Decisions Decisions

Consider the potential emotional effect on your family if you choose to start your career with hazmat tanker. It is obviously a higher risk modality and your family will be aware of this. The fear/stress level for them could be significant.

 

The first thing I would advise you to do with respect to your family is to find another racket to get into. I spent many years out there as an OTR driver and consequently missed my kids growing up and eventually suffered a divorce which cost me child support. This has many repercussions. But since I'm probably not going to be able to talk you out of your decision I will try and help you. Opportunities for commercial driving come in many different shapes and sizes. Some jobs require you to be gone for weeks, some gone for days and some drivers are home daily. The industry has gone through many changes through the years including the corporate push to attract new CDL drivers. More and more companies are providing training opportunities at the cost of you, the new driver starting your career at a lower starting wage which means more profit for them and a way to bypass more experienced drivers who rightfully want to be paid accordingly for paying their dues and having acquired years of experience.

No company is going to hire you without 6 to 12 months of experience due to insurance regulations. The better companies will require roughly 3 with a good safety record. The big name companies (Werner, JB Hunt, Swift, Schneider etc.) are not the best places to work but they do provide opportunities for new drivers to begin their careers and gain experience and a feel for how things work in this business. At a minimum this will require going out with a qualified driver trainer for several weeks. Having said that, trainers these days can sadly come with as little as 6 months experience. Maybe less. Once you are a solo driver, these companies have OTR, regional and dedicated runs. Dedicated will generally require a demonstration of performance as a solo driver based on several factors.

Now, once you have acquired a couple years of experience, you will have more widely opened up the door of opportunity. You can then move forward and gain some specialized training in say car hauling, piggyback trucking or oversize. These three areas pay very well. Not as well as they used to but they are better than dry box and flatbed. Hazmat tanker can pay very well depending on who you drive for but it will require hazmat endorsement which requires recurrent training annually and a federal background check. Oh and by the way, most hazmat disasters happen from driver error; Driving too fast for conditions, following to close or inattention. It only becomes unsafe when we aren't paying attention to the details. If home time is important and which it should be in your case you can jump on with an LTL carrier such as FedEx, Holland and many more. They have many dedicated line haul and city driver positions depending on where you live.

Let me know if I can answer anymore questions.

Truck driving is a thinking job. When you quit thinking, that's when you will encounter trouble.

Dave
Since 1980

 

Good move going tanker, I wish I would have started out that way. If you put where you're from in your profile we can help better.

 

Nice reply Dave. More new drivers should read it.

 

Prime is food grade tanker not chemical just so you know.

 

Pays less too, I don't feel my job is any more dangerous than any other.