Comments By DJames

Hello, What is a ballpark monthly figure for living OTR as bare bones and minimally as possible? Assuming cooking/eating in the truck, groceries only, no dining out, hotels, excursions etc. I know it can vary a bit but what is a reasonable range?

Matthew, what year do you have in mind as that in which self driving trucks will start to displace OTR drivers?

Interesting. I 'd like to make a friendly bet on it.

Automated Trucks. It is coming. Sorry if that goes against"conventional wisdom. Tech is already out there and improving.

I'm sorry, but you've been snowed by the tech evangelists. Old School is right. Autonomous trucking is making billions of dollars for startup companies as the big corporations buy anything these fools put out. Why? They're afraid of being left behind. Self-driving tech isn't within 25 years of making an impact on this industry. At this point, it's a marketing gimmick. If we were serious about self-driving vehicles we would be installing the infrastructure needed to support it. No one is even seriously discussing such an investment, let alone building anything.

I wrote this article nearly five years ago, and every word holds true today:

Self Driving Trucks Are Not Coming Anytime Soon

Contact Good Sams Mail Service.

I will definitely take a look at them, thanks for the info Navy.

I know for sure because when my wife and I went full time rving we had nowhere to call home or an address to use as a base. We signed up and it works just fine.

Yeah, if things go the way I am planning I will find myself in the same situation in a bit here. Although TX is where I am probably going to wind up, one of these services could help save some cash and hassles in the short term.

In light of what Kearsey said, just to avoid the hassle, and since you're dead set on not keeping the apartment in Florida... I'd just use your parent's place. I don't like monkeying around with laws though and so unless I really need to see something happen I don't go looking for legal cracks.

As you mentioned it would probably be best to use my parents house as my permanent address. The transition seems like it would be a hassle either way though. As Cypress has terminals, a training center in Abilene and is hiring out of TX it seems I could start training in either state. It leaves the question of whether it would be best start in FL or TX.

I could get my CDL learner's permit in FL, go to training here in Florida, get a Florida CDL then transfer everything over. Or I could do the same in TX, except doing the residency transfer before going into training. It seems like starting in TX would be the best route but there is the downside of some unemployed time with no income while working on getting a DL and CDL learner's before being able to go into paid training.

Thank you for the information Kersey. It looks like the Michigan law is very clear cut on what they mean with regards to residence. The Florida laws however are ambiguous and don't specify residence as clearly as Michigan does. The Florida statutes state that it is a moving violation to not update your address within 30 days of moving but they don't specify what constitutes an actual address. The Escapees RV Club website and conversations with them indicate that their service does serve as an actual legal physical address in Florida which you can use to establish residency and obtain a FL DL etc. It seems that Florida and TX are very popular places for mailing services that also offer a domicile. This of course is due in part to no state tax, though several other states do not have state income taxes. I think one of the reasons Florida is especially popular is that the official residence definition is ambiguous from what I have seen.

What company are you working with? If they're large enough you could get a box (or any other flavor of mailing address) in basically any large city.

It is looking like it will probably be Cypress Trucking. I applied last year and was accepted and got a prehire, but delayed it a year with all of the uncertainty about the pandemic.

I am planning on starting my CDL training in late April or May with a company here in Florida. I can't see any point in continuing to pay ridiculous Orlando area rent for an apartment that I will barely see. I would rather put that money away towards a down payment on a house. I could always use my folk's home address in San Antonio but figured things would be much less complicated keeping my residence here in Florida (using a mailing service) at least for the short term while going through training and getting underway. My plan is to schedule my orientation a couple weeks before my lease expires and leave Orlando for good at that point.

I ask the following questions as I have read that some here are basically living out of the truck as I am planning to doing for a while. Is it possible to use a mailing service as an address for your CDL? I have heard of some using Escapees RV service for this sort of thing on other sites and wanted to know what services or arrangements members here are using for their addresses. I appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

-Don

RealDiehl, How long do you usually stay out at a time?

You should never ask a recruiter a speculative question. Stick with facts about the company or the specific job you're interested in. Don't try to get them to predict the future.

Have you ever seen a train without an engineer? I don't know why you should be concerned about a truck with no driver. Autonomous trucks are a long ways off. Driverless trucks seem unlikely for a really long time.

Yes and when you take into account that the ability to automate trains has been around since the 60s at least it seems to bode well for truck drivers.

Cold shower for students with big expectations :)

My total earnings includes Prime's TNT phase where I made $700/week. It also includes home time during TNT and some home time since I went solo in August 2020. All in, I am pretty happy with my pay to date.

That's good! Considering only about 5 months of true solo driving and home time as well.