Profile For Landion

Brett, Maybe I did get lucky, maybe not. For me, I talked to almost 2 dozen recruiters during my last search. Some of them only once, others for weeks (Roehl & Wil-trans). I get your point about every company having good and bad employees, but it ignores the fact that some companies are very successful at staffing their offices with the right people, fostering the right environment, and holding people accountable to for their jobs.

If a recruiter fails to get back with me on questions I have, that impacts my opinion of the company. If another recruiter goes further than normal to get me answers to uncommon questions that also impacts my opinion of the company.

Wil-trans met my basic requirements for a company, as did several others. So from there I had to narrow it down to one. Roehl offered something better in column A, Wil-trans in column B. But at the end of the day, the recruiter at Wil-trans was the only one who was willing to get me every ounce of info I wanted and that made the company overall more attractive.

He was the only recruiter willing to put everything we talked about in an email back to me. Others would cherry pick what they could and could not email to me. That also impacted my opinions, that told me what recruiters were providing information they were confident in and were willing to stand behind. That also sheds light on the company. Why would a company not allow recruiters to put things you had talked about in writing?

Don't get me wrong ok not saying I went with Wil-trans because of my recruiters personality. But you can certainly guage a fair amount about a company based on the interaction with the recruiter.

Thanks Dude for answering. What made you pick Wil Trans over Roehl?

For me the recruiter made the difference. They were neck and back for a couple weeks. I sent both recruiters an email with 21 questions. Ryan at Wil-trans asked me for a day or 2 to get all the info put together. After he was done we went over everything on the phone and he willingly emailed me back all the answers we just talked about.

I never got answers from Roehl to ask the questions and nothing back in email. I figured that a recruiter confident enough in the company he was selling to get me answers back in writing, and put that much effort in to making sure I had all the answers I wanted was a place that would treat me well. I was right.

G- town, I think it's supposed to make calls and let you text via your voice, but very poorly designed. I'm doing the same as you for calls, I hot the blue parrot button and just talk away.

Million, I use the trucker path app instead of the pocket guide. It has the added benefits of rating the truck stops, tells me how many spots are available, if any are currently available, if there are showers, laundry, etc.

I drive for Wil-trans, we go all over.

Your title is funny to me because when I left my last company I called time if companies and narrowed it down to Roehl and Wil-trans.

Honestly, I wish I had started here. Instead I drove for 2 mega carriers. I'm really happy here, my recruiter was honest about everything, I wait minutes for maintenance to have a plan if I break down (instead of hours with the big carriers), and when I have been unhappy about something my fleet manager addressed the issue on the first call. After hours and weekend dispatch support is as good as weekday support. Good people across the board.

Also, as far as starting companies go (or most companies for that matter) the trucks are nicely equipped.... Apu, inverter, direct TV, you can get a fridge installed if you want, not the most uncomfortable mattress I've had in a truck, I added a microwave.

Super easy pet policy, if that matters.

Lemme know if you have any questions. If I don't know the answer I know where to get it LoL.

Million, I just watched a video on the 740, it has the new navigation screens just like the overdrive, but that's not a bad thing really. Yeah the on screen buttons are a bit smaller, but all in all that's the least of my issues with overdryve. In my opinion you'll be pretty happy with it, and you'll save $200ish.

I decided to upgrade my GPS a couple weeks ago, and purchased the new Rand McNally Overdryve. HUGE mistake!

The device does lots of things... You can make and receive phone calls and text messages, has a dash cam, GPS, xm radio, and is even ELD capable. The problem is the only thing it does safely is give directions (and even then you have to use your head and not just blindly follow). I've provided my feedback to Rand McNally, but I'm not holding my breath for things to get better.

So what's wrong with it?

- Managing Phone Calls & Texts

If you are driving down the road with the map up, you have to: go to the home screen > click in the phone section > click on either calls or texts > start your call > go back home > click on truck GPS. That's 6 steps you have to do assuming you're not using this device as your xm receiver. If you are using it as your xm radio, then per their tech support person, you have to reconnect to Bluetooth on your phone each time you want to use it. Apparently it is programmed to allow a bt connection to override all other connections, so xm and GPS directions are muted any time your phone is connected. So in addition to the 6 steps to make a call you have to add however many more to actually make the connection.

- Dash cam

This works ok, if you don't mind nearly half of your video taken up by the mount. When mounted to the windshield the camera cannot be in a worse place.

- GPS

By far the least problematic feature, but not without it's flaws. They've redesigned the look and feel of the map and search screens, yet still provide a way for you to search the old fashioned way. The only complaint that I have here is that there on screen buttons are way too small to allow for accurate button pushing as your bouncing down the road. This leads to a higher level of distraction, again unsafe.

- XM radio

My problem with this feature mirrors my problem with the phone feature. From the map screen you have to go home > select entertainment > select xm > change the station > go home > click truck GPS to get back to the map. Again, the process is too long and is too distracting.

In my opinion, this is the most unsafe device to enter the cab since the smart phone. Drivers will use these features while driving and unfortunately I believe a crash will result at some point.

I contacted Rand to provide my feedback. I sent them a message, to which they responded with a number and asked me to call. I called and the person I spoke to simply thanked me for my feedback but didn't leave me with the impression that anyone other than him would ever hear it.

I am a fan of the Rand GPS device that I was going to replace. I will probably buy another Rand in the future. However, it will be simply a GPS, not an all in one tablet. I'm going to start training again in a couple weeks, the overdryve will not be in my windshield when that day comes.

They key IMO is choosing the correct company. After training my first company had me run team making 12 cpm with a 1 cpm raise each month until I was at 17 cpm.

I could have made this work, but we were running solo miles at that really low rate. I literally lost my car and my rental house before I switched companies. Had I gone with the second company first I would not have had those issues. So do your homework - ask questions of the recruiter, here, and also if you're looking at one company in particular pop down to the local truck stop and chat with a driver or two.

I switched companies very early on in my career, hopefully you will not have to do that - but keep in mind that after your first company odds are once you come into a company as a qualified driver many will not offer tuition reimbursement. From my experience, that is something that seems to only be available at your first company.

The link that G-Town listed has a bunch of great information, I recently used a bunch of the questions when evaluating companies. You can tell a lot about a company by how forthcoming they are with answers to questions.

There are small 12v shop vacs. I have one in my truck. They are good for dust & dirt. Not so good at picking up heavier debris.

my Shark dustbuster type works better than the 12v vac I had, but still not as good as a standard shop vac.

I usually sweep the floor then vac it up.

I've driven with a crock pot, a ton of em come with locking lids (especially the 12v versions.

The new Blue Parrot, the 450 is 1000x better than the 250 I had, and you can steam media to it.

I've been debating on getting my own mattress.... Ideally I'd like to put a sleep number mattress in there - just not sure how that would work with needing a place for the pump and a power supply. Still researching that one.

I have:

CB XM Radio 7" Rand GPS Dash cam Phone Laptop Lunch Box Stove. Dustbuster style cordless vac Coleman 12v Cooler (had this it broke and haven't replaced it yet).

One thing to keep in mind, especially if your new - you don't need all of these things right off the bat. Figure out what you need and what you want, then see how those lists line up with your available funds. I got my headset, GPS, dash cam, CB, and stove from the truck stops using points. Sure the prices on some of these things were higher than getting them from Walmart or Amazon - but I spent points, not dollars so I saved somewhere between $800 - $900.

The other thing to keep in mind - many of the mega carriers don't allow you to have power inverters, or only allow small ones. So I would recommend not putting out a lot of money until you're in or done with training and see what type of power you'll have to work with.

When I was going through this process I was told that illinois has to certify the out of state schools. Usually the schools are within an hour of a sec. State office so you get an actual illinois permit and CDL.

Illinois changed everything and became a lot more strict after one of our secretary of States was caught selling cdl's to people not qualified for them. It resulted on at least one deadly crash that killed a whole family, if I remember right.