Trying Hours

[Videodrome]

Well I've been trucking but have decided to try something different. Try Hours has offered me a spot in a cargo van and orientation is next Tuesday by Toledo.

It sounds like I can leave the weigh stations, log book, and over flowing rest areas behind. Should be interesting.

 

[kennyfrogs]

Don't try TRY Hours or T & K....call 901-481-8202 or 317-294-3461 ... ask questions before you give up any job 1st. I wish anyone could direct me to an honest Expediting company.

 

[Videodrome]

Look I certainly don't expect it to be perfect but it will get my foot in the door of the industry.

I've already put up with a lot a crazy crap as a trucker so I'll give this a try.

 

[Jasper_jpr]

Don't try TRY Hours or T & K....call 901-481-8202 or 317-294-3461 ... ask questions before you give up any job 1st. I wish anyone could direct me to an honest Expediting company.

Why not? They have been good to us.

 

[cheri1122]

Look I certainly don't expect it to be perfect but it will get my foot in the door of the industry.

I've already put up with a lot a crazy crap as a trucker so I'll give this a try.

The reality of expediting [as in LTL trucking, and a few other industries] is that the companies willing to hire brand new inexperienced folks are those whose high turnover requires a steady stream of replacement bodies. They [the companies] insist the turnover is due to lazy or dishonest workers/drivers, which may be true to a tiny degree, but mostly, the disillusionment is justified, IMO.
As long as you know what you're getting into....

 

[fortwayne]

Don't try TRY Hours or T & K....call 901-481-8202 or 317-294-3461 ... ask questions before you give up any job 1st. I wish anyone could direct me to an honest Expediting company.

I have not ran for Try Hours in the past, so I am not qualified to say anthing, good or bad about them.

What I will say is, there are good carriers and bad carriers, on how they run their business and how they treat the drivers/owner-operators.

What makes a good carrier to me might not be what makes a good carrier for another driver.

Just like the carrier, they ask you plenty of questions, thus you should be going in with your set of questions. If they don't answer your questions with what you are looking for then you have to make a decision - just like they have to make a decision when they talk to you.

Drivers and owner-ops tend to forget, the recruiter needs to be interviewed by YOU and if at all possible - a top person in dispatch........but that is just MHO.

 

[Videodrome]

Well at least it doesn't sound like I have to put a lot on the line to try it. They say a fuel card and EZ/Prepass is provided so I'm not out of pocket for so much road expenses or having to provide a vehicle.

The guy was at least admitting the on coming Christmas season will be a slow down.

I'm hoping to put in a minimum of 6 months to a year while I see what the economy decides to do.

 

[kennyfrogs]

Team drivers in a straight truck....wish you the best. I don't know if they're honest with you or not....I gave up an 18 wheeler for a new future; guess the unemployment line is where I'll start. Ask Mark or Scott...."more freight than van" I've not refused a load but, yet I sit.

 

[kennyfrogs]

For vans there is no ezpass and the fuel card is at 25% of the loaded miles, far under what you'll pay for the fuel. Another thing is thier payroll system.....In the millitary in 1990 I had direct deposit. The only reason a company today does not offer it is so the money stays in thier account and draws interest, until you cash your check.

 

[kennyfrogs]

I'm not brand new or inexperienced....I graduated truck driving school in September of 1992.

 

[cheri1122]

I'm not brand new or inexperienced....I graduated truck driving school in September of 1992.

If you have been driving as a company driver, or even an O/O in anything other than expediting, you ARE inexperienced - it's a whole different ballgame, with different rules altogether.
Trucking experience helps in some ways, but the feeling that you already know how it works can make it a very disappointing choice, when it doesn't work like you thought it would.
The better news is that as an experienced team, [assuming your record is good], there are a lot of carriers that will be glad to have you.

 

[Turtle]

The people with the most difficult time acclimating to expediting are drivers of tractor-trailers from general trucking. Those who enter expediting in a van may be a little better at adjusting to the life of an expediter, as they got out of the truck and into a van for some specific reasons (logging, scaling, parking, and general DOT hassles and fears of what CSA 2010 is all about), but still many of those have a hard time sitting for sometimes day between loads.

 

[letzrockexpress]

My 2 cents: Try Hours is not a bad company. I spent a minute there. Their niche is about a 150 mile radius of Toledo. If that works for you you'll do O.K. Their rates are actually pretty good. If you get outside that 150 mile radius, expect to deadhead back or take a very low rate to get back. They do some short border crossing runs across the Ambassador Bridge. I knew one guy who did 2 or 3 of them a day just going back and forth. They seemed pretty honest, I just didn't feel it was an ideal fit for me..

 

[Videodrome]

I live in that radius about an hour from Toledo. I'm basically almost right where MI, IN, and OH meet.

A lot of what Turtle says applies to how I feel about the log book, weigh stations, and even hunting for parking space when a receiver makes you leave. Or a combination of the log book and parking. Like if the unloading is done and a receiver kicks me out after my 14 hours when I'm supposed to be driving and then try to squeeze into over flowing rest areas.

I'm not sure how big a deal the sitting is. I mean I don't want to sit to much and go broke, yet sometimes a break from driving isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a chance to read my books or get in some walking exercise.

Also thanks for mentioning the Canada thing I'll dig up my passport.

 

[Poorboy]

I was also leased on with them and take my advice, Run very fast and far away from them! If you want to know more then P.M. me...........

 

[Ragman]

I was also leased on with them and take my advice, Run very fast and far away from them! If you want to know more then P.M. me...........

Poorboy, sent you a pm.

 

[Videodrome]

I'm not doing any kind of lease.

If anyone tries to insist on leasing I might not do it.

 

[bikerpaul]

Make contact with poorboy. He has worked for them in the past, and I have known him personally for 35 years. He knows what he is talking about with this company.

 

[Turtle]

I'm not doing any kind of lease.

If anyone tries to insist on leasing I might not do it.

Every carrier will, absolutely, insist on leasing. It's a DOT requirement, unless the carrier owns the equipment.

If you "sign on" with a carrier, you're "leasing" on with them. In order to haul interstate property in a commercial motor vehicle, or with interstate authority, the vehicle must be owned or leased by the operating authority. You lease on with a carrier in order to haul under their authority. When you lease on with a carrier, you are literally transferring the right to possession and/or use of goods or equipment (your truck) for a term in return for consideration.

The only way you can do that without leasing on with a carrier, or to do that with multiple carriers, is to get your own authority and then contract out, not lease, your goods and services to whomever will pay you for them on a job-by-job basis.

Here's the main section on leasing (Part 376: Lease and interchange of vehicles - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration)

and the leasing requirements themselves (Leasing regulations,§376.12 Written lease requirements - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration)

 

[xiggi]

Turtle I don't think he is going to be driving his own vehicle. If that is correct the lease part would not apply to him.