911! any advice please

What amount of time away is acceptable and what income per week is acceptable....to you...cause your the boss.

 

You may check out Celadon. I always see a ton of their trucks near Laredo. I don't think Schneider would be the worst choice either. I have no experience with either other than speaking to a Schneider recruiter a few years ago about their O/O program. The bad news is he is a rookie and he's going to have to pay his dues. The good news is if he can hang in there a year and not screw up his record he'll be able to upgrade significantly in pay and hometime. Who knows, maybe oil prices will come back up in 6 months or so and being close to Eagle Ford should put him in a good spot for some oilfield work. Anyway, good luck from a fellow Texan.

 

You should expect hubby to be home only 3 days per month for at least the first year.
The pay isn't great when first starting out, and each home time you will take a bit hit in at least 1 weeks paycheck.

Maybe you should go to the Swift terminal and talk with some of the drivers, since that is where he would be based out of.

 

Times are tough and rookies don't have anything to offer but a brand new cdl. He is going to stay out 2 to 3 weeks. Prime and Crete hire rookies and start them off pretty good. 2500 miles a week should be an average week. He can do a lot better but 2500 miles should be a nice average. Once he gets some expierence then he can chase dollar signs and home time, but right now he needs to get in where he fits in.

Most people are cry babies so don't listen to all the horror stories. When your hubby starts to cry. Slap the mess out of him and tell him to man up and getter done.

 

Right ON, Dinomite!

 

The first 12 months will be the toughest for a rookie driver. He needs to show at least that much with a spotless record before any of the better companies will even consider him,..and even with only 12 months he will still not in a position to pick and choose,.. though is options will be better.

Not sure what to say other that you guys are going to have to toughen up and weather out the industry if this is the career path he will follow. Trucking itself is more of a lifestyle than a career in most regards. A driver either loves it or does it to make ends meet. The latter usually end up miserable and job hopping often and rarely find a good fit.

Hurst

 

The bad news: your husband is new and he's gonna have to pay his dues like most of us did.

Expect to only see him a few days a month for the first year or so. On the other hand it would be more often than you'd see him if he'd joined the military.

The good news: it DOES get better, if your husband has the aptitude to be a truck driver. And since Laredo is a major port, your husband should be able work regularly near your house. In other words you'd see him more than if you lived in FL, CT, MI, etc.

The ugly: the flip side of that is some 'organizations' are determined to lower the 'cost' of trucking. One of these methods is to outsource trucking to other countries. In practice we're talking Mexico here, and your right on the fault line of what is going to be a continuing issue in the trucking industry. Your husband may end up competing with Mexican Nationals for work, which will supress his earnings.

 

Another option is to look to food and bev companys, hard work from what i hear but they may train. Or belive it or not street sweeping, (hear me out) up here at least sweepers are hauled around by tri axle dumps. Full A needed. Thing is almost nobody has exsperance so they have to train 99 percent anyway. Paving company with B and A trucks, get in on a B with the agreement that you intend to move up. Roll off trucks again a B at first look but many pull pups thats a A. And some do frameless end dump or transfer trucks. Yes you will probably have to tough it out, but keep your eyes open, be suprised how many big trucks run around doing things you didnt even think of