New driver

You'll do fine. You really should research in depth. Apply to all companies there who are doing tanker. You might be surprised and come up with something a little better. You won't know unless you apply with them.

 

Well heck, I guess this is as good of a place for a first post as any. I admire your enthusiasm, and Ive got no intention of crapping on your dreams, but as some others have said already, 2k a week for a newb is darn near impossible.

I left home at 15, just put my thumb out in the wind and hit the road. The first guy to give me a ride was a trucker. He asked me if I could drive a stick. I said I had driven my Grandpa's old four speed pickup. He said to me that his truck was a four speed too, you just had to go through it twice. Ten minutes later he was sleeping in the back and I was headed up I-17 towards Flagtown. I'm past 50 years old now and I've been telling that story for so daggone long I think it might even be true. True or not, I've been doing this a long time neighbor, so I'm gonna tell you what I would have done if I had to do it all over, and I hope it helps.

First off, I would have have probably been a carpenter, at the end of the day you can look back and see you've actually done something. As a professional driver of 25 years, I mostly just look back at all the things I've missed. But if you really want to give it a go, here's my advice.

Do your research and pick a quality school. Do some more research and pick the type of trucking that best suits your goals, tanker can get you home every night and pays well, oversize can get you home often and also pays well, I've seen more than a few entry level openings for both. Flatbedders are a family, and just about everywhere you go, folks are happy to see ya. Avoid outfits like Swift and J.B. Hunt, England and Prime like the frickin' plagues that they are.

Be prepared to stay with your first choice for at least a year if not two. Two years of clean driving opens up a world of opportunity in this industry. Once you've got the experience, don't be afraid to re-evaluate your situation. Union jobs are great, line haul can be a good choice, there's specialized freight that pays well and puts you in some unique positions. But be sure once you get your experience, to ask yourself this question. Do I really want to live this life, and 20 years from now will I look back at all I've done with regret, or a sense of accomplishment?

As for the actual driving part of it. Take it seriously, be professional. Truck driving is a matter of life and death, every minute, every mile, everyday. Learn how to maintain your equipment and do minor repairs, carry the proper and necessary tools. Never leave anything to chance, if somethings broke, fix it.

As you drive, run over scenarios in your mind, if so and so does such and such, how will I respond? Have a plan for every imaginable situation, you will encounter them all eventually. Take nothing that happens on the highway personal, think of every other vehicle on the road as a potential hazard to be avoided. Be courteous even when it's not convenient. Don't get in a hurry. Avoid automatic trucks, learn how to float gears, learn how to properly and safely descend a grade with and without a jake brake. And if you should ever flash your bright lights in my face at 3am as I'm trying to pass you, prepare to get a booger flicked on your windshield.

On the personal side. Never let anyone force you into doing anything you are uncomfortable doing, for any reason, ever. Eat right, exercise, shower often, buy a comfortable mattress, rotate a few pairs of shoes, save your receipts. And remember if a dispatchers lips are moving, he's probably lying to you.

Once you're finally making the big bucks you're after, save every dime. Don't pay for an apartment if you live in your truck, don't finance a new car that you'll never drive but once or twice a month. Because the chances are that after about five years you'll be sick to death of this racket and looking to do anything else with your life. And If you saved all that money you worked so hard for, you'll be able to do just that. Much success to you, I hope it all goes just as you planned it.

One final thing. I've heard it said, there's a special place in the heart of God for drunks and fools... and truck drivers. If you don't know Jesus yet, you want to. If you've never prayed before, you just ain't trucked long enough. Go get em' tiger.

 

well, if you are still on, company wont get you 2k a week. but stick with company till you get enough to go o/o and you can do it. if you want to make 2k a week and you are serious, really serious then you will keep searching and you will discover how to do it. it is not easy, no matter what you might hear, it's not easy. my advise, stick with a company for a few years and learn, learn, learn . If you still decide you like it, then you will search enough to find what is right for you. I know, I have done it. But you HAVE TO DO YOUR RESEARCH.

 

Nah, not given up. I have been both famine and feasting over the life time of trucking. If I was to do it again I would. However, the quality of trucking has alot to do with a company you hire on to, the freight you haul and where you go etc. If you are careful and choose wisely you will have happy trails and nary a rainy day out there. If you do not well... it will be as hard as you can stand it. Or fail.

Sometimes you will be given a load that will destroy that "Can-Do" and make one want to go home and stay there. That is when you get to work and get it done. Im pretty sure all companies have a load somewhere on the list to be hauled that no one wants to touch and is used for punishment purposes LOL.

You will run about 500 a week more or less until you have some experience without accidents and so forth, you will eventually get up to where it's a thousand or so. That's a good week. You will also learn to get by on 200 per week or nothing at all. That is where savings comes in. At some point in your future should you be fortunate, you will hit the big time pay. When you do, be sure to stack it. It will not be forever.

For some of us it is not a matter of giving up, it's the body that breaks down. In my case I am medically retired permanently not by choice. Medicine has done wonders in the last 20 years or so and continues to do so. In my case all it did is buy a future because there are some things in life with people I am not through with just yet.

There will be some who will give up because it's hard out there. And there are probably ten more who gets motivated and get going. And those like me, too stupid to know it LOL.

 

on x1heavy note, when you start, live off what you make, when you start making more, keep living off what you were making before, when you start making more again.... still, keep living off what you were making when you first started. After a few years, you will have saved enough to get your first truck and go owner op, if that is your choice. But DO NOT live off what you make as your pay increases or you will never get anywhere.

 

Here's 3 Trimac Transportation terminals in LA:
Louisiana
» Geismar
» Lake Charles
» Sulphur
Saw one ad for Trimac in California that pays $82K for a new cdl grad. and that was for a local job.
The OTR drivers can make much more as I posted before.
Driving School Graduates
Trimac Transportation now has a Commercial Drivers License Tuition Reimbursement Program in the United States. The program is designed to assist Professional drivers with any out-of-pocket tuition expenses that he/she incurs in the process of attending a Professional Driving School Program.

Review Trimac Transportation’s Approved Driving School List
Trimac Transportation depends on the value that a good driving school curriculum brings to its students. It is the foundation to which all of Trimac Transportation’s training is built upon. For that reason we have a very rigorous safety approval process to which each school must meet in order to be an approved Trimac Transportation driving school.

Review a list of Trimac's approved driving schools.
Seems like they hired a couple of drivers to run teams that went to Diesel Driving Academy, but maybe I'm mistaken. You can check on that. Coastal Truck Driving School is the only one showing on their list and that school has night and weekend classes for students that can't attend full time during the day. Some companies will make a waiver for some schools that aren't on their list.

 

Approved Driving Schools:
Trimac also has an exclusive list of additional schools that meet our requirements, but are not currently PTDI or CVTA certified. Please note: Certain locations do require more experience due to greater customer requirements, advanced product handling requirements for crude oil and industrial gases, as well as extreme inclement weather and difficult terrain in certain regions. In these cases, we would be unable to waive the requirements for a recent graduate.

 

Just my thought here, but NO.

The learning process in any industry begins with some kind of schooling and then the accumulation of skills and experience gained over time. At some point you will have mastered the essential skills and gained the experience to be competent. Only then can you move up into more complex and challenging parts of the profession.

Think about your current profession. Would you have been successful in it if instead of being hired on, trained and working in the profession for years, you had simply opened up a business of that type knowing only what you knew the day that you started there?

You have a lot to learn, you need to experience a lot first hand and you need to learn from the mistakes you see others make. Only then can you even start figuring out whether to invest your hard earned money in starting a trucking company.

That is what an O/O is: A one truck trucking company.