Questions about starting out

Hello. My wife and I have recently decided to look into trucking as a possible lifestyle change. We're both in our mid 20's, one of us working a dead end job and one of us laid off (two weeks now) and looking for work in a terrible New Jersey job market. We've wanted for years to hit the open road and get away from the pressure of city living, multi-family housing, dead end jobs, and the feeling of being trapped in our boring lives - this might be the best decision we've ever made. Naturally, we know nothing about trucking other than the information we've gleaned over the past week and it's somewhat hard to process it all from so many sources, leaving us with a few questions.

1. Obviously, we're looking at OTR (national) trucking, maybe even Canada. Doing team driving, it wouldn't make sense for us to maintain a home or apartment, where do we call home away from truck? Should we get a PO box near the fleet base?

2. We have two cats that have been a part of our family since they were 2 weeks old (bottle fed). As a result, we've been looking for companies that allow companion pets on board, US Express being our top choice. The main problem we've seen, is that US Express appears to drive solely automatic transmission rigs. Would this cause problems for future company changes? Are there other companies that are team, pet, and new driver friendly?

3. Since we are team driving and have no children, getting 'home' during specific times isn't overly important to us, as it can be with other drivers. Other than that, is there anything specific we should be on the lookout for in any contracts we sign?

4. APU! How common is it to find this in a truck? From what we've deduced on the forums, it appears to make a large impact on quality of life on the truck.

5. Should we be talking to a company before going to driving school for the CDL? None of the companies that we've found to be pet friendly offered CDL courses like Swift (which prefers drivers to get their CDL through them).

6. How do people stay physically healthy when spending so much time driving/riding? What do people eat? How do you get physical exercise?

7. What are some ways to remain safe when on the road? Are you able to be armed with a permit? Is violence or crime directed towards truckers common? Wanting to remain within the law here, obviously.

That's all for now, but I'm sure more questions will arise. Thanks for any advice.

 

Thanks for all of the advice, everyone. Spent a lot of time today researching and filling out forms. Looks like Winsor's Driving down in Linden, NJ is where I'll be doing my training. Might even get enough through federal loans and Pell grants to subsidize our living expenses while we are in school. Thankfully we have some family our cats can stay with for a few months. Very excited to get things underway!

 

The way I see it, it's either that or take the train into NYC every day in a suit so I can sit in a cubicle for 9 hours a day, concealing my tattoos, and wondering what my life would have been like if I'd ever taken a risk.

 

It'd be nice if NJ unemployment could help me out, but I'm not holding my breath. I've never used unemployment insurance before, makes me feel a little dirty, but any help I can get right now I'll take.

You're not joking about the traffic. I've spent literal hours in gridlock on RT 3 going into and out of NYC. Seems there's an over turned tractor trailer reported on 1010 AM as a daily occurrence. I'm sure it doesn't help that a lot of the people here drive like they're heading south in a white Bronco.