Profile For Dalton J.

I appreciate all the responses and this has definitely help me realize the situation and what could happen.

I do have one question that I've been pondering the past few days and I'm wondering if any of you might be able to shed some light.

So, lets say, after a year I decide not to do OTR anymore (because I can see how it could severely damage your relationship and personal goals) and I want to settle down and work locally somewhere. What is the job prospect and outlook like with a year trucking experience?

My overall long-term goal is I really want to work for UPS or FedEx and do local ground deliveries. I want either of those positions badly, however, I heard you need at least 3 years of experience and you kind of need an "inside man" to get into the position because it is highly competitive. Other than that, I need a filler after OTR and I'm not sure what I should expect for local positions somewhere. I'm thinking about moving to wisconsin or minnesota because the opportunities for these types of positions are way better, but that is just brainstorming.

So, with some clarification, I'm basically asking what I can expect after OTR. What could I shoot for that would give me relative peace of mind and be home every night?

Wow, I appreciate the responses so far.

This has been very useful information and enlightening.

I realized that I might seem like a job bouncer because I quit those two places previously, but I'm going to stick with this decision regardless what happens because I truly do enjoy driving. I have done a lot of manual labor my whole life, I just couldn't handle the slave driving from those other companies for small pay.

I still will eventually get into a local job because I'll be 25 after a year of OTR and it's about the time where I want to spend time at home and move forward with my personal life, but I need the experience so I'm excited for this.

Hello everybody.

I'm glad I just randomly came across this site because it seems to be incredibly useful.

I just passed my test a little over a month ago and during that time, I've worked in 2 places that I thought I'd be able to utilize my CDL (first a beverage company and then a garbage company for 3 weeks) but I quit both of them. I couldn't stand the hard manual labor or the slave driving bosses and the pay was really low...especially where I live.

So with that said, I decided to go with a relatively local trucking company, Veriah. However, I'm nervous about taking the leap and going OTR.

What does working 5 days out, 2 days off do to your lifestyle? I have a girlfriend and she wants me to do this for the money, but it's going to be really hard not seeing each other. We planned that I should at least work a year to get the experience and money and hopefully move into different endeavors afterwards.

I'm excited about seeing the country and cruising to all these places I may not have ever seen, but I'm super nervous about city driving and backing. I heard this company (eventually) sends you to Chicago a lot and that places is a disaster to drive through. Is this something I should be consistently worried about or will it just get better with time?

I guess what I'm really asking is if it is worth it. I estimated that I'd be at about 40k in my "starter" year, which is a lot more than what I could earn living where I'm at. I'd have the year experience and I'm hoping to get into a local job, wherever that may be, within the states.

Any advice would be useful, I'm just not entirely sure 100% what I'm walking into.

Thanks.