Comments By Joe S.

When I decided to go to trucking school, my entire family was skeptical and my father insisted that this was a job for people that were not smart enough to do anything else. He made me feel terrible about my decision and constantly tried to suggest other job ideas which all sounded baseless and ridiculous.

After I graduated and got my cdl (just last month) I explained to him how there is always a job available if you have a clean record and a cdl in hand. I also showed him some of the trucking company prehires and how much I could possibly earn each year. After showing him my reasons for choosing trucking, he has seemed to have changed his mind and is now very supportive of my trucking career. I have always been fascinated by the Big Rigs on the road, and I love driving them so hopefully this will be the perfect career for me. I don't think people understand that you can make a decent living off of trucking, they mainly focus on the negative stereotypes people have about being a truck driver. Just follow your dreams and ignore the naysayers.

Hey guy, I like all of your posts they seem really honest and factual. I am hopefully going to begin Werner orientation next week, I have a few questions to ask you if you don't mind. I see that you drove over 12,000 miles in your first two weeks, wow that seems like a lot. Is that normal for team drivers, I will be a team driver can I expect that many miles starting out? how many miles would you guesstimate a newb team driver would pull in a couple of weeks? Would you mind saying how much you earned for 6,000 miles in one week? That would help encourage me knowing that there is decent money to be made team driving. The Recruiter said on the phone that team drivers could earn from 70k to 80k a year does this sound right to you?

I know I have read threads on what to bring to orientation here before, but since I have one week to go I wanted to ask should I bring my laptop computer with me? When you say you had to get to know your FM, what is a FM? sorry if these sound like silly questions I have just recently graduated trucking school and got my cdl. Is there anything that has not been mentioned much about what to bring to orientation/training. I am very excited to begin this new adventure/career in my life and I am trying to make it be as much of a smooth transition as possible.

When I do start trucking I am worried that since both of my parents are very old something may happen while I am gone. As of now I have been looking out for them for the last couple of years. If something happens to them while I am on the road, do you know if Werner is good about giving emergency home time if needed. Hopefully nothing will happen but I am still concerned about leaving them alone they can barely figure out how to use the remote control much less the phone. Sorry for so many questions I have many more but I will stop now as I know this has been a lot already. Thank you for all the helpful information you post on these forums it really does take some of the stress away knowing what to expect in this new career starting out.