Is This Normal To Make This Little Money?

Hey I just wanted to say thanks. Your PTSD comment got me doing some research. I'm fairly certain I do have a form of PTSD due to some recurring traumatic experiences in childhood. It actually explains a lot of the problems I've had in life. The symptoms just hadn't come to an obvious head until I got out here alone. You don't know how much your offhand comment may have helped me.

My next question is, when do the sobbing and the nightmares stop?

That all depends on what is causing it. If it's just a little debt and some homesickness, then I say, in my best Walter Sobchak voice, "You have got to buck up, man. You cannot drag this negative energy in to the tournament!"

You've got a job, you're on the right track, and you've got people you can count on to tell you the truth. It's going to be better soon.

If it's something more serious, like PTSD, then I have no idea.

I'm glad that comment helped. It wasn't as offhand as it might seem. My wife and my brother-in-law have both been diagnosed with PTSD, so I've been around folks who suffer with it quite a bit.

I can't say I understand it or know how to help much, but I do know it's a very real thing that can have a big impact on people's lives. I hope you get good professional help to start to deal with it. It seems like it's pretty hard to find professionals who understand it well. I know my wife felt like she got the best help when she was around combat veterans.

I spent lots of time researching trucking here and elsewhere. I studied with the high road training program and got my CLP. Trucking seemed like something I'd enjoy and be able to make money at. I went to The Swift academy and felt the same way. I went out with my mentor for a month, and felt the same way, but my mentor was on the target dedicated account. He said he thought is be great at this, and that I should be able to make 700-1000 bucks a week OTR.

Now I'm out here solo OTR , and I'm running as hard as I can, not turning down loads, and I'm making like 350 a week. That's less than the hourly pay I made as a trainee. What am I doing wrong?

Half of college graduates can't find work in their field, and I'm one of them. I'm drowning in student loan debt and I needed a job with decent pay. Before this I was working as a front desk clerk at a hotel and living at home. I could barely pay my bills.Now all my stuff is in storage and I basically live in the truck.

Sorry to ramble I'm just really frustrated with this, and feel like I bought a pig in a poke. Even if in were to decide to leave trucking I don't really have anywhere else to go. Is it normal to be making this kind of money at the beginning?

I wish you the best of luck. I had the same problem. I tried speaking to my DM multiple times on the phone, email and over qualcomm to no avail. I spoke with my fleet manager multiple times to no avail. My fleet manager promised to work on getting me more miles. I would call back to check up on the situation because nothing had changed and it was always an excuse (I was off last week, I had to take some personal days, freight is slow, etc.). I spoke to my terminal manager multiple times who promised to keep pressure on my fleet manager and DM, which apparently never happened. I tried moving to flatbed but they wouldn't take me because I didn't have enough van experience. I tried getting on a dedicated account. The managers on Kraft dedicated wanted me because of my ontime performance and zero accident status but my fleet manager refused to do the transfer. He said that he really needed me OTR and again promised to get me more miles which never happened.

After six months at Swift, I decided it was never going to get better and left. After six months of $100 to $300 paychecks and not really any more than 1,400 miles per week, and after six months of living off of my savings account, I couldn't do it anymore. I was always polite, I asked everyone from the top down if I was doing something wrong or if I could do anything better. "You're doing great!" is the answer I would always get. In six months I turned down one load due to a delivery window that was impossible to make. Apart from that, I never turned down a load. I never took pay advances. I was always above and beyond polite with every manager I interacted with as well as my DM. Nothing worked, and I really wanted it to.

Follow the advice given to you by the folks here. Always be polite with anyone you deal with, no matter how frustrating the situation might be. Keep almost constant communication with your DM and don't be afraid to call your FM or TM. They're there to help you succeed. HOWEVER, if it doesn't get any better, don't be afraid to leave. I believe that you should stay at your first trucking job for a year, but you can find much better opportunities with just six months of experience. Don't leave until you've exhausted all of your options. If you do leave, do it the right way. I gave notice with a professional resignation letter to my DM as well as a phonecall. I thanked my DM profusely in my letter and on the phone for all of the help they provided me. I turned my truck in at a terminal and at a time that both my DM and I agreed upon. I also made sure to clean the truck, both inside and out, so that it would be readily available for the next driver that it was assigned to.

Again, good luck to you. I sincerely hope that you can fix your situation.

ACO476, if I were you I would have demanded a new dispatcher after a little while. It sounds like you did everything right but the one thing you never did was put your foot down and say, "That's it. I need to be put on someone else's board."

That would have done the trick. That was clearly the issue there.

Only once in my career did I ever have to do that. I had been with a fantastic dispatcher for two years and suddenly one morning out of the blue they moved a small pile of us over to a new dispatcher randomly. I had already been at the company for like 3 or 4 years at that point and had a perfect record. I was running 3,000+ miles per week consistently.

I called a guy I knew in operations and I calmly explained my situation and I told him, "I will not move this truck until I'm back on my dispatcher's board. You can move anyone else in the company you like. You can move them all for all I care. But this truck isn't leaving this parking lot until I'm back on his board."

It was probably two hours later and he sent me a message saying I was back on my dispatcher's board, they sent me a load assignment, and life went on like it never happened.

I never tell new drivers to make demands because it's very, very rare that it's going to help. But after months of performing at the highest level you should have been given the opportunity on a different board. It's all in hindsight now, and that's no problem. I understand you saying enough is enough. I don't blame you at all. I just would have demanded the change.

The managers on Kraft dedicated wanted me because of my ontime performance and zero accident status but my fleet manager refused to do the transfer. He said that he really needed me OTR and again promised to get me more miles which never happened.

Just like you'll find with drivers, there are some dispatchers that are way better than others. You were just stuck with one that wasn't able to make sure you were getting the miles. That's a shame. Obviously Swift, as large as they are, has a long list of drivers turning tons of miles. You should have been one of them. Hopefully things are great where you're at now.

I agree with Brett here. And put it in writing. People do not understand how powerful a letter is. It is documentation of issues and requests, that if ignored can be proven when going up the chain.

My friend started with a terrible FM. Same boat. 1800 miles per week, and wouldn't let her get the APU fixed. Sitting in the GA heat at Tyson for 20 hours is no fun with no APU and no idle abilities.

Then something happened where dispatch dropped the ball and never relayed her load to another driver, despite the fact she gave almost 20 hours notice she wouldn't have the hours to make it. The FM then tried to blame her and give her the service failure.

I got so ticked off, I called my FM then had my friend write a letter with dates and times of the messages in the QC that proved all that happened. We sent it to the reefer manager and in 20 minutes she was moved to my FMs board. The company didn't like seeing a truck sit, being late to customers at no fault of the driver, and putting the safety of the driver in danger.

Her first week on the new board she got 2500 miles because she had to wait for an APU part to come in. After After that it was 2800-3400 mile weeks.

Big difference if you put all communication on the QC then write a formal letter that you keep sending up the chain of command.

Fm:

Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager

The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

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.