After I obtained my CDL I went through orientation at Contract Freighters Inc. in Joplin, Missouri and spent two weeks driving 7,500 miles with a finisher before I got my own truck.
Here you can see my (red) truck next to that of my finisher (yellow):
From December 1, 2006 through February 29, 2008 I drove approximately 160,000 miles for CFI, which is now Con-Way Truckload. I left on good terms to pursue the next step in my trucking career, which is to become a lease-purchase operator.
I spent more than a year researching trucking before I entered the profession and I have spent most of the past 16 months performing due diligence on every trucking company I could find that offers a lease-purchase program. The truck I was to drive, and eventually own, is the Volvo 780 and I wish to drive it new, not purchase used. I considered other companies in the industry that didn't drive this particular vehicle but eventually narrowed the field down to Hill Bros in Omaha, Nebraska.
Hill Bros is a refrigerated outfit so I will need specific training on running a "reefer", an industry term. Also, they occasionally load hazardous materials for transport so I will have to add the Hazmat endorsement to my license in the near future.
Another difference in this changeover is going from a big corporation like CFI/Con-Way Truckload to a smaller fleet at Hill Bros. Roughly 1/10th the size in fact.
This ongoing journal is a continuation of my OTRjournal project. There you can read over 450 posts covering the better part of a year in the life of this driver, and view hundreds and hundreds of pictures here. In conjunction with my friends at Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri I have posted a number of videos here, mostly focusing on their excellent skid pad training.
I began this series of sites to give people from outside the industry an idea of what it is like for me, moving cargo around the United States day-to-day in a big rig. I don't claim any special knowledge or ability in trucking. You should also know that this site is not sponsored by or beholden to anyone but myself and the views expressed on these pages are entirely my own, whether you agree with them or not. It is also not a recruiting tool or come-on, though I suppose if you were persistent enough you could find out my truck number or driver code and arrange for me to get a recruiting "spiff" if you were so inclined to start driving for this company.
