Ive been offered a position with Cassens Transport in Detroit. This will be my first truck driving position. Im hoping someone could shed a little light on what to expect if I take the job. Is this a good position for a rookie? I know there is a lot of work involved in loading and unloading. I was told it was 2/3 of the job, and if I could load a truck in 6 hours out of training I should pat myself on the back. What im most concerned about is space restrictions. Im 6'4" and about 330lbs. Nothing was mentioned to that effect when I interviewed for the position, but im wondering if that was because of the discrimination issue. Ive seen other posts saying it helps to be smaller, but to get under some of these cars today, even the thinnest of people would struggle.
Layoffs are another issue, but I think that $1.12 a loaded mile makes it worth my while. What do you think?

 

Have you ever stopped to watch a CH'er unload at a car lot?

 

Never watched one. This has all just come up. Ive been looking for a local position since i graduated driver school, so i didnt put much thought toward this kind of position. I applied because they seemed to have the best home time and $$ for an OTR company. I was actually surprised to get the call. I was hoping i could get some answers here before i started chasing trucks.

 

Car Hauling calls for a special breed of driver; I've known some car haulers, and only a few of them were any good at it.

IMHO, it's not what a rookie should be focusing upon. The work is time consuming, you'll be in back of a lot of chicken houses, (Often having to unload/reload to balance the weights, you don't get paid very much for hadling the vehichles (load&off-load pay), and with most of the companies I know of, you pay for any damage to the vehichles that you cause.

Now, I'm no expert here; never drove a portable parking lot, so there may be others out there who know far more than I do.

BOL2U!!

 

If the highway has a yellow no-pass middle lane, they usually do it in the middle of the highway. Longer time than a pallet load if the lift driver isn't hourly, but it has to be faster than high and tight loads don't it? I've been a lumper at some pretty tough places: watkins, ups, and refridgerated transport. I can pretty much strip a truck in a couple of hours, except some of those Watkins loads from LA that looked like they were loaded tipping the trailer on its end and freight poured in from above (big % damage rates).

Car trailers look so innefficient, they must just go from factory to rail car and rail cars to dealer. That may knock that $1.12 O/O rate back down if short routes with a high percentage load/unload ratio. And I've driven up alignment racks at sears before, but not two stories high and in the middle of the highway, lol. Good luck!

But if they average 1500 miles a week at that rate, wow, get me on there please!

 

They sure have some low expectations! :shock:

At Allied Systems if you can't load your truck in under 45 minutes after 3 months they off-load you!

 

Im not sure what their expectations are, but 45 minutes sounds very unsafe to me. It would take longer than that just to round up your vehicles. Its a union position, so im sure you are allowed sufficient time to load.
The way i understood it, you make the same as the rest of the drivers, but it takes a lot longer to load and unload being new. The more experience you have, the quicker you can do this and the more time you spend driving. Driving =$$. The way they have the pay worked out, your loading pay is factored into your mileage pay. So technically you make nothing for loading the cars until you make the delivery. But the average first year pay is $45K-$60K, so it balances itself out.

 

I have worked on car lots here in cali for a few years now and have talked to quite a few car haulers and they all make damn good money, but you will have to bust your #$$ its not drop and hook. Like the other poster said though its not a job for a newbie.

 

I've never done car-hauling before but a driver at the company i'm with now has and he was saying it takes newbies about 1.5 hours to load a truck while some veterans can do it in under 30 mins if they don't have a mixed batch of cars to arrange.

Your right about the money though, its damn good! I submitted a resume to Allied but never got a call back.

Anyways good luck with your first job!

 

Loading and unloading doesn't take very long once you get a system down. Just remember to take your time because damage's = money. When I hauled cars for my uncle (7 car trailer) I always went through the whole bottom row and un-chained them then unloaded them and after that walked through and undid the chains on the top row and unloaded them. I could unload in less than 30 minutes.

Loading on the other hand is basically the same thing but reversed, it just takes a little longer because you have to tighten the chains down instead of just popping the ratchets loose. But once you figure out how to load your truck it will wont take long to load and unload. My other uncle used to work for Brother's Auto transport and he is 5'11" 350lbs and he was super fast.

This is the truck I drove for my uncle, this picture was taken in late February so the truck is a little dirty.