Cargo van Career

gentry468 · Jul 13, 2011

Hi my name is cory, i am a new member to expediters online. i am wanting to get into OTR or local in a cargo van. i was wondering if anyone can help me. i live in indiana. im needing to find a company that will provide or help me lease a cargo van, as i do not own one. i am wantin to know what companies are close to me. any information that anyone can give me will be helpfull. i had talk to midwest expiditing but i had found reports of them ripping drivers off. they are also connected with all types expiditing and others. thank you for your time.

paullud · Jul 13, 2011

Good job investigating the company before jumping into that scam, you will see complaints about them here as well. There is a member on here that I had the pleasure of meeting before that might be able to help. I don't want to speak up for anyone but if I don't see him respond in a little while I will send him a PM just to make sure he saw your post.

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gentry468 · Jul 13, 2011

yeah i saw them on ripoff report.

paullud · Jul 13, 2011

You can always use the search function here as well to try and research a company. The guy I met drives a company sprinter for a company out of Indiana, I don't know if they need more people but it could be a match for you.

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gentry468 · Jul 13, 2011

do you know the company name and are you talking about the find jobs search?

paullud · Jul 13, 2011

gentry468 said:
do you know the company name and are you talking about the find jobs search?

Once you are in the open forum section there is a search option right below the open forum tab, you can search old posts to see if anyone has had anything good or bad to say about them. The other member is on here now and I sent him a PM.

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gentry468 · Jul 13, 2011

ok thank you for your help

paullud · Jul 13, 2011

He will try to catch up a little later.

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gentry468 · Jul 13, 2011

ok thank you

cheri1122 · Jul 13, 2011

Cory: Welcome! You didn't say whether you have a CDL, experience driving, good MVR/criminal history - all the stuff that is pretty much needed to begin driving OTR, so let's assume that you do. A first step would be to find a vehicle to drive, and a good place to do that is the EO Classifieds. Click on 'Home', 'Classifieds', 'Driver Wanted'. I just looked, and there are several cargo vans looking for drivers - give them a call, or reply to the email, and take it from there. Good luck!

cheri1122 · Jul 13, 2011

Just for future reference: this forum is for mechanical issues, if you have more questions, the proper forum would be Newbies.

gentry468 · Jul 13, 2011

ok sorry. i do not have a cdl. have good MVR/ no criminal history. I do have drove a tractor tailer. took a college class. they had a teacher that was great to work with i drove with him maybe three times on back rodes, but i got stuck driving with this guy that lasted like 2 weeks as an assistant, he quit before they fired him.

cheri1122 · Jul 13, 2011

I would strongly suggest that you get a CDL [there are threads here that explain how to do it without returning to school].
There are some carriers who won't require it for a cargo van, but it is better to have all possible options open, when it comes to earning money.

gentry468 · Jul 13, 2011

i was thinking about cargo vans for now since some don't require the cdl, then later on get my cdl and drive straight trucks.

mcavoy33 · Jul 13, 2011

Corey,

Welcome to the forum. I think you need to do considerable more research before you consider leasing a van. From your original post, it sounds like you have a rosier impression of the industry than reality.

The reality is the market is saturated but that doesn't mean you can't make money. There is plenty of room to make money.

First, don't confuse van expediting companies with big rig companies, your comment about finding a company that will lease you a van couldn't be further from the truth. There are too many people knocking on their door with a cargo van already for 99% of companies to consider buying vans and leasing them.

If I were you, I would explore being a company driver first, it is what I am doing. Where in Indiana do you live?

Have you researched any local companies? What else have you done besides posting here so far?

mcavoy33 · Jul 13, 2011

Also, I can't stress how valuable this website it, but imo all the value is in the old threads. I find the search function will net you way more results than asking. This is a bit of a close nit community and they tend to go off on joke tangents in threads.

But if you take the time to read the stickies and faq's, you will learn what you need to. I've been here for less than 2 months and I still find reading older threads are more useful than the banter on here.

LDB · Jul 14, 2011

If you are truly serious about this as a career approach it as you would a career in accounting, plumbing, mechanics or any other career. Read back a few years in the general, newbies and recruiter forums. That doesn't mean every word, but read every thread title and the ones that sound educational and informative and applicable to your situation do read every post. Take notes as you go, one set for the things you find that you'll want to always remember and have available and another set for the questions you think of as you read. You'll use that list to post your questions as you go along and get more answers here. That's going to take you many many hours but nobody becomes an accountant or electrician without many many hours of study either. Good luck in your career research.

cheri1122 · Jul 14, 2011

mcavoy33 said:
Also, I can't stress how valuable this website it, but imo all the value is in the old threads. I find the search function will net you way more results than asking. This is a bit of a close nit community and they tend to go off on joke tangents in threads.

But if you take the time to read the stickies and faq's, you will learn what you need to. I've been here for less than 2 months and I still find reading older threads are more useful than the banter on here.

M: you are correct - but in our defense, most of us have typed the same thing too many times to repeat it every time the same question is asked for the bazillionth time. [Some of us are old enough to remember when writing the same thing 500 times was a punishment - really!]
Therefore, the stickies. If folks just dive in without looking first, well.....it depends on who's paying attention & what kind of mood they're in, mostly.
Just hope it's not The Curmudgeon.....
There are a lot of different personalities here, but there's always room for more, too.

paullud · Jul 14, 2011

I think it is also important to jump in the fray of the other forums, especially the Soapbox. It allows people the chance to get to know you and helps build personal connections even if you go against the grain.

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mcavoy33 · Jul 14, 2011

cherri,

I don't disagree with you, I just wanted to give him a fair warning so I don't come across as so pompous as to me it appears he hasn't researched as much as he should at this point.

ps I remember waking up at 3 am because I didn't want my parents to know I got in trouble and did my "lines" in the middle of the night