In da hood and more?

I have done some deliveries in some bad places. 6 mile in Detroit way after dark. Southside Chicago. 3 a.m. in the Bronx. Gary, In. (cops and private security carrying 12 gauges with me that time). Knock on wood no one has ever been aggressive with me in any of these areas. Always be aware of your surroundings, you should be fine.

 

yeah... bad areas need their products too... things do happen... but not in just bad areas... truckers have been killed while in their sleeper.. while they are sleeping... they have been killed cause someone was breaking into the trl... its up to you to park somplace safe.. if your going into the bad lands someplace.. park far enought away or at a truck stop, but leave yourself time to get up early and get in the yard of the customer as soon as you can.... your life is way more important then what your hauling... your not sure of an area... ask... get on the cb and ask.. someone is going to tell how the area is..

 

The pay is better than flipping burgers, if you're just looking at gross income. The pay (for over-the-road trucking at one of the bigger, starting companies) is not necessarily better than flipping burgers on a per-hour basis.

In other words, you work a lot more in return for a bigger gross income. Now that's an okay trade off for some people; you may be one of them. If nothing else, trucking is, in my opinion, a more pleasant and less humiliating job than flipping burgers -- but I think it's best that newbies moderate their expectations about the pay.

You'll likely hear a lot of nonsense about starting at 50k a year. That's not impossible, but it's vanishingly unlikely, particularly nowadays. You're more likely to pull in about 30k in your first year, give or take depending on how long you're in training, what kind of account you land, etc, etc.

On the upside, your age is probably the best to get into trucking, if that's what you want to do. You probably have fewer ties and responsibilities than an older driver, and so it's easier to go out over the road for long periods. And having a CDL, while not the gold-plated guarantee of success that some recruiters will say it is, at least isn't a bad thing.

Good luck to you.

 

Don't worry about how much $$$$ you can make. You'll only spend it on wild women, booze, pin ball machines etc.[/QUOTE]

SO THAT'S WERE MY MONEY WENT !!

 

OK, you wanted more responses, so here goes:

No, it is not EASY. You will usually have to go to a driving school that you pay for out of your pocket. Or hire on with a company who will pay for the schooling, in return for your commitment to work for them for a set period of time. If you fail to fulfill your commitment to them, you will be hit with a huge bill for the schooling. You will likely be placed with another driver, a designated "trainer driver," for a certain period of time. You might get a good one, you might get an idiot. They are out there...

There is always a certain need for truck drivers, and probably always will be. Part of the reasons for this, is that "training companies," or as we call them in the business, "bottom feeders" go through drivers like corn goes through a dog.

GOOD driving jobs are hard to find, require experience and a good stable work history. Not to mention a good driving record.

You will need to be able to go where you are sent. Face it, there are a lot of manufacturing plants, warehouses etc in areas that are just not too wonderful. If you are working a local gig where you are delivering to businesses, you will see these places on a more or less daily basis.

Most of us will go for years, probably our entire career with little or no problem in these areas. Most truckers can pretty much take care of business on their own, and really we don't have too many people mess with us.

Your worst headaches will come from the folks who run the shipping or receiving docks. Again, most of them are OK, they are just very busy and don't have time to hold a rookie's hand. OTOH, some of them are just flat out arse holes who hate their jobs, and hate YOU.

You learn to deal with it.

In a nutshell, yes. Way better. But as another poster said, you will work for your money. A lot of hours. You really don't want to try to break down what you are making to an hourly basis.

At MickeyD's you work a set schedule. If you have to work over a certain number of hours, you get overtime. This is generally not true in trucking.

While there are some local or LTL jobs that pay by the hour, most driving jobs pay by the mile, or even by the load. Even those jobs that do get hourly pay, usually you don't get overtime, no matter how many hours you work. There is a loophole in the federal wage laws that exempt the trucking industry from paying overtime. Now some companies will pay this, (usually union shops only,) but most won't.

And you don't have a set schedule. You come in so that you are ready to take the freight when it is ready. You work until the job is done.

The jobs that are more over the road pretty much pay by the mile. If you get stuck in traffic, or weather, or at a shipper or consignee for hours on end, you are not getting paid for it. You are only paid for the miles you drive.

Also, you generally are not paid for ALL the miles you drive, as most companies pay by a set schedule from point A to point B. This usually involves atlas miles from the zip code you start in, to the zip code you deliver to. And they go by the shortest map distance.

So, if you are traveling from (as an example) Grand Junction Colorado to Holcomb Kansas, you would probably want to run I-70 across the rockies and on out into Kansas, where you would cut south to Garden City/Holcomb. A distance of about 581 miles.

But your paid miles would likely be routed US 50 all the way, about 498 miles. A much tougher drive over the Rockies, and much slower through all the little towns along the way.

Now don't let what I have posted change your mind. We need good truckers in this country, and there are some good jobs out there. But you need to go into this with your eyes open.

I agree with the poster who said your age was working for you, but only to a point. It can be a bit tough to get hired onto most trucking companies before age 25, due to insurance. This doesn't mean you can't find a driving job younger than that, but it makes it harder.

OTOH, what you can do, is try to get your experience with small owner operators, so that when you hit that 25 age, you are not only the right age, but have driving experience under your belt. A good steady work record is very important to you, but can be worked around if you don't have it.

Another place to gain experience driving a truck, are jobs with aggregate companies. Sand and gravel outfits will often hire folks that the OTR companies won't. OTOH, you experience there won't count for as much. But it will give you the feel of handling a large truck, and (again) if you have a steady work history it will help you.

I hope that this post sort of answers some of your questions. I also hope that it raises a few more. Keep asking away, and the folks on here will be glad to help you out.

FWIW, we have one individual right now who is a "more seasoned" person. He has wanted to do trucking for a long time, and has spent the better part of a year on this forum, learning all he can, while working at his other job. He will be far more aware of what he is getting into than the average new driver.

It's a good way to learn. Another way, is to hit your local truck stops and talk to drivers. Most of us are more than willing to talk to an eager recruit, about the business.

Good luck, and let us hear a lot more from you!

 

Find a tech school or community college in your area for your schooling. It will be thousands of dollars cheaper and you will get much better instruction than a mill! DO NOT let the company you go to try to tell you they will make your payments for you as you will get bent! Pay that cost your self and build up your credit! Go now and then get an intrastate job doing farm work or that gravel job mentioned above. The age limit is lower than interstate driving and you will have an owner helping you to learn the truck better! Just stay away from these bottom feeders major 500+ truck trucking companies! They will suck the life right out of you!
Now to be sure you really want to be a trucker take this little test: get a sleeping bag and pad, then in your bed room mark out an area of 80 inches wide to 70" deep. Put a chair in the top left corner the sleeping bag in the back and this is the area you will call home! You will sit in the chair for 10 hours! You will sleep in the bag for 8 and then have 2 hours to go take a shower, eat , wash clothes once a week and just goof off which is your 10 hour break! Do this for about 2 weeks! Now While parked for your 10 hours off duty be sure that when it comes time to eat you have to walk at least 100 yards to eat and 100 back to the truck! When you go to bed and have to take a wizz you have several choices, walk the 100 yards back to the truck stop bathrooms, walk around the truck to the passenger side and go there which will be about the same as walking to your bathroom OR pull out that gallon jug and wizz in it. Now a sit down is almost the same! squat down beside the truck but be prepared to get your butt chewed out by the driver that sees you do it as Murphy's law applies here or go the 100 yards to the bathroom but remember every once in a while you'll have a bad case of the squirts and might not make it to the building!

Anyway you will do this training period for about a 3 weeks or a month before you get home. If you crack, tucking isn't for you! And if you think you might want to team with a woman or a man they do the same thing with you. If you can live in a closet together without killing each other you'll do!

Good luck
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