New CDL, New Job, Old Questions...

Hello. First post here but, I've been searching through the forums for over a week now to find a question as specific as mine. I can't so I figured I'd take a chance at asking it.

I just got my CDL last week. I paid for it on my own dime. I'm in my 50's and retired from a career with law enforcement. It pays the bills but man, I am really, really hating being retired. I've got a 11 year old kid going to school so the permanent vacation I was hoping for when I retired is still 10 or 12 years out. I drove trucks in the army and loved it except for the army part. I love to drive and enjoy most everything about the idea of being employed as a truck driver.

I live in Gillette, Wyoming and there are a ton of oilfield jobs around here. As the owner of the CDL school is an acquaintance of mine whose husband also owns a small trucking company I was offered a job with him. I don't now anything about the industry and I wanted to get the answer to a few questions I have relating to his operation.

1.) He's offering 15% of the gross load per run while I'm training. I think it's a fair amount but he says it caps out at 20% when I get seasoned after "x" number of months/years. Is this a typical pay setup?

2.) I've been "employed" by him for a week now and I haven't worked. It doesn't appear there will be any work next week either but I can't be 100% sure about that as I know things can change from day to day. He want's to train me on a side dump and says he uses load boards to find work. Is there a reason why there wouldn't be any oilfield work right now? Are we going through a "bust" period as apposed to "booming"?

3.) Would I be better off getting into a regional or OTR gig or should I just stick with this? I don't want to sound impatient however, I am really tired of just sitting around the house and playing video games/ hobby stuff.

Thanks.

 

Yeah, I've got them all and I'm waiting on my TWIC card. I've only ever drove flatbeds and busses though.