The grind continues....

Left Oregon for truck school on April 2.  So i've been gone for seven weeks, and have been on the road in-truck for four weeks.  Things are getting to be a bit of a grind.  Tired of the smelly bodies, dirty laundry, crappy food, long hours and low pay.  Also REALLY tired of not seeing the kids and missing friends/family back home.  I truly hope this experience ends up being worth it.

(No, the photo is not of me.  But it represents what i'd like to be doing....)

I've always said i don't intend this gig to go longer than a year.  Today, i really hope i can make it THAT long.

We were originally told by our recruiters that we'd be out 4-6 weeks and home for 3-4 days.  So far, that appears to be a selling pitch only.  A bit like the Army's advertisements to see exciting places and meet interesting people, but failing to describe the difficulty of boot camp or that you get stationed in North Dakota.  I've seen quite a few people drop off here and there -- usually because they were not willing to put up with the BS and the uncertainty.  For my part, i'm willing to stick it out longer than most to see what the whole thing is really about.  As long as i'm not being kicked out for failure to perform i'm going to keep throwing myself at this thing until i see how it plays out, regardless of the appearances of false advertising.  I guess i just don't want to quit.  I'm really hoping the pay off is worth the pain in the ass.

One of the things many of my fellow students and i are trying to figure out is if we want to lease a truck to work as an independent contractor to CR England, or if we want to be a CR England "company driver".  The company driver is just that -- you are an employee driver for England, you drive their equipment and you are not responsible for anything other than getting the load to the destination on time.  You are also paid the lowest mileage rate of all drivers, about $0.34 per mile, and reportedly get the "bottom of the barrel" loads that no one else wants.

The lease option is fairly attractive.  With no money down and no credit approval, you take over a brand new truck on a year lease, with the option to walk away from the lease after six months, without penalty.  You make about $0.90 per mile, and are responsible to pay for fuel, repairs, etc., but you also get better loads/hauls than company drivers get.  To give you a sense of overhead, fuel costs about $525 per week, and a truck lease is about $530 per week.  A solo driver typically can run about 3,000 miles per week.  Including other overhead (insurance, maintenance, etc.) solo drivers -- they say -- can expect to net about $680 per week.  You make more if you run as a team, because you can run more miles.  You also make more if you become a trainer -- up to $100,000 per year, but you have to be running all the time.

At this point, i lean toward the lease route with the option to walk away after six months.  We'll see though.  I'm still investigating.


Not looking like i'm going to be getting home for another couple weeks.  Apparently my trainer thinks i still need work on my downshifting, and then  i've got some administrative issues that need to be worked through. Doing my best to stay positive.... Sigh.  Hope everyone is doing well out there.  I miss ya!


Stay safe....


KWA