Deployed to Iraq looking at Trucking as a Career. Help Please!

If you had a job before you deployed go back to them!

I hate to see our Veterans come back and get hooked into this cesspool called trucking!

If you have no experience in driving and have to go to a school you're going to get bent! YES they'll do you just as fast as a civillian! I wish daily I had stayed in years ago but I got riffed just after Saigon fell! And that was just after my 1st reup! I could have crossed over but was I pretty PO'ed they let me go!

Stay in! Yes, it sucks right now but that mess won't last forever. Get your twenty or more in and retire and THEN get a job out here. This economy bites big time and jobs are hard to find, Veteran or not! We just lost another 200 jobs here in Springfield MO today and we're the 3rd largest city in this state! It's a bad time out here on the other side of the fence.

Please keep the job you have and even try for another MOS and schools to make it harder for them to RIF you in the future when this war ends! You have a job and believe it or not the pay is better than unemployment even for an E-2 and a LOT better than what these bottom feeder companies are paying.

Let your buddies read this and even pass it around! Read more of the posts in the "bad companies" and even some of my posts. As a Vet I would tape you arse down and any other Vet to keep them from trying trucking at this time! In maybe 2 or 3 years it "might" get better but just hold on to what you have! I'm about to write a story to Military.com about just this thing hoping I can save a Vet from jumping into the mess called trucking!

Thanks for serving and come home standing!
Good Luck
Rollover

 

There is about 3 million trucks out there on the road. Arrow just closed their doors booting about 1400 drivers. Schools will tell you there is a driver shortage, but the shortage is good paying trucking jobs that won't fold up in the months to come.

 

Take my advice, these guys are right. I have had several friends who tried to do what your talking about, and failed/quit. If I were you, come home, like most of my guys did, look at the training slots they have for the 1 year trainers. Then find a MOS that will get you a better chance at a living. And it ain't the MP's by the way!... We also had a lot of guys turn right around and go back with other units. Lets face it. As someone else here said, this war will end soon, and you better get the good $ now!

 

Why can't you go regular military? I did 20 and retired but I got experience driving while I was in the Navy. And I don't mean military trucks, I was OTR part time when the Navy worked 4 days a week and then I was lucky to have a duty station that moved special heavy equipment across the states. I've hauled general freight, explosives, nukes (on short trips), construction equipment and specialized construction equipment. When I got out I went right to triples. So it's not impossible to gain real experience while in the service but you've got to really go out and find it. We had one guy that was on the casual board with Yellow and drove all the time. It's much better to stay in and draw benefits and gain some experience than getting out now and going cold to a CDL school. And who knows you might get into a much better field that will take all your military experience and start you off at a good level.

 

Go with Roehl. A decent training company AND they have, or at least they had, an "Honors Program" for vets which trained them FOR FREE. That's right no 1 or 2 year obligation.

 

Alot of that kind of hauling is done by civillian companies now..I am an 88Mike..I thought when I came home from Iraq I wanted to get my cdl and drive..I did...And its not all that great for otr..The money wasnt what it was supposed to be,and these starter companies suck..I lucked out and went back to Iraq as a civillian doing offbase recoveries..There is good money to be made drivin over seas..If you really wanna drive,I would look at your local companies and work my way out..That way you can physically talk to the drivers,and see if the bossman would put you on if you got your cdl..There are other jobs out there you might be able to snag -waste management,road department,local delivery companies,etc etc...I would try to find somthing that will also give you time at the end of the day to take online classes as well..You should definetly explore all your other options before commiting to driving..Be safe...

 

The reason there is a shortage of drivers is because most go through truck driver school, go out driving and find they make very little money. Their company treats them like crap, the shippers and receivers do the same. Cops see you as a revenue source yet they look the other way when some 4 wheeler cuts you off, your freight just shifted and has damage and the receiver now wants you to unload it or pay them to unload it.

I graduated driving school in 1987 with 25 other people. We all exchanged phone numbers so I called every body after one year. 24 had quit driving truck and never wanted to do it again.

If you like working weekends and very long hours and being forced to drive illegal then this is a great occupation.

Next year CSA 2010 regulations will be out, learn about it and I doubt you will ever want to be a truck driver.