Comments By Justin N.

Dallas is the easiest big city I know of. Just avoid i-30 and us-80 which takes you through the heart of downtown going east and west. If possible get on I-20 running along the south side of town and you can cruise through at 65-70 mph even during rush hour a lot of times.

Much of the industrial places that a truck will often deliver to is on the southwest part of town anyways, 60% of my deliveries there I just exit off of i-20 and arrive within minutes.

The Dallas Fort Worth cities have huge highways going in every direction to make it easy, that place was made for truckers.

Before I got my cdl I did pizza delivery, flower delivery, and mail delivery. All decent driving jobs where you got home every night.

A rural carrier associate job delivering mail pays about $20 an hour here in Dallas but is a pain to get. Got to sign up for a test and then be one of the top scores out of hundreds of applicants.

Pizza delivery was the easiest job I ever got, walked right in and the guy hired me right there at the counter. It also paid pretty well, some days I made over $200 with tips, average was maybe $14 an hour before deducting fuel and other expenses.

You got to be willing to endure a lot if you want to drive a truck. I started out being on the road for six months straight without ever going home averaging about $400-$600 a week.

After that though things got a lot better. Got a dedicated route I enjoy and making $1,100-$1,300 a week and am home every weekend.

If you are not certain that trucking is what you want to do then you probably are not going to put up with all the hassles that comes with it, especially in your first year or so.

Do not stress for a second about the bad reviews, I trained for my cdl with cr england, a company that has 99% horrible reviews all over the internet, The folks there were great and I have no regrets.

You have a real good trainer that is willing to actually put some extra effort and time into helping you learn.

That is a good way to do it too. Have you just kind of figure it out at your own pace while he makes sure you do not damage anything. My first trainer kept waving his hands around telling me to steer this way then that way and honestly I was not learning a thing, just was getting us both frustrated. Never really did learn to back until I signed onto a dedicated account that had me backing into the craziest truck configurations you can imagine about a dozen times a day.

Sorry to hear about your unloading time getting screwed.

I was driving in west Texas one night heading for Abilene on a dark state highway and saw trailer lights pulled over on the side. Did not think anything of it at first but as I was passing I got a better look. There was no truck attached to the trailer!

You do not need any break to be on duty. You can go past 14 hours on duty legally, then just take your ten hour break right there at the scales when inspection is done.

#1 reason it failed is because even back in 64 truckers did not want to have to wear uniforms with dress shoes and hats.

Smokey and the Bandit(1977), Black Dog(1998), Breakdown(1997), Joy Ride(2001)

Next time you have the day off give these films a try. It is what had me wanting to drive a truck since I was a kid.

Have fun driving next week. Still amazes me why someone would order lumber 1.500 miles away, or cable reels 3,000 miles away.

I started with the number one most hated training company as a company team driver and I have no complaints. Dispatcher gave us good loads, never had to sit around waiting, and made a little bit of money too.

It is their job to keep you going, if you are not making money then neither are they. Just do what it takes to get the job done.