic heath crisis with children and how to change it.

I still need to figure out how to eat better on the truck to cut out the ultra processed foods high in added sugar, high fructose corn syrup, bleached flour and seed oils.

Unfortunately we haul all of this garbage ultra processed foods. The meat that I haul isn’t organic grass feed neither.

Calley & Casey Means

Don’t believe the Recruiter hype. They get paid by getting new people in the door.

I’m a company Reefer driver for Prime for 2+ years. I run solo in a Lightweight Cascadia (1 person truck). I get a 5 CPM premium over the full-size condo drivers, my threshold for mileage based bonuses is lower than for the Condo and I get paid vacation every 85k paid miles completed rather than every 125k miles for the Condo.

I obviously don’t train in a 1 person truck.

I grossed $74k for 2023 on ~112k paid miles.

Freight started to slow down from April 2023. It is really slowing down this year, and especially in September.

I averaged 2,498 paid miles per driving week over 2023 (home time not included).

I’ve averaged 2,281 miles per driving week this year to date. However, for September I’m at 2,105 miles per week. Have been doing a lot of sitting parked this month. Doing it again right now, dang it!

I might gross $70k for 2024, but could be less with slower freight. I had a lot of shop DT in first quarter that I can’t make-up.

My average weekly CPM with bonuses was 63 to 65. It is coming down some due to less miles.

If I was in a Condo I would be making less because my CPM would be lower.

My Fleet Manager pushes every week for drivers to start teaming or training. Claiming that we will make the “life changing extra money” of $30k+ (so $100k+ annual). I’m not convinced it’s accurate unless you trained or teamed all the time. I also don’t want to team.

Prime makes more revenue and a higher “Return On Capital Employed” or ROCE on team trucks. So it makes sense. They can sell expedited freight delivery to potential customers (important for California produce loads going east).

I’ve heard that new drivers coming on board with Prime now will not be allowed to upgrade after TNT training to a Company solo truck. Will have to team or lease. I’m sure Kearsey will correct me if I put out “misinformation”.