Should I become a trucker?

Hey Wade, welcome to the forum.

I'm with you 100%. I'm just biding my time to make the jump myself.

I realize you are not doing it for the money, but with the income you stated, I'll bet you can bank more money with trucking, while making half as much as you do currently. Lower tax rate, no house expenses, no car expense.

No spouse is a good thing in my books. I wonder what the wash out rate is of single drivers compared to attached drivers...

 

Once you get trucker juice on you. Nobody will want to hire you. You are going to be trained by some 20 year old lease operator who think he knows everything. Drive a 60 mph truck up and down dangerous snow covered hills and those 50 mph winds will have you holding on to the steering wheel for dear life. Your itch won't last long buddy I promise you. It's not worth it. Just make sure you have your exit strategy and a place to go back too if the trucking gig doesn't work out. Maybe one of these guys for a couple grand will let you see what its like for a couple weeks. You probably wouldn't make it through that. It's real deal Holy field, calling US marshall's because some DOT wants to open your trailer full of cash. Then you have Air Wolf black helicopters following you all over the place. You have trailer doors opening up and little black cars coming out of the back of them with talking cars. You got guys with monkeys in their trucks, and you have dudes with Camero's being chased by texas county mounty's. You don't want none of this action. I guaranteeeee it.

 

Truth be known.. many drive truck for the money and try to make the best of it..

 

I can't believe it, but I'm actually going to respectfully disagree with Tonythetruckekrdude.

The way our country is going, I don't know if it's wise for a 41 year to be counting on the government for his retirement. At the very least, the current ages will be pushed back and most likely retirement benefits reduced. The government just isn't going to have the $ to look after Wade's generation as they have yours Tony.

Wade is already starting with a leg up. He isn't almost destitute as many new drivers seem to be. I don't think the guy should put is life on hold to do what he wants for 20 years.

My vote is go for it, and do what you really want to do for your brief spin on this earth.

 

Okay, Okay, stand back everyone.

One person in trucking can make upwards of $300,000 per year. Sorry but that is the truth. The original posters states that his pay had bonuses included. Trucking has bonuses also. Those bonuses are not the ones everyone thinks about. Fuel bonuses and safety bonuses. Those are really company bonuses. The company makes more money if you are safe and if you are fuel conscience.

The bonuses in trucking are basis on how quickly you can learn. How much business knowledge you have. How good your credit is. And how good of a salesman you can be. If you are very good to excellent in the above groups then you will be a success and find trucking to be a very satisfying way to make a very good living.

Many trucking companies are owned by former truck drivers but there are others owned by Lawyers (ACT), Investment Bankers (Transport America), and other professionals.

The first thing you need is a license. As you can afford to pay for a school do so. Find a community college in your area and go get your license. (I wrote a thread here about what questions I would ask if I had gone to school today. Many disagreed. You are paying for he school learn as much as you can there.)

Second thing is join OOIDA. It is your professional organization. Like Rotary is to small business people. Take advantage of their courses. Learn rather then getting burned.

I listed those as steps but they can be done at the same time or in a different order.

Now you need to apply for your own authority. Read on here how to do that.

Once you applied it will take sometime to get so you need to gain experience. With a license in hand apply to different companies. Chinatown is the best source on here for that. His wife will look up different companies and then she reads tea leaves or whatever voodoo those lovely Asian women do, and he will send you a list. He will included tanker companies but you should start with Dry Vans.

Your objective is just learning to operate a commercial vehicle. It is very different from driving a automobile. First, you have to put diesel fuel into it from a truck stop. (I actually had to learn what a truck stop was.) They do not handle the same. If you try to drive a semi like a car, you will hit poles and signs and cars and people walking. Learn to turn.

Learn to drive the truck backwards. Learn that all docks can be hit. If someone else has been there so can you. Gain confidence.

Start talking to brokers. Learn about rates between cities. Lanes. There are websites that help with that.

Once you have accomplished all that buy a truck, a trailer, and go forth and conquer the world.

It can be done. Others have. If you have confidence in yourself do not let those who are quick to point out the bumps keep you from your goal. And GOAL is not get out and look. It is the thing we all wish for in life. It is peace and contentment.

Cost of the dream is around $250,000. Payoff is 2 years. Zero value in 5 years with a total return of $1.25-2 million. That is using a certain business model that is not available for anything close to free.

 

I think Tony, like myself, is assuming Wade has a nice little retirement account going on somewhere, which is why he suggested 59 1/2 as a retirement age. The government wont give you anything at 59 1/2. If he does, why mess it up by going into a job where he will obviously lose a great deal of income right off the bat, meaning his contributions to his retirement nest will suffer, thus forcing him to live off of less when he finally does retire? Knowing the government and Social Security is, to say the least, on shakey ground, that would give that much more incentive to save as much as you can Before it does disappear? Wade will still have to live even if Social Security does fold? What would be better, put back savings from a triple digit income or putting back savings from a 5 digit income? That's just my opinion of course but Tony makes perfect sense on what he said to me? I do agree with you that its usually better to enjoy the work you do but since he don't know for sure he will like trucking, is it worth the risk?

 

Get real. He's got a better chance go winning the lottery