Truck driving or not

Is that "Southeast, MO" / Northeast, AR

 

All your core content hours(45-60hrs) are available online, and most junior colleges have articulation agreements with state colleges. So you can earn 45-60hrs at 250$/class, rather than 1100$/class at the public university level.
I completed my cores online while running regionally, and actually had far more “free time” to study OTR compared to running local. Local was still 60+hr weeks, plus my commute times.
I spent my last semesters of college running part time for Schneider. They let me run 4on /3off, but I didn’t have health insurance.

 

I have met folks with some big time degrees, that wound up driving trucks for various reasons.
Back when the savings and loan thing went down, it was not unusual to find former bank presidents in a truck, some stuck with it even after it all settled back down.

 

Depends on region imo. I teach high school science in DFW, which only pays 50k. And I start a gig next week to deliver truckloads if bagged ice around the metro to supplement my income. But teaching out in a small town is the middle of nowhere would only pay a teacher 33k, hard to live off that.
A degree can pay very well if it focused on a high need field such as electrical engineering, where a 1st year graduate can easily make 80k+.

Too each their own, I actually heavily push the trades to my students. Machining around DFW is easily a 50k a year job, in a climate controlled shop. I have friends who are AC Techs that can live in 400k homes. OTR Driver wages seem weak in an area like DFW, but look amazing to someone in Western Kansas.

 

Location, location, is everything, I know drivers that just work the summer season and make 80 or better, then go back to texas and fish for the winter. lol
I never understood why an otr driver would make less from one area than another, it is not like a guy isn't driving all over the country anyway.

 

FedEx and UPS do not hire package car drivers. Package car is what they call the vans that deliver packages to homes. You have to work your way up from loader/unloader to a driving position. It often takes years, although I understand it varies somewhat from location to location.

What is college going to do other than allow you to borrow as much money as you want before you decide on what you want to do? Decide what you want to do, and then go to college only if it's a requirement for the job you want. I don't want to get the answer from you, but ask yourself if you could do ANYTHING what would you do and what training do you need to do that. Then make plans on how to get the training for that. Recognize that colleges and varous other training programs have a job of convincinv people that don't know what they want to do that they should sign up for college or a training program like CDL school while they decide. DO NOT DO THAT. Decide on your destination and then decide on how to get there. You have to pay back all of the money you borrow. The fancy brochures don't talk about that, but it sucks borrowing tens of thousands, not getting a degree, and also working in some bllue-collar job you could have started in years earlier with no debt if only you had decided that first. Decide, then act.

 

To each their own, but I think local driving jobs suck. Deal with ####### drivers cutting you off all day, traffic, a lot of tight spaces in shippers/receivers that clearly weren’t built to accommodate anything but a box truck. Lot of local jobs you have to lug the freight too.

UPS and FedEx delivery drivers typically work long days, around the holidays a ridiculous amount of hours. I’m not sure how FedEx does their hiring because I’ve never wanted to work for them, but UPS typically starts you out as a part-time package handler in the warehouse and you have to work your way up. At least around here, they don’t just give you a driving job right off the bat. If you’re willing to work part-time sorting packages making little $ and stick it out long enough to work your way up, you can eventually end up in a good spot. I can’t survive on 25 hours a week making $15 an hour...

 

You are going way back in time. Most people alive today don't know what Savings and Loan really was and how badly it needed to be "Nuked"

 

I can't speak for FedEx but with ups you will be putting your fair share of 14 hour days in once you get a bid driving. Also being a new guy you will be running a lot of six day weeks also, they will use you up as much as they can while you are cheap labor, not a bad job but just something to consider.