got my class a cdl license yesterday yyeeaa!!

Sparky-

As far as the company, i would stay right where you are at. I spent 5 years training new drivers and i always told them to let me know what they thought of the companies they went to work for. That and talking to other drivers on the CB leads me to believe that TMC is a good company to work for. If a company is not fair with its drivers, it takes about 1 day for it to get spread from one coast to the other...bad news travels really fast.

As for the pay, its hard to tell which one will be better for you. I talked to a driver for a company called Jevic in Fort Wayne Indiana the other day and he was complaining about his pay...he was a full time OTR driver and he only made $22,000 dollars last year. Make sure you talk to TMC about the pay before you get started with them and talk to as many of their other drivers as you can too. The guys that have been working for them a while will have some real good advice for you.

I just took a job driving a straight truck locally for a company that has been trying to recruit me for at least 5 or 6 years. They offered to pay me by the stop...12 stops a day at $12 dollars a stop= $144 a day or $720.00 per week. The best part is they ALWAYS have extra freight available and if you do more than your 12 stops in a day, the pay goes up to $24 per stop.
So i go in, bust out my 12 stops in @ six hours or so and go back and get at least 4 more stops so the math breaks down like this:

12 stops X $12 = $144 a day
4 extra stops X $24= $96 a day

As you can see, it can add up to decent money if i take extra stops. If i have something to do that day and cant work extra, i do my 12 stops and go home. So it depends on what is best for your situation.

Whenever i decide to switch jobs i always do the same thing... i fill up the pickup with gas and crank up the CB and drive about 50 or 60 miles down the highway and talk to other drivers. They will always tell you if they are unhappy with their company and why!
Sorry to ramble, but there are alot of variables in this business. Good luck and stay safe out there.

You gotta watch what other drivers will say, remember that all kinds of people call themselves "professional drivers" but some aren't fit to carry shit in a bucket you give them some miles and they complain you're working them too hard.. no wonder they're not making any money.

This isn't to say though that there aren't bad companies out there to work for.. surely there are. Just gotta consider not everyone is gonna tell you the WHOLE story.

Imagine that, a bunch of CDL drivers, and we happen to like duallys. Whatta coincidence. CDL driver here, too! Not using at the moment with the towing company I work for, but I'm keeping it anyway just in case. My dad has been a driver most of his life and the youngest of my 3 little bros has his license too.

Edit - damn I got all caught up and didn't even tell you congrats. Well I have to whore up the congrats by saying about that test, I remember taking mine, all 4 sections and I didn't miss a single question. Not one! Some of the people in my class failed ALL FOUR SECTIONS, I thought, jeezus please don't let these people get a CDL. In fact take their regular license away too!

Richard

I guess Im the only one that didnt go to truck driving school?

well i wouldnt have gone to to a driving school but i dont have any way to take the driving test the state gives without a truck. and the school is a good investment, it just gives you some skills that otherwise you would have to learn on your own the hard way, like backing and double clutching ,shifting gears..etc...but if i had a truck and trailer handy it wouldnt have cost me 4 grand....

yeah, I know alot of drivers including my dad. In fact, Ive driven his truck through town and all before.....sssshhh, dont tell nobody...

ive had my cdls for about 9 yrs now... and i never took any school... i used to drive dump trucks so i just had someone take my down to the dps office and took the test... the air brake part was the hardest for me.....

that is pretty crazy that we all get into duallys and have cdl's.. i guess we really like big rigs and a dually is the closest thing to driving one
it was kinda funny there were a couple of guys that got pissed at me after they didnt pass there written test at the dmv and i did, i was the only person in my class to graduate, they got sent back home for a week to start over...lol
funniest thing i heard while i was at school was , a recruiter was there talking about his company and a guy asked about there pet policy, he wanted to know if he could bring his goat with him on the road i thought i was going to piss my pants i was laughing so hard.... i think he wasnt joking eigther........

ok stupid ?, but ur cdl lets u drive semis correct or no?

yep, its a commercial driver license (cdl) lets you drive big rigs....

figured jsut makin sure