Start A Trucking Career?

Hi folks,

To the point, I have been a in home appliance service tech for 19 years. Up until last year, I owned the company until I shut it down. Revenue was dropping and after laying off my last tech, I decided to get out. At 52, all that time on my knees is showing and dont want to be in a scooter at 80 with no knees.

Always loved the open road. I drive, rarely fly. If I could drive to Hawaii, I would.

Looking at OTR drving as a career change. I have been lurking here and other similar forums for a couple months now, and I am still not sure. I hear great things, bad things, and terrifying things. Elogs , hours of service, tickets, fines, trucks shutting down after reaching the HOS limit and having to tow the last 5 miles, and on and on. Great pay, bad pay, stolen trucks, great companys, bad ones, so much to take in.

Long hours alone, nights days, all kinds of weather, do not bother me. After 19 years of field service and some 800,000 miles of windshield time, I am used to it.

It's a big change. Have sold the house, no longer married [that went with the business], and two kids who are all grown up and moved far away, there is not much holding me down in one place.

So, I am thinking of training at a local vo-tech. $3300 and 10 weeks. Sounds reasonable. OR Company sponsored training. I think the school training would be preferable as would not be tied down to a year or better contract. How is hiring for trainees right out of school?

Of those of you who have come from jobs or careers with lots of human contact to very little, was it worth it?

I have to finish enrollment by July 20th, and need a little advise. Jobs for guys like me are few and far between. Other then welding, this is all I have been doing for the last 30 years, property engineering or appliance service. I love to drive. My last vacation consisted of 18 days, 6300 miles from WI to SD, to MT to WY to CO to UT to NV to CA to AZ up through new mexico, oklahoma, nebraska, iowa and back home. Was awesome! Seen things I have never seen [ mt Rushmore was WAY smaller then I thought], 4 corners, grand canyon and so many other things. I know driving would be a lot different as its a job not a sightseeing trip, but there are so many things left unseen.

Any words of advise or wisdom would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Mike.

Go for it! At 42 I went company sponsored and don't regret it. I love my company. Originally I figured I would do the year and try for a local job... but after a couple months I realized there was no point. Not married. ..no kids...so why go back ? My company is awesome I love my dispatcher. Not non driver there has been disrespectful. Claims.. safety.. payroll.. you name it. Every dept has pleasant people to help us.

I'm a control freak aND this is the closest to being your own boss as you can get... and I'm a company driver not a lease or owner op. Dispatch tells me where to pick up at what time and where to take it. They give me a route and tell.me where to fuel. They dont care what time of day I drive or where I stop... if I take a short break every couple hours or a 2 hour break once during my day. As long as I'm early and safe.. I'm left alone.

As far as the HOS... the elogs tell you how long you can drive and by what time you need to break. Only 9ncr since ingot my license in oct did I violate and that was actually covered by a 2 hour exemption ruke because the highway was shut down. I told dispatch 50 min before i violated i was stuck due to an accident. No problem. It's easy. As far as tickets fines and tows... that is on your trip planning. Drive safely... and you wont get a ticket. Inspect your vehicle thoroughly aND you wont get fined. My company letd me take the vehicle in for repairs pretty much whenever i want...I just ajve to tell them. Some things are majorly important and need to be done on the road... others can wait til i get to a terminal. Plan your day correctly and you wont need to be towed.in bad weather you just message dispatch "shut down due to snow will update later". This covers your butt with the Appt time on the load.

Some people are morons. This industry is performance based and you make what you put into it. With 5 months solo I'm making good money as far as I'm concerned without the stress and aggravation I had at the federal govt. I don't have to unload or load the freighr... if I know I'm going to be late I tell dispatch and they have someone else finish the load... but that takes me communicating with them EARLY so they can plan it. And you will know if you will be late. I usually know 12 hours in advance which gives them Plenty of time. It's when someone is an hour away from the place and says my Appt is in 15 min and I'm not going to make it that ticks my guy off.

I treat my truck like my own. If I see soemthing wrong I report it and make arrangements to get it fixed. We have a "road assist" dept for that. My dispatcher sees those messages and knows I'm taking care of business without asking him "what am I supposed to do?"

Don't listen to morons hahahh

Mike, it sounds like you've been checking things out, both good and bad. Yes, there's both of those of here, but the thing that will work for you is your A T T I T U D E. There's another post today about ATTITUDE, search for it.

The ones you read about how terrible some company is are mostly written by people who didn't "get it", or think they know better. Then they blame the company for their own fault. So Rainy boils all that down to

Don't listen to morons hahahh

Have you run across these?

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road Training Program

(The last one is a slam-bang CDL test preparation program and you can't go wrong studying with it.)

The hiring situation for new truck drivers is much like a vacuum cleaner. If you have a CDL permit (that's the written test that you pass courtesy of the High Road Program), a DOT physical, and have a decent life record (legal stuff and clean with the recreational drug scene) you should be driving a big rig in about three or four months.

Age is not a factor. The above is 90% of your hireability.

Hey thanks guys. It sure is a lot to take in. I have read the guide, the book and am looking through the high road. My biggest concern is idle time. I don't do well sitting. I would imagine that this is largely dependent on the company. All in all, the career intrigues me. Home time is not of concern. I have a small cabin on a small lake that's now home, and being away for weeks at a time is fine with me. I would rather take the longest most boring trips over short local or regional routes. Say, Vermont to Anchorage.

What is pay like? I have been told by one local recruiter at a local larger company their drivers earn UP TO, [hate that] 50c a mile? See some numbers of 23,30,35,40,50 cents per mile? There are so many differing stories floating out there. Yes, many seem to be written by morons, and complain about everything. Hard to determine the middle ground.

What is pay like? I have been told by one local recruiter at a local larger company their drivers earn UP TO, [hate that] 50c a mile? See some numbers of 23,30,35,40,50 cents per mile? There are so many differing stories floating out there. Yes, many seem to be written by morons, and complain about everything. Hard to determine the middle ground.

I'm just about to go in for training, I'm told I'll start out at lowly .25 a mile, my dad whom works at Crete makes I want to say .52 cents a mile but he has been doing it for a few years. So pay really changes a lot from company to company and experience.

Do it, I'm starting cdl school this Tuesday or Wednesday but I'll be a 4th generation trucker, here's my advice, bite the bullet and pay for school out of pocket, a good one too. Most of the companies that pay for your schooling in exchange for a year or more of service from what I hear are not the best. Don't get me wrong your experience may differ, but I suggest getting your class A on your own and then apply, if your close to an ABF terminal I would reccomend them, my dad worked for them and he says had he not become an OO he would still work for them, I know they will hire rookies, after a year or two OTR a lot of doors will open for.

Just my 2 cents. What ever you do decide on good luck!

Here's one of the threads I posted my miles and pay...

Rookie pay

I drove back in the 90's and now that the kids are grown I'm looking to hit the road again. If it were that horrible I wouldn't be going back. It gets in your blood!

I do have a suggestion about school choice. If you go to a local school, ask them if they have employment agreements with any carriers. I know the truck school in my town gets you conditional offers before you even sign up for the school. Meaning that if you pass everything and get your license, you have a job waiting. When I went to school back in the day, you got your license and just mailed out a pile of applications. Also companies used to come to the school and recruit. I remember Werner being there, the guy went on about how pretty their trucks were the whole time hehe.

I teamed with my wife at the time so we chose a company that offered teams a condo FLD, this was back when most companies stuck teams in cabovers (no thanks).

In my research I've never seen any indication that a truck shut off when HOS was reached. I'm also not sure about "bad" companies. Rather, I think it's about finding a good fit. Yeah you might have to stick out a less than ideal situation for the first year, but then again we all know guys who love their jobs with Swift etc.

The reality is long hours and things being inconsistent. In the old paper log days it was common to be asked to do the impossible (after they told you not to in orientation) so creative logging was the norm. And some companies would run you around NY and NJ a while if you didn't do what they asked. I'm not sure this is possible with elogs , so that might be a positive for elogs rather than a negative. I do think no split logging sucks though. Anyway, if you can handle the unpredictable schedule that's a big thing.

I think DOT has gotten tougher it seems, and fines and liability are a real thing. You're going to have to think safety first and stand up for yourself. No one cares about your safety more than you do. You have to care about yours as well as the motoring public. The risk is too high to let a company make you go over your limits. But that being said, working long hours is the norm, no 8 hour days here :)

Best of luck!

Most of the companies that pay for your schooling in exchange for a year or more of service from what I hear are not the best.

Actually those companies are the largest, most successful companies out there. They're the only ones that really have the resources and driver demand to either own and operate their own schools or finance (sponsor) training for their new drivers.

Mike, one of the things you should ask yourself is if you're looking for something that's simple, ordinary, and low stress like an ordinary job or are you looking for an endless challenge and maybe even some adventure? Because trucking, especially if you're going to be over the road , is certainly far more than your ordinary job. No two days are alike. Nothing is predictable. And although it certainly gets easier after you get a little experience, it's never gets easy.

Because you were doing the same basic work for so long, and presumably you had mastered that job many times over, you may not be looking for something that's so unpredictable and stressful, such a dynamic lifestyle. Then again maybe that's exactly what you need.

I'm the type of person that's endlessly seeking out new challenges and adventures. Most people just aren't that way. Most people would be more comfortable with a life that's steady, predictable, and low-stress.

So I think that's something to consider. Are you ready to get out there and take on some new challenges and adventures or would you be better off looking for something low-stress and simple?

And lastly, keep in mind that taking a shot at trucking is very low risk from a career standpoint. The schooling is short and inexpensive, the commitment is small. You can easily walk away at any time, especially if you've paid for your own schooling and you're not under contract with anyone.

I'm still looking for a truck driving job too, I graduated CDL school in January of this year, I have a Class A CDL, Still undecided which company I want to start out with, I'm Looking for Local, Dedicated or Regional , OTR would probably be to much for me, Any advice?