Andrew,
First welcome to my fellow Minnesotan!!!!!
Secondly to answer your questions......
Trucking has many pros and cons. To list a few. Excellent pay can be one, benefits another, your your own boss, the pros. On the other side, rememer a few weeks ago that blizzard, well went to our office just to sit there for 2 hours waiting on my truck, then told to go home, 3 of our drivers were having problems in ST Cloud trying to get home. 90 Miles up Hwy 10 took them 6 hours. Then the rush hour traffic headed out of the Metro on 94 near Rogers. Road construction(Minesota's othere season) All Cons. I could still list more and more pros and cons.
The job has it's up and downs like any else. I suggest reading these posts and learning a bit. If you know a driver see if you can ride along with them to see what its like.

Your young yet and nothing holding you down. So the road may be a good choice for now. Keep reasearching and good luck in your career choice.

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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.

Andrew if you like trucking as much as I do then i suggest this your 18 go get you cdl and drive instate for a year or two. If you like it when you turn 21 go OTR. You still can go to college and get good jobs. If you like trucks also consider diessel Machanic.

i'm a 22 year old female and i'm thinking about going into trucking. I have a boyfriend and no kid's, i'm going to southern union tech. in opelika al. for schooling and the career center of opelika is going to pay for my school may u can check into it in your city they give away gant's .

Also how is company training, do the driver treat u good or are they mean. also can u ask for a trainer that u think will be right for u. thinks

Most drivers will not recommend company training, except as a last resort. No matter how good or bad the schooling is, you are still indebted to the company for 12 to 24 months.

Find a third party school (we all have favorites- I recommend SAGE) and get your CDL there.

Teachers are individuals. Some are calm and explain, others are loud and bossy.. luck of the draw.

Trainers are the same. If you know one,or have a trusted recommendation, you can probably request a specific trainer. Whether or not he is available is another matter entirely. Most companies at least provide lip service to matching you to a trainer Obvioiusly, some are better at it than others.
If your trainer is not the right one for you, you can always ask for a different one.

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Keep the big doors at the back!

Become a computer programmer....... thats where the money is right now...

No stay in school.

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later friend. Danny

Why dont you become a DOT officer ? Great PAY ! and you get to bust our stones everyday !

Stay in school! I wish I would have never knocked that gal up and gotten married. I used to be a nurse, knew about the birds and the bees and was set up. Long UGLY story... Divorced, homeless and no job due to the continual harassment. Did I say it was UGLY!?

I went into trucking after a stint on the Alaskan pipeline. I had to flee the states (CONUS) to get away from her! That job ended, homeless again and saw that ad, "Truck Driver Wanted". That was in Jan of 1990. A roof and three squares, that was all I wanted. Trucking gave it to me. But it has been one hell of a ride! Did it all, company driver, lease op, small fleet owner with my own authority. Now leased on with Schneider. God, I never thought I would see that day. But hope to bag at least $10,000 net this month. Keeping fingers crossed, and already 1/3 of the way there, 3 more weeks to go!

I wish I was still in nursing, because I would be home right now with a steady paycheck.

Mike

Yeah man stay in school there young fella . Trucking is a hard way to go .If i could do it all over again i wouldnt even think about stepping inside a truck .