Profile For Scott B.

Same here Squatch. I was really thinking how good the JJ's was until I logged on here. You guys sure do make a driver feel better about camping behind a walmart for 2 days.

As of 8 am on May 22, I am no longer a trainee at PTL. I did about 5k miles with a trainer (an awesome guy, possibly a lifelong friend) whom I talk with most days still and is reccomending me to become a trainer when I'm ready. I did 26k of the 30k team miles in phase 2. My smallest check during training was $400 ish and my largest was 875$. (I did go home for 5days, that check was $75). I finished CDL school on 3-15, took test on 3-20. I started orientation on 3-24, hire date was 3-26 and went out with trainer on 3-28. Upgraded to p2 on 4-9 and started team driving with p2 partner on 4-16. Finished p2 on 5-2.

I am in Murray right now waiting on a solo truck. Should have one in the morning and am going to immediately put in for hometime. Changed my status to rookie solo driver.

I will no longer be updating this thread as training is finished. If anyone has any questions regarding training with PTL or the company in general feel free to ask here or send a PM. I will try to respond timely. Response will come here or in a PM depending upon the content of the response. Thanks for reading and replying and thanks to all of you have supported me.

Detention pay, stopover pay, any extra pay for BS.

The longer hauls at a lower rate will actually make you more money. Once you are at a shipper or receiver, things happens that eat tons of time. Getting loaded or unloaded. Inspecting trailers. Finding empties. Moving other companies empties out of the way of your empty. Weighing and balancing load. Those 3 99 mile runs you mentioned would probably take you more than a whole day in the end. You can easily do 7 runs of 450 miles a week and just drive. They pay more cpm for short runs to kind of offset the crappiness of the load. 99 mile run at 45 cpm is most likely a very crappy load.

Spending the night in Laredo is one of the job perks they forget to tell you about. Where you on the road runs by the Exxon next to world trade bridge? There's a Bassett hound at that station that sits at the door and barks unless I get out and pet him. I'm pretty sure he wants to ride out. I would if I lived there.

I'm in love with the radio station in Nagadoches. When I hear Loretta, Waylon, Conway, Merle, Jones, Johnny and June back to back to back I never want to leave.

Just wanted to update post quickly because I am on a 30 that will probably turn into a much needed 90. Have been running like crazy between Laredo TX, and TN, KY, OH. Always a load out of Laredo and then back to Laredo. Getting tons of miles. Sleep not so much. Whenever I do get to sleep good in South TX some dude in a green shirt with a gun wakes me up and makes me tell him I'm a US Citizen. Yo soy de Estados Unidos, yo soy necessito dormire tambiem. Not that it matters. Company is kind of jerking ole sleeper berth around. He is well over his 30k miles and has been upgraded to first seat driver but is still running team wth me. It's kind of a raw deal in my opinion because we have agreed to run team as trainees but haven't agreed to run team beyond that. The forced team as a trainee was one thing that kinda turned me off about PTL initially but I figured it was very temporary so what the heck. But giving someone a 2cpm raise and then forcing them to continue doing team outside of initial agreement seems a bit bogus. But as it is effecting someone else and not me ( for the moment) I'm not dwelling on it too much. Trying to focus and getting a tad of sleep where I can and the beau coup $ and miles I'm getting.

On lighter note, I bet I go to Nagadoches TX more than my favorite septuagenarian forum moderator gets to.

If you're used to floating and have to take a CDL test, can't you just float and tap the clutch couple times when you shift? As long as examiner sees left foot move and hears clutch lever squeak, you're double clutching.

Ok this is ridiculous. I was told to drop an 1100 mile run in Memphis TN. I got to Memphis at 2030. Was told that my truck has been placed out of service. Call maintenance to find out what's the deal. Apparently, I'm in in Memphis to receive an upgrade to my Qualcomm software. No one can tell me where to go to get this upgrade until 0700. Also, no one can override the OOS order because it was put in by someone with too much authority to be overridden. I'm seriously considering asking this guy if he thinks it would be cool if he was told to spend the entire night in his shop without pay and AFTER having done so, told that it was because the fuse that operates the city horn on a truck was almost blown. The horn still works but we were worried it MIGHT not. Stay in your shop away from home and family without being paid just a few more hours Mr. Mechanic Guy, because my fuse box doesn't open until 0800.

What an entertaining and informative read this thread has been! You write very well.

I have a few questions.

First, what are the sleeping arrangements for you and your partner? Are you taking turns using the sleeper berth? What if you both want to sleep?

Do you pay for your own food? Do you eat exclusively at truck stops? Do you have a fridge?

Are you getting any physical exercise while on the road? Do any truck stops have gyms?

Sleeping arrangements work like this. This is a double bunk trunk I.e. A top and bottom bunk. If one is driving, the other sleeps in bottom bunk. If we both sleep at same he same time, whoever is not in bottom bunk sleeps in top bunk.

Yes I pay for my own food except on the rare occasion that I charm a pretty young lady into buying me dinner. Did I say rare? I eat a lot of Subway because nowadays most truck stops have one. You can eat anywhere you can find a place to park. There are couple places we don't have in Georgia that I've always wanted to try so I put the extra effort into parking and walked a little. Whataburger and Tim Hortons come to mind.

You will get virtually no exercise while driving a truck. Parking a long way from the door at truck stops, parking and walking to eat non truck stop food and just walking around in circles at receivers is most of the exercise I get. I do plan on one day soon practicing Krav Maga on some guard shack employee but the red line just hasn't been crossed yet. (Note to self: when home next, learn Krav Maga.) It is rare that a truck stop has a gym and it is usually some giant truck stop. The Petros in Atlanta and Carlisle PA come to mind. Heck, the one in Atlanta has a movie theater.

Lance I was in the same boat you are in a couple months ago. I've been around and around with most of the big carriers recruiting depts and some of their driver review boards. (A lot of recruiters will tell you to contact a driver review board, I have my doubts about their existence) The big factors here are length of time and the specific felony. Even with a trafficking charge you can still find work. I'm living proof. Just be persistent and 100% honest on the apps. I the record is there, they WILL find it.