Profile For Solo

I tracked everything (fuel cost, MPG, CPM, %, O/O %, etc etc etc) to compare my truck to the same driver that would be paid in CPM, % of load (what I chose), and a O/O leased onto TMC.

Unfortunately, this data is from 2019, and it looks like I can only recover the first 15 weeks:

All else being equal through the first 15 weeks I was with TMC:

%: $23,749.61
CPM: $16,308.00
O/O: $69,394 (before expenses)

This worked out to 56 CPM vs 40 CPM (had I chose to take CPM instead of % of load)

Live and learn, right? My truck was in the shop for a PM and they did a regen. I left the shop, got my trailer and did a pre-trip. But since it was just in the shop I didn’t pop the hood to check the engine compartment. Got on the road, encountered some traffic and had to apply the brakes fairly hard. Not a panic stop or enough to register a critical event, but harder than normal. There goes the hood! The shop mechanic didn’t latch the hood and I failed to catch that not-so-minor detail. The hood went up enough to block my view before it came back down. I took the next exit and stopped to secure the hood. Now I realize that I never made checking the hood latches part of my pre-trip routine. From now on, it will be added to my pre-trip walk around. Lesson learned that a driver should always check the hood latches, especially after the truck comes out of the shop, just in case.

I'm convinced this is a common practice by most mechs (to not latch at least 1 (if not both) latches for whatever reason)).

Because I caught our local mech shop only doing the driver side, I quickly got into the habit of ALWAYS checking, regardless. Just can't trust anyone but yourself.

I also look forward to following your journey. I'll tell ya things are going to get even more real soon! They're being nice to you and taking you in the back country roads first. We've had a couple other guys do a diary about their school and they'd mentioned they went onto Ankeny Blvd (which I'm sure eventually you'll see) their first day of driving. It isn't a terrible road by any means just alot of stop lights and in my experience they tend to drive like A**hats even more up there. Just curious are they training you guys with sticks or autos? Eventually they'll be taking you downtown Des Moines, it's easy to feel overwhelmed but remember they wouldn't take you there if they didnt feel you can handle it. I see tmc students every day and those I've talked to talk about how great it is.

Turtle says :

It isn't nearly as physical as I'd hoped however.

Plenty of jobs in food service.......

Looks like I missed a LOT of replies while I was typing up this dairy.

Everyone had to learn/drive Manuals, but it was my understanding that they would (I do not know if they have or not) be moving to an all auto-fleet due to not getting a lot of new hire apps as most new drivers do not want to drive a manual.

I know I was very nervous throughout my entire in-house training as well as BOTH (TMC made us do 2 DOT check rides (one before 5 weeks OTR training and one after before issuing us our truck)) and while I was in my 5 week OTR training section. BUT, by the end of the training I really didn't care if they issued me a manual or auto (though I did ask if they weren't going to issue me a manual, to please issue me a 12-spd auto)....and they did just that. I was issued a brand new #12986 579 Auto and boy did I enjoy that in traffic.

Now I don't know what Blackhawk issues, but I would take a manual over a 9-spd auto every day of the week. Once I learned to float up/down, driving became a much better experience, IMHO.

Now I can barely drive a passenger manual. I try to float and double-clutch...it's a mess. Thankfully my car is a self-driving EV and does the heavy lifting.

Agreed...we're very much in a funky economy being propped up (dare I say barely?) due to being an election year, so anything is possible these next 6-12months. While I hope BH stays afloat this coming winter, I wouldn't be affected financially if they got out of the PODS game, at worst I would head to my place in FL until next Spring, but I would at least be able to update my resume with recent OTR exp., which is important for a lot of carriers.

Hope it goes well and best of luck. Welcome back to the open road!

Thank you very much. I'm both nervous (been living that great local life) and excited (to stretch the legs again).

That sucks man but glad you got to enjoy it while you could. If you wouldn’t mind let us know how the Blackhawk job goes. I almost took that job last year but opted for a more standard flatbed job instead. I was worried they might not be very busy but I had absolutely nothing to go off of. Seems like it would be a great simple job!

You are 100% correct in your concern. IMHO, if your budget/family depends on year around mileage, the pods accounts (regardless of carrier) are probably not the way to go until something gives me the confidence to relocate en masse, like they were in yester-year. I'm in a pretty good position fiscally that I could not work winters and be just fine, so even minimal miles while retaining benefits is still a net positive for me.

I will give updates similar to what I did when I first joined here and started my CDL journey with TMC back in 1/2019.

Well, sometimes good things do come to an end. After 40 years, the customer ended the contract with my company and while I could have stayed on as an Ops. Mgr, I would have had to move and that's not an option I wanted to exercise, so we parted ways and on good terms (my (now) former Regional Mgr has stopped by house a few times to catch up)). I'm in a pretty good place and have once again caught an itch to go back out OTR and currently going through the process of joining Blackhawk and their PODS account. I had always wished it was me in their trucks as they pass by with 3 pods and 6 straps while I was wrestling a lumber tarp into my headache rack. Guess now I get to experience that life.

Been a heck of a 4.5 year adventure in this commercial trucking world. It feels like it's been 10 years.

So I accepted a severance package at the end of 2018 after 11+ years of Ops Mgmt work for VZW/VZ. Jan of '19 I started driving for TMC. Completed my contract and went local hauling milk for the past 2 years+. XPO reached out to me via LinkedIn about hauling doubles to Minneapolis each night (Linehaul) back in March of this year ($31.44/hr for all non-driving related work and .741cpm for all driving related...insane money, but long hours). The FoS at my XPO barn was promoted to manager after the manager that hired me at XPO accepted a promotion and had to move. My then Supervisor, now new Mgr offered me his old supervisor position...HR at XPO said I had to be there a year before I could leave the position and look for other opportunities. Well, enter a company out of MN, and they to reached out to me via Linkedin...and effective this coming Monday, I'll be an Ops Mgr for them managing about 30 drivers for one of their dedicated accounts. A fantastic piece to this is, my office will be roughly 1/2 mi from my home.

I'll continue to maintain my CDL and med card, but looking forward to a bit of the office life again w/ the option to work remotely if I want to.

So if you are looking at driving to help you bridge a gap and even open up other opportunities, then I'm here to tell you it's very possible.

It's been a wild ride!

Hey Solo,

Besides these different ways you listed to increase snapshot points: Revenue to Truck, MPG, out of route%, park up, and TWIC passport hazmat are there any other ways to increase percentage pay?

Thanks

Drew

So my official hire date is 1/25, so I'm already a couple of months into my 12-month contractual agreement with TMC. That being said, this time next month it goes from a 4k balances to a 3k balance, and then another 3 months down to 2k, then 1k at 9 months of service.

That being said, I just wrapped up my first-month solo driving and wanted to share some numbers. If there are any others you'd be interested to know, let me know, and I'll try to get them.

Gross Pay: $5666.85 (this does not include any bounce/DH miles or Tarp pay) (If I were to have selected to be paid by CPM instead of %: $4446.80) (My current trend is that I'll will go from 26% of Rev To the Truck to 33% by my first snapshot if that were the case, that would increase my gross too: $7193 for the same month)

So the incentive is strong here to keep doing what I'm doing for that extra ~$1500/month for the same effort

Miles: 11,048

Avg Pay Per Load: $354.18 (@26% pay)

Weekly Truck Revenue Avg: $5082 (this gives me max points towards my snapshot

Current mpgs: 7.07 (this gives me max points towards my snapshot

Current Out of Route: %4.4 (this gives me max points towards my % snapshot)

Having Passport, TWIC, and HM endorsements gives me max endorsement points towards my snapshot

Getting parked at my consignee each Sunday evening by 9pm local has also given me max points towards my snapshot

That is all, for now, I'll be back with another update in a few more months, or as anything helpful to new CDL students arises.

A lot could have changed since I left TMC, but if nothing has changed...then no, there wouldn't be anyway to increase your % until you hit year 5 where you were able to go from 34% to 35% (which again, at the time I was w/ TMC....34% was the highest you could attain until you had been with them for 5 years, then you could get a bump to 35% if everything was maxed).

The only benefit is the money. This is the most money I've ever made, but I'm starting to think it isn't worth it.

What I've quickly learned in my VERY 2 short months of doing LTL Linehaul is that not all money is good money. I'm making between $2500-$2800 gross weekly and have 0 time off for anything else. So I won't starve, but I won't have time off to eat either.