Been reading your sight for a cpl months,wondering if i should try trucking,seen good things an bad,time having come to make a decision in my life i thought id ask some pro's.
im 45 years old, a carpenter,laid off again due to housing slow down,lost my home,divorced,no kids ,need a job where i can make a decent living,live in a small town no work here,gotta do something!been looking into all trucking companys,theres a walmart distibution center here,there always hiring dedicated drivers,but it seems you need exp. to be one.
So,whats the differance in types of drivers?i.e.. van,bulk,dry etc.
do you ever get to establish a routine in your live? like sleep ?etc. you get to travel to lots of places,do you ever get to stop for a few an see them,or is it just drivin by them?
anyone work for the companys where you get paid by the hour?which companys do that?
....thanks for your time an advice,no need to sugar coat it for me!!!

The only thing routine about trucking. Is the treatment of drivers, by bottom feeder companies.

Dry box, reefer, flatbed, all have their own perks and negatives. You'll have to decide which is best for you. While many drivers do just whatever. Others will lean toward one or the other.

Stopping to smell the roses? Not gonna happen. Unless you are out of hours or broke down. You may sit in one place for a day or 2 "waiting" for a load. But, that is about the extent of your site seeing. Unless you take time off.

Here's the real routine. We work on a 70 hr 8 day week. With the clock broken into 11/14 (on duty) and 10 hour (off duty) days.

After 10 hours of "off duty". You get up and try to get 11 hours of driving done within a 14 hour window. If you CAN'T get it done right. They have 10 other drivers willing to take your job next week.

You will do 11 hours driving a day, period. Unless you don't have a load. You WILL return to a driving status in 10 hours, period. Unless you don't have a load.

And best of all, you'll get 3 days to get EVERYTHING done at home you need to. AFTER you've been gone for 21 days.

Still interested?

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Team Players.....
It's hard for me to play professional team sports. On a minor league salary.

Well, a lot of that will depend on the company. There are companies that will even get new drivers home on weekends.

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My childhood dream of becoming a truck driver turned into a nightmare!

Although he did say not to sugar coat it, I believe you are being a bit harsh. It's true there are crappy companies that will work you like that if you're willing. Best advice in finding a company to work for is to talk to their drivers, and not just one of them. Someone maybe new to the company and doesn't know it well enough yet, or someone maybe burned out and angry with the same company. Only you will know what kind of trailer you want to tote around. Pro's and con's to all that's for sure. Although, as a new driver I might suggest you stay away from reefers at first, LOL.

I personally have worked OTR and local (currently) and have never spent more than 14 days out at a time. However, I have never worked for the Swift, Englands, Scheinder or similar companies of the industry. If you have a good work ethic you should be able to balance your work time and hometime with the money you need/want to make. I do complain about the hours I put in right now, but it is by choice as I need to make X number of dollars right now.

In my experience, the more you need/want to make, the less time you will have for yourself, whether that's stopping to smell the roses or spending time in the arm chair at the house. Every company is differn't, that's why you need to talk to drivers and see what their experiences are. You can work 14 hours a day 5 days a week for company "A" and make $28k a year, and you can work 14 hours a day 5 days a week for company "B" and make $75k a year. I know that sounds extreme, and to me it's absurd, but it's true...I've learned that the hard way too. I personally have made as little as $2600 a month being OTR and gone all the time for one company, and as much as $6500 a month and home every night and weekends for another company. There are so many variables involved I could go on forever.

Bottom line, if you're single, wanting to switch careers, and are interested in trucking, you've got about a 50/50 shot at achieving your goal.

Now, what was the question again?

I worked for one of those companies. My "weekend" was whenever they said it was and it was always less than two days and never a full Saturday and Sunday because my reefer had to be 700-1200 miles away from my home base on Monday morning AM for the week's first delivery. Then I ran illegal most backhauls (because it always took cold storage wearhouses 3 to 10 hours to load me) to get back home to do it all over again.

Yea, that was great for my marriage! Oh, and I never got my detention pay either because the lawyer that wrote the detention pay policy said I had to call the office every hour past 2 to get "help" motivating the shipper to load me faster or I forfeited my pay. Hmm? How do I call the office when it is closed every night while I'm being detained?

BRI

Truthfully, driving for a company is like renewing your car insurance.

Sure you're a safe driver. Sure you've never had a ticket or an accident.

BUT, how many times in the past 10 years have you rates went down?

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Team Players.....
It's hard for me to play professional team sports. On a minor league salary.