Ready To Roll

Having completed 70% of the High Road CDL Training Program, a thought has occurred to me more than once...as difficult and time consuming as it may be, it would be cool if when clicking the purple question marks, an appropriate pic would show up, instead of a rig. A header board, battery box, belt driven water pump, slack arm, etc. Maybe even include a link to the corresponding flash card? Ok, maybe that's too much.

Just finished finished with the pre-trip and thought how nice it might be to have pics with all those pointers, thats all

Have I mentioned how much I love this High Road CDL Training Program ??

Glad you like the program!!!

Yeah, I'd really like to incorporate a really thorough and effective pre-trip inspection module into the training program. The part that's in there now is straight out of the CDL manual. Now we have a Pre-Trip Study Guide which contains videos, a document you can download, and an awesome set of pre-trip inspection flash cards

So one day that section will be much more involved. It's on my to-do list.

85% through the High Road CDL study guide and still strong at 98% grade. Woo hoo. Checked out the flash cards and man...the pics are soooo tiny ....then I went without part tags, and the picture got bigger. That helps. I am starting to dig deeper into all the different compony sponsored schools, and there re a lot of differences, everything from an 8 month contract, to a 2 year contract. Prime seems to be the lead candidate, but after reading some of the pages on here about waiting times and lack of instructors and whatnot, they have moved down my list a we bit. I like Roehl, as the first trip is homebound, and the have a terminal here in the Atlanta area, which should get some more home tome. FFE is moving up the list for the same reason. I know the blogs say the pay shouldn't be a deciding factor, but when you are comparing .26cpm vs .41cpm, well, it's difficult not making it a deciding factor. Another 'deciding factor' is room and board. One company pays your room, feeds you and busses you in, where another doesn't do any of it. Finally, the training pay can make a difference where some might pay you $25/day, where others pay up to $100/ day. Again, I know Brett says "In the long run, it all equals out"' and others say it is a lifestyle, not just a paycheck, but when you add up all the differences, it can be fairly significant.

Anyway, no real question here today, (I started a new thread in the general discussions forum re medical), just a quick update on my particular path into trucking. Hope everyone is doing well, and staying safe

Peace

Oh yeah, i did have one question. Say I driving for a company that has no terminals or warehouse or drop points in my area. When my off time comes up, is it on my time to get home?? Take Prime for example. They have terminals throughout the middle of the country, but none in Atlanta, where I live. So if my last drop is in my nearest city, in the example, Missouri, does my down time start when I drop in Missouri? Then the 12hour drive home and 12 back to Missouri, is that on my time? Do these companies go to places like Atlanta even though they don't have terminals or drop locations here? Just curious.

Thanks again

Oh dear lord, this split sleeper berth is driving me batty.

In my humble opinion, of everything so far, this is the most difficult.

Ok, not exactly, but the hardest to remember all the rules. 14-11-30 ... 10 or 8/2 ... drill it, drill it, drill into my brain ....

Ok, back at it

Well, that didn't take long.... I have a question about a log book example given on page 101 of the High Road CDL Training Program...

I think it is the 2nd example, After a consecutive 10 hour rest, driver comes on duty and drives for 5 hours (10a-3p). Hops in the sleeper berth for 7 consecutive hours (3p-10p), drives 2 more hours (10p-12m) before hopping back into the sleeper berth for another 7 hours (12m-7a).

Recap - 10 hour rest, 7 hours driving, 14 hours in the sleeper berth split 7hrs/7hrs.

The driver then starts driving at 7a and incurs a 14 hour violation, which I understand completely. However, in your example the driver doesn't incur an 11 hour violation until 11am.

I thought you had to have a 10 hour consecutive break before starting a new 11/14 shift? In this example, the driver does not get the required 10 hour consecutive break, nor does the driver fulfill the 8/2 needed for a split berth.

So my question is, why wasn't the driver in violation of the 11 hour rule at 7a ? (when the 14 hr violation kicked in)

without the 8 hours consecutive to pause the 14 hour clock, the 10 hour consecutive hours to reset the clock, or the 8/2 split hours to move the 14hr clock, don't those hours go against the 14? It shouldn't matter because the different days, only that you have 14 hours to drive 11, right?

What am I missing here?

Thanks

It's actually the 3rd example on the page and listed as example #15

Say I driving for a company that has no terminals or warehouse or drop points in my area. When my off time comes up, is it on my time to get home?? Take Prime for example. They have terminals throughout the middle of the country, but none in Atlanta, where I live. So if my last drop is in my nearest city, in the example, Missouri, does my down time start when I drop in Missouri? Then the 12hour drive home and 12 back to Missouri, is that on my time? Do these companies go to places like Atlanta even though they don't have terminals or drop locations here? Just curious.

Well for starters, the trip home won't be nearly 12 hours. They're not going to send you more than a couple hundred miles to get home. Most of the time they'll send you home with a load that either delivers pretty close to where you live or past where you live so you're not going far out of your way. But generally speaking, any miles you drive just for getting home will not be paid. So if you deliver 100 miles from your house and go home afterward, that 100 miles will not be paid.

As far as the logbook example, I'll have to get back to you on that. I'll have to go look it up and see what it says.

As far as choosing the right trucking company to work for, be careful what criteria you use. Remember, you're not choosing a company for the next 3 weeks. You're choosing a company you want to stay with for a minimum of a year, and hopefully longer. So worrying about things like:

"Roehl's first load is to the house, and the have a terminal here in the Atlanta area"

"the training pay can make a difference where some might pay you $25/day, where others pay up to $100/ day. Again, I know Brett says "In the long run, it all equals out"' and others say it is a lifestyle, not just a paycheck, but when you add up all the differences, it can be fairly significant."

"Another 'deciding factor' is room and board. One company pays your room, feeds you and busses you in, where another doesn't do any of it."

Those are some of the worst possible reasons to choose one company over another. You will never find an article here on this site that says to use any of those metrics when comparing trucking companies.

You seem to have read through at least some of the articles we have, but you're leaning toward making the mistake of saying "Well, I know the guy with 20+ years in the trucking industry tells me things are a certain way, but I'm going to ignore that and do the opposite because that's what seems right to me."

When you're new to something there are a lot of things that don't make sense or wouldn't be something you might consider because you simply don't have the knowledge or experience yet. You don't want to ignore the advice of people with decades of experience and then get out there and go "Geez, I made some dumb decisions. Now I see why he said that." Ya know what I mean? If everything about trucking was simple and logical and self-evident, we wouldn't need TruckingTruth.

I know the blogs say the pay shouldn't be a deciding factor, but when you are comparing .26cpm vs .41cpm, well, it's difficult not making it a deciding factor

To be clear on this, we said pay should not be the only deciding factor. But it should definitely be one of the primary factors to consider.

Now you mentioned FFE. There's one major difference between FFE and the other companies you've mentioned, and it's something that would affect your job duties and life on the road tremendously. Do you know what it is? If not, keep reading through our Company-Sponsored Training Program Reviews and see if you can figure it out. I'll tell you of course, but it's something you should know already if you're considering them because we've spelled it out clearly in our information on the company.

Well, there were a couple of things about FFE that I remember. One is that there is a fair amount of loading / unloading expected of the driver, for which there is compensation.

Another was that if you don't stay the full 12 months, you owe the full amount ($3000), not prorated like other companies.

Finally, you have to be a Texas resident to get into there schooling, unless you already had a CDL-A. They were also a bit more stringent on accepting applicants, stating if you've been turned down other places, don't bother applying at FFE

As far as the reasoning, I never meant to imply these were good reasons. Quite the contrary. I even tried to point out that everything I read says quite the opposite actually.

I only meant to infer that if I'm trying to do this as economically as possible (which seems to be a common concern on here), and then considering a $250 bus ticket, a $400 room plus the cost of meals, then factor in the training pay and the difference in starting pay, it can quite quickly add up to several thousand dollars difference.

Furthermore, I hear you, and all the experience of the other truckers on this site, and I believe you when you say these are horrible reasons to choose one over the other.

((And yeah, I get the fact that it might be a few bucks up front, but in the long run (or even short run for that matter), it won't really make that big a difference. If I can turn $100K in my first 3-4 years of driving, what's 5k up front?))

I was only stating that it was difficult not letting these things sway your judgement, even a little..

Of all those reasons, the only one really swaying my judgement was companies with terminals and/or drop points here in Atlanta. Might be able to take some 36 hour resets in my own bed. (Ok, not a real strong reason.)

And again, never meant to imply any of you guys (or gals) would condone this sort of thinking.

Ok, did some research, I see what you are saying re: FFE. They may be getting bought out, or going under.

Well, there were a couple of things about FFE that I remember. One is that there is a fair amount of loading / unloading expected of the driver, for which there is compensation.

You nailed it. That was it. They require a lot of driver loading and unloading which is quite the opposite of most companies which have 98% no-touch freight. That's a major game-changer in this industry. Their average length of haul is also much shorter than most refrigerated carriers who run a lot of coast to coast stuff.

As far as FFE being bought out or sold, that I haven't looked into. Those kind of rumors go on endlessly in trucking. Every company I've ever worked for was either on the brink of bankruptcy or about to be bought out if you asked the drivers. So I wouldn't worry about that kind of stuff unless you see major red flags that show doom is imminent.

You're doing absolutely fantastic on the High Road Training Program. I built that system to be used a certain way where you're not guessing at the answers and you're shooting for every question correct. With only 6 halts and a 98% at 88% of the way through the program you've really been focusing hard and doing it right.

And the research you're doing into these companies is obviously very thorough and that's also very impressive. So I think you "get it" when it comes to getting your trucking career underway. I think you're going to do great. I just want to make sure you don't get lost in the unimportant details about the various trucking companies and you stay focused on what really matters. It's easy for that to happen, especially when you're considering a company and you find nothing but negative garbage about them strewn all around the Web - which applies to pretty much every company in America. It really wants to make you keep digging deeper to make sure you're finding the facts you need. But it's not necessary, and it's not helpful. Stick to the basics like our articles lay out. Once you get out there for a few months you're going to look back on everything we told you and go "oooooooooooh, now I see why they said that!"