Different Companies

I've been talking with recruiters from May Trucking Co, Gordon Trucking Inc, Watkins & Sheperd, Knight Trans, and multiple others. So far W/S is the top of my list after talking to Mr. Tracy. But I was curious if anybody has driven for any of the others and just curious on their experience with the company itself. I am getting my license within the next couple of weeks through a private school, so it's kind of coming down to the wire.

And I know of W/S and Knight going to automatic's, are the larger companies making that switch?

You've compiled a good list there. I'm currently out on the road with my trainer at Knight. They're transitioning to the automatics as are many companies and claim that within the next 2-3 years, they'll have an all auto fleet. I can see the justification being that it's a 12 speed and will offer better fuel economy but there's something that's just so much fun about rowing the gears.

You've compiled a good list there.

I've been looking for the past 6 months into companies alone, 3 months for a school.

So far only three that are completely out of the picture are Swift (know more friends who have driven and had nothing but bad experiences they didn't give they the miles/messed up on their tuition), Wal-Mart (not a big fan with the company itself) and Schneider (only due to the fact that they dont have OTR only dedicated for my area which I'm just getting myself resettled in the lower 48 and with no family other than parents, no reason to not stay on the road)

Knight is about 90% auto as of two day ago, with 6 KW 660's to their million milers.

You've compiled a good list there.

I've been looking for the past 6 months into companies alone, 3 months for a school.

So far only three that are completely out of the picture are Swift (know more friends who have driven and had nothing but bad experiences they didn't give they the miles/messed up on their tuition), Wal-Mart (not a big fan with the company itself) and Schneider (only due to the fact that they dont have OTR only dedicated for my area which I'm just getting myself resettled in the lower 48 and with no family other than parents, no reason to not stay on the road)

Knight is about 90% auto as of two day ago, with 6 KW 660's to their million milers.

Odd. WalMart is considered the best trucking employer on the road from people I have talked to so I am curious why you wouldn't consider them.

Joe, we've got a great section here in the web site on How To Choose A Company. There's lot's of valuable information in there. Also you may find the Truck Driver's Career Guide section to be of considerable value to you.

Joe, part of what I like to do in this forum is help people to think for themselves, to use some logic or critical thinking. We home-schooled all of our children and the first two of them have both graduated college now with highest honors. They credit that to our teaching them how to look at a problem and apply the principles of critical thinking to it.

I don't spend a lot of time trying to point people in the direction of any single company, but want folks to realize that it is not that critical of a decision as a rookie driver. What is critical is your approach to the job. I can say this with some authority since I ran my first sixteen months of my career with Western Express, a company that has some of the absolutely worst internet reviews you could possibly find on any trucking company. They kept me moving and I made some good money with them. I loved my time there and still would be there had I not gotten a significantly better offer from Knight Transportation to run in their small dedicated flat-bed fleet. The truth about driving a truck is that it is a performance based job. No matter what company you choose, your success will boil down to whether or not you can out perform the average driver out there.

So far only three that are completely out of the picture are Swift (know more friends who have driven and had nothing but bad experiences they didn't give they the miles/messed up on their tuition), Wal-Mart (not a big fan with the company itself) and Schneider (only due to the fact that they dont have OTR only dedicated for my area which I'm just getting myself resettled in the lower 48 and with no family other than parents, no reason to not stay on the road)

Here's how you apply critical thinking to this process: Think about your statement quoted above. I know you have your reasons for not liking Wal-Mart, and it would be useless for us to debate that here, but usually the reasons people give for not liking Wal-Mart have to do with the things they have done so that they could position themselves as a company where you can get just about anything you need at a very reasonable price. And they have been very successful with that business plan. People love them when they can go get a 60 inch flat-screen Television for 299.00, but then they hate them because they are only allowing their employees to work 34 hours a week, or a host of other cost cutting reasons. Like I said, I don't want to debate the merits of Wal-Mart, but to dismiss their trucking company because you don't think too highly of the company is taking one of the best and highest paying trucking jobs right off the top of your list. That is a trucking job that a lot of folks would love to have.

Now let's look at what you said about Schneider. Again I understand your reason given for taking them off your list, but once again you have taken one of the highest paying opportunities off your list. Dedicated jobs are really some great paying jobs, and an additional benefit to them is that they take much of the stress that wears on a new person to the industry out of the equation. You have the chance to get familiar with all your customers in a region. The most stressful thing about starting this career is finding your way in and out of your shippers and receivers at point A and B. You'll see what I mean when you get out there. Those are the critical parts of each trip and they are usually the points where a rookie will make a big mistake.

Now let's move on to Swift. You simply can't take the negative things you've heard about these companies and give it a lot of weight in your decisions, even if it comes form your friends. Think about this - Swift is one of the largest players in the game. Do you have any idea how many "Million Milers" they have on their long list of successful drivers? Well, it's a loooong list. None of those folks ever complain about not getting the miles - and why not? Because they are the top performers. Well here we are full circle, back to that word performance. If you can focus on that element to you will do really well at this career, even if you have to get started at Western Express or any place else that has a lot of critics.

Joe, don't consider this reply as critical, it is not. I just like to respond in a way that I hope will inform both the person who is posting and hopefully help someone else, on down the line who comes across this thread, to try and think a little differently than the usual person who is looking into this stuff.

Hopefully this time my laptop doesn't want to randomly refresh as I'm trying to post.

I don't spend a lot of time trying to point people in the direction of any single company, but want folks to realize that it is not that critical of a decision as a rookie driver. What is critical is your approach to the job. I can say this with some authority since I ran my first sixteen months of my career with Western Express, a company that has some of the absolutely worst internet reviews you could possibly find on any trucking company. They kept me moving and I made some good money with them. I loved my time there and still would be there had I not gotten a significantly better offer from Knight Transportation to run in their small dedicated flat-bed fleet. The truth about driving a truck is that it is a performance based job. No matter what company you choose, your success will boil down to whether or not you can out perform the average driver out there.

Here's how you apply critical thinking to this process: Think about your statement quoted above. I know you have your reasons for not liking Wal-Mart, and it would be useless for us to debate that here, but usually the reasons people give for not liking Wal-Mart have to do with the things they have done so that they could position themselves as a company where you can get just about anything you need at a very reasonable price. And they have been very successful with that business plan. People love them when they can go get a 60 inch flat-screen Television for 299.00, but then they hate them because they are only allowing their employees to work 34 hours a week, or a host of other cost cutting reasons. Like I said, I don't want to debate the merits of Wal-Mart, but to dismiss their trucking company because you don't think too highly of the company is taking one of the best and highest paying trucking jobs right off the top of your list. That is a trucking job that a lot of folks would love to have.

Now let's look at what you said about Schneider. Again I understand your reason given for taking them off your list, but once again you have taken one of the highest paying opportunities off your list. Dedicated jobs are really some great paying jobs, and an additional benefit to them is that they take much of the stress that wears on a new person to the industry out of the equation. You have the chance to get familiar with all your customers in a region. The most stressful thing about starting this career is finding your way in and out of your shippers and receivers at point A and B. You'll see what I mean when you get out there. Those are the critical parts of each trip and they are usually the points where a rookie will make a big mistake.

Now let's move on to Swift. You simply can't take the negative things you've heard about these companies and give it a lot of weight in your decisions, even if it comes form your friends. Think about this - Swift is one of the largest players in the game. Do you have any idea how many "Million Milers" they have on their long list of successful drivers? Well, it's a loooong list. None of those folks ever complain about not getting the miles - and why not? Because they are the top performers. Well here we are full circle, back to that word performance. If you can focus on that element to you will do really well at this career, even if you have to get started at Western Express or any place else that has a lot of critics.

For Walmart, Yes I do have a problem with them, I do not support the company and have not set foot in one in almost two years. The trucking portion might be absolutely amazing, but as a company in a whole, I just won't be able to do it.

Schneider, amazing company, Vet Friendly, with Freightliner adding to the evidence with their Ride of Pride trucks. I considered applying with them, however I'm just not wishing to be in a dedicated route right now. Maybe in the near future, but I'd just love to experience traveling through 48 states and get paid for it if I can. Not to mention, I just up and moved from Alaska, plans didn't pan out for me like how everything was intended to go so I'm stuck with a small car and some cloths, so, home time is definitely not important to me right now.

Swift, not solely on word of mouth, it does influence my decision yes but not to the point of they are completely out. I've looked at their website, called their recruiters and just isn't appealing to me as others.

I do apologize for my initial post as I wasn't as clear as I should of been. I was wanting to know experiences with management, how they would act to their drivers, how they handle a situation with the equipment.