Please help a wannabee!!!!

Times are tough and things change daily. We also have a plan and that plan involved investing in and doing the research to be an O/O (good or bad - it seemed to be the best alternative for us but it isn't for everybody) but the bottom line is after 30+ years in the business, we are still in the business after the good and bad times and the BAD times are a whole lot longer than the good times. The bad times have been knocking on the door but I am seeing signs that the bad times are about to hit us right between the eyes again. Hold your course, if you can. If you haven't been through them, which you obviously haven't, then you have no idea how bad it can get.

If you are looking for an easy ride where all you have to do is pick up a phone, call and listen to a recording then best of luck to you - in your next career. If you are looking for a career where "you call the shots" then I suggest as an O/O and, even less, as a company driver YOU might want to seriously reconsider your plan and talk to somebody in person instead of listening to recordings and relying on the internet to give you the "facts".

As I said, best of luck to you but the bottom line is it all falls back to YOU. Can you handle it?

 

Rodriguez before you sign up for school ask yourself if being gone for 4-6 weeks at a time is going to be ok with you and your family. If not go no further. School is going to run you roughly $6000. I am not saying it is impossible to get something with good home time but it is going to be hard. Every driver in the industry wants to be home. With that being said if you do not land a local job right out of school then you are going to have to put in your time over the road. If you can't stand to be away from home then you just wasted a LOT of time and money. Keep in mind every tom, dick and harry that go to trucking school want to be home every week. There was a thread just posted where this happened and now the guy is S.O.L.!!!! This is the number one reason for newbies quitting. Make sure this is what you want before you sign on that dotted line! The recruiters are going to paint a really pretty picture of trucking. Keep in mind they are salesman working on commission. Let your decision be yours not theirs. Good luck to you!

 

Around where I'm at, one year OTR was the minimum experience that I saw required for any local jobs. Most called for around three years. And a lot of them didn't look like good jobs...seasonal and/or temporary. Not much money to be made at $14/hr when you're only working part of the time.

Of course, there are some good local jobs in some places; there are enough posters here who say they've found them. But before you make the commitment, I'd do a bunch of research and homework, to make your best estimate as to whether it'll work out for you.

I finally decided to spend time and money on schooling to get training in an entirely different field. Trucking sounded like a good quick fix when I started looking at it, but I decided to take the long-term view. But then, I'm an old dog, and this ain't my first rodeo. At 21, I guess I thought differently, but I sure can't remember that far back.

Good luck!

 

I look at local as city driving and regional covering a large area, such as multi-state where you'd get home at least for weekends. If you live in a "hub" city, might be more often.