Profile For Old School

James, you aren't really understanding about them paying for your lodging. Most company sponsored training will only involve a short time period in a hotel. It may only be a week or two at the most. The rest of the time you are living in a truck with a trainer. You will be living in that truck for free. That's the time when you are being trained.

Danny, I never reccomend starting your career based on training pay. Training is a very short time. I would not focus on it. No matter how much you get paid during training has no effect on your ability to excel at this career.

If you want to be successful you have to have the big picture in focus. The training pay is a distraction which means little to nothing in the big picture. I don't even consider the quality of the training as being critically important. I had terrible training. It had no ill effect on my career.

Trucking is unique. You're seriously going to struggle with it during your first 3 months. You'll get a little more comfortable with it if you last 6 months. I don't care who trains you - it's highly unlikely you'll make it for a full year. That's no jab at you. It's merely a statistical fact. That's why I wouldn't focus on the little nuances and differences in training.

Look at the bigger picture. Decide what kind of career you want. Do you want to haul flatbed loads, or maybe something like refrigerated freight? Figure out what you want out of it and go for that. Choose a company that has options you are interested in. You've got to make it work against the odds. Higher or lower training pay won't help you succeed one little bit in trucking.

Here's my opinion.

If you'll put as much effort into proving yourself a dependable, reliable, efficient driver as you have put into your research, the name on your truck door won't make one bit of difference in your success as a professional driver.

Seriously, you don't need exhaustive research to make a good start at this. You will determine whether you make this work. Any company will give you the chance to prove yourself. Beyond that, you are the major force propelling your success.

That's trucking. It doesn't really matter if it's Halvor or Roehl, or Melton or whoever. You are the driver, you hold the keys. You make it happen.

I'm just curious... why do you want to start your trucking career as a team driver?

That's a great question James.

The answer is no. There's very little reason to have a terminal near your home. I live in East Texas. My terminal is in Gulfport, MS. To be honest, I may go there twice a year.

An over the road driver travels all over the place. A large trucking company has multiple terminals. The only reason I go to a terminal is truck maintenance. If I am in Pennsylvania and it's time for an oil change, my company will have me report to a terminal in Pennsylvania. It's that simple. You are going to be nomadic. The company knows and understands that. They will handle the logistics of it all.

When you want to go home, you don't need a terminal. You merely need a place to park the truck. Some folks can park it at their home, others may use a nearby truck stop or a Wal-Mart or other large retailer that grants them permission for parking.

Speaking of being nomadic... you don't even have to keep a home. You can save a lot of money by living in the truck and taking home time wherever you request it. A lot of drivers do that. It's a strategy that would help you get out of debt. The possibilities are limitless. You can live like a gypsy and save like Warren Buffet.

Trucking companies are accustomed to all of the issues. When you first get started they may have you pick up a truck from five or six states away from where you train. They will pay to get you there and start your first dispatched load from wherever you are at. Or, they may have a truck sitting right where you trained. One way or another, they will work out the details.

Why do you insist on being close to home for your training? You are really limiting yourself. There are many companies who will pay your transportation, your lodging, and your meals while you train.

Dig in and look at some of these Paid CDL Training Programs.

Hello Tiki Dave, and welcome to a new challenging/rewarding career. I've been with Knight for over a million miles. It's obviously a great place to be in my opinion.

Trucking is so radically different than most other jobs. It really throws a lot of folks into a fit of dissatisfaction right off the start. Don't make any rash or quick decisions when starting this career. Be deliberate, and learn from the flow of things. Keep yourself from the malcontents and the complainers. They'll only make your vision skewed and biased.

Many new truckers get demoralized by the jaded truckers who take it as their personal mission to expose the horrible conditions truckers submit to. Don't allow them to pollute your mind. Listen to the people who are successful at this, and form your own opinions based on your experience.

Welcome to trucking!

Feel free to ask us anything. We don't bite, and we believe every question is worthy of a helpful answer. There's no question we consider dumb or beneath us. We were all beginners at this one time. Someone helped us, and we just enjoy helping others who are going through the process as well.

One of my newer predictions is that you will soon see the length of auto and car loans get extended. You'll start seeing 8 - 10-year auto financing and 35 - 40-year mortgages

Brett, I am home this week taking care of some farm business. I was talking to my banker 2 days ago. Our conversation steered into auto financing and he said, "One of the next things we are implementing is ten year auto loans." My jaw dropped, and I asked, "What happens to the guy who needs to sell his car in three years?"

His response was that they were going to be in a difficult situation. Most of the money they've paid at that point was applied to interest. They are married to the car and the bank. There's not a good way to get loose from either one of them.

Are you all insane?

You've got to love it when a new member joins our site with these four words being their opening statement.

The issue is shareholders.

How so?

Shareholders actually hold companies accountable for being efficient and productive. How else can a company gain trust and investment from the public?

It's great to hear your opinion on shareholders, but explain your position to us.