Profile For Torsten P.

Welcome, I think you need a basic math class.

Your description is not easy to follow, much less show you have very much experience at all. Time with a cdl does not count. Time behind the wheel full time does. Maybe I’m missing something…

These accounts are usually very difficult and require alot of manual labor. We steer people with little experience away from them because a mishap and your likely done, ruining your career before it starts.

I appreciate the critique on my math skills! Are you referring to my estimated CDL driving experience? I mean cumulatively it’s 3-4 years. I haven’t completely done the math but it’s been my main occupation ever since quitting the tire shop in 2018. Im not saying I have as much experience as most others in here but I am a safe and confident driver.

I’m not worried about the driving part or really the labor part separately but combining both I’m not completely sure how i feel. I’m no stranger to hard work like I said I’ve loaded trailers full of junk tires in the middle of summer. Did that for 3.5 years. To me unloading a trailer full of product seems slightly less strenuous than that.

I was hoping others that have experienced this type of work could weigh in. Do you end up making what they tell you you’ll make or do you get screwed somewhere along the way? Are benefits offered by CR England any good?

Also anybody that’s done the WA-OR-ID-MT route specifically. A lot of other drivers’ reviews say the stores suck to get in position I was wondering if stores on this route are more of the same.

So I’ll start with this; I’m 28 years old, i worked as a tire/lube tech for 3.5 years out of high school before getting into trucking in 2018. Living in a small town it’s been mostly agricultural stuff. Got my CDL in 2019 and got on a construction gig for a couple months. Local stuff dried up in 2020 but got back into it starting in 2021.

Moved to Boise mid-2022 and I’ve been in construction (the manual labor side), overnight gas station attendant, currently delivering pizza in the evening. Drove a few months of night construction back in August-October last year.

Anyway, delivery isn’t paying the bills so I’ve been back on the job search. I have no OTR experience so there’s a fair amount of driving positions I’m not eligible for. I don’t have a solid history but cumulatively I’d say I have 4 years of truck driving. Lots of miles and lots of hours but only local. I’ve been on Indeed the past few months applying to every driving job I qualify for. Finally been turning up some leads in the last couple weeks.

The one that’s grabbed my attention the most is a Dollar Tree route for CR England claiming $91-129k per year which comes out to around 1700-2400 per week. I’m just starting out so i figure I’ll fall on the lower end of the scale and honestly I’d be happy with 1500 a week. They’re saying hourly wage is $30 with time and a half after 40. Not sure about unload/stop pay or any of that.

I watched a training video demonstrating the work involved and it doesn’t look all that bad. I’ve unloaded trailers full of tires, loaded trailers full with junk tires in the heat and the cold. It’s not fun but I was only making 15-17 at the time; it was also only once per week and not multiple times per day.

At the moment i believe if i can actually take home more than 1500 a week then the work might be worth the money. I’m just on the fence about the time away, I have 3 kids and their mom works during the day and I’m not trying to leave her without another set of hands around to help.

On the other hand neither of us are financially well-off or even stable and even 6 months on this job, a year, or even two if I could swing it, would be enough to put us in a good spot.

So idk I guess I’m still weighing my options here. I got an offer to attend training/orientation in Utah where I’ll take the driving test as well. This is all assuming I can pass the driving test I guess. I haven’t done a whole lot of city driving but I’ve done a fair bit of technical driving.

I was just doing some reading on the experiences from other drivers on this forum about this route and they’re basically all bad. I was wondering if there’s anybody that’s run the route more recently, or specifically the northwest route through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana that could weigh in on their experience. Also any advice to somebody just getting started in OTR truck driving.