Profile For Mike L.

The only reason they can afford that is because they don't pay their employees a living salary. So they took all that money they're saving by not taking care of their employees and making them broke and they put it into a new vehicle. My hate for Walmart is strong.

Sums up my first thought perfectly.

Very wrong. Your companies terminal location has no effect on them getting you home on time.

Ok then instead i'll say it will be difficult to go home unless the company lets you take the truck home. If there is no other place to park the trailer, you'll have to have room for that too. It just depends on the company.

I'd say do your homework on what training company has the fastest training to get you on the road while paying you enough during training. When I went through Central Refrigerated (now Swift) they did licenses in 2 weeks and 4 weeks on the road instruction at $250 a week. Not much money I know but that's a bit of the sacrifice that needs to be made. I wish I had more info on other schools but I can only give my own experience.

The more you learn about the various companies the better off you are. Don't forget to look for a company that has a terminal near you or it might be difficult getting home.

So i've been driving for a little over a year now and I've seen a few companies. I can say that trucking doesn't seem to agree with me so I'm thinking about going into dispatch. I have great computer skills that I don't get to use as a truck driver and I'm getting tired of living in a truck. My current company gets me home on weekends which is really nice but I want to start a family and even that won't be enough.

I live in San Fernando Valley (about 20miles NW of Los Angeles) and I'm finding it difficult just getting an interview at a dispatch job. Does anyone have suggestions for training or how to go about this better? Do I need schooling first? If so, where can I go for that?

Thank you much,

Mike

I was taught you don't fully depress the clutch after 1st (or into reverse) but you still press down on it slightly for an electrical switch. I'm not a mechanic (can you tell?) but a quick double clutch isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Adding what John S. said to my knowledge reinforces it. I don't float much unless the road is icy and I don't want to risk a torque jump but that would be poor shifting anyway. Float or don't, it doesn't really matter but a "real" up or down shift is just pressing down on the clutch a little bit anyway. When the truck is off you can almost hear/feel the spring stop just before you hit clutch "wall" and have to really press down hard.

Now traffic in a major city? That's a different story haha.

I can't understand close driver either. Last winter I was driving through North Dakota and there where 6 semis driving about 20feet behind each other in one of the biggest, dumbest convos on an ice road I've ever seen. The snow was so packed on that interstate it was shiny. It really taught me to stay away from dangerous drivers.

I've said thank you before in helping me get the courage to get into school, get my license and recently get my endorsements. This time I'd like to give a general thank you for helping me get my life in order and on a good career path.

If it wasn't for this site and the good people here I wouldn't be where I am now. I asked my lady to marry me on Christmas because now I have a career and I'm looking forward to driving in my future (but in all honesty I'm looking for more local work instead of OTR). None the less, thank you for being here and helping myself and other students/drivers!

It's not just the lessons, knowledge and wisdom that I appreciate but also the drive to help other people in this industry.

p.s. asking her Dad for the blessing was waaaay harder. Amiright guys?

Sexy man poses should be illegal. Like LL Cool J....you will never see that dude in front of any sort of camera without his famous "look how sexy I am" smirk.

Clint Eastwood - now that dude knows how to look at a camera. He has that famous combination of two looks at once: "Are you an idiot?" and "I'd like to punch you in the face"

given his stature.. I doubt he has ever needed to take a selfie. There's some old legend that requires 10-15' clearance between him and the lens or the film burst into flames or the camerman turn to stone.

I'll go on a limb here and say most people aren't very thorough with their online researching. If prime is the topic of the month then students will end up being swayed that way. I went with central because they had the least complaints online haha.

I went with Central because they had the shortest training program. I didnt want to spend anymore than 4 weeks with a trainer.

My "first" trainer was pretty much a total ******. I could go into a long rant about it involving trying to bang former students and forced lack of sleep but that speaks for itself. My second trainer was awesome! Apparently that guy got a lot of complaints about yelling at students but we had a great time on the road.

The short training time was also a plus for me although it was a lot of extra stress but I learned a lot from being "thrown to the sharks". However, switching trainers midway through did add an extra week to my time.

I used to think it was just a majority of teenagers doing it.. but I can see it's a trucker thing too. How weird life is sometimes.

Get that duck face or sexy man pose ready XD