Any True OTR Companies??

Yes, that makes sense. Michael often gets paid a larger flat fee for some jobs, maybe $100 for hostling for a couple of hours.

In the example I gave, he once sat at a shipper for 7 hours to get loaded and he slept most of that and got paid (I believe) $200 detention for that. As I understand in a Marten newsletter, Marten charges the shipper a penalty for their tardiness and they share that with the driver. It probably varies from shipper to shipper.

Get your rest, I know you need and deserve it. Be well.

Harvey - keep in mind I’m really tired/just got back from 5 weeks out so I’m answering your post best I can, and then seriously I gotta put the phone down for the night lol (not you just really tired)

We get $25 per hour flat for general duties - hostling, cleaning of trailers (blowout or waiting for washout) any general labor we are asked to do that takes away from our ability to turn miles.

Detention pay - yes $25.00 per hour AFTER the 1 hour grace period. I am not sure about the overnight thing you mentioned - as in paid detention to break overnight? I had to overnight at a shipper once because the load wasn’t ready (drop and hook) and pocketed $180.00, outside of that I have never been paid detention while breaking at a shipper or receiver. More input may be needed on that one.

As an OTR driver, I not only move the freight lanes but also get pulled in from time to time to help out any dedicated accounts that are behind - WALMART store deliveries, Michaels Craft Store deliveries, the most common ones I get are Reesers to Reesers or Reesers to Walmart or some other grocery reciever. Such as this load I had to get me home today. I woke up at 1015 to pickup by 0115 at Michaels Crafts DC for a 0330 delivery in Chehalis WA the onward to Longview WA arriving at 0545. Then DH empty back to my home terminal . For that one I made a total of $230 in local pay and detention. Does that make sense?

I switched from Schneider where I got a lot of puddle jumpers with dry van. Took the leap with a much smaller company pulling reefer. The long loads started right out of the gate and haven’t stopped since. We don’t go west past Denver and New Mexico. We haul a lot of meat from the meat country; west Texas, west Kansas, etc. and take it east all over the place except Florida. I guess they’re all vegetarians in Florida. Not much in the northeast other than upstate NY and PA, although I have been occasionally sent to NJ, CONN, MASS and once to NH, and all Midwest states on a regular basis. I’ll finish a 1100 mile assignment tomorrow and head out on a 2000+ mile assignment immediately. Love the smaller company and the family type culture. About 400 trucks, 300 drivers. If I’m loaded with freight and fuel I can usually get at least 600 per day and usually close to 700. I probably wouldn’t be willing to go back to a mega company, so I hope I don’t get fired, lol.

I have been running back and forth across the country. Speak with your FM and let them know how you want to run. Ask them to put it on your front screen.

I am happy to help. You can ask your FM for my number. My truck number is 52846.

I switched from Schneider where I got a lot of puddle jumpers with dry van. Took the leap with a much smaller company pulling reefer. The long loads started right out of the gate and haven’t stopped since. We don’t go west past Denver and New Mexico. We haul a lot of meat from the meat country; west Texas, west Kansas, etc. and take it east all over the place except Florida. I guess they’re all vegetarians in Florida. Not much in the northeast other than upstate NY and PA, although I have been occasionally sent to NJ, CONN, MASS and once to NH, and all Midwest states on a regular basis. I’ll finish a 1100 mile assignment tomorrow and head out on a 2000+ mile assignment immediately. Love the smaller company and the family type culture. About 400 trucks, 300 drivers. If I’m loaded with freight and fuel I can usually get at least 600 per day and usually close to 700. I probably wouldn’t be willing to go back to a mega company, so I hope I don’t get fired, lol.

You are a team driver, correct?

I switched from Schneider where I got a lot of puddle jumpers with dry van. Took the leap with a much smaller company pulling reefer. The long loads started right out of the gate and haven’t stopped since. We don’t go west past Denver and New Mexico. We haul a lot of meat from the meat country; west Texas, west Kansas, etc. and take it east all over the place except Florida. I guess they’re all vegetarians in Florida. Not much in the northeast other than upstate NY and PA, although I have been occasionally sent to NJ, CONN, MASS and once to NH, and all Midwest states on a regular basis. I’ll finish a 1100 mile assignment tomorrow and head out on a 2000+ mile assignment immediately. Love the smaller company and the family type culture. About 400 trucks, 300 drivers. If I’m loaded with freight and fuel I can usually get at least 600 per day and usually close to 700. I probably wouldn’t be willing to go back to a mega company, so I hope I don’t get fired, lol.

You are a team driver, correct?

Nope. Solo. And I keep my hands to myself so they call me Hands Solo.

Nathan, something else to consider here. While I’m OTR , I feel it’s advantageous not to go to all 48 contiguous states. Why? I get familiar with certain routes and this helps me trip plan more accurately and be more efficient with pickups and deliveries. So while I get long miles and a good variety of locations and scenery, it’s also helpful to go to locations repeatedly because I know the route and sometimes even the people at these locations and their procedures.

Morning Harvey - correct we get up to $250 actually if I’m not mistaken, I’ll have to double check in that - I am not certain because the most I ever received in detention pay was the $180 I mentioned last night before going to bed, that was a way 1 off. My detention (outside of CA) usually comes to anywhere between $25 to $65, with $25-$30 being the most common amount. We earn more rolling than sitting that is for sure.

As for CA and their detention rules, I have asked my FM many times to just open a gift card and drop the $1 or $2 on it for shopping or coffee (Amazon or Pilot?). CA detention rules make no sense to me, ironically my longest detention times are in CA, go figure……. My FM knows I’m kidding about the gift card idea, still would be cool….lol

Yes, that makes sense. Michael often gets paid a larger flat fee for some jobs, maybe $100 for hostling for a couple of hours.

In the example I gave, he once sat at a shipper for 7 hours to get loaded and he slept most of that and got paid (I believe) $200 detention for that. As I understand in a Marten newsletter, Marten charges the shipper a penalty for their tardiness and they share that with the driver. It probably varies from shipper to shipper.

Get your rest, I know you need and deserve it. Be well.

Harvey - keep in mind I’m really tired/just got back from 5 weeks out so I’m answering your post best I can, and then seriously I gotta put the phone down for the night lol (not you just really tired)

We get $25 per hour flat for general duties - hostling, cleaning of trailers (blowout or waiting for washout) any general labor we are asked to do that takes away from our ability to turn miles.

Detention pay - yes $25.00 per hour AFTER the 1 hour grace period. I am not sure about the overnight thing you mentioned - as in paid detention to break overnight? I had to overnight at a shipper once because the load wasn’t ready (drop and hook) and pocketed $180.00, outside of that I have never been paid detention while breaking at a shipper or receiver. More input may be needed on that one.

As an OTR driver, I not only move the freight lanes but also get pulled in from time to time to help out any dedicated accounts that are behind - WALMART store deliveries, Michaels Craft Store deliveries, the most common ones I get are Reesers to Reesers or Reesers to Walmart or some other grocery reciever. Such as this load I had to get me home today. I woke up at 1015 to pickup by 0115 at Michaels Crafts DC for a 0330 delivery in Chehalis WA the onward to Longview WA arriving at 0545. Then DH empty back to my home terminal . For that one I made a total of $230 in local pay and detention. Does that make sense?

I switched from Schneider where I got a lot of puddle jumpers with dry van. Took the leap with a much smaller company pulling reefer. The long loads started right out of the gate and haven’t stopped since. We don’t go west past Denver and New Mexico. We haul a lot of meat from the meat country; west Texas, west Kansas, etc. and take it east all over the place except Florida. I guess they’re all vegetarians in Florida. Not much in the northeast other than upstate NY and PA, although I have been occasionally sent to NJ, CONN, MASS and once to NH, and all Midwest states on a regular basis. I’ll finish a 1100 mile assignment tomorrow and head out on a 2000+ mile assignment immediately. Love the smaller company and the family type culture. About 400 trucks, 300 drivers. If I’m loaded with freight and fuel I can usually get at least 600 per day and usually close to 700. I probably wouldn’t be willing to go back to a mega company, so I hope I don’t get fired, lol.

You are a team driver, correct?

Nope. Solo. And I keep my hands to myself so they call me Hands Solo.

My bad. I thought that I had a read a comment that you are running as part of a team. I also thought I read you stating "we" in reference to driving. I am often tired and brain not fully engaged when I am reading comments here.

This is such an interesting conversation to me. I want to share a slightly different perspective. My perspective is based on my own initiation into the OTR lifestyle and career. I started my career at Western Express. The very name of the company indicates it might not be a "true OTR company" as the OP calls this unicorn he's searching for. You really don't need a true OTR company. What you need is to be a true OTR driver.

Let me explain...

As rookies we all have issues that typically do not get resolved to our satisfaction. Look at BK's responses and you'll see a guy who is disgruntled with his first trucking job. His solution is to switch companies. He goes for the usual misguided thinking that says a smaller company with a family atmosphere will be the solution. Nathan is kind of barking up the same tree. He is disgruntled with his current employer and he is convinced he needs to switch companies. I never thought that was a good way to approach this career when I was a rookie. I always questioned everything I was doing and experiencing and tried to find a solution where I could have influence on my situation.

Look at what Nathan complains about...

Not breaking 2,000 miles a week, sitting for hours waiting to be dispatched (4-7 regularly)

Those are legitimate and frustrating things to be experiencing in a trucking job. My question is, "Why do we blame it on our employer?" Do you actually believe they are happy with you only running 2,000 miles a week? I think not.

Every time I encountered issues like this I would ask myself, "Is there something I can do to rectify this situation?" I usually found ample opportunities for me to improve my situation. When I was not getting dispatched quickly I decided it must be because they had no idea when I was going to be available. I resolved to never leave a shipper's location until I had sent in an ETA (estimated time of arrival) and a PTA (projected time of availability) to my dispatcher via the macros the company prefers us to communicate with. Guess what happened? I started being pre-planned on loads in just a few short weeks. They saw that I was accurate with my information and they started acting on it regularly.

Accurate information is vital to the logistics business. If you can't give them accurate estimates you will not be getting dispatched quickly and efficiently. If you are accurate, they will know how to keep you moving.

No driver wants to live on 2,000 miles a week paychecks. No trucking company wants drivers who are only running 2,000 miles per week. My first experience with realizing my miles were low made me look at my time management practices. I discovered I was burning up my 70 hours but not turning enough miles. That meant the problem wasn't my dispatcher or my company. I decided to get a grip on things and learned to be efficient with my time. I always looked to myself for the solution.

One of the biggest problems in our industry is driver churn. Why is that? Drivers always play the blame game and then move on. Nathan claims his company is only a shell of what it used to be. That's funny because the company has grown exponentially in the last few years. Big Scott is doing great there, and so are a host of other drivers.

We've got to learn how to deal with our issues as drivers. We've got to learn how to improve our situation right where we are. I have switched companies one time in my career. I did it reluctantly because I knew I had a good thing where I was. I made the decision based on the fact that I saw some real potential in the opportunity that was being offered me.

My point in this rambling is that we fool ourselves so many times in this career because it is super easy to make a few phone calls and have a new job. That does not mean progress. It just means a new set of circumstances which in most cases will prove to be unsatisfactory to us in a matter of months. How can I predict that? It's easy. Look at the great numbers of people who are constantly switching trucking jobs. They are never satisfied.

I think if you are a true OTR driver you will figure out how to make this career work where you are. You will learn to communicate effectively with your team in the office and you will prove your mettle so that they can depend on you to do what you say you will. Our dispatchers remember us by the last mistake we made. That is how it works. When you screw something up, they pay for it. They don't forget that very easily.

To get the best runs and all the miles you can handle you have to be super legitimate. You have to be like a star player on an athletic team. You have to be able to accept the pressure that says we are going to give the ball to him/her because we know they will score. If you can't play the game like that then you have to settle for being less involved. Don't settle for less. Explore your capabilities and stretch your comfort zone. You guys can do better in this career right where you are. You don't have to find a better company. You just have to be a better player.

I plan to stay with Marten, grass isn’t always greener. Usually take home 12 to 1500 a week unless coming back from hometime.

I’m good….looking for a new employer is a pain the butt anyway lol, glad to hear from you OS been too long. I’m on hometime for a few days, much needed.