Any Advice?

Amen to that. It is tough on guys our age especially. I'm 53. Still to young to retire, but you have to wonder if anything will be there when we are 65 or 66. And like I talked with this fellow yesterday at the picnic. How can the economy improve when 4,000 ready-to-work Mexicans are coming here each day and 30,000 H1-B visas are being issued each month? At the other end of the candle, company CEOs and officers are probably exporting 4,000 jobs/day. We need 200,000 new jobs/month just to handle the population we already have here. I'll bet many unemployed now would gladly take the jobs driving the garbage trucks at 3AM and 4AM. I'll bet many high school kids woud work at McDonalds and Burger King. I know there are white girls that come around the weekly hotel here where I stay wanting maid jobs. But they only hire Mexicans for these jobs. And I like the Mexicans, but the way our government has handled it is horrible.

 

Here's a response I got to your post that I posted on a financial board I post on. I'll warn you though, this board I post on is pretty negative.

"Your buddy may want to Google 'Construction jobs in Iraq for US citizens'. I'm not being snarky. I'm being serious -- enough so that I would be doing that for just about any field where I was looking for work."

 

And here is the second response. This guy may or may not know what he's talking about. Don't be discouraged!

"Endzone2 ;
There are only two possibilities with regard to sizing up the trucking industry. If there is a shortage of drivers, or not. If shortage really truly exists, wages should be on the rise, seeking to attract folks like you've described. These are people who would be willing to provide themselves as an eligible driver to supply the demand the companies insist is obvious and growing.

Here is my question : where is all that freight that needs to be moved? Where is it sitting around, for lack of a driver to move it? Is it backed up, somewhere in hiding? Now ask yourself : are there any drivers around, sitting and waiting to move a load? Go to the nearest large truckstop and you will see tons of guys. Playing video games, talking on the phone, eating or watching TV. Some are under a load and should be discounted from my analysis. Others however, are waiting and waiting to be dispatched onto a load. Why so much waiting? Isn't there tons of freight out there, needing to be moved? Of course not. There is very little available freight. The waiting is for some broker to pit one driver against another until he gets a dirt cheap rate to move his load. No hurry. The load will get there.

Rates go down when there is surplus supply of truckers. How better to insure such a surplus than to constantly bellyache about an imagined "shortage", that needs to be filled "right away"?"

 

David142 - Is this something you have thought about doing or a last chance at a job?

I have been in management for over 28 years. I thought of becoming a driver 10 years ago when I was laid off after 23 years with the same company in 2001. Landed a job in management in Reno, NV. and moved. I resigned from my last job in Oct. 2009 as I was tired of being in management, not an easy decision in this economy. I wanted to do something different other than management, and want to get into truck driving. I will start school probably in August 2010.

I have been doing a lot of research on this site over the last 4+ months, and know that this is something I would like to do regardless of the naysayers. This is a great site with a world of information. The search function is your friend.

Best of luck to you and your family.

 

endzone what kind of were you doing prior to trucking. i thought tx was better off than most states

 

Just remember,

some of us naysayers have been around this industry for 20-30 years.

And we are trying to prevent some of you from making a huge mistake !!!!

Remeber that 85% of the new drivers, never last a year !!!!!

Good Luck Gentlemen !!!!

 

The problem I see is that you need money now to live on. That will be a problem for a new driver just starting out. It's not like the old days where you walked in and proved your abilities then went to work right then. You've got to go to school (no income) then beat the bush to find a job (no income). These guys that are saying they made the switch to trucking and are going for their dream are sitting for months with no pay.

I always recommend that a new driver stash away cash to live on for at least 6 months. More would be better. If you can do that then you stand a good chance with your work history and clean record as long as you can drive a truck after school.

If it were me ,trucking would be the last field I'd go into at your age. No disrespect (you're younger than I) but this field is where you want to invest years to get ahead and make good money for your retirement. If you already have the retirement set up then that's a little better except you won't make top dollar for a few years.

Have you considered working for the government? You can take your skills and go local,state, or even federal. That's a gravy train and a good set up for late starters. I'm sure you can find a job that you can convert your years of experience into and be much better off than driving. Don't get me wrong here because I think a trucking career is great if you go about it right. But I think if you switch over now you won't be getting what you need. If you do decide to go however, please come back and stay with us because you can save yourself alot of headaches if you get the right information. And you can get the right information when there's a few responses that are the same. Good luck.

 

david, have you considered looking for construction work in another state? If you are going to lose everything through bankrupcy anyways, is there anything in particular that is tying you to FL?