1st Year Employment In Trucking

He does say if you can make it a year with our company you will probably retire with us.

That is what I was told at my orientation with my first, and still current company. What everyone is saying is correct. Try your best to stick it out and good things will come. Old School and Brett were here, pounding the same drum, when I had those brief moments of doubt and anxiety. I took their advise and, here I am.

Good luck, be safe and be patient.

Disclaimer: I'm not driving yet. I'm not Old School, but I am "old school" and the advise you are getting is good from these guys. Unlike a lot of new drivers I'm OLD! The best times I've had working have been challenging: learning new skills like dealing with a new industry, new procedures, etc.

I joined the USAF in 1973. Vietnam was still an active theater. Now that's stepping out of your comfort zone. I spent 20 years active: 10 overseas and 10 out of the 20 doing rotating shifts. I retired in '93 and have had 4 jobs since then. The shortest was two years in the restaurant business. Loved it but finally had enough from abusive GMs. The rest have been IT. THIS USED TO BE FUN. Not any longer. Don't get me wrong, it's been good for my family and lifestyle, but the job satisfaction is no longer there. The money is OK but not like it was prior to 2000. Now metrics are used to measure performance whether they actually mean anything or not.

I have come to realize at 62 that I haven't had any adventure since my last PCS! Deploying and living in a tent on a flight line working 12-hour shifts and trying to sleep during the day with the sound of freedom blasting: F4s spooling up on the hammerhead; setting up sites in an El Paso sandstorm; getting home from leave at 1:00 am Monday and landing in Italy on Tuesday for an open ended TDY because the Greeks and Turks were fighting over a disputed island and threatening to shut down SAC communications in the Med; flying into Okinawa in typhoon condition and having no idea where the chow hall is and not knowing what the procedure is if things get really bad; getting to work one morning to find a civilian airliner down and a few hours later prepping briefings for the commander of the 18th TAC fighter wing; you get the idea.

So, now I'm "retiring" again to start over in trucking. My son, Trucktographer, Sean, recently started solo with Swift and we've decided to team drive when I finish school. We fully expect to stay with Swift for 1-2 years and develop our skills and learn the ropes. I wish we'd been together when he got his nearly new truck and spent the next two weeks having to get re-power relief when the truck, with only 22k miles on it was in the shop three times! Stress, yes, and not what he expected, but not the company's fault! A great shop came through by finally finding a bad part not expected to go bad was causing his grief. Would me being there have changed anything? No. But I love being challenged and wish I could have been there.

I look forward to this next chapter in this story! Learning new skills, taking tests and dealing with new problems, and finding adventure.

Hang in there! Learn all you can from every challenge. People skills with DM/LM, shippers, DOT , etc. don't come easy. But, if this was easy there wouldn't be opportunities for a lot of us.

I'm blessed to have a wife that will let this old f@rt have one more shot at some challenges.

Disclaimer: I'm not driving yet. I'm not Old School, but I am "old school" and the advise you are getting is good from these guys. Unlike a lot of new drivers I'm OLD! The best times I've had working have been challenging: learning new skills like dealing with a new industry, new procedures, etc.

I joined the USAF in 1973. Vietnam was still an active theater. Now that's stepping out of your comfort zone. I spent 20 years active: 10 overseas and 10 out of the 20 doing rotating shifts. I retired in '93 and have had 4 jobs since then. The shortest was two years in the restaurant business. Loved it but finally had enough from abusive GMs. The rest have been IT. THIS USED TO BE FUN. Not any longer. Don't get me wrong, it's been good for my family and lifestyle, but the job satisfaction is no longer there. The money is OK but not like it was prior to 2000. Now metrics are used to measure performance whether they actually mean anything or not.

I have come to realize at 62 that I haven't had any adventure since my last PCS! Deploying and living in a tent on a flight line working 12-hour shifts and trying to sleep during the day with the sound of freedom blasting: F4s spooling up on the hammerhead; setting up sites in an El Paso sandstorm; getting home from leave at 1:00 am Monday and landing in Italy on Tuesday for an open ended TDY because the Greeks and Turks were fighting over a disputed island and threatening to shut down SAC communications in the Med; flying into Okinawa in typhoon condition and having no idea where the chow hall is and not knowing what the procedure is if things get really bad; getting to work one morning to find a civilian airliner down and a few hours later prepping briefings for the commander of the 18th TAC fighter wing; you get the idea.

So, now I'm "retiring" again to start over in trucking. My son, Trucktographer, Sean, recently started solo with Swift and we've decided to team drive when I finish school. We fully expect to stay with Swift for 1-2 years and develop our skills and learn the ropes. I wish we'd been together when he got his nearly new truck and spent the next two weeks having to get re-power relief when the truck, with only 22k miles on it was in the shop three times! Stress, yes, and not what he expected, but not the company's fault! A great shop came through by finally finding a bad part not expected to go bad was causing his grief. Would me being there have changed anything? No. But I love being challenged and wish I could have been there.

I look forward to this next chapter in this story! Learning new skills, taking tests and dealing with new problems, and finding adventure.

Hang in there! Learn all you can from every challenge. People skills with DM/LM, shippers, DOT , etc. don't come easy. But, if this was easy there wouldn't be opportunities for a lot of us.

I'm blessed to have a wife that will let this old f@rt have one more shot at some challenges.

1973? Wow, you ARE old! I was still almost 20 years from being born!

Daniel, what can I say? I'm a boomer...we just can't quit!

Teaming with your son sounds like a great opportunity! Good Luck!

I have come to realize at 62 that I haven't had any adventure since my last PCS! Deploying and living in a tent on a flight line working 12-hour shifts and trying to sleep during the day with the sound of freedom blasting: F4s spooling up on the hammerhead; setting up sites in an El Paso sandstorm; getting home from leave at 1:00 am Monday and landing in Italy on Tuesday for an open ended TDY because the Greeks and Turks were fighting over a disputed island and threatening to shut down SAC communications in the Med; flying into Okinawa in typhoon condition and having no idea where the chow hall is and not knowing what the procedure is if things get really bad; getting to work one morning to find a civilian airliner down and a few hours later prepping briefings for the commander of the 18th TAC fighter wing; you get the idea.

Now that's adventure!!! Geesh!!!!

For me, the adventurous part of trucking was the priceless part. The salary was always solid and I was able to save money over the years living in the truck. But making decent money was just icing on the cake. I would have done it for far less simply because you couldn't find that lifestyle in a job almost anywhere else. And driving big rigs is just cool! It's a ton of fun.

Think of it as your potential future employers shopping like you shop for a job or a career. You want to make yourself as attractive as possible and part of that is showing stable work history. It's a big deal to any employer because it is expensive to get new employees.

Bud, that's just a short quote but everything you said was dead on. You showed from the perspective of someone doing the hiring that a stable history is important, and becomes more important as the quality of the job gets better. That's huge to keep in mind.

From a driver/dispatcher relationship it makes big sense also. Once you've been at a company for a while and proven yourself to be a safe, reliable, hard working driver you're going to be given better freight, more miles, and better opportunities in specialized divisions you probably didn't even know existed in the beginning. That stuff isn't handed out like Halloween candy. You have to earn it. Once you've proven yourself you can start making phone calls to people up the ladder a little bit to get things you feel are lacking. You need more miles? A better dispatcher? A newer truck? A chance for more home time in a dedicated division? Call the operations manager and let him look up your truck number. Once he sees what you've done for the company he'll want to help make sure you're happy and willing to stick around. It's simply a matter of saying to management, "I've proven what I can do now I'd like an opportunity for something better." That's how you get places. You put yourself in a position where you're in demand. And believe me...top tier drivers are very hard to come by.

From the perspective of a new driver learning the ropes it makes sense also. Every company has its learning curve. They all have different ways of doing things - different software running things, different dispatching infrastructure, different account management - there are many different facets to these large corporations. It takes time to really learn how the company operates and where the best opportunities will be for you down the line. You have to get a solid dispatcher. You have to get to know a few people up the ladder a bit in middle management. You have to research the different customers your company has and what dedicated accounts might be available.

So landing your first trucking job at a major company, having a couple of tough months, and then jumping ship rarely leads to good things. It just leads to a trip back to the bottom of the ladder and a different color of paint on your truck. That's about it.

And even for people who have switched companies and had it turn out well - who's to say it wouldn't have turned around soon where you were at? One phone call to management with a request to change dispatchers can be an instant life changer. I've been there a number of times myself. You're not getting the miles, you're not getting good loads, and you're not getting home when you should. The company changes you to a different dispatcher and just like flipping a switch you're suddenly up to your eyeballs in freight and you can hardly beg for a break anymore. It's like being at a completely different company - night and day.

So I'm not saying you should never, ever consider switching companies during your first year on the road. But almost never. Get a year of safe driving under your belt and learn all you can about the industry. Then you'll be able to make more informed choices about where to work and what suits you best.

First, let me thank you all for the great insight, advice and sharing you have all provided in this post. I'm back for more ........

Tell me if this is just trucking, start up issues or WTF? I've been reviewing my weekly runs and hours, etc. I'm getting up at 2am not getting home until 7pm, driving 425 to 450 miles a day (that is actual miles so according to PC miler I'm getting paid on much less) so at the starting rate I get paid I'm making if I'm lucking $125 to $150 a day. I'm on a home daily program is what they call it but not much quality of home daily and definitely not a survivable wage. I'm told by dispatch I need to be somewhere by 7am; I'm up by 2am get to my destination and then I'm told they don't have anything for me. I'm told to drive to the terminal and wait. After a half hour I call, nothing, after an hour I call nothing, almost two hours later I'm told they have something ready for me, Yeah! I drive over to the location only to find out the load hasn't been started (not a drop and hook as they told me) so I have to wait another three (3) hours to get live loaded. I'm also told by the shipper the load I was sent to pick up wasn't scheduled to be done until 3:30pm in the afternoon and it's only 11am now. I asked my dispatched why I'm there at 11:00am in the morning for a drop and hook when they tell me the order is scheduled for a 3:30pm load time. All they can say is they don't control what goes on at the customer (You know I'm thinking BS). Anyway, this is becoming more and more of an issue. I have to make a liveable wage and have some respect for my time. What is really frustrating is all I hear about is how they need drivers and don't have any drivers and how drivers are quitting. But on the other hand they have a core group of drivers who have these gravy train routes. I know because I got sent out of my normal pattern to deliver something and spoke with a coupe of drivers who are doing simple drop and hooks all day. Four 125 mile runs everyday just dropping and hooking trailers and all highway driving and they are done in 10 hours.

By the way, don't know if you recall but I'm new to trucking, period, about 3 months solo company driver now. I'm really enjoying the driving and the backing. I'm planning on having a discussion with my company to try to improve things instead of just jumping ship. I need to investigate what other types of runs there are and just ask my employer, "How am I suppose to make a living making $125 to $150 a day working from 2am to 7pm". I just have to let them know I can't sustain that schedule especially without a payoff.

What do you think and any advice on situation, strategy, approach or is that just trucking?

Thanks again for all the input.

This is my third month driving truck and the urge to quit is high. But like the advice given, I'm gonna grit my teeth and survive my first year.

This is my third month driving truck and the urge to quit is high. But like the advice given, I'm gonna grit my teeth and survive my first year.

Good for you. I have to admit there is some satisfaction learning to drive, getting good a shifting and downshifting and especially backing. I'm trying some blind side backing when the opportunity arises and there no one else around or there is an empty yard and I need to drop and hook a trailer. Just very hard getting started.

David G

You home everyday and you making 650 to 850 a week? Hmm I see absolutely no issue. Local routes or routes that have you home every night are often really long hours and the pay never matches the amount of work you put in. It takes awhile to work your way into the good routes.

Unless you get with a larger LTL company or possibly Union then expect to make that kind of money.

These other drivers have probably done what you are now and worked their way into the routes they have now. Longevity at a company has its benefits.