Originally Posted by rockytopcummins

I figure this title will get some attention and that my question will get a lot of negativity but I come from the school of if you don't ask , you'll never know. My situation is that I'm getting ready to get out of the military and ever since I was a kid I wanted to drive a truck. However, I married a trucker's daughter and she saw the job cause her parents to really grow apart. She pretty much told me if I got out on the road to take my stuff with me,LOL. SO...I want to make both of us happy. Is there ANYTHING out there driving for a company where I can be home every night and still take home in the neighborhood of $40-$45k/yr?

Most local companies would require you to have 1 year otr experience. If you are done with a school you should look into a good training company and stay with them for at least a year and then move on

NO

there are no jobs

6 years ago, YES.

there MAY be some options out there. but they are very few and more then likely don't take rookies.

Unfortunately with no experience the likelihood of you finding local with no experience is slim. Like "Snowwy" said, it used to happen but not so much anymore. In '03 when I was 19 I got hired locally with no experience making that kind of money, but 1 year in to that job they changed their insurance requirement and I was the last one hired under 21 without atleast 2 years experience. Good luck with things, but regional/OTR for a while might be your only option.

I was able to get a driver job right out of school at Pepsi beverages company as a temp local driver which I did for 4 years until I got a full time position and when I started as a temp I made 18 an hour anything after 8 hours was overtime and I averaged around 45000 a year now I make 27 an hour and am on track to make over 70000

Originally Posted by rockytopcummins

I figure this title will get some attention and that my question will get a lot of negativity but I come from the school of if you don't ask , you'll never know. My situation is that I'm getting ready to get out of the military and ever since I was a kid I wanted to drive a truck. However, I married a trucker's daughter and she saw the job cause her parents to really grow apart. She pretty much told me if I got out on the road to take my stuff with me,LOL. SO...I want to make both of us happy. Is there ANYTHING out there driving for a company where I can be home every night and still take home in the neighborhood of $40-$45k/yr?

J.B. Hunt is hiring Regional drivers out of Columbia @ 48,000 per year. The ad says you need 4 months exp though. Talk to your girl and see if she can handle you OTR for just a little while.

Regional isn't local. There are options. Go with a Budweiser distributor (I forgot the name of the one up in Columbia). You are local and you'll make about that much. Any Budweiser distributor is a good ticket to get on and stay on. Drive a mixer truck (straight truck) for any number of cement companies in your area. Try Argos. Also a good ticket to get on and stay on. Southern trucking hauls cement in dry bulk trailers and does it locally. They will make 40k or more. You'll be home every night. Long days tho. Coca Cola distributor. The pay is going to be low, but it's local. You'll spend most of your time setting up coke displays and rotating stock. Maybe drive what? 50 miles a day? Hell, look into driving for Greyhound. Drive around your area and look for daycabs and call the companies.

You don't have to go over the road.

Local drivers for the big carriers make between 16 and 24 per hour. You are not covered by overtime laws as a driver. If you are union or you make your own deal with a company that could change. I drove for ACT local in Kansas City. Not South Carolina of course so it may not be the same in your area. I got 16 per hour and ran for 56 hours a week on average. That was a five day week. $896 a week. 50 weeks equal 44,800. So the answer to your question is yes, it can be done. It is not a hard job. The down side is that pulling the handle to release your key pin and cranking up the landing gear puts a lot of stress on your shoulder. Use a good body position to crank and a pin puller to pull.

Also, if you are local, that lot lizard could just be the wife of someone you go to church with.

I worked for Waste Management running a roll off truck from 93 - 04 & I could make in the 40's. Either front end load or roll off will make that but residential probably wont make quite that much. However, again, you usually need experience in these fields. You might start in residential & work your way up over time but even that takes a while as very few people enjoy running residential.

Concrete truck drivers here make about $10 an hour. They post ads for drivers nearly ever week due to high turnover rate.

Currently, I work for a wholesale distributor wood products company & while we currently run Ms, La, Ar, Ok & Tx, we are home every night. We go out on a route everyday & come back to load for another route tomorrow. I mostly run east Texas & I run 400 - 550 miles per day. Its curtain side trailers. We run some straight trucks as well as day cab tractors. I am on salary at $30,000 + $4800 per year ($400 per mo) for safety bonus = $34,800 per year.

My brother worked for Coca Cola here for 37 years before retiring. I think he was making about $18 per hour but they didn't like paying overtime much. While they did get some most weeks, it wasn't much. He drove an 18 wheeler day cab & only ran transfers from the plant to various warehouses within about 150 miles. He was also home every night.