Newbie Trucker Dad Giving Advice - And Stories

I thought he took the dollar general amount 4 months ago?

Like others have said, you have to loosen the reigns a little bit. It seems like everytime your son has an issue, you run in screaming "not my baby!". You can't keep sending him links for different companies because he has some bad days.

His income levels are normal for somebody starting out and learning their craft. Was be supposed to be making 80-100k his first year? That's not realistic.

Being a truck driver isn't just getting from point A to point B. There's a lot of planning and time management that goes into it. These things are learned and if he jumps on this site, he can read it all on his own to absorb it at his pace. He doesn't have to participate or create an account, just read it.

"Experienced drivers say it's a good company". That's very subjective and in case you weren't aware, your son isn't an experienced driver. He's not going into that company with the perspective of an experienced driver. If he keeps starting over, it'll take a lot longer to become an experienced driver because he has to start learning all the account/corporate stuff first and leaning that.

Let your son figure this out. You're making it more difficult by b spinning him circles and then pushing him out.

I don't know why you are confused about what I said. He started driving for a big carrier 7.5 months ago, originally team OTR , switched to the DG account after his team driver went solo and took the truck.

Nobody has said loosen the reins and none are attached. We haven't pushed him out. He has made all the choices and applied for all the jobs. I did show him a good job listing 10 days ago which he applied for and got hired for that. Where do you come up with this "spinning in circles" comment? I gave a lot of details on his experiences to explain why he decided to leave. We have supported him in his decisions like any decent parent would do.

Nobody said he was expecting to make 80-100k his first year. Nobody in his fleet is averaging what is advertised for the fleet and rarely does anybody exceed what is advertised as the weekly average. His new job guarantees much more.

Two experienced members from this forum have told me privately that his new employer is a fantastic company.

I thought he took the dollar general amount 4 months ago?

Like others have said, you have to loosen the reigns a little bit. It seems like everytime your son has an issue, you run in screaming "not my baby!". You can't keep sending him links for different companies because he has some bad days.

His income levels are normal for somebody starting out and learning their craft. Was be supposed to be making 80-100k his first year? That's not realistic.

Being a truck driver isn't just getting from point A to point B. There's a lot of planning and time management that goes into it. These things are learned and if he jumps on this site, he can read it all on his own to absorb it at his pace. He doesn't have to participate or create an account, just read it.

"Experienced drivers say it's a good company". That's very subjective and in case you weren't aware, your son isn't an experienced driver. He's not going into that company with the perspective of an experienced driver. If he keeps starting over, it'll take a lot longer to become an experienced driver because he has to start learning all the account/corporate stuff first and leaning that.

Let your son figure this out. You're making it more difficult by b spinning him circles and then pushing him out.

I don't know why you are confused about what I said. He started driving for a big carrier 7.5 months ago, originally team OTR , switched to the DG account after his team driver went solo and took the truck.

Nobody has said loosen the reins and none are attached. We haven't pushed him out. He has made all the choices and applied for all the jobs. I did show him a good job listing 10 days ago which he applied for and got hired for that. Where do you come up with this "spinning in circles" comment? I gave a lot of details on his experiences to explain why he decided to leave. We have supported him in his decisions like any decent parent would do.

Nobody said he was expecting to make 80-100k his first year. Nobody in his fleet is averaging what is advertised for the fleet and rarely does anybody exceed what is advertised as the weekly average. His new job guarantees much more.

Two experienced members from this forum have told me privately that his new employer is a fantastic company.

You said he's been doing the dollar general account for 4 months in your first post.

The fact that your here asking questions on his behalf is evidence that you're way too involved, whether you see it or not.

Spinning in circles comment: you're giving him bad advice. You don't know anything about this industry and you have no experience in it. Bouncing around companies is frowned upon and will limit his options at some point. You're encouraging him to do that by sending him links.

The money issue. You said he's making between 450 and something else weekly. That's normal for a novice. He has nothing to offer anybody and he's still figuring everything out. Give him a chance to do that.

I never said anything about his new company. I don't comment on companies I've never worked for and you haven't named a company for me to say anything about them.

I'm curious to know how members of this forum contacted you privately, when there's no private message feature here, you haven't named a single company and there's no contact info in your bio.

I think I scared away the successful and genetically tested Harvey

I think I scared away the successful and genetically tested Harvey

Considering I have genetically tested my bucks (male goats) and a few does (females), this struck my funny bone!

Laura

Because you got him on his bs. Who members contacted him privately about a company he never mentioned. You beat me to it. Naturally, I had to check the gps tracker when he first posted and it showed him in the middle of a desert. Closest thing was a truck stop rest area but it still looked pretty far away. The whole thing was weird. I was also confused by him saying his “applied” for four different positions. Unless I’m missing something driver is just one position.

I think I scared away the successful and genetically tested Harvey

SMHS

Troll

Sorry if you are hurt if I don't bother responding to some comments that are not worth it.

For those that may be interested, our son Michael (“Jay”) completed his first year of driving last week and is doing well. He had chosen on his own to start out with CR England and that was probably not a good choice but he had limited prior work experience since he had been a college student and that reduced his choices. CR England required new drivers to do team driving. His first two partners were bad trouble (one was fired and the second may have been also) but his third partner was great and they remain friends even though he switched jobs on Michael’s first day off and took the truck to start a solo driving regional position. Another bad choice for Michael was by taking the first alternative driving job CRE offered him a dedicated Dollar General fresh account. He did gain lots of experience in backing up. He had lots of delays in being allowed to unload and too many equipment problems. There was no guaranteed weekly pay for this job so breakdowns and long detentions often hurt his earnings. Long detentions seemed largely because of rapid growth by Dollar General which resulted in many new managers and staffing shortages (i.e., “sorry, I’m the only one here, you need to wait three hours until I have another employee coming in”). This makes it very tough when you are scheduled to make seven deliveries over a large area.

He has been driving for Marten Transport on a dedicated account for just over four months now and says he “loves it.” He originally reported to a regional manager but a DM was hired. She was new to the job and there were some delays in getting new dispatches but that has improved and he likes working with her very much. He drives mostly in California, Nevada, and Utah with some trips to Oregon and Washington. Some stops are drop and hook. Most deliveries are finished within three hours. One customer in Oregon had him unloaded in 20 minutes which was shocking and they said that was typical there. He wants to go back, lol. He earns 49 cpm plus 2 cpm premium pay if he meets all requirements which is nearly always the case. 17.5 cpm is paid as detention pay which seems higher than elsewhere. He almost always works 12 days and then has 2 days off. He started with a guaranteed weekly pay of $1175 but that increased to $1300 last week. This comes into play on the weeks he has days off. He did forget to turn in paperwork on time a couple of times and that disqualified him from receiving the minimum pay and that hurt his earnings since those were partial weeks without many miles. He gets paid detention pay and breakdown pay and is paid extra for working on major holidays. He’s learning and improving. He has a nice Kenworth T680 with APU and stays much more comfortable on SB breaks than when he worked at CRE. He installed a refrigerator and microwave and mostly eats on the truck.

Below is a summary of his first year’s earnings:

$718/week average for first 5 months at CR England (2020) $912/week average for next 3 months at CR England (2021) $1,240/week average for first 4 months at Marten (plus $3,500 sign-on bonus) $52,519 total for first year. Based on earnings for past four weeks and higher guaranteed weekly pay, he should make about $76,000 in his second year. He has saved/invested over 50% of his earnings thus far. We could charge him rent for the 4 days a month he is at home but have no need for that.

I have now been in direct contact with five members of this forum and appreciate your help in getting answers to Michael. Also, Michael has reached out directly to Scott and he appreciates your help. He's figuring things out on his own much better, thanks again.

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.

Dm:

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.

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.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.

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.

I've never read so many figures from the parent of an adult that won't post here on TT.

I've never read so many figures from the parent of an adult that won't post here on TT.

And now you have, congrats.

I posted here before my son has no desire to join forums. There are probably hundreds of thousands of other truck drivers that don't post on forums. I am active in many types of forums, on the other hand and try to share information that I think is useful and to try to gather information. I try to be a person with constructive comments whenever I can and hope the figures I posted may be of use to someone thinking of getting started.

My wife does bookkeeping for our son and we also handle financial affairs for my parent's estate, my aunt's trust, my older brother's trust, and our own business affairs. We both have finance backgrounds so numbers are something we work with. Our son learned from both my dad and us the importance of "saving for a rainy day" and we're proud he is doing well.

I still can not wrap my head around your level of involvement in your adult sons life. It baffles me. Social skills are important, as are technological skills. They both seem to be absent in your son. I dont mean that as a derogatory comment. It just baffles me and seems grossly unhealthy and dysfunctional for an adult to rely on his parents to manage his communication, finances and work life, in part or whole.

There are really only two paths that would lead you to your present situation. One, that your son does not want your assistance and presence in his life but you continue to interject yourself. Or the second, that your son has not developed socially, economically, cognitively and emotionally as to function in society without your assistance. The second would indicate a failure in parenting or impairment in the child during the developmental process, or both.

Again, I mean no disrespect, I am just baffled at how your relationship has progressed to this point.