Pros
Pay/benefits Management and co-workers very laid back No micromanagement at all (if do your job well no one hassles you) Hard to get fired or written up Good for a young single person of age 23-25- OR -an older person (55-65) who has already raised a family and doesn't want to see his house anymore Nice equipment, automatic trucks Pay for every hang-up (maintenance, break-down, drop/hook, delay, etc.) Once you've been called, you are well taken care of financially no matter what happens on the run. Very few people quit once they are here.
Cons
Absolutely no regard for your off-duty life "Hog-Board" look it up, you will need 10+ years of seniority here to even be eligible for a a set schedule of any kind, and even if you get a bid, a more senior guy can bump you off it or management can cancel it any hour of any day. In the beginning, you will only work weekends, if at all. My first year I luckily made 65,000 somehow, mostly over weekends spent out of my home state while sleeping in grimy hotels.... X( Very few bid lanes, you will work ALL stupid hours for years on end. Very few people quit once they are here, you move up in seniority very slowly. The recruiters will tell you "250 retirements are coming up over the next 20 years" or some sales-pitch-bs to make you feel like you're "getting in at the right time" but waiting on people to retire is even worse than watching paint dry. Inefficient business practices: I'm sure that I'm "not seeing the big picture" here, but making a driver sit in a hotel for 26 hours, paying him 25.00/hr. for 8 hours out of the 26 to lay there, sleep badly, remain "ready", and then send him back to his home domicile with empty trailers seems a tad wasteful. "Costs are up."... I wonder why... But what do I know?
