Nervous newbie

[Boatcat]

Hi.
I'm the guy who talked about truck recovery and roaches. ..
Here is what I did.
A few years ago I was in the tree trimming and removal business and needed a bucket truck so I asked around and found out that I would need a CDL to drive it.
I was in college at the time and working in Health Care but wanted to start my own business.
The college had a CDL prep course to train the students who were in the utility lineman class, so I signed up. That got me a CLASS A and I worked the tree business in the summer and drove semis in the winter. First job was driving a beet truck, a semi tractor and a big dump trailer.
Then the mess with Panther.
By the way, Panther is a decent company, I just ran into a shady crook fleet owner who took full advantage of my desire to learn the business and prove myself, use my varied skills and fill a need. I'm sure most owners are good folks.
Then I found EO.
Contacted a few fleet owners, asked questions and almost signed up to drive for one. The guy just happened to have a truck for sale, so I sold my bucket truck and bought an Expitite truck. I call it the MONEY PIT.
I would suggest driving for an owner, as most here will also advise you to do.

Lots of ways to get your CDL. All you need is a CLASS B with air brake endorsement to get started.
Lots of info to study online and practice tests.
You guys are in a good place to do this by what you say about yourselves and you are lucky to have a partner, I'm a single solo and it gets lonesome for sure. It helps to have my very cool cat along and yes, you can have your pets with you, most owners are fine with it.
Go for it!
Let me know if I can help or answer any questions.
I have time at the moment cause I slipped on some ice a few days ago and sprained my ankle, so I'm sitting until I can walk around again, not to mention doing the simple and very easy tasks required for the job.

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[Josh]

So I’m not trying to hijack this thread I could start my own but just been checking out this site for the past week and I’ve been amused by Josh’s true honest updates about getting started and just honestly wanted to ask him all that follow his thread as I have been. My girl decided she doesn’t want to be a manager for a restaurant she’s been working at for 12 years and been searching for a job. I myself wouldn’t mind getting out of the business I’ve been in for a good 15+ years. I’ve always been amused by driving and just never really done it and been loyal to my employment at the time and besides I was in a long relationship married etc... and could have went solo but never did I was a family man. Well now separated and with a great woman now with both of us wanting to change careers no kids, no house etc... I threw it out there that we should team up and drive. Surprisingly she was interested and that’s what we were focused on was to work together and was thinking of opening our own company but why not live in a truck see the world and make money and maybe another time start a business. So since then which has been about a week and how I found this I just been researching the crap out of driving. I wanted to get class a cdl’s go to a trucking company that would let us be teams after training. But she doesn’t want to be away and do a couple months separate and she would feel safer in a smaller truck to get experience and maybe moving up. So I thought that was impossible until I ran into this forum showing no experience couples can jump in as a team and go. Now I’ve dealt with trucks for @ 15 years and talked her into straight truck instead of cargo. She is really interested in this opportunity as we both can’t stop thinking about it and researching day and night. I’m ready to do this as she is. Question is with a lot of you new and some veterans is it best to skip school and go straight for the permit and skills test especially for her someone who knows absolutely nothing and I’ve been trying to figure out how we can train her. I was thinking the biggest U-Haul truck and letting her drive it. There’s really no way of getting experience even for myself once we get a permit. Also if we go that route I mean how difficult is it to get not going to the thousands of dollars of classes. Josh how did your girl go through it, did she have experience. My girl is shy and also like yourself we are a private couple and don’t have a social life we don’t do Facebook or social media period. I do a lot of forums like Harley and dodge bmw so that’s why I know forums. If you want me to start my own thread on this I will but figured I’d ask in my favorite thread as I’ll follow this one all the way through even if we do or don’t do this career. Very interesting. How long did you decide this is what you wanted to do to actually getting the permit/license to applying to orientation? We’re settong a goal for middle of January or prior to be in orientation. She was interested in fed ex as I was into panther until I read that comment about recovering and cockroaches etc... lol kinda turned my stomach but I was more for panther because I also thought that fed ex allowed no animals until I read yours stating you could bring your small dog as we have a chihuahua and a senior cat which is our kids. So any insight please let me know because expediting seems good and keeps a couple together so that’s what I I like. Hope to hear from you all shortly. Thanks for your time.

Anyone can steal my thread. Lol no hard feelings. Information is information and it's all relevant to new people. I'm on my phone so my reply might be missing some things. I'll go back if needed.

Ok first, school, as you read, we did not go through school. Is your significant other a good driver? It really doesn't take much to drive a straight truck. Common sense in my opinion, take curves slower, allow ALOT more time to pull into traffic, and be aware of your height. Backing up can take some practice trying to judge distance behind you but no biggie. You can prolly nail it and she can go at her own pace. My wife doesn't back into the docks or into tight spots at the truck stop, more or less just because she doesn't have to. Not that she can't. The uhaul is a good idea. Open parking lot, getting use to using just mirriors.

The biggest thing for us when taking our test was the pretrip. Driving was the easy part. I'm sure there is lots of info on pretrip online, I have a binder with pics that walks you through a pretrip I can post up.

My opinion on school or not depends on your situation. If your finances are in order for the next few months I'd say go for it on your own. If your gonna need to make money right away school might be a good option. We personally cut it closer than I would have liked. I don't regret not going through school (assuming something bad doesn't happen that school could have prevented) were obviously still very, very new.

My wife surprised me, she jumped in this truck and took off like it wasn't anything new. she yells at me because I'm like the mom in the car with her 16 year old daughter, I freak. Lmao. The learning curve is very steep. You have to be ready for it, I'm in a very different place emotionally now than I was a month ago when we started this adventure. I'm a lot calmer, traffic isn't as stressful, were able to enjoy the drive more. You meet cool people, and you meet jack asses. Im liking the job and I can't think of anything else that would be a better fit.

From the time I made the call to expeditors to when we got into a truck was ..a month?, maybe a month and a half? Keep in mind we had family plans in the middle that couldn't be avoided. You could be in a truck within a month of making the call. All depends on how fast you wanna take it. You need a permit and cdl before you can go with a fleet owner. We spent $1500ish for both all said and done. Biggest chunk being the 2hr mandatory training for each and then the test itself. Our first month out (kinda rough as you've read) we made $2200? after we took out our taxes. So far this week we've made $1500? Ish after taxes. Somewhere in there. If you need to make more than that right off the bat then maybe school is the answer. Feel free to ask me anything. I'm an open book.

 

[Josh]

Also, don't take YouTube for granted. You can emerge yourself in the lifestyle just by watching someone else and find out if it's right for you or not. I've done that twice, when we decided to sell our house to rv full time, and starting this career. Watch the good videos, and watch the bad, then watch the worse and ask yourself if your up for it. As said before "The crafty trucker" on YouTube are an awesome husband and wife with great info.

 

[Josh]

What started as a good day is going south quick. We grabbed a load that picked up in North Carolina and went to Michigan. Then accepted a load for Monday going from Michigan to Alabama. We get to North Carolina after 2xx miles of deadhead and find out they shipped the load already. Now we're at the shipper waiting to figure out what's going on.

 

[Boatcat]

Hi.
Had a similar situation recently. Got a load going from Minnesota to Alabama, deadhead 150 miles to the pickup only to find out it was actually going to Va, ok, I'll do that, no problem. ..
Turned out that some load brokers were playing games with 3 different companies and taking their cut, just not giving up the load...
The games they play, while I wait around for a straight answer.
Hours later, I get a call that it's a No Load. The people involved can't work things out. Can't possibly involve Ego and Greed can it?
I get paid 75 bucks for my trouble but my expenses were twice that, not to mention my time and the loss of a load over a weekend.
This stuff happens but it's frustrating and makes you wonder what's next...
Still curious about my adventure out West?
Having fun yet?

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[Josh]

Hi.
Had a similar situation recently. Got a load going from Minnesota to Alabama, deadhead 150 miles to the pickup only to find out it was actually going to Va, ok, I'll do that, no problem. ..
Turned out that some load brokers were playing games with 3 different companies and taking their cut, just not giving up the load...
The games they play, while I wait around for a straight answer.
Hours later, I get a call that it's a No Load. The people involved can't work things out. Can't possibly involve Ego and Greed can it?
I get paid 75 bucks for my trouble but my expenses were twice that, not to mention my time and the loss of a load over a weekend.
This stuff happens but it's frustrating and makes you wonder what's next...
Still curious about my adventure out West?
Having fun yet?

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Always curious.

We waited around for about an hour while they worked it out. Load got canceled, had to forfeit the other load we had for Monday. Thankfully there was a rest stop near by with parking. Gonna sit here for the night. I'll give it till mid morning tomorrow. If we don't get a load by then I'll be heading to the nearest loves.

Now our c link keeps going off for load opportunities, but it thinks we're gonna be in Michigan still. So we can't accept any of them.

 

[Boatcat]

Where are you getting loads into Michigan?
I live in the Northern part and am thinking of going home for a break.
My company can't seem to find me any loads into the state at all.
Only got one or two out and that required lots of deadhead.

As far as my adventure out West, it was very costly. Had to buy chains, all the mountain climbing took a toll on my truck and cost me most of my profit in fuel and lost time.
I had to get off the road several times for the first major blizzard of the season, so all things considered, I will think carefully before going back into that area.
Besides, I was running outside the law with a pre DPF vehicle.
My company did not find it necessary to inform me and my ignorance is no excuse if I had happened upon a check station.
The worst of it was between Larami WY and Cheyenne.
It was snowing so hard that I could not see the road from a rest area right next to it.
Mist of the other trucks that were at that place, we're faced away from a view of the road. I thought why?
I parked facing the road so I could watch the changes in visibility, hoping to get going again ASAP.
As soon as I saw the plow trucks go by and could see the road, I hit it and made as many miles as possible before my click ran out.
Never needed the chains but I knew how to install them and felt better knowing there were there.
Washington, Oregon and California were interesting, I got a glimpse of the Amtrack train I rode West back in 1979, the California Zephyr stopped in Truckee CA as I was preparing to leave after stopping for another weather delay.
Brought back nice memories of that ride and a few years later, riding my motorcycle from Sacramento back across 80 to Michigan.
Drove the same road getting a load back East, so seeing those train tracks and passing through the same places was sort of like coming full circle in many ways.

 

[Gear_Grinder]

Hey thanks for the response back appreciate the response to Josh and Boatcat. Schooling just sounded good like I said for her to get knowledge and for us both to learn but for 10,000.00 would take a big chunk out of us although I assume they do financing. We have been watching “The Crafty Truckers” for awhile now because they seem to touch on every subject and pop up on YouTube for anything you search expediting and straight truck driving. I also watch “Jade and John” because I like their bond together let’s me realize if our bond is going to be good they seem happy and always trying to have a good time. I think no school and just going straight into seems like the route we’re going we are going to do lots of reading and learning these next couple weeks and after thanksgiving I think we’re going for our permits. I’m hoping to be out on the road sometime in mid January. Like I said I appreciate both of your feedback and I’ll keep you guys posted and of course keep following this thread and keep learning from reading from you guys. Josh be safe out there, hopefully you stay positive and good things happen. Boatcat I hope you’ll recover soon and everything goes well. Don’t worry when I get on the road and you guys are becoming experienced training us we will keep you company so you ain’t out here alone. Seems like expediters stick together and help one another out like family. That’s good. I’ll keep in touch and keep following. Take all feedback into consideration. Everyone drive safe.

 

[Josh]

Where are you getting loads into Michigan?
I live in the Northern part and am thinking of going home for a break.
My company can't seem to find me any loads into the state at all.
Only got one or two out and that required lots of deadhead.

As far as my adventure out West, it was very costly. Had to buy chains, all the mountain climbing took a toll on my truck and cost me most of my profit in fuel and lost time.
I had to get off the road several times for the first major blizzard of the season, so all things considered, I will think carefully before going back into that area.
Besides, I was running outside the law with a pre DPF vehicle.
My company did not find it necessary to inform me and my ignorance is no excuse if I had happened upon a check station.
The worst of it was between Larami WY and Cheyenne.
It was snowing so hard that I could not see the road from a rest area right next to it.
Mist of the other trucks that were at that place, we're faced away from a view of the road. I thought why?
I parked facing the road so I could watch the changes in visibility, hoping to get going again ASAP.
As soon as I saw the plow trucks go by and could see the road, I hit it and made as many miles as possible before my click ran out.
Never needed the chains but I knew how to install them and felt better knowing there were there.
Washington, Oregon and California were interesting, I got a glimpse of the Amtrack train I rode West back in 1979, the California Zephyr stopped in Truckee CA as I was preparing to leave after stopping for another weather delay.
Brought back nice memories of that ride and a few years later, riding my motorcycle from Sacramento back across 80 to Michigan.
Drove the same road getting a load back East, so seeing those train tracks and passing through the same places was sort of like coming full circle in many ways.

3AM WAKE UP CALL EVERYONE!!! ... load offer for sc to sc.. bastards.

Did you not realize the conditions you would face going out that way? Or that you needed access to chains on your truck? Only ask because our trip to CA a few pages back covered that part, we didn't have chains either. Can't say I've ever been more paranoid. Lol

It sounds like you handled yourself very well. Better than I prolly would have. I would have thought if there was snow on the roads the chains would need to be applied. We have not installed our chains yet. Plan to do so on our off time to get practice. We have no intention of heading back that way during winter. Does anyone else know what other areas to avoid in winter?

As for Michigan loads, our canceled one was the only one going into Michigan. Our load offers we're heading out of Michigan.

 

[Boatcat]

Hi.
My original load was to Portland and I did not expect to spend a week running Oregon and California. ..
I was aware of the potential for weather, including snow, ice and the rest of it, I came across 80 in August on my motorcycle way back when and there was snow on the hills.


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[Boatcat]

Gear grinder.
Going for your permits will be faster and cheaper for sure and it's really easy, mostly common sense stuff and there is lots of info online aslo.
I was heading that way also but was already attending a college that offered a CDL PREP course and it was cheap, only about 500 bucks. It was one day a week for 2 months and they had a vehicle to practice with and take the road test in.
The most valuable part for me was the pre trip inspection, in Michigan it is very detailed. The test guy told me that my inspection and road test was the best he had seen in a long time.
Life experiences help.

Good luck to you guys, have fun and be safe.

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[Josh]

Hi.
My original load was to Portland and I did not expect to spend a week running Oregon and California. ..
I was aware of the potential for weather, including snow, ice and the rest of it, I came across 80 in August on my motorcycle way back when and there was snow on the hills.


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To do that on a bike is intense. I tip my hat to you sir. I'm sure dealing with weather gets easier with experience. It's just getting that experience that doesn't vibe well with me at the moment. Lmao. Sucks that you lost your profit in the process of running. The closest thing we've gotten to lost money is accepting a higher paying load to find out we spent hours upon hours in traffic. Which brings me to another irritation, I understand FedEx likes communication but damn. I cannot stand sitting in stop and go traffic for hours on end with jack ass people that don't and won't let you change lanes just to have FedEx send a message that says "are you at pickup?" I say no. (I'm assuming they can see my location, so why ask a question when you damn well I'm not there) In stop and go traffic, I'm 5 miles out. Then they reply with "so about another 5 minutes and you'll be there?" .....sure, and I'm sure I'll grab a unicorn along the way, and bottle up a rainbow to give as a Christmas gift.

 

[Josh]

Hey thanks for the response back appreciate the response to Josh and Boatcat. Schooling just sounded good like I said for her to get knowledge and for us both to learn but for 10,000.00 would take a big chunk out of us although I assume they do financing. We have been watching “The Crafty Truckers” for awhile now because they seem to touch on every subject and pop up on YouTube for anything you search expediting and straight truck driving. I also watch “Jade and John” because I like their bond together let’s me realize if our bond is going to be good they seem happy and always trying to have a good time. I think no school and just going straight into seems like the route we’re going we are going to do lots of reading and learning these next couple weeks and after thanksgiving I think we’re going for our permits. I’m hoping to be out on the road sometime in mid January. Like I said I appreciate both of your feedback and I’ll keep you guys posted and of course keep following this thread and keep learning from reading from you guys. Josh be safe out there, hopefully you stay positive and good things happen. Boatcat I hope you’ll recover soon and everything goes well. Don’t worry when I get on the road and you guys are becoming experienced training us we will keep you company so you ain’t out here alone. Seems like expediters stick together and help one another out like family. That’s good. I’ll keep in touch and keep following. Take all feedback into consideration. Everyone drive safe.

If we end up sitting over the weekend I'll write up some pretrip stuff. Not sure I have the binder with me but it's all still pretty fresh. ..I think.

 

[Boatcat]

To do that on a bike is intense. I tip my hat to you sir. I'm sure dealing with weather gets easier with experience. It's just getting that experience that doesn't vibe well with me at the moment. Lmao. Sucks that you lost your profit in the process of running. The closest thing we've gotten to lost money is accepting a higher paying load to find out we spent hours upon hours in traffic. Which brings me to another irritation, I understand FedEx likes communication but damn. I cannot stand sitting in stop and go traffic for hours on end with jack ass people that don't and won't let you change lanes just to have FedEx send a message that says "are you at pickup?" I say no. (I'm assuming they can see my location, so why ask a question when you damn well I'm not there) In stop and go traffic, I'm 5 miles out. Then they reply with "so about another 5 minutes and you'll be there?" .....sure, and I'm sure I'll grab a unicorn along the way, and bottle up a rainbow to give as a Christmas gift.

Josh.
I hear ya man.
When I was still running on paper logs a few months ago, dispatch called asking for a location every 30 min to an hour , depending on who the shipper was.
The auto industry was Very Anal about that, they must have a dedicated obsessive compulsive on staff just for that purpose.
When I was out West, I remember getting called for location update even though they know my location at all times on the E Log.
Dispatch calls and says, " the place closes at such and such time, will you make it?"
Ok, I've been climbing mountains all day through Washington and Oregon, now in California. ..
Besides the insane traffic, the 55 mph speed limit for trucks and the hills that slow you down to 25mph in a lot of places and require constant down shifting ( my truck is a manual), it takes extra time, so when they call and I say I'm doing the best I can here, I hear.." what's the matter, are you losing power or something "?
I'm thinking, you have no clue what it's like , do you?
I say it's taken me 5 hours plus to go 100 miles on I-5.
I say, you Are aware that there are MOUNTAINS out here, right?

Thank goodness the calls are rare now with the ELog, I got stressed out dealing with them constantly asking for location updates.
Now, it's mostly, arrivals and departure.

As far as where to avoid for the next 5 months or so...
Anywhere North of interstate 80 for sure and West of the Mississippi North from that highway.
The mountains out East will be rough also, so choose your loads carefully.
I got caught out there last year on New Years Eve in a place called Accident Maryland, no joke, I saved it on my GPS.
Nasty blizzard, with freezing rain and high winds.
I don't recall the elevation, but it was up there!
Good thing it was a place, not an event...
Nasty weather can hit anywhere, I've been fairly lucky for the most part though.
I hope you are as well.

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[Josh]

['ll grab a unicorn along the way, and bottle up a rainbow to give as a Christmas gift.

The auto industry was Very Anal about that, they must have a dedicated obsessive compulsive on staff just for that purpose.

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Lol weird coincidence that our load is automotive related.

I don't mind snow covered roads that are flat. Grew up in Wisconsin so it's nothing new, but mountains with snow is. If we could stay pretty much between Wisconsin and Texas without straying too Far East or west I think that would be ideal. With us being in sc I'm not sure it's gonna be easy to get out. All the loads in this area seem to be coming out of pa, wv, ny, nj.

Sucks that our last load got canceled. Would have been a good start to the week $$ and the north-south drives have been pretty easy.

 

[ucfd608]

The auto industry was Very Anal about that, they must have a dedicated obsessive compulsive on staff just for that purpose.

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Lol weird coincidence that our load is automotive related.

I don't mind snow covered roads that are flat. Grew up in Wisconsin so it's nothing new, but mountains with snow is. If we could stay pretty much between Wisconsin and Texas without straying too Far East or west I think that would be ideal. With us being in sc I'm not sure it's gonna be easy to get out. All the loads in this area seem to be coming out of pa, wv, ny, nj.

Sucks that our last load got canceled. Would have been a good start to the week $$ and the north-south drives have been pretty easy.[/QUOTE]

There is a diff in north snow versus south snow I would rather drive in the northern snow any day over the south


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[Josh]

Awesome... lol

 

[FlyingVan]

Ugh. I remember those phone calls in my FedEx days. Insane. Then I switched to Landstar and they never bothered me. Load 1 is almost like Landstar in this respect. Only twice I got calls like this in my year and a half and one was because of the Omnitracs not updating the position. I was supposed to be at the shipper in half hour and the Omnitracs showed me 1.5 hours away when in reality I was only 10 min away.

 

[Boatcat]

If you had to choose between C/M Transport and Load one, where would you go for overall satisfaction and money coming in v/s costs they charge you.
Frankly, the only thing I like about C/M right now is the E LOG system they use...

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[yogaines]

I watch a lot of YouTube to gain ANY knlowlesge that is or could be relevant. Getting bored on long drives is what I think would make me sleepy. I Appreciate your input and advice.

Small update. After talking to my recruiter today, we now have solid plans to pick up our truck. The truck we WANT is in Mississippi, but there is one local to us that isn't as fitting (no reefer, two small beds, smaller sleeper, no lift gate). After telling the recruiter it would be $400 to rent a car so we can get to Mississippi he suggested we drive the truck that is local to us and bring it to Mississippi to get the good truck (outfitted for white glove and bigger sleeper with a big bed. They will be paying the gas for us to get there. So free for us. This will give us time to adjust to the truck on a long trip with no load obligations. He said we can work as quickly or as slowly as we want. Whatever makes us comfortable. I can elaborate more when I get to my computer.