Profile For Nasim W.

What company would you recommend for a new driver out of school? Werner?? (Long haul) Salary or Miles?

Don't mind being away from home base for awhile but what should I expect?? two week, three?? four???

What are some of the things should I be looking at before taking a job?

I have reviewed many companies online and most of the drivers are just making about 33,000 to 40,000 is this correct?

Is it possible for me to own a rig and make a living on the road?

I am new myself but I did choose Knight Transportation. They are real flexible when it comes to how long you want to be out and home time. As far as pay, I am at the lower end of the scale until I hit 30,000 miles. With that being said my first check for going solo was about $750.00 after taxes. For me it is a lot better than what I was getting paid at my previous job.

Thanks for the stories, it's great to hear from other new drivers about how things are going. And well played on the repair shop. You showed a ton of discipline and handled that better than a lot of drivers would have.

About every driver I have talked to has said they locked their keys in the truck, most did it early on like you did. Since you admitted to it I will share my story with you, and I'm not even in a truck yet lol.

I was in cdl school the last few weeks. My morning routine was to stop at the gas station beside my motel for coffee then off to school. First I need to say that I am anal about my keys. Normally can't lock my truck until my hand is on the keys in my pocket and i usually have an extra key in my pocket for all my vehicles. But my personal truck has a keypad, so I often lock it and let it run to warm up while I get my morning beverage. Well you guessed it, I go out to get in my truck and the key pad won't work!

Luckily a police officer pulls up about 10 minutes later. He doesn't have time to help me (off duty going to appointment) but gives me the number to the local office and they send someone out within 5 minutes. He opened my truck and I was on my way. About 20 minutes late to class, and frustrated, but at least I wouldn't have to make up a day.

It wasn't till the following day that I realized I had turned a couple numbers around. It was early, I was tired and stressed and had been trying to enter the wrong code

I never fessed up to that part of it in school.

Woody

Yeah I figured losing my temper would get me no where so I just bit my tongue and let my DM know. As far as the keys go my Expedition has that keyless entry and I always lock the doors with the truck running. I actually forgot the code to get in once. Funny thing is my daughter knows every code and pin number that my wife and I have so I called her and she told me the code to get in lol. I just don't know how she retains all that info.

Well off to WV I go. Again I got caught in the snow on my way down but I felt a lot more confident. By the time I got into WV it was sleet. Got a load in Virginia heading back to Orlando and to be honest the rest of the trip went pretty smooth. Made back to my terminal on Thanksgiving Day. A day late but my DM did try his hardest to get me back the day before Thanksgiving.

I know it's a lot of reading but I hope this little story can also help the new guy out in understanding the small things that can go wrong and how to deal with them. Constant communication with your DM is key. I also guess I'm lucky to have a really good DM.

Things I learned on my first time out.

1) Patience. It comes in real handy when dealing with the shop or anyone else for that matter.

2) Driving in snow is not as bad as I thought. It does make things a little interesting but as long as you take nice and easy you will be ok. Also know when it's just too much and it's time to pull over. It never got that bad though.

3) Read all the road signs. Very important. Read them all lol.

4) Do not depend 100% on GPS. I compared the route on the GPS to my Atlas. Twice I had to deviate slightly from what the GPS showed to avoid a restricted route.

5) Even though I have talked too other drivers and met new people it still gets lonely out there. I missed my wife and daughter tremendously. Things that helped were phone calls and most of all my video chatting app on my phone called Tango. For those brief moments it was like they were there with me. I know I'm new myself but just hang in there.

6) I learned how to float gears on my own. Again not as hard as I thought.

Finally I know there will be new challenges. I'm getting ready now to go out again. I have everything packed in my car and ready to make my 4hr trip later today from Miami to Lakeland. I will keep you guys informed. So overall I must say this is the first job I have ever had that I truly love. I have a passion for driving and I can just keep going out of pure enjoyment if I could. I also love seeing the country. It's a lot more beautiful than what I thought. For now take care everyone and be safe.

So after the Minneapolis job I let my DM know that I was headed to the nearest truck stop for the night. Never told him about snow cuz I figured it would be no big deal and I really was not listening to news or weather reports on the radio either. First snow of the year how bad can it be right? Well when I got to the truck stop at about 3pm I noticed a light snow starting to fall. By 4:30pm I was done taking a shower and I bought a bite to eat. As I sat in the truck looking at the snow I noticed it was not sticking and basically just kinda looked like a typical rainy day in FL. I still figured no big deal. By 6:30 when I fell asleep it was just wet roads and I still figured no big deal. When I woke up the next morning and looked out the window I was in a panic. Everything was white and the snow was coming down a lot heavier. Holy crap I haven't seen snow in 23yrs and I never ever drove in it let alone a big rig. Are you kidding me!!!! That's what I thought to myself at that moment lol. So I send my DM a message "it's snowing, I never drove in snow, get me out of here". He told me not to worry he would start making my way back home on time for Thanksgiving. I called my wife and she wasn't much help saying things like "oh my god you don't know how to drive in snow" and "please be careful come home alive". I thought how am I going to drive in this but I did notice the truck was slowly getting empty and trucks were heading out. So I get my job and I have to deliver just outside of Chicago. I started checking the weather on the radio and on my cell phone. After a little debate in my own head off I went. An empty trailer, snow, and high winds made for a hairy ride but I made it to the shipper in one piece. By the time I got into Illinois with my load it was just a light snow again. By the time I got to the consignee it was no longer snowing. Great I was ahead of the snow. On my way to our terminal in Joliet IL I noticed the ABS light on the dash came on. Looked in my mirror and it was also on on the trailer. I thought oh boy I hope the terminal in IL is better than the one in PA. I got there, the garage was closed, so I put in my work order for the next day in the drop bin. There was only one other driver ahead of me. So the next morning I check in with the shop manager he said it's going to take a while. So long story short I was finally out of there at about 4pm with a local run. Due to all the delays it was all my DM could get me. It was a short run took about 4hrs total and I was back at the terminal in Joliet. At around 8am the next morning I get a message from my DM to hook up to a loaded trailer in the Joliet terminal that needs to go to PA. I hook up and the landing gear on the trailer was not working. One side went up the other side didn't. I let my DM know and he imediatly found me another load going to WV. By this time it was snowing again and was trying to stay a step ahead of the snow. TO BE CONTINUED LOL.

Thanks guys lol. Yeah already made a spare key and I put it on my ID badge that I hang around my neck. The metal magnetic box is not a bad idea either. As far as the overheating thing. The truck has a belt driven fan and a fan clutch. I really don't know why it overheated. The uphill portions were not very steep and it actually overheated starting to go downhill. Also I only had a 9060lb load. Pretty light I think.

Well here is the second part of my story. After my 1st job was done I headed to the terminal we have in Carlisle PA. The next did a small local run that went without a problem and headed back to the PA terminal. I had bobtailed in and noticed when I got out of the truck I was missing a mud flap. The shop was already closed so I woke up at 8am when they opened and I let the shop manager know. Well this is when I found out that all terminals are not created equal. At about 9am I get a message on the Qualcomm. Job to be picked up at 2pm. OK no problem, I figured I had plenty of time and how long can a mud flap really take. Either way I did let my DM know that I was waiting on a mud flap. By 11am I went to the shop manager and said "is there anyway you can just give me the mud flap and I will put it on myself"? His response was no way no how. I let him know that I was under a load and I needed to get going. By 12pm I let my DM know what was going on and he told me not to worry that he would find me another run. Ok I felt a little better but was still frustrated that it was taking so long for just a mud flap. At 2pm the shop manager comes out hands me the mud flap and asks me if I knew how to install it. I looked at him like really? After you told me I can't do it myself. But I looked at him and said very politely but a little sarcastically that yes I knew how. For me it was hard to not go off on him and just bite my tongue. But I figured blowing up would get me nowhere fast. So I install my mud flap which took all of 2 minutes and again I let my DM know what had happened. I tell you what, I have a great DM he called me on the phone expressed his disbelief and then told me "I sent you another job". So off go to pick up an empty, get loaded and deliver to four different Office Max stores in Minneapolis Minnesota. That run went without a hitch. The only thing is since it was my first time driving there I was nervous. The roads were so narrow and that's when I started seeing a lot of NO THRU TRUCKS signs. But I figured it out and completed the job. Funny thing is the guy at the last stop tells me "you better get going before the snow comes in later today". I chuckled and figured cool I haven't seen snow in 23 years. I thought the first snow of the season was going to be a little flurry.

So where to begin. I decided to go onboard with Knight Transportation. Orientation was 4 days long and boring. I was matched up with a trainer afterwards and I couldn't have asked for a better person to train me. They call him Buddy and he showed me allot. He was very patient and always willing to answer questions and help. The only problem was that while I was with him everything went as smooth as butter. One other thing. The terminal that I am out of in Lakeland Florida also runs pretty good as far as getting repairs on the trucks done. Well here is where my story begins.

My first solo run. I was excited and nervous at the same time. I also have a great dispatcher so I was ready to take whatever job was thrown my way. First job. Had to bobtail from the terminal to Georgia Pacific in FL. About a 2hr drive. Being that they don't allow you to bobtail in my dispatcher had sent an e-mail to them and all was good. So off I go. When I got there the guard turned me away because I was bobtailing. I told him about the e-mail but it was never communicated to him. I let my dispatcher know and he sends me to a Wal-Mart warehouse near Jacksonville to get an empty trailer. Well the three trailers that were supposed to be empty all had seals on them from the shipper. My dispatcher said no worries, head back to the terminal, we do it again tomorrow. Next day I pick up an empty at the yard, finally get my load, and off I go to C&S wholesale in PA. The trip was great! Got to see the beauty of this country that I had no idea waited. Truly makes me appreciate my country more. So, so far so good right? Not so fast. Going through the small mountains in PA the truck over heated on me. I pulled over, out out my triangles, and let it cool down for about 30 minutes. I had let my dispatcher know what was going on but that I was going to try to keep going. Well after 30 minutes she started right up and for some odd reason never over heated again. So I get to the consignee about an hour early, get in a line up for a live unload, and go check in. Great so far I'm still running ahead of schedule. Well again not so fast. After checking in I made my way back to the truck and realized stupid me LOCKED THE KEYS IN THE TRUCK! I called my dispatcher let him know. He actually took it pretty lightly but I was nervous. I then called or breakdown department and they sent someone to open the truck. Took them an hour and a half to get there. I ended up losing my turn in the line up for my live unload and needed to wait an additional 2hrs before they got to me again. Finally got me unloaded and I'm glad it was over.

I know it's allot of writing but I really want to let you guys know how it went. I will be back in a few for part 2 lol.

Old School thanks for the great info. Yeah to be quite honest I didn't find anything positive about any trucking company while looking at reviews so I stopped looking lol. So I was able to convince the wife. My daughter was a little harder to convince but she does understand that this is something I have to do so we can better ourselves as a family. So now I'm looking into which company will hire me out of Miami and which one will better suit my needs. I do want to work as much as humanly and legally possible with some home time in between. I will keep you guys updated and thanks again for all the help.

Remember, it's just for a year. After that a whole new world of opportunities will open up!

The thing I'm most afraid of is that might actually fall in love with driving OTR.

I have to agree with the last post but it has changed. I super fresh t driving trucks. Like fresh out of school but my girlfriends dad (back when I was in high school 1990 to 1994) was a truck driver and he always taught me how to be courteous to truck drivers when I was in my car. One thing I always used to love to do was flash my head lights to let the trucker know it was OK to switch lanes, then they would flash the tail lights as a way of saying thank you. Now when I see a truck with his blinker on and I flash my lights they don't switch lanes anymore and the few that do don't flash the tail lights. Is that something that is dead now. Just a small observation that I have noticed.

Old School thanks for the great info. Yeah to be quite honest I didn't find anything positive about any trucking company while looking at reviews so I stopped looking lol. So I was able to convince the wife. My daughter was a little harder to convince but she does understand that this is something I have to do so we can better ourselves as a family. So now I'm looking into which company will hire me out of Miami and which one will better suit my needs. I do want to work as much as humanly and legally possible with some home time in between. I will keep you guys updated and thanks again for all the help.

Thanks to all who replied. I guess I'm going to have to resell the cross country idea again to my wife and daughter. One other thing though. I'm in Miami FL and it seems a lot of big companies don't hire from here. The only 2 I have found are CRST and Knight. I have already looked at reviews on both and they don't look to well. I love driving. It's a passion of mine, but I also want to be successful. Thanks again.