NO touch freight.

You should never have to unload your own freight. As a matter of fact a lot of warehouses wont even let drivers on the docks now for insurance reasons. Some companies will let you do it and pay you however much the lumper would have charged. It all depends on the company. Our company prefers that you don't because if you get hurt doing something someone else is suppose to do, you cannot drive and could've avoided that.

 

Don't Do It.....

 

Dont go to USA, They have the worst track record for how they new driver than any other company. You see go there you will sit waiting fo loads

 

if you are the new guy 90% no touch freight means you will be doing the 10% part. older drivers know what loads to avoid. and your dispatcher dont want a lot of argument from drivers,so they give it to the new guy. of course he wont mention about hand unld until you get to your delivery point. when i dispatched my answer to that was (when did they start doing that) so welcome to trucking b careful

 

if you are the new guy 90% no touch freight means you will be doing the 10% part. older drivers know what loads to avoid. and your dispatcher dont want a lot of argument from drivers,so they give it to the new guy. of course he wont mention about hand unld until you get to your delivery point. when i dispatched my answer to that was (when did they start doing that) so welcome to trucking b careful

 

i heard other drivers complain about usa truck as well...however, i had a positive experience with them. i spent my first year and a half in trucking working for them, and never had less than 2500 miles in a week (ok that may be a lie, there may have been a week or 2 less than that...never under 2300 and averaged over 2850 miles per week). i unloaded 1 truck in a year and a half. and that was my choice, rather than sit for hours waiting on a lumper that may or may not have shown up on that sunday. i was scheduled to pick up another load later that day, was a great load, didnt wanna lose it, so i huffed the stuff off the trailer in order to ensure i kept the next load. read what people say, im not saying you should discount anything in particular. but dont let a few people turn you off to a particular company...there are indeed many disgruntled employees, past and present, of ANY large company. and if you should go to usa truck (or any other large company), try to stay away from the "terminal talk". ive found the worst talk about any company i worked for at the terminals. some surely have valid complaints...truck broke down for extended period of time or such. some prefer to sit in a terminal and gripe rather than make themselves available to run the miles they complain they do not get. if you are always available for loads (send in your "available" macro as soon as you get empty...heck i usually send empty call 15-30 minutes before im empty whenever possible), if you always show up for your pickups and deliveries ON TIME, and if you communicate with your fleet manager when you are having a bad week (mileage-wise i mean) you will usually find that whatever they say is the average miles for drivers (a question you should ALWAYS ask before accepting a job) will end up being a bad week for you. this of course assumes your truck runs reliably..breakdowns happen, and you will end up with a crappy week if it is an extended period of time to fix. do your pretrip/posttrip every day, and that should somewhat minimize the possibility of breaking down, but especially if you are like me- a mechanical moron- there will be many things over your head as far as the mechanics of the truck. all the more reason you should make yourself available ALL THE TIME when the truck is running well. my outlook is, if im gonna be out on the road, away from friends and family, i will do anything and everything to maximize the amount i will be compensated for that. good luck to you, and remember...few drivers stay with these large "cdl mill" companies. the goal for most is to get a year or 2 of experience in order to get a better job. if this is you, as well, then stay SAFE. a few hundred extra miles on your paycheck is good, but not at the expense of getting yourself in a situation where you are more likely to have an accident (small or large). take your time in ALL BACKING situations...most truck accidents are small dollar value backing accidents. minor wont mean too much, though, in a new job search. rack up 2,3, or more small backing accidents and you may find yourself staying with usa truck longer than you wanted because no one else will hire you before they drop off your record (3 years). get out and look. then get out and look again. if you have to get out 83 times, then do it...dont worry about how stupid you look to other "super drivers". ive been driving for a few years now, and im still the guy that youll see get out 83 times if i feel like i need to. #### how i look to the other drivers. they arent my buddies, ill most likely never see them again, and if i run into something, how will i look to the other drivers THEN?!?!

 

At least USA does have APU's. Alot of companies don't. Check there idling policies before you decide. Schneider is putting sensors on there trucks. So you can't idle between a certain temp. You don't want to freeze or boil out there.