Trying to get into OTR trucking

If you borrow uncle sam money to go to trucking school, it will likely be a few thousands of dollars.

It is my recommendation you pay this off in 6 to 12 months. This is a investment against your future earnings in trucking. It is also a dangerous debt to have on the books because you are not free to collect tax refunds, any other payouts etc as long this particular debt is unpaid. They can and will garnish, freeze your checking accounts (All of them....) and simply take whatever is in it should you be in default. There is no defense to collections nor bankrupcy. None of those will work for you. If you die, theoratically your estate and children will still have to pay this debt.

A few thousand dollars is a small debt against potentially 3 millions of miles or more at .50 or more cents a mile in life time earnings which come to roughly 1.5 million give or take a half mil. More than likely your mileage pay will either go away and be replaced by salary or increase to 1.00 a mile. This is long after I am gone. When I started .20 was top pay and ended with .50. I did not see anything beneficial from all that money because of inflation index from the 80's all the way to the 2000's It was enough to consume whatever gains we had the higher we rose in the pay. Salary as a trainer was the one time we were able to defeat inflation. Something like 6000 dollars a month net. That kind of pay pretty much makes all the stress about miles go away.

 

OK, your domicile is in Iowa. Plenty of companies to choose from then. Here's a few to look at and put on a list of companies you want to apply with while in school.
West Side Transport
Schuster - headquartered in Iowa and the nations largest ice cream hauler. Saw one of their trucks in Las Vegas, so they must run to the west coast. Everyone likes ice cream!
Britton Transport
Magnum Ltd.
Freymiller
A&A Express - Brandon,South Dakota
There's six to look at. There's plenty more. When you look at the websites, if you see "experience required", ignore that because these all hire new cdl grads, but some are a little more picky than others. Most will like a community college cdl program.
Edit: Apply to as many companies as you want to. Do this on the first day of cdl school; don't wait until graduation. You will receive job offers contingent on completing cdl school and having any required endorsements. I'd get all the endorsements including hazmat because even pulling a refrigerated trailer, you may at times get a load of spray paint, fingernail polish, or a myriad of other products, when a refrigerated load is not available. Get a passport if you want Canada runs. Not all companies run Canada or force drivers to go there.

 

Canada is especially valuable.

Chinaman is right, get a Passport, times have changed since my time running into Canada on my CDL. You will probably apply for additional parts towards your CDL under the Enhanced real ID act which for me means I need a certain length of time on utility bills to prove residence etc and will take time to clear the background checks in my state.

You will want a TWIC card, this allows you access into certain places that are secured like a sea port. 9-11 has changed everything.

If you have not already, work on your french and your mathematics in metric. for example American 13.6 high in trucks and trailers equals Canadian 4.14 in meters. Anything less than that there is going to be a problem. Also follow the exchange rate as you run around, there will be days it's in your favor and days it's not and cost you more relatively speaking. By the same token you will gain access to certain products such as food not sold anywhere in the USA to bring back for yourself or family at home. So its not all bad.

Visit you tube and look up Canada Customs Winsdor. It's very straight forward and pretty much all trucks clear that facility before being allowed to run into Canada any deeper on your way to desination etc.

Not all drivers can go to canada. So those who can and do are most valuable.

 

You're in a hot spot for trucking. Tons of great trucking companies in that area. You can get whatever you want. Runs east coast. Runs west coast. Runs into Denver. Mail runs. UPs. Wallyworld. All 48. Intermodal. Expediting.
Definitely go for the Grant. I'm starting this morning in CDL school with a Grant. I'm upgrading a Class B. Get everything. TWIC card and all. Even a passport.
I'm a little like you. Very highly trained/experienced in electricity. I was between an electrician and an engineer. Knew certain stuff better than typical engineers. Just because I had customers who sent specialized engineers for me to work under. I'd learn from those guys. I did testing.
I say go for the trucking. Have fun. You'll have good possibilities on jobs. The industry is exploding right now. Mainly because of the bad situation for carriers in recent years. Shippers/Receivers/Brokers took advantage. It has come back and bit them in the rear. People quit driving. Lack of drivers.
Definitely pour over job boards. There is one company right on top of you. They hire with no experience. They train for tanker. All kinds of tanker work.

EDIT: Replied before reading the whole thread. Didn't intend to repeat what others said.

 

Is that field hiring and what is the starting pay?

 

May I offer a bit of free advice...and we know what's that's worth. Get a federal job doing that unless you just don't want to do it. Once in the system you can apply for different jobs. On case you are wondering why I'm saying this, entry level OTR does not pay much better if you want a life.