Future CDL Driver

On the weekend pay it looks like it does say that any flat bed driver does get the 800 mile pay thing

Over the road training,

My flat bedding class mates and I all got hooked up with a trainer for this part. I have texted one regularly and he has gotten home both weekends so far with his trainer who is about an hour from him in the chicago area. All got a sort of local trainer except one person. They said the last class was more the other way around it just depends on what trainers are open the week you get started.

If you can't get home on the weekend and your trainer does go home they do put you in a motel within walking distance of a place to eat.

One class mate was picked up at Little Rock on Thursday, 1 lived local and had a local trainer but not sure when they hooked up. Me and another rode out on the bus friday morning to go home and meet up with our trainers.

My trainer is about an hour from me also and has a dedicated run so he actually gets home each night and weekend. I don't travel back and forth during the week, so I use to truck during the week and come home on weekends.

Our daily run is to Crawfordsville In. get loaded there, and Back to Redbud Il to unload then back to the truck stop for the night. This is 550 miles round trip with a load and unload on a covered wagon. With road construction in many parts of the route it makes for a full day with the driving times. I am driving around half of that, loaded and unloaded. Probably ramp the drive time up as we go along. I have drove all parts of the trip. And backed up at both locations and the truck stop the spread axles are a bit different and getting used to them.

I been told that if someone is along a major route there is not much trouble getting home time, but the new reset 34 hour rule might mess some of that up, with the 7 day thing.

That is where I am at now. Randy

Sounds great man! Geez, there are some drivers that don't get home for two months or more at a time when they're in training because their trainers don't live near them and the company just wants the truck to keep rolling. That's really nice you're getting home regularly!

Sounds great man! Geez, there are some drivers that don't get home for two months or more at a time when they're in training because their trainers don't live near them and the company just wants the truck to keep rolling. That's really nice you're getting home regularly!

It is nice to sit back and relax a bit and some home cooked food does not hurt either..

Maverick does have a get home deal if your out 5 weeks with a trainer they will pay your way home and back and also it's a paid home visit also. I am not sure if the 5 weeks included the time in little rock to get to a trainer truck. I already knew I was going home often when they were explaining that item. Only 1 in my class might have that problem out of 11. Rest had semi (1 hour distance) local trainers one had a trainer 3 blocks away even.

I am done with training and have delivered my first solo load a 50015# load of plywood to menards. I was very slow with the large tarps but they had a machine to lift them up over the load that none of the truckers seemed to like it was not to bad I thought just hook the hooks to the d rings and press up and over with the button's, did have to sort of move it as you let it down to make it fall correctly but not overly bad. But they did not allow drivers to get on top either.

Loaded secured and tarped I headed down the road spent the night south of Sikeston, 325 miles to go still. Finished the trip the next day with a drive home afterward's.

Felt good, I had a choice to take a week off or go back for a load monday. So calling in monday for my next load, after this time I will go home on friday loaded normally for delivery Monday morning. I won't get home each weekend though. I worked over 30 years at my factory job and retired from that to pick up truck driving. So far I like it but it is a big change from what I have done so many years. And will take me awhile to get my speed up with securement and tarping ect ect.

I know other's can do it also since I have made it this far, just keep after it :) Randy

Hey that's awesome Randy! Congrats on the first solo run! That's always a little bit scary to be alone in the truck like that. It's even worse when you're flatbed and you have to secure the load without anyone to make sure you've got it right. Glad things went well for ya!

No doubt there's a huge adjustment to life on the road. That goes for everyone. I mean, there's no other lifestyle like it. There's nothing you can really do to prepare yourself for it except read about everyone else's experience. But you'll adjust to it pretty quickly and you'll learn a lot in very short order.

Sounds like things are going along very well for ya though. That's great to hear!

Congratulations on your first solo flat-bed load. I remember mine, and it was a little bit of both unnerving and excitement. It takes a little while to get used to doing all that tarping and securement stuff by yourself because you are accustomed to doing it with a trainer. It's surprising how much longer it takes by yourself, but your times getting it done will soon get faster, it just takes a little time to develop your own methods and style. Keep us posted if you can, there are some other new folks on here who are also considering flat-bedding and I'm sure they would love to hear about your experiences.

Congratulations on your first solo flat-bed load. I remember mine, and it was a little bit of both unnerving and excitement. It takes a little while to get used to doing all that tarping and securement stuff by yourself because you are accustomed to doing it with a trainer. It's surprising how much longer it takes by yourself, but your times getting it done will soon get faster, it just takes a little time to develop your own methods and style. Keep us posted if you can, there are some other new folks on here who are also considering flat-bedding and I'm sure they would love to hear about your experiences.

Still rolling the roads , sorry I have not been online much. I have tried wondering wifi from pilot which you can use points to buy so that is good but the wifi is pretty iffy at most pilots. So I am trying a portable unit from straight talk that seems to work much better.

I have hauled many different things now and my tarping it getting better and faster the lumber tarps I am not real fond of, ours have 8' side walls so plenty heavy. Some places have the tarp lift thing which I like but some drivers don't. Even with help lifting you still have to untarp.. Nice to have a hand from another driver now and then and like to help another out when I can also. Always nice to pick up a trick here or there also on doing somethings.

I still like non tarped jobs but they say 90% of what we haul is tarped and have to say that is probably pretty good guess on the percentage.

Milage, I have had good and bad weeks from 1298 miles to 2972 miles, so a pretty good spread. 15 week average is 2032 miles keep in mind my first week was just one load to get home on (671 miles) and 2nd week was only 1355 miles. which lowers my 15 week average a bit.. My weekly average is going up most weeks.

My current load which I got to go home for Thanksgiving also, is from Charlotte NC to Cedar City Utah.

I have been home at least for a little bit almost every week since going solo. I think location is a big deal on being able to get a person home often. I live in southern Illinois I-57 I-64 I-55 I-70 all within an hour drive of my house. I have had some weekends where I did not get anywhere close to my house also including labor day weekend in oklahoma.

Flatbedding does take some work and not always in the best of weather either, if someone wants to get into it I would say study the different company's out there. Do some homework and give it an honest effort. Randy

Hey it's great hearing from ya Randy! Glad to hear things are going well for ya out there. Flatbedding a tough way to go. A lot of people seem to love it though.

The next few months tend to be pretty slow. Hopefully they'll be able to keep you rolling pretty good though.

Hey it's great hearing from ya Randy! Glad to hear things are going well for ya out there. Flatbedding a tough way to go. A lot of people seem to love it though.

The next few months tend to be pretty slow. Hopefully they'll be able to keep you rolling pretty good though.

still kicking here and yes the miles slowed down after Christmas, I took 2 days off after Christmas got a load on monday for thursday with not great miles but holiday's mess things up a bit. After unloading i got a load to ohio for monday which is when the ice and cold weather hit so sat at a pilot till wednesday to unload since north western Ohio was shut down till then and customer was closed do to Level 3 travel alerts. I had heard the storm was coming so drove up on sat which at least got me a parking spot at a pilot 15 miles from customer so better than just being stuck some where. this past week I got a load for fargo NC from charlotte NC, again snow was called for in my route which would have worked my way up I-65 toward Gary and then toward I94 to fargo so i went west and worked my way to I-40 I-24 up middle of Illinois I-39? to hook up with I-94 much safer route weather wise as gary had 18" snow..

I hit 35 below on my way to fargo though so sure did sure felt nice to unload at 15 below inside a building ... had a load swap and today I will be heading to north easter ohio for some more snow and cold it seems..

I think next year I will take off the week between christmas and new years just seems to be a pain in the butt week to work anyway..

hope everyone stay's safe and keep after it there are good weeks and bad, pay attention to the weather and go out of the way if you can to avoid the real bad stuff .. i went out of route some distance to fargo, but would rather do that then deal with 18" of snow in Indiana which does not do a great job clearing their roads. i rolled 60-65 most of my route. My bonus plan does include out of route information also.

Randy