Mom Of 3 Under 5

Women ask me this question all the time and my answer is this..

Do you think having a smaller child in an 80,000 pound killing machine while conducting a job that is one of the most dangerous in the country... With a brand new driver at the wheel is a good idea?

Jack knifes, roll overs and more happened all day everyday. An adult surviving a major accident is lucky. A child? Not likely.

Are YOU willing to bet your children's lives on your rookie driving skills and those of idiots on the road

Thank you all for your feed back my husband have sat down and talked we have decided that he will start OTR driving and when I have the time he will teach me and I will take my test at the dmv for my cal and I will drive locally a basic 9-5 here in town and find a babysitter. We feel this is best for our family because our kids need me as mom at home we definitely took all of your statements into consideration and realized what was best for us. Thank you all for your honesty and truthfulness about the situation. Have a good week stay safe and get your rest when needed you all are very important to us and wish you all safety on the road and while going through this gas shortage!!!!😇😇😀😀😀

Thank you all for your feed back my husband have sat down and talked we have decided that he will start OTR driving and when I have the time he will teach me and I will take my test at the dmv for my cal and I will drive locally a basic 9-5 here in town and find a babysitter. We feel this is best for our family because our kids need me as mom at home we definitely took all of your statements into consideration and realized what was best for us. Thank you all for your honesty and truthfulness about the situation. Have a good week stay safe and get your rest when needed you all are very important to us and wish you all safety on the road and while going through this gas shortage!!!!😇😇😀😀😀

Haya, Jazmine!

Thanks for stopping back with the update, ma'am. That INDEED sounds like a better plan.

I, as a mom of 3 myself, wish you the BEST!! (My youngest turns 18 in January; look how long 'i've' waited, haha!!)

Best to you both (all!)

~ Anne ~

we definitely took all of your statements into consideration and realized what was best for us. Thank you all for your honesty and truthfulness about the situation

Jazmine. I hate to say this, but that is not a solution that anyone here suggested to you. In fact it is a very difficult solution to your dilemma. Local driving jobs are extremely demanding on a rookie. Nobody is going to hire you when they find out you don't have any experience, and that you don't have a training certificate. These jobs are not readily available just because you have a CDL. You must have evidence of some legitimate training to be able to get on a company's insurance policy. Your husband training you will just not get it done when it comes to employment. This is going to be a problem for you.

Local driving jobs are generally very long hours and typically involve a lot of physical labor unloading the product. There will be precious little energy left for being mom when you only have about ten hours at home each day. Those hours will be consumed with eating. bathing and sleeping.

I agree with Old School. I started locally and had some moments where luck you through me a situation more than skill. I learned from those moments and I improved.

Local trucking jobs, more often than not, are built on seniority. That means the best schedules will be taken by those with more seniority. At FedEx freight, I worked nights. The guys with seniority that have the 9 AM start times get back at around 7pm and clock out close to 8. At pepsi, my start time was anywhere from 4AM to 6 AM, depending on what route I was doing and on a light day, I would work 10 hours.

If you can find a 9-5 trucking job, I'd be surprised. If you don't believe us, go on indeed and in the search bar put local CDL jobs. They'll usually put the hours you're expected to work and how much experience they require.

I guarantee you won't see anything that says 9-5, no experience required.

I agree with Old School. I started locally and had some moments where luck you through me a situation more than skill. I learned from those moments and I improved.

Local trucking jobs, more often than not, are built on seniority. That means the best schedules will be taken by those with more seniority. At FedEx freight, I worked nights. The guys with seniority that have the 9 AM start times get back at around 7pm and clock out close to 8. At pepsi, my start time was anywhere from 4AM to 6 AM, depending on what route I was doing and on a light day, I would work 10 hours.

If you can find a 9-5 trucking job, I'd be surprised. If you don't believe us, go on indeed and in the search bar put local CDL jobs. They'll usually put the hours you're expected to work and how much experience they require.

I guarantee you won't see anything that says 9-5, no experience required.

So where I live we have plants who need cdl drivers to move loads from one side of the plant to the other and I wasn’t stating the hour would be 9-5 exactly but it will be a day to day job not otr. With this being said they do allow you to start off with your cdl from the dmv and they give you more on the job training. This is considered local here and the pay is $17 an hour I worked for this plant for 3 years before working from home due to the pandemic and 2 of my pregnancies so I also know the schedule is 6:30 am -4:30 pm the idea stated for 9-5 did not actually mean the hours of 9-5 I will also only work Monday-Friday and will only have to open and close the gate because the fork lift will remove the items out of the trailer. Thank you so much for your feed back.

Babysitting costs will probably be close to what you're going to make driving each day at some local job. Later on down the road if you wish to go OTR , that local only experience isn't going to count for much with a lot of the major carriers, either.

Jazmine, you are correct in that your location will make a huge difference when it comes to the availability of local driving jobs. We all want the best for you, but are trying to set some realistic expectations. Sometimes when we are answering somebody's questions we are doing it in such a way that others who are reading this will not think they have the same opportunities that you do because of your location. If you can get a job like you are talking about then that is great. But like PackRat points out, don't expect any of the large trucking companies to count moving materials from one end of a plant to the other as experience. They will want you to start over with some realistic training.

Babysitting costs will probably be close to what you're going to make driving each day at some local job. Later on down the road if you wish to go OTR , that local only experience isn't going to count for much with a lot of the major carriers, either.

Very excellent point Packrat. We looked into daycare for the socialization for both the kids and my wife would get a job. After we ran the numbers it was around $200 per week per kid (we have 3). Thats 40 hours of work if you make $15 before you even factor in taxes and the gas/maintenance for commuting. At $17/hr you'd possibly break even. I'm sure you could find cheaper but cheaper may not always be better when it comes to caring for your children.

Keep in mind when it comes to trucking things change frequently. They may advertise certain hours but things will come up that keep you out later. It could be breakdowns or being sent to do something that you normally don't do. Maybe the plant is on mandatory OT so they force you to stay late as well. Its probably not what you want to hear but I'd hold off for a few years until the kids are able to take care of themselves for a couple hours after school if you get stuck out late.

How does your husband plan to teach you and get you licensed? If he allows you to operate his companies equipment thats against company policy and likely termination. I also don't believe he'd be able to rent a truck. I recall a few weeks ago someone mentioned unless you're a fleet its difficult to rent.

Please keep us updated on how things turn out or what you decide. If you do go through with your plans it will help many people in a similiar situation.

So you want to go through all of the work of getting your CDL to drive from one part of a building to another part of a building? That's a horrible idea.

First, the experience won't mean much, if anything anywhere. That means you'll be in a worse position than the one you're in now. Having a CDL with no experience is worse than having no CDL.

You're husband is going OTR. When will he have time to teach you if he wont be home? Do you expect to learn everything you need to learn on a 34 hour reset? What equipment is he going to train you on? Company trucks have very sensitive cameras that alert the company for minor things. Are you guys working to jeopardize his career over this? He'll be untouchable if he were to get fired over this. Getting fired so you can drive from building a to building b, a whole parking lot away if that job is still available when this is all done.

I'm telling you, it's not going to happen and it's a bad plan because when it doesn't happen it can lead to resentment. Your husband gets what he wants and you don't, even though that was the plan. You're best bet is to just accept that it isn't your time yet and wait until it is.