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

If you can manage to recruit 20-30 new drivers in your first year you could make $80K. Well, you might need to train new drivers too, maybe do some work in the shop in your spare time. It's possible, but not real likely. I have to question if you really understand your requirement. You generally can't work full time and collect full retirement. The drivers I've known that drove in retirement ran one week a month or three months in a year. They mostly hung around the terminal and cherry picked out and back loads. They also retired from the company they were doing that at. So, to me, the plan seems a bit doubtful.

$50K-$60K seems a more realistic expectation. That depends a lot on where you work, whether they get you the miles or not. 50 cpm don't count for much at 2K miles per week. You make more at 40 cpm getting 3k. The part you never know starting at a new company. You aren't getting no 50 cpm straight out of truck driving school. You ought to be able to get 40-45, but then it's your miles. With a good choice on companies you could clear $700-$800 per week, but with a bad choice you might be getting more like $400-$500. The megas are terrible. They just have way too many trucks to manage effectively and it's the new hires taking up the slack.

Local jobs are brutal. That's generally deliveries. That means going into stores in places that weren't designed for trucks ducking and dodging cars everywhere. Often it means unloading the truck by hand. That's a hard way to make a living and best left to the young whippersnappers. OTR chews people up and spits them out, so much for family and friends. It can destroy a good marriage, all you have to do is sit there for 60 hours a week rolling down the road obsessing about just what is your wife doing while you're on the road, paranoia indeed destroy ya. It certainly isn't a retirement.

 

Haven't heard of not being able to work full time while collecting retirement. I met one guy that was working on his 3rd company to earn another pension. He was already drawing 2 pensions and one of them was not social security. I've met several retired law enforcement, from various capacities, that were drawing pensions and now trucking full time working toward a 2nd pension.

 

You do not go down the road obsessing what the wife is doing or not doing (And the wife obsessing that you have a girl in every port eh?) anyhow. When I met my spouse here in Arkansas as a trucker with a load of california from Jonesboro with tools and die parts I think it was... she asked if I had a girl in every port. I said no, but I did say that there were several that were very good and short times but due to my work it would not have worked out long term.

That was about 20 some years ago. Im still here, I never left. And I did some big time trucking since we got married She did too. She already witnessed a situation in Rochester where a pretty blonde gal asked me if I would like to spend time with her as I cleaned the outer mirriors in the Guiness Ale Bullpen where they corrall bobtails across the street/block from the distribution shipping. And I told her sorry, Thank you but no I am married and Wife probably heard you in the open window, take off right quick. She did. Wife did indeed hear and see the encounter. It would not be the first or last time our marriage was tested. I considered it a waste on the gal's part engaged in that side line.

Anyhow.

Regarding kids, wife, home life and all the problems as such... a old instructor taught me lesson number one. A successful trucker has a good woman behind him helping. If you do not have a good woman, one who is stormy and tempestuous or perhaps engaged in wandering while you are away earning the bacon ... then you have a decision to make. You cannot have things on your mind other than specifically what your trailer is doing and how far you are ahead of dispatchers appointment time among other things. If you are distracted because of a arguement or some other domestic problem, chances are within 3 days you are going have something happen which should not happen because your mind is not right.

Follow me so far?

 

No.

 

The

The pickier you are about what you are carrying, means less money in your bank. If you refuse to go to some cities (like New York)....less money

 

Give it a shot, a CDL is a good thing to have. You could always work casual for smaller firms and run local. Or find a contractor that needs a CDL holder to move equipment. A CDL does not limit you to just hauling freight, and with your record, time behind the wheel will more than likely not be a factor in hiring you.

 

You probably won’t make a whole lot your first year. Depending on the company and if you’re dedicated to a specific customer, how long you stay out etc you can make good money. I made 70k, but I also didn’t go home more than once a month and a half or if I was on a load that got through the house. I didn’t go home for 6 months from the day that I went to school.

But if you are retiring with a pension, you don’t really need to run that much or that hard. Just take a leisurely drive across the country and enjoy it.

 

Yes, but need the passenger endorsement for a bus.

 

Also School bus...
There is Class A bus. They told me we don’t have a single class A bus in our entire state. So I’ll have to settle for that restriction on my license. Doh!