New Guy Contemplating On Going OTR

Here is the relevant information about TransAm that will help you decide if it's something that would work for you.

You will spend a week in orientation and training where you complete your onboarding paperwork and DOT drug screen. You will learn their ELD system, which is a system they have created specifically for TransAm.

After a couple of days in a classroom environment, you will go out to their practice pad where there is a course set up. It simulates driving around shipper and receiver property, so emphasis on swinging wide to avoid bollards, etc. The course has 3 backing maneuvers, which are an off-set, a 45, and a 3rd (can't remember what it's called) that simulates backing into a slanted parking spot. The trainers will cover the reefer settings for the trailer, sliding tandems , and coupling. Once completing their entire maneuver course 3 times without a fail (the only fails being hitting something or unable to complete a portion in a timely manner), a trainee is assigned a truck. Being assigned a truck might mean being given a truck on the lot or being flown out to another part of the US to recover your truck. TransAm pushes lease hard and part of this is that drivers who decide to go lease will get trucks right away and right off the lot.

As for the pay, $.31/ mile is the base pay. TransAm leans heavily into the trucking is performance based because a driver can get up to $.55/mile with bonuses. Different bonuses pay out on different schedules, whether it be weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

My information comes from speaking with TransAm recruiting, as well as TransAm drivers.

That up to $.55/mile is for a driver with no experience.

That’s good info Ryan. I was going to say the same…$.31 per mile is extremely low. I started at $.34 a mile 7 years ago BUT if they have a lot of accessory pay and so forth like Ryan said it could still be all right pay. How much are they and drivers saying they are making per year? In this industry annual pay is a much better metric to go by

That to me seems really low, I have 5 years exp with local and some regional. I'm out OTR for the first time and I walked in at .64cpm base east coast an extra .15cpm then bonus CPM for saftey/performance/ mileage.

The company I'm with takes new guys they'll put you with a trainer for 200ish hours and then if you're ready to solo out they'll get you in your own truck.

That up to $.55/mile is for a driver with no experience.

Great research, Ryan! As Piano Man and others here have mentioned before, CPM is just a base. Bonuses and accessorial pay can raise that number significantly.

How did you decide on TransAm? You might do great there. I certainly wouldn't know. It just surprises me that you chose them when there are so many other options.

That's exactly what I'm wondering. 31 CPM is what I was told by a TA recruiter 7 years ago!

The pay seems low. Jason, I would be asking what the bonuses and accessorial pay are based on? Then, try to figure out if that type of bonus system would make sense for you.

Maybe I am alone in my thinking, but 31cpm is horrible. You shouldn't need to rely on a "bonus" to make a decent wage.

If it was 55 cpm plus a bonus that's different. They are offering a low starting rate, dangling a bonus in front of you, only for you to make what you could/should be making anyway.

This right here. Even though Prime has a significant ability to earn weekly bonuses, I view it as just that. Bonus. That is not a guaranteed part of your weekly pay.

Yes, that cpm is pretty low. My personal financial risk averse self would find somewhere else, simply because I build my budget off the base pay, and average miles per week I drive.

Maybe I am alone in my thinking, but 31cpm is horrible. You shouldn't need to rely on a "bonus" to make a decent wage.

If it was 55 cpm plus a bonus that's different. They are offering a low starting rate, dangling a bonus in front of you, only for you to make what you could/should be making anyway.

One thing to remember is that bonus pay may be dependent on having a perfect driving record. When I drove at Schneider, there was a quarterly bonus for fuel economy and several other things. But one citation or preventable incident, no matter how small, would cancel the bonus for the entire quarter. I don’t know if this policy is common among companies.

My point is that counting on bonus or accessory pay can be iffy.

And .31 CPM for 2500 miles a week is only $775. Can a rookie average 2500 miles a week? Maybe, maybe not. If that amount of income for a 70 hour week is ok, then go for it. My math says it amounts to $11.07 per hour.

Hey, Thank you Ryan. Absolutely up my alley. I'm ready, not ****y, but confident this would be for me. I would rather be a good company driver though. The driving school I was in was very good and thorough. It was a lot of practice. One student, one truck, one Trainer. Of course you don't have the same Trainer everyday. You got to see all their different perspectives. Every lessen always started with pretrip and airbrake checks. I've never known anything about tractor trailer driving at all before I went there. My first day they started me in a bobtail (manual). A couple days with that, and before I knew it was an auto-shift trailer. They definitely made sure you could operate the tractor first. A few days of that, the rest of my training was back to the 10 speed with trailer. A lot of days with that, driving, driving, and more driving. I'm stressing on that point because you said you fail if you hit something. If you did that in this school, YOU WERE OUT ! Including all the numerous backing techniques. ( I had a hard time with that, until I really got great advice and tips, and a lot of youtube at my hometime, and got it through my head). Before I knew it, it was my actual roadtest. Nervous but confident in the way I was taught, did really well on every aspect. The Examiners were very intimidating. I did't let that bother me. I knew my Trainers were very talented. And what they taught me. NYS just tries to make it hard for people! As for what someone commented on here. They were doing pre-trip so much. That's where another Driver on TT told me, when I was panicking about pre, " if you're not waking up in the middle of the night, thinking you missed an item, you're not working hard enough !" It was great advice. Well thanks for giving me the rundown on what to expect Ryan. Be safe, and see you out there !

Here is the relevant information about TransAm that will help you decide if it's something that would work for you.

You will spend a week in orientation and training where you complete your onboarding paperwork and DOT drug screen. You will learn their ELD system, which is a system they have created specifically for TransAm.

After a couple of days in a classroom environment, you will go out to their practice pad where there is a course set up. It simulates driving around shipper and receiver property, so emphasis on swinging wide to avoid bollards, etc. The course has 3 backing maneuvers, which are an off-set, a 45, and a 3rd (can't remember what it's called) that simulates backing into a slanted parking spot. The trainers will cover the reefer settings for the trailer, sliding tandems , and coupling. Once completing their entire maneuver course 3 times without a fail (the only fails being hitting something or unable to complete a portion in a timely manner), a trainee is assigned a truck. Being assigned a truck might mean being given a truck on the lot or being flown out to another part of the US to recover your truck. TransAm pushes lease hard and part of this is that drivers who decide to go lease will get trucks right away and right off the lot.

As for the pay, $.31/ mile is the base pay. TransAm leans heavily into the trucking is performance based because a driver can get up to $.55/mile with bonuses. Different bonuses pay out on different schedules, whether it be weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

My information comes from speaking with TransAm recruiting, as well as TransAm drivers.