Favorite Trucking Companies

Now....I may sound like a commercial for Watkins Shepard, but I want to share with the rest of you my experience with a great company, and we are looking for people right now. We have more freight than we have drivers and we have some empty trucks waiting for drivers.

Will it be perfect for everyone? Nope ... but then, you just can't please some people no matter what you do. But it's sure been great for me.

Tracy

Hey, Tracy...thanks for the enthusiastic info on your company. It sounds like Watkins Shepard might be a good possible match for me if I decide to go ahead and learn to drive those big things. My home is in Colorado Springs but I'm thinking about relocating to Denver when I finally come back from the Land of Oz, maybe next year.

Don

DSH69, as being taken on as an apprentice driver, do or will you have the option of being the specific driver you want to be like P&D or Linehaul , or will you just have to end up doing whatever they tell you?

I'm not against doing some dock time, I just want to know there's a means to an end. And don't necessarily want to do it for 2,3,4 years before getting the opportunity to drive.

As far as MY driving history, well, seems like most of these places go back 10 years from what I hear. In the last 10 years, I may have one speeding ticket, but I've always had those knocked down to non-moving violations. I did have a fender bender on the highway, which soon as we switch to 2016, I'm pretty sure should push that past 10 years. Traffic went from 65mph to 7mph in about 4 seconds and my anti lock brakes didn't work due to leftover sand on the road from winter, so I slid into the car in from of me at about a 15mph impact. Nobody hurt or anything. So in the last 10 years that's what I have.

NOW, past that, like 14-15 years, I did drive a 24' box truck for 4 years. In that time, I did lay one over in bad weather. However, I didn't get fired, still see my former boss everyday (I was offered a job with the company he delivers for), still put him down as a reference, and he says if he's ever called, he'd "leave that part out." I was a great employee to him and vice versa, and made him WAY more money in those 4 years than that layover cost him. We still have a great relationship.

Other than that......never a DUI/DWI, no felonies, never in jail, nothing else. How bad is that?

My favorite company is Swift..... lol not. No really, Swift has its upside and downsides. Positives are I'm always running, always have a load, decent equipment, good benefits, and I like that I can access all my documents and materials online, it's US largest carrier. Negatives are the bad reputations that Swift has, some of the drivers they let btw, home time is scarce, a lot of messed up trailers, and communication with DM is like pulling teeth.

A company I really wanted to work for was TMC, and in 9 months I'd love to move over there. I like their training program, their equipment and they have great benefits.

Jarod bemoans:

Negatives are the bad reputations that Swift has, some of the drivers they let btw, home time is scarce, a lot of messed up trailers, and communication with DM is like pulling teeth.

The reputation you need to deal with is the rep your company has with you. You know that truth, not the rumors (mostly bad) that fly around about nearly every company. The home time is about par for large trucking companies. OTR tuns about 1 day off for 7 days driving. I thnk (by my observation) that Swift is updating their trailer fleet. I am at Swift Memphis every day. The yard is sometimes packed with trailers, sometimes rather empty, and the trailer shop has taken over some lanes at the fuel station to work on trailers. (prior to sale?) And new trailers are showing up more.

The DM communication has some magic that I lack, too. It depends on them. I send messages, some are answered, some aren't. They do prefer messages over phone calls, because of the nature of their work. ... and you get a written document about your message.

The DM communication has some magic that I lack, too. It depends on them. I send messages, some are answered, some aren't. They do prefer messages over phone calls, because of the nature of their work. ... and you get a written document about your message.

I messaged my DM 4 times today with no reply, so I call and she tells me that she rarely checks her email and that its best to call her lol, and I was always told that email is best form of communication with any office at Swift, whether its DM, Driver Services and etc lol.

I messaged my DM 4 times today with no reply, so I call and she tells me that she rarely checks her email and that its best to call her

That makes no sense. That's either a brand new dispatcher or........I don't know what. It just makes no sense. When you have 50-75 drivers you're juggling all the time there's no way you can sit on a phone and talk to everyone as they call in. Your priorities would get all screwed up so the people who need the help the soonest wouldn't get it.

Every since the early days of Qualcomm I maybe called dispatch an average of 5-10 times a year. Otherwise, strictly Qualcomm.

DSH69, as being taken on as an apprentice driver, do or will you have the option of being the specific driver you want to be like P&D or Linehaul , or will you just have to end up doing whatever they tell you?

I'm not against doing some dock time, I just want to know there's a means to an end. And don't necessarily want to do it for 2,3,4 years before getting the opportunity to drive.

As far as MY driving history, well, seems like most of these places go back 10 years from what I hear. In the last 10 years, I may have one speeding ticket, but I've always had those knocked down to non-moving violations. I did have a fender bender on the highway, which soon as we switch to 2016, I'm pretty sure should push that past 10 years. Traffic went from 65mph to 7mph in about 4 seconds and my anti lock brakes didn't work due to leftover sand on the road from winter, so I slid into the car in from of me at about a 15mph impact. Nobody hurt or anything. So in the last 10 years that's what I have.

NOW, past that, like 14-15 years, I did drive a 24' box truck for 4 years. In that time, I did lay one over in bad weather. However, I didn't get fired, still see my former boss everyday (I was offered a job with the company he delivers for), still put him down as a reference, and he says if he's ever called, he'd "leave that part out." I was a great employee to him and vice versa, and made him WAY more money in those 4 years than that layover cost him. We still have a great relationship.

Other than that......never a DUI/DWI, no felonies, never in jail, nothing else. How bad is that?

Sounds good to me :)

I had one ticket in 5 years and probably one or two more in 10. No accidents.

There is a means to an end but the system works on seniority. You'll do more dock work in the early years. Just never pass up an opportunity to drive.

If you really want to drive pick an open position at a hub location.

If you have a CDL just hunt for positions "City Driver" or "Road Driver". If a new CDL or learner's apply for the Driver's Apprentice.

Go to http://www.fedex.com/careers and poke in Freight for the operating company.

Is road driver the same as linehaul? I see "road driver" and "long haul drivers", are those all the same? Is long haul OTR?

I'm going in for PRK eye surgery Friday, and will have a few weeks recovery, after that I may apply at fedex as a part time dock worker for a) the extra income to pay for this surgery, and b) get my foot in the door to start finding out more about driving, while prepping and before going to CDL school at the first of the year.

Is road driver the same as linehaul? I see "road driver" and "long haul drivers", are those all the same? Is long haul OTR?

I'm going in for PRK eye surgery Friday, and will have a few weeks recovery, after that I may apply at fedex as a part time dock worker for a) the extra income to pay for this surgery, and b) get my foot in the door to start finding out more about driving, while prepping and before going to CDL school at the first of the year.

Road driver is the same as linehaul. Road drivers are home most every night unless circumstances dictate otherwise.

Health insurance is included for part timers after 90 days.

The stars may be aligning for me. Had PRK laser eye surgery last Friday. Last Thursday, I get a call from a FedEx recruiter to schedule an interview for a part time dock worker position I applied to about 3 weeks ago. I let her know i was going in for surgery and would be down for a week or so. Today is tuesday, went got my bandage contacts out of my eyes, drove to and from my appointment by myself with no glasses or contacts for the first time in my life! My vision isn't all the way crisp yet. stll blurry. Need more time to heal, but so far, it's pretty amazing!

So Friday is my interview, having the wife make me some good copies of my resume, although I don't think I will need it, these positions are pretty much for anyone with a heartbeat i think. However, I still want to be prepared. But it's going to at the very least allow me to get my foot in the door. And I'm hoping for 3 things, the extra pay ($16.16/hr to start part time), to help pay for this surgery I just had. 2. maybe get myself noticed to possibly be offered a full time position to get away from my current job I'm in now, without having to quit my current job and take the chance of ending up somewhere worse than I am now. And 3, once I'm there for a month or so, start asking questions and showing my interest in driving linehaul.

Here come the long days! I'll be doing 8am-4:30pm at my full time job, then down the road to FedEx from 5pm-9 or10pm.