Getting my CDL soon, what's this REALLY like?

Here's one of those jobs that pays well over $100G. Need 12 months experience first. Some of those drivers are home every day and some weekends, etc. Must have all endorsements and if you don't then don't apply.
R+L Carriers
8385 Miramar Mall, San Diego, CA 92121

 

I'm breathing down the neck of 30.

When I was 18-19 I got an intrastate CDL and drove crappy dump trucks hauling gravel for the local gov. 10 dollars an hour. Did that until about 22.

Around 21-22 I went OTR because I was couch surfing, homeless between jobs, and weighed 135 lbs because I didn't want to spend money on food. Starting pay was like .46cpm I think. This was right before covid. Remember, as a company driver, the company determines how many miles you can get. You can want to run hard but the company says LTL beer loads for you for the next month. You drive 100 miles a day dropping off 1-2 pallets a day for a 20 pallet trailer with 1 appointment per day. I stayed out 3 months, took "3 days off" then repeated. I was around 43k-45k my first year OTR before taxes. And I had a total of about 12 days I didn't sleep or stay in the truck.

Around 23-24 I quit OTR and went regional heavy haul tanker in Montana and Wyoming collecting liquid waste. This paid 19.50/hr when I started during the later stage of the covid panic. About the time they came out with the vaccines. ~40/hr week job as fast as you could run it and good benefits. It was awesome having time off but it was in a much higher cost of living area and I made about 50k/yr before taxes with per diem. The job was physically brutal though. I went from being a skinny fat kid to a stocky man in a couple years. As in benching 250lbs and deadlifting 4 plates for reps. The pay ratcheted up though quickly. 2nd year I made 60k/yr with per diem and a 48hr/wk average. Third and last year I worked that job I averaged 54hr/wk at 29 dollars an hour and made about 81k/yr with per diem.

I quit that job and got miraculously hired on to the highest paid LTL in this area because I knew a guy that knew a guy. Making 35/hr and .88cpm for doubles, .91cpm for triples on line runs. But it was LTL, Trump got elected, things slowed over winter, tariffs spooked a lot of management, got laid off after many weeks of under 30 hours. If you got onto a scheduled good linehaul run after "paying your dues" for 4-5 years you could hit 130-140k/yr maxing out your 70. Until that point you'd start around 80k and slowly rise to 100k through crappier bids or extraboard on call irregular work.

So it took me about a decade to get near 100k. And it all slipped through my fingers in a matter of a few weeks. Now I'm looking down the barrel of food service gigs, ####ty OTR outfits paying .55 cpm and never being home, or garbage hazmat jobs paying 25 dollars an hour to being a big boom tanker yanker.

 

Oak Harbor Freight Lines, Inc.
9320 Activity Rd, San Diego, CA 92126
Oak Harbor Freight Lines Inc (OHFL) is a highly respected leading west regional LTL carrier serving points throughout the States of Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and …
Must have all endorsements.

 

Estes Express Lines
Freight & cargo service in Chula Vista, CA
Estes offers award-winning LTL freight shipping, as well as Time Critical Guaranteed, Final Mile, Volume LTL, Truckload, International, and Logistics services.
Must have all endorsements.

 

ABF Freight
7075 Carroll Canyon Rd, San Diego, CA 92121
Must have all endorsements.

 

Saia LTL Freight
12055 Tech Center Dr, Poway, CA 92064
Must have all endorsements.

 

Old Dominion Freight Line
9850 Olson Dr Ste A, San Diego, CA 92121
Must have all endorsements.

 

A job somewhere else.

No one mentioned this, maybe someone did, I didn't read all the posts, but here is the truth about this;

WE HAVE TOO MANY DRIVERS.

Right now, the industry is saturated with everyone trying to make the big bucks, and the selection process for drivers is on the side of the companies, not the drivers.

A lot of crap drivers out there that need to be gone, this industry requires a good purge and most of those are in it for the money.

If you can't take BS, this is not a place for you, you are not in control of anything except the truck, and beleive me your customer or the moron on the loading dock will play games and you will have to take it. Get one cop that just doesn't like you, then you sit through an inspection, and they will find something to ding you and/or your company with.

This is reality.

 

I did cross country driving many years and thought it was fun seeing the country and it was most easy driving I would say because out in west in middle of nowhere. So not much traffic and you could start pick you start time of most days yourself.

I did regional driving you get home every weekend. It more short runs loading and unloading so the Detention pay was importing because you always getting delayed you can’t get the miles in 5 days. I had guaranteed minimum pay every week $900 or $1,000. Something I would not get home till 9pm Friday or even Saturday morning. They still wanted me to drive Monday morning back to work.

If your will to work the night shift hauling gas or diesel tanker you will make more money then average driver. I did car hauling for about 2 years and that paid better then most drivers get. It was not fun afterwards and driving an old truck and being told my home time was cancelled because the boat with more cars was here kinda sucks and it hot in the Summer cold in the winter loading and unloading. We had to wear uniforms

 

You could be a trainer with a trucking company and make good money but they might run you as team truck. That two guys in one truck and you try and train the new driver. You get paid for all the miles the truck runs. They get paid for 5,000-6,000 miles a week but it’s not easy. I tried that also.

If you drive a truck you will also most likely go with a trainer and you both will live and drive the truck for 4-7 weeks. Lots guys do training just for the money and the trucking companies don’t teach anyone how to be a trainer so you could get a good trainer or bad one just doing it for the money. You don’t have much privacy when training. The trucks have bunk beds, but you cannot sleep in top bunks when truck is moving.