I have been a driver for over 16 years now. In that time I have worked for 4 companies and researched dozens of others. The four I have worked for include Jb Hunt, Trans-States Lines, Shaffer, and Eastern Freightways. I can give anyone interested information (albeit old info) regarding any of these companies from my personal experiences. It is tough finding a good company that pays a driver well AND treats their drivers with respect. That said I must give credit to my current employer for both.

Eastern Freightways has been my home for 7 years so far. In that time I have driven many trucks for them, trained a couple of drivers, and am now running team for them with my wife.

When I started with them back in June of 2001 I was getting paid .36 cpm plus accessorial pay. This included drop and hook pay, stop pay, detention, congestion, handling, breakdown, weekend pay (if a customer requested weekend service), and multi stop bonuses. With 3000 miles per week and 3 to 400 dollars in "extras" I was able to make a decent paycheck and get home each weekend for 24 to 36 hours to boot.

The benefits were great too. 6 Paid holidays, 5 paid personal days, 100%Paid medical and dental insurance for the driver and his family, up to 3 weeks vacation, monthly bonuses, and 401k available.

We currently have about 100 trucks in the truckload fleet (which is a subsidiary of NEMF) with the majority of drivers falling into the regional category. We run between Maine and Florida and out to Chicago Il for the regional drivers and have dedicated runs to California, Florida, and Georgia for the teams (about 10 teams at last count I think).

We drive older Volvos and Freightliners for the most part. Straight 10 and super 10's with no engine brake and small engines. The company did purchase 50 or 60 new Volvos in the fall of 2006 with automatic transmissions and engine brakes and is slowly rotating them into use while rotating out the older equipment.

It took me 8 years before I stumbled upon this company. They do have their warts (such as older equipment, and alot of short northeast runs) but by the end of the week a driver who hustles can make well over a grand per week. My best year as a solo regional driver was over 75 grand and that was with 4 weeks off!

I know alot of drivers have recently lost their jobs and many o/o's have gone out of business as well. I am offering this info to everyone (the company does very little advertising) so that they may at least take a look at this company. They have paid me very well over the years and treated me right. So much so that I recruited and trained my younger brother as well as my wife to drive for them.

I cannot offer details about the current rate per mile because I am now running team and am on a completely different pay scale than the solos are. The company has changed somewhat over the years and the pay scale and benefits packages have changed as well. We now have to pay for the medical insurance (40.00 per week for family through United Healthcare) and the company no longer offers drop and hook pay or pay for every stop to new drivers but does offer a higher cpm start.