thinking about trucking after retirement,but replies here have me questioning

Welcome, I'm from Robertson County and lived in Goodlettsville for a few years.
Good idea going the community college route. Before graduation, get all the endorsments and a TWIC ID Card.
Plenty of good companies hire new cdl graduates and there's plenty where a new cdl grad can make over a thousand a week.
A driver posted a few days ago he drives for Aldi, which I think is near the unused Nascar Track. He said he makes something like $1300.00 weekly and home every day if I remember correctly. There's some manual labor involved; save that for the younger drivers.
Schneider Bulk hires new cdl grads and will reimburse your cdl school tuition directly back to you, up to $7000.00; they're strict because you must pass a heart rate test and hair follicle drug test. You can pass the heart rate test if you're in pretty good shape, and you can practice ahead of time by doing stair-step excercises.


Plenty more companies to choose from where you'll make decent money and have no-touch freight..

 

Danny Herman Trucking - You're in a perfect location to work for this company. You'll need a minimum 85 GPA from the community college cdl school to qualify. They don't run Northeast and mostly stay below I-40. Lots of Texas border towns and runs to Southern California. They have two facilities in CA, one of which is Calexico,CA on the Mexican border. Nice trucks set up for driver comfort.

 

@tow614 can fill you in on Big-G.
Some have weekly pay or annual pay listed. The pays on websites are averaged out. Schneider Bulk usually shows $65K for regional and $75K for OTR and that's about right for tanker work.
Schwerman - a division of Tankstar in Nashville, can make between $65K & $70K with tankers. They're Teamsters so you can be vested for an additional pension after 5 years. Don't know how that works if you're already in the Teamsters. On rare occasion they hire a new cdl grad and some of their terminals across the nation advertise for new cdl grads. The Nashville terminal runs 48 states & Canada.

Jack Schwerman - owner

 

You may be trained on a manual shift at school, but in the real world most companies are switching to automatics. It's getting hard to find companies with stick shifts any more.
Yes, the doctor for physicals has to be on the approved list. Ask the school which place they recommend. Some CVS Pharmacies can do them for cheap; have read $85 to $100.

 

That Nashville mayor is a party girl!
Yep, Tennessee is "right to work" and "at will" also. Tennessee is nice though, even though the winters are short, still got tired of the ice and snow during that period, so sold my house and moved to Las Vegas. The wife is still fussing at me.

 

You have some experience in a heavy vehicle. A loaded three axle fire pumper would come in at or heavier than a standard tractor in a combination 18 wheeler. So there is that. You already know what it will feel like and how it will behave generally. The main thing is your trailer. That's 53 foot or Mr Tippy wanting to break stuff way back there. It will try to get away from you in certain situations. If you have done hook and ladder then that is a taste too.

It is not so much what you did more rather what TIME and DATES you did the work at accounting specifically for the non filled gaps between jobs going back 7 years if not also 10 years to satisfy homeland security.

Im betting due to your Physical applications in your body in the previous work, you probably will pass a DOT medical test which literally is a long form with a stack of questions best answered with one word NO. Can you see these letters? Yes, can you breathe a moment for the doc sure. And pee in this cup Done. And do it again and again every company that wants to consider hiring you. You probably still retain the physical body sufficient to go out and do things in trucking more than most people your age. (Im past 50 myself... sheesh LOL... I have a heart that is a battleship but three valves are bad on it plus arthritis consuming my bones 30 years early)

Anyhow...

Trucking isnt super difficult. You say you are in Nashville. Memphis McKesson offers you a million plus dollar loads delivered usually overnight with drop hook shipping and satellite tracking that is very intense. You need to keep moving with those medicines, narcotics, cancer treatments etc in that trailer. You are usually reloaded right back to Memphis with cardboard waste in one hour. You generally do not get access to the warehouse itself because it's a secure facility. (Not that secure, Linfield CT suffered a 60 million loss of it's entire east coast inventory in 2004... It's REALLY secure now...) And it's routine.

It's not for everyone. America is a huge land and at times a beautiful land, and other times a hostile land. You might be chased by a tornado, see a wall of wildfire or buried in tumbleweed, anyone of which can combust off your exhaust. And so on. Or cooked in Death valley, or frozen in Souix city. You will see the worst of people and the best of same.

Money? Well... I prefer not to look at the wages so much as the EXPENSES. How you spend money on each load matters.

Example... Nashville to... Houston. It's about 750 miles maybe. At .50 a mile $375 dollars is gross pay and you will run about half a day loading, two to drive it and one half minimum to unload. That's 100 dollars more or less per day. Take 40% for the taxes and it's maybe 225 or so net. As long you spend carefully the 4 days you will have something saved. (If you don't it's stupid.) And repeat with each load you handle. Eventually after a year you will have a nice savings for all your work.

It's not for everyone. You will meet good people, dumb people, morons and some who are overqualified and fell into trucking as a last resort. And everything in between. And you will learn things about yourself if you did not already learn them in life.

Good luck.