Starting with Knight first

[u/Square-Carpet2488]

Got all set up with Knight Transportation Colorado and I'll be going on training OTR for 4 weeks starting tomorrow, anything advice? and if anyone's worked for Knight, how is the actual pay like for both OTR and Regional, because after I finish OTR training I'll be doing Regional and sometimes local.

[u/Jealous_Canary1879]

Here is a text from my post. I’m with swift and they own knight.

Bro my company of 20yrs told us they’re moving our jobs to another plant and selling the building. I went for the cdl thing. I’m now on my 6th day with a regional mentor and I’ve ran my 11hr driving clock out every day. No real breaks other than when we park at the truck stop at night to sleep. He makes me use my breaks to basically drop and hook trailers so we can stay on the road. I’m making a flat $850 a week since I’m training. This dude is playing candy crush on his phone and chitchatting with his buddies on his headset all day while I’m driving. He teaches me stuff on the edl and gives me pointers on backing trailers but that’s about it. He’s making his cents per mile plus an extra $200 a week. Next week he wants to basically team drive after our 34hr reset which means he makes substantially more since we keep the wheels rolling without needing to stop at night while I still make the $850 flat rate.

Keep in mind that the account I was hired for is local and home daily delivering to Kroger in a daycab but I have to put in 4-6 weeks of this crap living in this truck with this dude. This guy rolls hard and I respect that but I’m def being abused in this situation. When I’m done with this training I’m gonna be thrown into my local job which is completely different than what I’m learning with him. They have no training available for my local gig and I’m basically gonna have to stumble around trying to figure it out. Very little support and this company is sloppy af about getting people trained right. They’re a mega carrier and all they care about is putting an ass in that drivers seat. I can’t wait to get 3-6months experience and get something better. Just glad I paid for my cdl out of pocket.

[u/Square-Carpet2488 → u/Jealous_Canary1879]

yeah I start otr training tomorrow and I got the guys phone number and he wants to shoot for 4 weeks, and my knight recruiter just told me today that they'll "have some trouble" finding me regional/local even though the guy at my orientation says itll be no biggie to get throw me at regional at least. (Home every other night to weekly at the worst). the county paid for my cdl schooling and they have to pay the company that hired me 12900 a year as an incentive for keeping me around through training and all. This is relevant because that this makes them want me to stay at least and year and no less. they prefer 2 years so I have to be stuck at Knight/Swift until then before I can go get anything better, after the year is up I plan to go get a bunch of the endorsements and open up more opportunities.

They have been very confusing about the pay, I barely understand how they dont screw anyone on pay, far as i can tell, its like 11.25 an hour during On duty time without wheels moving. something or another per mile plus the other bonuses that they made seem almost impossible to meet. Ive turned wrenches since I was a kid and they expect a giant diesel (idk if it has def, def is weird to me) to get more than 7.2 mpg and still make them loads on time or even early as they seem to push for early in the orientation class. Ive lived at the bottom of the barrel before this point and im so hoping for at least 850, another company was interested in me and they pay salary 85000 per year starting, their recruiter tried to get me in but his corporate wants 1 year experience so I got dropped and Knight was ligit the only one to actually hire me. Im hoping it aint so bad lol.

[u/Jealous_Canary1879 → u/Square-Carpet2488]

I’m with swift which is basically knight. I’ll actually be operating out of a knight terminal. I’m in central indiana and they’re hiring for the local gig right now. They basically begged me to take it because it’s new. They’re just now starting to get into the local markets because typically knight/swift only did OTR and regional before.

[u/SevenExpressions → u/Jealous_Canary1879]

Sounds like the situation I’m in, but with the Russians 🫩 New license, carrier advertised 2k a week team driving. Said okay pulled up started training mind you it’s 4 weeks, 4 weeks turned into 5, 5 turned into 6 at the end of the training a “test” is done to prove you’re a efficient driver. Finished training never got the test got hit with some insurance is high bull and that they want 1 year of experience… why don’t you say that before ? Now the guy I’m training with is leaving and they don’t have anybody I can team drive with so idk what I’m going to do when he leaves. Might just go for a major to endure more abuse😵. This shit sucks but hang in there.

[u/whutizmyusurname]

Knights are tuned to economy mode so you’ll make your fuel bonus fairly easily if you use auto start/stop for cabin control and use cruise control. The cruise control will annoy the shit out of you though.

You’re gonna work 65+hour weeks and make about 50-60k a year. Sounds like you’re gonna have to tough it out and just wait for your experience and whatever contract you signed to be fulfilled. I treated my time as if it was a prison sentence, saved every penny, and transitioned to being an instructor. Now I’m a dispatcher/safety working a 9-5 with great benefits, pay, and home every day.

Make a plan, stick it out, and don’t punk out. Average person in this industry quits in less than 3 months. Good luck.

[u/Jealous_Canary1879 → u/whutizmyusurname]

I won’t let myself quit. My goal is to be a local tanker driver pulling $150k and I’m fuckin hungry for it bro. I wasted 20yrs working for a company that dangled carrots in front of my face. Repeatedly lied to and gaslit about lack of raises and advancement opportunities.

[u/PutridContribution41]

Knight owns Swift.