I would of done the same, like you I wasn't able to but different reasons.
We always built fast cars (live in the country) and the cops around here always had something out for us, Although everybody around here always came over and helped build them and enjoyed hearing them go down the road. Well you probably know already I racked up a bunch of speeding tickets growing up. This really kept me from being a company driver and what originally made me choose college instead of trucking. funny how things work out and now I am paying off a $45,000 college loans and driving a truck. Pretty much finished with the payments though and can get started on my original goals.

I hope I am doing this right. Don't know much about forums.

I am the original poster. I have read all of the replies. I really do appreciate all of your comments. I hope to get a whole lot more.

If my wife and I do this, it will be around the end of September as we need to have our current house lease expire and find someplace less expensive. Actually, what I thought about is that it would save us money to just drive for the 2-3 weeks team drivers stay out, then just pay for a hotel room for our off days instead of paying rent for a place that we would only get at a few days each month. I figure either do the hotel thing or just stay at one of our kids homes (Iowa and So. California).
Kinda extreme but it really is the only way to break-even during the first six months out with Schneider. After a year, if we can average what their recruiters tell us their team drivers average (3,000 miles per week each), could afford to get a place again of our own. (In 1998 lost the house in foreclosure. Did a whole lot of foreclosure appraisals that the wonderful lenders decided to take their sweet times in paying me for, so we lost our house. Been renting ever since)

but, I ramble. Again, thanks to you all for your replies. Even though the thread is dropping down the line, I really hope to get more responses.

dave

That was written so well, I read it twice Stranger.

I would have to say YES I would.
As a trucker I play a vital role in this nation. Everything you own, from that computer to the tires on your car, was delivered on a truck. If it wasn't for us truckers we'd have empty shelves in the grocery store, no gas at the pumps, etc. From the wheat field, to the mill; from the mill to the bakery; from the bakery to the store as a loaf of bread. Somewhere in that chain a trucker more then likely had something to do, in it reaching you. With out him/her we'd have nada. Thats why I'm proud to be a trucker.
No goods moving around, no money is spent, no money spent, no economy. No economy no nation.
I'd do it all over, the good days and the bad days.

__________________
Be safe and God Speed,
Reverend Matthew "The Dragon" Koscielski
!!!Proud to be a gear grinder!!!

Faith, Hope, Love. The Greatest is Love 1 Corinthians 13:13

Can anyone tell me what the middle peddle in my truck does, cause i never use it.

there is things I would definatly do different but I'd say yes. I'm a trucker, it's in my blood. But then again I don't do the typical three weeks out, day and a half home thing most these companies want these days/ I'l never do that

You teach me the appraisal biz and I'l teach you to drive!

A definite yes for me.

I started in 1991, then in 1995, I ended up getting off the road, going to college thanks to Ford Motor Company, and went to work at a Ford Dealership. I really didn't wan to come off the road then, but there were reasons that required it.

I made good money out on the road, but at the same time, I made better money in the dealership once I finished training. Things went south in the dealerships for me around 2001 as my pay started getting lower and lower thanks to most of the dealerships around my area being bought out by a large company (Autonation). In 2002, I had enough and went back out on the road. This time, I stayed out for a couple years, before being talked into working for another Ford dealership that seemed like a perfect opportunity. It was only 5 miles from my house, and it sounded like a great deal.

After 6 months turning wrenches and helping get some things turned around at the dealership (the place was having problems, which is why I was asked to come to work), I moved up to assistant service manager. That was great until just a few weeks later when our General Manager left to a larger store and things once again went south for me. I soon found myself working 6 days a week, 12-14 hours a day, and getting stabbed in the back on a daily basis. Money went to crap, and as of January 2006, I became "fall guy" #6 for the man in charge. I had never been fired from a job in my life, especially after getting multiple awards and "pats on the back" just a couple months earlier.

Been working from home since, partially due to having surgery on my arm, and staying busy with a couple websites. I wish I had never came back off the road the second time. I had the perfect job for me.. I was able to be home every weekend, never was below 3000 miles, ran super hard (often illegal), but it was fun.

So now, I am actually looking into going back out on the road, just haven't quite made up my mind. The one thing I don't like is knowing I will have to go out with a trainer, no matter who I hire on with. One thing I do know, is that I will never work at another dealership again, no desire for that at all.

Appraising can be fun, but it can also be a bit of a drag. Just spend two hours working on an appraisal report (that does not include the 20 minutes the night before tracking down possible sales on the mls computer sytem, the 45 minutes driving time to get there, 1/2 hour at the house, 20 minutes driving around taking photos of the comparable sales) and it now turns out the value just is not there to be able to make the owners a loan. So, I have to return the appraisal fee to them (my taking the assignment was based on my doing a preliminary value check, and telling the lender that I thought their desired value was ok). Could have spent that two hours working on another report to be written up, or I could have looked up the five possible appraisals I have on hand checking out their possible values. Generally, I start at around 6:30AM and finish up around 9PM

Most appraisers now work as self-employed, similar to o/o truckers. Have to foot the bill for car insurance, medical insurance, membership dues for various local mls boards so that I can get access to the sales data, monthly fee for outside public records database to get document recording numbers/assessor plat maps/physical information on the subject property, gasoline, car repairs, phone expenses, DSL service, plus the cost of supplies used up duirng the course of the week, tracking down lenders who refuse to pay for appraisals that did close escrow, putting up with lenders and owners who do not understand why the house is not worth $450,000 but only $410,000 which just killed the loan, putting up with lender underwriters who have never measured a house so they don;t know that sometimes we cannot follow the rules to the letter, getting sued for a supposedly bad appraisal (been there....I won but it was a long three years), etc, etc,etc. Then the cost of the computer, scanner, digital camera, other hardware.

To start out you need 90 hours of classroom instruction, then spend 2,000 hours learning from a licensed appraiser ( in 2008 it goes to 120 hours of class and 2,500 hours as a trainee). You also, in California, have to take 56 hours of continuing education every two years in order to renew the appraisal license, at a cost of $700 each time for the licensing fee paid to California.

dave

The short answer is, I really don't know.

I've worked pretty much in all facets of the industry, been a driver, a fork lift operator, a picker, packer, loader, unloader, fleet controller (local work) and even stepped into the breech one night as fleet supervisor for the OTR fleet at a company I worked for here.


A few years back I was offered by the Operations Manager as full time Fleet Controller, which I turned down because I'd have to take a $10k p.a. pay cut compared to what I made doing OTR work.

Don't get me wrong, I love life on the road. But I also love the time I get to spend at home. Problem is, to have quality time at home here in Oz, you either have to work local or move into operations/dispatch. I don't like having someone hover over me all day, or the extra stress involved in either of those roles especially considering that I'll be taking home a smaller paycheck.

Btw, I also have two university degrees, (gained through correspondence colleges while working OTR) and I don't use them because I can make more money as a trucker.

The long and short of the argument - own boss & great pay vs someone's lacky, extra stress, les pay but more time at home. Tough choice:biggrin100 (12): .

Maybe I just need to go back to local work, and find a happy medium.



Rod :smile_1:

What I guess it boils down to, is that no matter what job/profession you do, someday you will get tired with it and only see the negatives. Some of you have mentioned that driving was better in the 1980's than it is now. I could say the same thing about appraising. It was fun in the 1980's and 90', but I really like it much less now.

Last August I asked my personal doctor what he thought about my getting CDL. He had no objection, then mentioned that he and his wife have talked about them, or at least him doing the same. And this is a long time doctor with Kaiser Permanente.

I have read someplace that one should drive local instead of cross-country. Two weeks ago I appraised a house in La Puente, Ca. After I was done I stopped at the Carl's Jr. on Fairway Drive offramp of Hwy 60. I struck up a quick conversation wth a trucker standing in line behind me and asked him the question. He said he has been driving for eight years, but would not do it again. Why? Because all he has done has been local driving. He belives it would be less stressful doing OTR as that would get you out of the Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties freeway system.

dave
PS How does one put up those little pictures I see associated with some of the posters?

those are called "AVATAR's". go to your profile and either choose one from the list, or upload one from your computer, such as a photo of yourself, your pet, whatever. there are size limits though, so be mindfull of that.