I Got A Pre-hire From West Side Transport

Ok, so what do you experienced drivers think?

$70/day for training. . Not sure how long it lasts. Guaranteed minimum $900/week for 1st 12 weeks.

33 cpm long haul, 47 cpm short haul. Fuel and safety bonuses.

Regional and home every weekend.

Well the training part you shouldn't care about at all. That's super temporary and you really want to make long term decisions.

Now my first thought when I see the 47 cpm for short haul is that there are probably a lot of short runs, like under 500 miles. Did they say where they draw the line between short haul and long haul?

The numbers seem decent though. You'll want to find out what the average driver makes per week. They should be able to tell you that no problem. Some drivers are looking to be home quite often so they're happy to make less money to do so. Others want to make all the money they possibly can regardless of how often they get home. So the earning potential with a regional gig like that can vary quite a bit. I was in a regional division for US Xpress for a couple of years that got me home every weekend and I had no problem getting 2,500-3,000 miles each week. But that's a big company with a lot of freight and I had an awesome dispatcher that knew I ran like the Energizer Bunny so he'd load the miles on me and let me figure it out. I also had paper logbooks so I could lie like a rug. But I'm confident most of it could have been done on electronic logs.

I didn't think to ask about the mileage difference between short and long lol. Im trying to get up a list of questions I should be asking potential employers and just saw a post on that, so will read that one too (honestly I read them all lol).

Ok Brett.. I got answers in writing. Their average length of haul for this position is 350 miles (regional) The average miles per week for a 1st year driver is 2500-2800 miles per week. Average first year pay is $55k. Average 2nd year is $65k. Short haul (47 cpm) is 199 miles or less, long haul (33 cpm) 200+. They also offer monthly bonuses for fuel, safety, and miles. Total bonuses typically range from $200-$800 each month. They offer detention, layover, and breakdown pay. Drop and hook. All miles are paid and they use that zip code to zip code method. Orientation is 3 days, unpaid, but they provide transportation, hotel, and all meals. They are replacing many of their trucks this year. Once delivery is complete, scheduled to be by October, they will have no trucks more than 2 years old (2013 oldest) All trucks are double bunk condo sleepers with apu , bunk heater, 10 speed transmission. Liberal rider policy. Once company training is complete, I could have a rider. Company training is 30 days and said not to expect hometime during training. Training pay is $70/day of active training. After training I would go regional solo. Guarantee $900/week minimum pay first solo 12 weeks while I learn their ways of doing things.

I'm directly in their major freight lanes and should be home every weekend. On rare occasions it won't be possible, but they always try. Eligible for benefits after 60 days. Can take truck home during hometime. The safety department will assist me in figuring out best place to park (I live in a small privately owned apartment building).

In inclement winter weather they will shut us down. If we ever feel roads are too hazardous, communicate the hazard and shut down.

So, does this sound reasonable and realistic?

Regional:

Regional Route

Usually refers to a driver hauling freight within one particular region of the country. You might be in the "Southeast Regional Division" or "Midwest Regional". Regional route drivers often get home on the weekends which is one of the main appeals for this type of route.

CPM:

Cents Per Mile

Drivers are often paid by the mile and it's given in cents per mile, or cpm.

Drop And Hook:

Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.

In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

Well the training part you shouldn't care about at all. That's super temporary and you really want to make long term decisions.

Now my first thought when I see the 47 cpm for short haul is that there are probably a lot of short runs, like under 500 miles. Did they say where they draw the line between short haul and long haul?

The numbers seem decent though. You'll want to find out what the average driver makes per week. They should be able to tell you that no problem. Some drivers are looking to be home quite often so they're happy to make less money to do so. Others want to make all the money they possibly can regardless of how often they get home. So the earning potential with a regional gig like that can vary quite a bit. I was in a regional division for US Xpress for a couple of years that got me home every weekend and I had no problem getting 2,500-3,000 miles each week. But that's a big company with a lot of freight and I had an awesome dispatcher that knew I ran like the Energizer Bunny so he'd load the miles on me and let me figure it out. I also had paper logbooks so I could lie like a rug. But I'm confident most of it could have been done on electronic logs.

My recruiter told me this morning rookies average about 950 per week. Combination of short and long hauls bring the average cpm to 43. Seems like a great company!

Any WST trainers part of our community?

I don't know how I missed this one.

So, does this sound reasonable and realistic?

Yes, it does indeed. Sounds like a pretty good setup.

Every Friday afternoon while I'm at school on the range, we see 2 WST trucks headed north towards Louisville on I-65. Don't see many of their trucks around here, (only those 2 on Friday), but an instructor said he used to live near Cedar Rapids and was familiar with them and it was a good company to work for. Our black sheep instructor told me I should go to McElroy and do flatbedding instead lol. I'm not so sure about flatbedding, but he said almost all their loads are pretarped.

Congrats! That's good info... I checked out their website. Based on the info there, they just made it onto my short list. I start at a local CDL school on Jan 4th!

I know this is an older post but are you still at Westside? I start this week and was wondering how you like(d) it.

Every Friday afternoon while I'm at school on the range, we see 2 WST trucks headed north towards Louisville on I-65. Don't see many of their trucks around here, (only those 2 on Friday), but an instructor said he used to live near Cedar Rapids and was familiar with them and it was a good company to work for. Our black sheep instructor told me I should go to McElroy and do flatbedding instead lol. I'm not so sure about flatbedding, but he said almost all their loads are pretarped.