This guy may disagree with your bold statement, Brian, the same way I disagree with your pronouncement. Please share with the rest of us here your "Starter Company" definition.
Do you suppose after only 3 Million Safe Miles this driver is weighing his options or making up his mind on his next move to "A Real Company"?
Most folks starting out really do not understand this industry at all. Right or wrong, that is a fact. We see it all the time around here.
Every career, business or group can put their employee’s in one of 3 catagories:
Top tier, best of the best, super stars. Usually a small percentage of the total number.
Average, Solid employee’s that do their job and do it the best they can. Not over achievers. Usually the single largest group
Poor or mistakes, people that have no idea why they are there, perform just barely enough to not get fired and are truely miserable. They feel it is their task in life to make everyone around them miserable. Thank god this is usually another very small percentage.
Depending which group a company puts you in depends on how you are treated. That is human nature.
All inexperienced drivers will be treated differently than experienced drivers until they prove themselves. We have a wealth of stories on here where brand new drivers were not getting as much work as they thought they could handle. As they proved themselves the more work they received. IE the more money they make.
There are also trends in this industry for all aspects. Certain times of the year are slow, and others are busy as can be. Election cycles also effect us. This year has been even worse being an election year and the pandemic.
Just something to think about.
New! Check out our help videos for a better understanding of our forum features
Here's the deal.... I started at CR, and now have 500k safe miles. CR is a STARTER COMPANY, and thats it. Go, get trained, get your CDL , ( all while getting paid), go on the road with a trainer and LEARN! Get your experience (again, while being paid), and after a year, or 9 months if youre a Veteran, you owe them nothing but have the experience required to move up in the industry. If you just go to a school and learn how to operate a rig, then what?? You have no experience on the road, so who will hire you??? Oh!! A company like CRE..... You may as well get paid to do this career from day 1, and owe nothing to a school. Take away: Free training from a reputable company is the way to go. I can personally endorse CRE, but do your own research.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
EPU:
Electric Auxiliary Power Units
Electric APUs have started gaining acceptance. These electric APUs use battery packs instead of the diesel engine on traditional APUs as a source of power. The APU's battery pack is charged when the truck is in motion. When the truck is idle, the stored energy in the battery pack is then used to power an air conditioner, heater, and other devices