Not impressed

by Anonymous

I am a wife of an OTR trucker that has been doing it for 5 months now & maybe my husband has been having bad luck but if someone was to ask me is trucking a good career choice I would say hell no!

My husband chose this because he lost his previous job & he said this is where the money is! The money SUCKS!

And that is when the company gave him his own truck they gave him this kid to be his team driver who left my husband twice & the fleet manager had my husband go solo & he was getting paid pennies & he told the fleet mgr that he needed longer runs that he has bills to be paid.

Well the fleet mgr then calls my husband & says he has a team driver & my husband told me if he knew what this guy looked like he would never have him on the truck, my husband said this guy is a total embarrassment.

My husband said this guy looks worse than Willie Nelson, his face with the beard looks worse than the Wolfman & they have been together for 6 weeks.

Well my husband had to go to the hospital because he got sick on the road & I just got a phone call from my husband that his team driver dropped a bomb asking my husband if he could put up with him till Thanksgiving so this guy can find another team driver because he told my husband he was tired of throwing him out of the sleeper berth with fast braking & also this team driver told my husband that he was homeless and when my husband would be home for my husband to drop him off at the nearest cheap hotel.

He is tired of my husband bitching to him that when they drop off loads & my husband is sleeping, this guy doesn't turn in the paperwork so they get paid.

So again here we go again with the fleet mgr giving my husband short runs at pennies a day! And with the holidays approaching, he's thinking of leaving the company & finding local stuff but most companies want 2 yrs OTR experience!

Are there other wives or truckers that have had this experience?

Comments for Not impressed

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Dec 28, 2013
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Lots of companies out there NEW
by: Anonymous

... Keep looking until you find a company worth a damn

Dec 28, 2013
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So sorry for you NEW
by: Anonymous

My husband and son are household movers. They both do very well. They are fortunate to be contracted to a good company that cares about their drivers. Early in my husbands career 25 years ago, he signed on with one company. When they cancelled his contract because a set of paperwork went missing ( he managed to reconstruct everything for proper submission). He tried freight for awhile but was tired of working around the longshoremens schedules and went back into household with a then small company. Twenty years later the company has grown and the line hauls are lucrative. Thankfully, I've always worked and we got thru those early tough years. Today we are financially stable. Our son will never really know what it means to go thru the school of hard knocks. the company had an in house recruiting program -- my husband did have to be joined at the hip with him for his first 50k miles, which was challenging -- he was too young to really know what those first years were like but understands how hard his dad has worked all those years to provide for us and that hauling for a good stable company is worth it's weight in gold!

Nov 05, 2013
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To T NEW
by: Anonymous

OMG I can't believe that your guy brought home his team driver to your house. I have no idea what company he drove for & if that was a requirement but my husband told me there would be no way he would bring home his team driver. He would have either dropped him off to a hotel or he would have stayed in the truck!

Nov 01, 2013
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He needs to get out NEW
by: T

So I don't respond to many things on here I just read and take them in but I feel like you are living my life...
Without going into a big long story my fiance has gone through the same thing. Other than the Willie Nelson, homeless team driver. LOL
My finace is a company solo driver currenlty. The recruiters made him all kinds of promises and told him all kinds of lies. They said he didn't have to pay for toll roads or scale tickets-that was a lie. He's had to take $200 in cash advances each week to pay for those. The recruiter told him there was a 2500 mile a week quarentee so if you only drive 2000 you still get paid for 2500-that was a lie. That's not on the weeks you go home. Then on top of it all they have him paying for 50% of truck repairs. WTF??? It's not even his truck so why should he pay for a penny of the repairs.
The straw that broke the camels back for him was when he didn't get a paycheck at all one week. They said he only drove 800 miles on a week he was not home and that is not possible. These guys can drive that in a drive shift and a half. So working 14 hours a day for 7 days a week, away from home and not getting paid. That was it! They said after taxes, health insurance, truck repairs and child support he got 0. There is no way possible it could zero out like that.
He came home, went on 2 job interviews for local and got the one. He was offered the other but they don't want to start him until February because it was to drive a cement truck.We live in MN so not much cement is being poured from Nov. to March.
Now I know it's not a ton of money and not the most glamarous job but the position he accepted was with a local waste management co. He will be driving a garbage truck in the city picking up at businesses. He will be home everyday and no layoffs. There will always be garbage.
I feel your and your husband's pain and tell him he needs to get out.
When my fiance did team driving for another company he had to bring his teammate home and that was very uncomfortable. Having a stranger in your home for a few days you have to supply a warm bed, shower and feed. No thank you!When my honey is home I don't want to have to entertain a guest.
Best of luck to the both of you but tell him to get out. He'll never make any money in this industry. Not worth the heartache in my book!

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