Profile For Steven S.

These past few weeks and months things been good, getting 40hrs a week and trying to haul asss. How ever this week I’ve been told fright has slammed to a halt up in main for us. It doesn’t help one of the paper mills we haul out of blew up

Seems like different companies are having different levels of success, for instance CRST Expedited just gave me a contingent offer letter so that they can pay for my full CDL cost plus housing and they told me today that they dont have enough drivers to cover all the freight they need to move.

The chemical side held in March but April has been very slow. Alot of our customers consuming latex cancelled a majority of loads. Glue loads have held steady as well as paper additive chemicals. I hauled 5 loads the entire month. The money on the five has been good, but really hurting my bottom line. Dispatch said the past 2 weeks have been espically crazy with scheduling. I have many contacts within the company and have been using all of them to stay ahead of the game.

My guess is everyone is going to want everything yesterday shortly. I think we are in for a lengthy roller coaster ride.

Thats what im betting on, most industries can only stay shutdown for as long as they could hold if they were under a strike so it wont be long. CRST just sent me an offer letter to get me in and training within the next month as a new driver so it seems like some of the big guys agree that there is going to be more loads than drivers very soon and its going to be a drivers market.

During that time I actually think the Owner/Operators are going to be the ones that make the killing because they will get the full profit from a load while all of us company drivers are going to probably get shafted a bit.

Steven, that makes no sense. Owner/Operators have huge expenses compared to company drivers. Have you noticed how many of them are protesting right now? Company drivers don't lose out during times of high demand. You will measure out your own success. It has nothing to do with who owns the truck. It's all about your ability to consistently produce positive results.

You're spending way too much time on Facebook and YouTube. It's starting to make you sound delusional. Stick to the facts. You're totally green. That's not the time to be a teacher. Be a sponge - just try to filter what you are sponging in.

I'm just meaning that when things recover more than likely company people will be stuck with their current pay even if freight prices go up while people that own the truck will probably have the same costs as usual but will see better pay and more loads that they can take. I'm trying to just ask questions and learn but I just wanted to say that I think things will get better. Thats why I want to get in even though money is bad right now, when certain industries come back there should be a lot of work to be done.

I hope that by the time I get my CDL and get on my trainer's truck in July that this mess in the freight market will be sorted out. I really dont want to start a rookie year in an uncertain market.

Steven S I'm in the same situation as you. I hope to be in a trainers truck in early July. Let's hope when restrictions ease up there will be a surge in trucking. I would bet the vast majority of people are limiting their trips to Lowe's, Hope Depot and any other retail store because of the hassle of waiting in long lines, wearing uncomfortable masks and all the other bs. "I picked the wrong day to quit my job to be a trucker!"

From what i'm seeing it looks like the general opinion is that when the market opens back up the freight market is going to explode and there wont be enough drivers to grab the loads. The situation should go something like the pork market opening back up which leads to cattle being moved to processing plants and then onto basically every single store in the country since they will all be short by that time. Then there will be businesses like restaurants that are going to need to pretty much restock everything and thats going to flood the market with tons of freight. Its just going to be a domino effect as each part of the supply chains come back to life, they are going to need supplies brought in so they can start up and then they are going to be back to full bore sending stuff out. During that time I actually think the Owner/Operators are going to be the ones that make the killing because they will get the full profit from a load while all of us company drivers are going to probably get shafted a bit.

A good case of the grass looking greener at the other company, however regardless of where you are if you dont put in the hard work fertilizing and watering the grass it wont grow green wherever you are. Put the work into it and you make your grass green wherever you may find yourself, refuse to put the work into it and dead grass will follow you.

I always approach every job with the expectation that i'm going to get back what I put in, in this industry i'm guessing that if you treat dispatch really nicely and dont make a career out of complaining to a customer about how long it takes to get loaded you will actually find yourself getting some really good money. Plus there really is no telling how long you need to work before the company starts wanting to run you more, i'm sure there is a really long adjustment period to let you get accustomed to everything without feeling rushed. I certainly hope they dont instantly start handing me loads that have to be hundreds of miles away in 2 or 3 days because i'm going to need time to speed up my pre trip, route planning, and other stuff. I doubt that anyone can drop into their own truck and instantly know how many miles they can expect to do a day and everything you need to know to plan a perfect route.

Steven S. Bookmark this link if you go across WY: https://www.wyoroad.info/highway/conditions/RoadClosures.html or download the WY511 app

I get text messages from WYODOT, but if you're not out west much, it can drive you crazy at times with all you can get just from I-80 and I-25. Most States have 511 apps and I download those that I travel through the most...really helps in winter.

Laura

Thank you for the link, im never against having more access to information.

Don't let me scare you this is fun, exciting, and you will learn. Other drivers out here are your best resources I promise. Even that guy talking crap on the radio will help you If you ask nicely. Umm probably there are some Daffy Ducks out here. Just saying don't short change the training. While your doing it you will wish you had your own truck. For the first month in your own truck you'll wish you had your trainer. It gets easier but you will never have it all figured out.

Yeah i'm going into this as prepared as I possibly can be, i'm in 2 different trucking groups on FB plus this forum. I went out and spent $200 on brand new clothing, a 24 in duffel, an 18 inch shower bag, waterproof flashlight, shower shoes, slippers, waterproof boots, waterproof work gloves, and a lot of other stuff that youtube drivers are saying that they expect people to bring. Now i'm moving onto basically making a list of questions that I feel I should ask since every video I see has the trainer complaining if the trainee isnt asking a million questions a minute about everything since they apparently take it as a sign that your not really interested in working. So i'm only nervous at best and thats about stuff like the broker thing and I heard on FB that something like 300 students got let go during training when US Xpress canceled their pre offer letters and i'm set to go to work for Total Transportation which I have been told is now owned by US Xpress. Other than that i'm going in with the attitude that I am going to pass my CDL and my solo test and this is going to be my career. Also i'm very glad to hear that you can stop when they want chains on, I keep seeing that everyone pretty much considers you to be the top guy on here for experience and advice so I will probably try to avoid chains as well.

I have to agree with Brett on this.

Another thing that is still highly relevant is my feeling that the largest carriers are the best place to work. They have the most opportunities, the best perks, the best equipment, the most money behind them, and the strongest support structure for drivers.

Support system is essential when your in BFE who cares you? Them! They can and will help you.

Now take what I say lightly I am a rookie with a family I would very much like to see to butt...

Do you want to be that driver we see in the plains or crossing the appalations that every driver can tell you never crossed the Rockies?

The driver entering the Chicago area that never spent a winter in Wyoming?

Dust storm? Blizzard? Flooding?

OTR is the standard for a reason it's crazy out here. Not saying it can't be done local or regional from the start but these are braver and probably better drivers than me to start that path. A few are on here. Safer for me in my situation. Does the wife like me in certain states with less than 15,000lbs? No but it teaches limitations I never learned local class B for 10 years. Brett and these old school drivers are telling reality. Things may change but the truth doesn't.

That's one of the things I worry about right now, I start CDL class at the end of June but I only have 175 hours of behind the wheel time to do in July with a trainer. I'm thinking that with how fast I usually learn things that optimistically I should be on my own truck by mid August, that means no real world experience with throwing chains, frostbite prevention, ice driving, keeping engine liquids from getting too cold during a shutdown for something like a blizzard, and just a million other things that im sure I will have to contend with during the winter months that I will be driving through solo maybe 2 months after leaving the trainer. I think I know how to throw the chains well enough now since I have watched quite a few videos on proper technique but I know its going to be different when the snow is trying very hard to bury the tire and to make matters worse I havent even seen snow before. I have no idea what to expect a snowstorm to be like, I probably wont be able to see one coming in and i'm most likely not going to know most of the dangers involved with walking and driving in snow.

I'm bumping this conversation back up just because it's been bothering me. I probably sound like a sap when I tell you guys how frustrating it is for me when I know I can help somebody, but they could care less for what I have to say. I'm a fool for thinking everybody should be glad to hear my advice, but darn it, I get frustrated watching people floundering in misconceptions about this thing we call trucking.

John is having a hard time getting the hang of how you make money at this - he's hurting. Instead of trying to improve his results (which is the answer to his dilemma) he is lashing out at his employer. It's the age old conundrum of trucking. If you aren't doing well you find a better company. That sounds reasonable until you've been at this for a while and you realize there are people out here who have been looking for that "good" company for something like forever! It's a futile search full of wasted energy - it produces nothing.

I purposely asked John some legitimate questions. Had he chosen to answer any of them, it would help us to point out the areas he can strive to improve himself. It would help us give him valuable advice on how to improve his situation. He didn't want questions asked. He wanted us to jump in and provide cover for his attitude. He wanted us to provide confirmation of his vilification of his employer. He never wanted help. He simply wanted to mouth off about his employer.

He decided rather that he should be asking me questions. He went so far as to pose this to me...

I wonder if you can actually tell me how to support my family on a 357 dollar check?

Of course I didn't respond because the question is pointless. I wanted to show him how to quit settling for that kind of money. There is absolutely no reason he should be averaging that kind of money out here. I averaged 1,000 dollars a week as a rookie driver at Western Express. I earned 50 grand my rookie year. You can't argue with me saying "this company sucks!" I know better. I know what it takes to be a successful trucker, and it has nothing to do with the name on the truck's doors.

I always enjoy helping people understand how to make a great career as a trucker. I also get frustrated with people who refuse to apply themselves to the principles that make for success. I shouldn't let it bother me, but it still does. I think trucking will never change. There's always going to be winners and losers. I'm going to keep applying myself to be on the side of the winners. I just like winning.

I didn't go into it earlier because he was so averse to our advice, but I want those of you reading this conversation to realize something about your paychecks in trucking. You hear us speak of trucking as a "performance based business." It's absolutely true. You get paid for how much you accomplish. Your paycheck is a lot like a report card on your performance. If your paychecks are worthless ‐ guess what? That's a hard pill to swallow.

When we look at our paycheck it is a reflection of our results. If it's bad we have to make some changes. Don't be fooled into thinking the source of the check needs to change. No, it's the source of the efforts that needs modification. Apply yourselves diligently and effectively. There's no better cure for a low paying trucking job than a highly productive truck driver.

Im happy that you bumped this because I might not have seen it if you hadnt since I just joined a bit ago. I'm going to a company in July after I finish with Roadmasters that gets all kinds of crap thrown on them for having horrible dispatchers that never give them miles and all sorts of stuff. Whenever I read a story like this though it always seems to have a very common problem, the truckers that do poorly seem to spend a lot of time saying how terrible the company is and the people that work there instead of sitting back and being thankful for having a job right out of school. Even if the company that I go to turns out to be garbage the very last thing I would ever do is trash talk the company or complain. Imagine how you would feel if you had a person that was on social media all day moaning about horrible pay and being grouchy towards the other employees? Would you feel like going to extra mile to line up a load on their route for them to make more money or would you give it to the guy that comes in everyday with a smile and says thank you all the time? Personally I wouldnt want the sour faced grouch anywhere near my customers, I would much prefer the guy that is going to be happy and appreciated by the customer. When I go in i'm going to keep my mouth shut for anything other than yes maam/sir, please, how are you doing today, and thank you. Then im going to run everything they offer me including the "garbage" that other drivers dont consider to be worth their time and at the end of it i'm betting that when the subject of employees that go the extra mile comes up I will be on that list. Be the driver they cant afford to lose.

Some places like FedEx are always going to be in demand, especially with Amazon being ramped up like its Christmas time. Odd that they are offering time off though since Amazon told everyone that their delivery service would be suspended so that UPS, FedEx and USPS could still earn money. I hope that by the time I get my CDL and get on my trainer's truck in July that this mess in the freight market will be sorted out. I really dont want to start a rookie year in an uncertain market.