CDL-A Heavy Haul & Refrigerated Truck Drivers in Pendleton, OR

Company Drivers

The information below provides insight into how working as a Company Driver may meet your expected lifestyle, work into your long-term career plans, and provide the working environment you seek.

What is Company Driver?

Company Drivers are employed by specific companies that maintain its own fleet of trucks. Company Drivers are can be separated into 2 categories: (1) drivers working for trucking carriers that exist for the sole purpose of transporting freight of others, or (2) drivers working for companies that carry its own freight to support its own company’s product or service. Company drivers are in high demand, particular among large carriers.

What are some personal characteristics helpful for Company Drivers?

Aside from the personal characteristics needed to be a good truck driver, a Company Driver can be representing a company with thousands of workers in the US and internationally. Therefore, it is helpful for a Company Driver to keep a happy, helpful demeanor both to the general public and customers. Likewise, reliability, honesty, integrity, and self-motivation is necessary since you won’t have anyone looking over your shoulder or directing your every move. No one will tell you when to get out of bed in the morning or when to take a break or stop driving for the day (except the NMCSA, of course!).

For additional information about Company Drivers, including what is a Company Driver, pathways to securing a driving job, financial investment requirements, personal characteristics, average salaries and compensation structures of Company Drivers, visit Truck Driving Job Resources.

Different types of materials require different types of trailers, and each type of trailer offers drivers its own challenges. Therefore, it is important to understand what is required to not only drive your truck and your freight, but the trailer you are pulling as well.

What is heavy-haul equipment?

Heavy-haul trailers are designed specifically to haul items like large construction equipment and energy-generating windmill blades. Several types of specialized trailer equipment are used to carry these heavy loads, or “super loads,” as they are often called.

What characteristics must a driver have to pull heavy-haul equipment?

The name “heavy-haul” implies strength, and strength and durability are important traits for heavy-haul drivers. Even with power-steering and automatic transmissions, the weight of a typical heavy-haul load makes steering more difficult than a typical load such as a dry van.

Drivers of heavy-haul equipment must, like all drivers, be on the lookout for potential safety issues. A heavy-haul driver must be aware of barriers in a wider path than a normal driver. The long trailers require attention to longer distances in sideview barriers as well as wider areas, especially when turning corners.

A very important characteristic of a heavy-haul driver is to be a team player. Heavy-haul drivers may be the only person in the truck, but a full team of route-planners, employees loading and securing cargo, pilot-vehicle drivers, and sometimes state or public highway authorities, including law enforcement, all must work together to ensure a safely-delivered load.

What endorsements are needed for heavy-haul trucking?

Endorsements are depending on the type of cargo being hauled and might include (H) Hazardous Materials, (N) Tanker, or (X) Combination Hazardous Materials and Tanker.

In addition, a firm planning a heavy-haul route must coordinate with state or local authorities, often gaining a permit based on engineering survey of load and route, bridge analysis to determine weight limits and axle configurations, scheduling to minimize disruption of traffic.

For more information about Heavy Haul equipment, including what type of companies hire, job requirements, compensation structures, what endorsements are needed, visit Truck Driving Job Resources.

Different types of materials require different types of trailers, and each type of trailer offers drivers its own challenges. Therefore, it is important to understand what is required to not only drive your truck and your freight, but the trailer you are pulling as well.

What is “reefer” or “refrigerated” hauling?

Refrigerated trailers are those most often hauling food products that must be kept at low temperatures to prevent perishing. Drivers of reefers may operation within a region, or they may travel cross-country routes in performing their jobs. Driving a reefer, as opposed to a dry van, requires additional skills and responsibilities. Monitoring temperatures within the trailer is a vital task of reefer drivers, as if they vary from a specific range as determined by the product carried. Drivers should be skilled in identifying problems with equipment and making minor repairs as well as calling and waiting for repair help. A reefer driver may make several stops along a route to offload products at grocery stores, convenience stores, and other retail locations.

What characteristics does a reefer/refrigerated driver need?

Along with the personality traits need for most driving positions, reefer drivers need to realize and accept the level of responsibility involved in hauling refrigerated products. Depending on the product, a reefer may carry products with a total value of hundreds of thousands of dollars to retailers that rely on a steady supply of refrigerated items to meet consumer demand. Delays in shipments hurt the carriers as well as the retailers.

Often, reefer drivers will be responsible for offloading a certain number of boxes or cargo at various locations. A level of strength and endurance is necessary, as is a conscious effort to protect the product from breaking, being crush, or otherwise damaged.

What endorsements are needed to haul refrigerated goods?

Reefer drivers can typically perform their jobs with a CDL appropriate for the truck being driven. No specific endorsements are normally required unless the trailers use atypical refrigeration systems involving hazardous materials.

For more information about Reefer/Refrigerated Hauling, including what type of companies hire, job requirements, compensation structures, what endorsements are needed, visit Truck Driving Job Resources.

Truck driving route type vary within the industry and are dependent on several factors including interstate trucking requirements, route planning, type of cargo hauled, frequency, hazardous materials restrictions, driver experience, etc.

Local Routes are shorter and cover a smaller (usually local) geographic area. Local Route drivers are home every night and have a regular daily route including several stops to offload cargo. Companies servicing restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores, and high-volume retail outlets are frequently included in a local route on a daily or semi-regular basis.

Truck driving route type vary within the industry and are dependent on several factors including interstate trucking requirements, route planning, type of cargo hauled, frequency, hazardous materials restrictions, driver experience, etc.

Over the Road (OTR) Routes are likely those that most people with minimal knowledge of the trucking industry envision drivers working. OTR routes can be regional with occasional outside of region assignments or they may be cross-country to make one delivery or several along the way. OTR drivers are generally paid by the mile and are on the road for much of the year with limited home time.

Truck driving route type vary within the industry and are dependent on several factors including interstate trucking requirements, route planning, type of cargo hauled, frequency, hazardous materials restrictions, driver experience, etc.

Regional Routes are routes within a specified geographic region. The region may be as small as a few counties in a state, a state itself, or a number of states. Regions are often divided geographically in typical ways including the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest Northwest, etc.