Have Some Questions About Being A Truck Driver

I was curious about being a truck driver, so I found read Becoming a truck Driver the raw truth about truck driving and have some questions. To start off I want to know if companies want you to go over your log hours because from what I could tell what I read is that it’s a win-win if you go over your log book and that if you want to make money you have to go over your logs to make it. The other questions is how hard is to find a trucking job that would have a $0 down for the schooling? How common is it for companies to do that?

Hello Jordan, and welcome to the forum!

Those are some good questions, and I can understand how you came to those conclusions. Brett wrote that book about his own driving career which was during a time when electronic logs were not being used, and yes during that time period everybody from the CEO's to the drivers were making more money when the driver cheated, or should I say got creative with their log books. "Creative writing" was all the rage among truck drivers in that day and time. Today, it is completely different. With the new regulations and the electronic monitoring of the driver's vehicle not only can the truck driver get himself into considerable trouble with the law, but also the companies go through D.O.T. audits of their log records. There is a score for both drivers and trucking companies called the CSA score, and it is very important that they keep a good score, as often times the prices that they can negotiate for their freight is partially based on that scoring system. So, to answer your question, companies do not regularly push their drivers to break the log book rules, in fact once when I was pushing the limit on my drive time (just so I could get to a truck stop for a break) I got a call from someone in the safety department wanting to know what I was doing. I had only gone over my drive time for that day by about ten minutes, but someone at the company had already caught my mistake on their computer screen and called to tell me that I needed to shut down immediately.

As far as getting some training with zero money down, there are a lot of places that will not only train you for free, but they will also put you up in a hotel and feed you while you are attending their school. On top of all that they will give you a job after you successfully complete the training! These are called Company-Sponsored Training programs. If you will follow that link you can learn a lot about them and find a good list of companies that do this along with the information about their programs, and contact information. The only catch to going that route is that you must sign an agreement to work for them for a certain time period - usually about a year. It is a great way to get started, and many of the people here in this forum got started that way.

Don't let the idea of agreeing to work for them for a year seem like such a big deal. My first year as a truck driver went by so fast it was like a blur. It is an exciting, rewarding career, but it is also very challenging. If you are the type who enjoys a challenge, you will excel at this career. The first year in a new truck driver's career is a constant challenge - there are so many challenging new things and skills that they are learning. That first year is, in my consideration, a large part of the learning curve to becoming a good professional driver. As long as you can be safe and not hit anything during that first year, you will have gotten yourself off to a great start and if, at that time, you decide that you would like to look into employment at some other trucking company, the doors of opportunity will be wide open to you.

We are glad you are here, and want you to know that any time you've got questions or concerns we will be glad to help you as you look further into this way of living and making money. Oh, and just so you know, you can still make some good solid money without cheating your logs. A rookie driver can make 30,000 dollars plus their first year, and then probably around forty their second year, and will begin to top out their salary in about their third or fourth year near the 50 - 55,000 dollar range. There are some jobs that pay more than that, but that is a general guideline for someone like yourself who is just wanting to know about the basic pay scale. Don't believe those adds you might see on the back doors of the big trailers on the highway saying you can make 175,000 dollars - they are completely bogus.

Thank you for all the information that you gave me. I went over the company-sponsored CDL training programs and all the program are from different states then California, so how would that work? After the one year or so commitment Would it be wise to shop around other jobs to see if i would be able to get more money? How does that work out like do you just hop from different companies or is it just better to stay with just one?

The majority of companies that offer you company sponsored training will provide you with transportation, most likely a greyhound ticket, to the location of the schooling and then a shuttle van to and from the hotel that they put you in.

For instance, I went to the Swift/Central company schooling. They provided me a bus ticket to Atlanta, a hotel room for one week with a shuttle running back and forth to the hotel, and a bus ticket to Salt Lake City after that week to get to the next 2 week phase of training, then a hotel out there and shuttle back and forth again.

However when I spoke to a recruiter at Millis they told me I would be responsible for my own transportation to their schooling in Wisconsin.

Just start making a list of every question you can possibly come up with and ask every recruiter the same questions and then compare the notes before you make a hard decision.

As far as leaving or staying after one year, thar is going to be all personal choice. Some companies offer better growth potential, longevity bonuses, vacation pay. If you enjoy working with the company you are with for your first year, is it wise to jumo ship to a new company offering a half cent more per mile? It is just going to be a situation where you have to analyze how things are going with your current company and really do your research on other companies that you're interested in at that time.

Hope that helps and welcome to the forum!!

Jordan, Chris is right, it doesn't really matter if you live near the company or not. I live in Texas, yet I have never worked for a trucking company in Texas. My first trucking job's headquarters was a thousand miles a way from my home. The way this works is each company has a hiring area that includes the states where they are running freight. You might work for a trucking company in Tennessee that hauls freight into California all the time. Therefore they want to have drivers from California because they know they can get those drivers home when they need some home time by giving them a load of freight that delivers near their home town.

Take a look at our Truck Driver's Career Guide, if you will read that information and follow all the links in there you will get yourself a bachelors degree worth of trucking information. Of course, we know you will still have questions, and we are glad to help if we can, but you can find a wealth of information here at this site. You will also benefit by looking at How To Choose A School, and by reading through How To Choose A Company.

As far as changing jobs, I'd recommend sticking with one job for a full year. It really is a challenge getting yourself established somewhere, and that first year is a real baptism into an entirely new lifestyle, not just a new job. I recommend that people try and not focus on the money part at first, but focus on their performance at the job. This is where it is critical to being successful, and being able to get the top pay. So many people get all focused on how much they are going to get paid per mile, while forgetting to focus on how many miles they can produce safely and efficiently, that they end up chasing after the wind and frustrated at their jobs. This really is a performance based career, and when you have gotten yourself to where you are a real producer, then any trucking company out there will treat you well and keep you moving with more than you can handle at times.

When it comes to changing jobs, you can simply make some phone calls to a recruiter and they will help you get the ball rolling. It is not hard to do, and as long as you return the truck you are driving to a company terminal when you quit a job then you should be fine - don't ever just park a truck somewhere and call in and tell them you quit - that will keep you from ever finding another trucking job. I gave a two weeks notice when I changed my trucking job, but I'm not even sure that was necessary - it is considerate to do that because after all they have been providing you with work and a decent paycheck for quite sometime.

I want to thank you guys again for all the replies you gave me. I was looking up some of the reviews of the companies that have Company-Sponsored CDL Training and was thinking how common is it for them to have you run team after your training? After doing some more reading how bad is the sleeping schedule? I know that it’s random at what time you sleep, but how do you force yourself to sleep? When you have to go to the restroom do you just pull over or just power through it until you want something to eat so you could kill two birds with one stone?

I want to thank you guys again for all the replies you gave me. I was looking up some of the reviews of the companies that have Company-Sponsored CDL Training and was thinking how common is it for them to have you run team after your training? After doing some more reading how bad is the sleeping schedule? I know that it’s random at what time you sleep, but how do you force yourself to sleep? When you have to go to the restroom do you just pull over or just power through it until you want something to eat so you could kill two birds with one stone?

I'm sure all drivers will agree with me when I say you will have no problem falling asleep doesn't matter if the truck is rolling or not.. You will be that tired and as for bathroom breaks I stop and go when I can't hold it any longer and you can grab something to eat on your 30 minutes off duty break or when you fuel its up to you

Not all companies make you team drive just have to call and ask and if you do drive teams you drive for 11 hours then take a 10 hour break while your co-driver drives for 11 and so on

Another thing regarding the transportation to the school, or elsewhere, if you are able to, you can also provide your own transportation and most companies will reimburse you up to the cost of a bus ticket. Greyhound bus trips are grueling to me because you're looking at double the travel time so if your budget permits consider renting a car or flying to the school location. Keep your receipts, including cab fare, and you'll get reimbursed. Im renting a car, one way, when i go to millington end of Jan. It's a 10 hour drive instead of a 20 hour bus nightmare and I don't have to deal with screaming kids *****ing and moaning that they gotta pee

For some of the companies i been looking into like prime inc one of the requirements is that you must have a driver license over a year old, unfortunately for me I do not fall under this category. Do you think that would be a big problem? It seems to me that i might just have to wait old the time until it is a year old.