should I become a truck driver

There are some good suggestions here to consider. However, being a student driver coming out of school does not mean you have to go with a big company. You should be able to find a smaller company that might put you on with a driver a couple days or a week. This means you can start making regular pay within a week or two. I am talking about a 6-10 truck operation. I have worked for sevearl over the years and made decent money-up to $1000 a week with available benefits.

Here is an example: O.F. Barnes out of North Carolina would hire a driver if he/she had a CDL, and they would put them with another driver for at most-2 weeks, then dispatch him/her on easy drop and hook loads and keep them in the South until they could handle Chicago or Texas. The pay was ok and a small home-type atmosphere. Board Trucking was another that had 8 trucks, and I was home everyweekend-decent pay and benefits. As mentioned, its what you make it. I spent 8 years in a factory and 11 in front of a computer in an office, and never enjoyed a minute of it. For me, after getting a taste of New Mexico and the open spaces of south Texas, and driving across US 41 from Naples to Miami-there is no place I would rather spend my time working than on the open road.

 

When you first start out you have to pay your dues, long hours, being away from home ect. but pay is decent and sooner or later you might land that great local job.

 

My name is Phillip I to had the same dream when I was a boy. I thought big trucks were the most awesome thing I'd ever seen. Today I am a big truck driver, driving consumes all of my time. This is a life long investment of your time like the the song says " it take a special breed to be a truck driving man and a steady hand to pull that load behind. Now you think about that,on the road are thousands of drivers 70% wont last 30% are the real truck driving breed. This 30% o/o , company drivers that have dedicated there live to trucking mostly because of family roots. Its in there blood nowhere on this planet will you find a better person. These men and women are the backbone of this counties prosperity like the father before them and there father and so on. Like my father and his father on down the line if all you can think about is driving that big ### truck down the road through a mountain pass across the desert along the Pacific each and everyday you wake up then sir I say to you YOU SUPPOSED TO BE A TRUCK DRIVER. if you don't think about your every waking moment you not. Simple as that.

Peace

 

Absolutely dead to rights on the spot correct! I think about it all day every day and I'm just going out with A company in a week. I have always had he urge to drive, and being 46yrs old, I am under no illusions that this first yr is going to be a bed of roses!! Hell, no...I figure to be razzled, confused, stuck wondering how to back into a spot...ect, ect!!! All I know is that i have wanted to drive since i was a kid and then...life happened! Ya know?.. Not what I had expected but with a wife and a child on the way, I lost my opportunity. Well, now my wife passed away almost 3 yrs agoand My son is on his own. It's my time now to explore the life of a Truck Driver. I do not expect to get rich, all i want is to get the miles i can and be home for a Dr's appointment every 3 mo's. I have no real bills to speak of and no mortgage. So, this is what i paid $3,000 for schooling on and Now I get my shot. This makes me happy and gives me a chance to stay employable for a long time to come. I am too old to play around with temp Agencies and their sorry promises....that's about all a welder can get is a lousy temp job theses days! So i am back at the starting line for the second time in my life. I am nervous, but if i wasn't nervous...there would be something wrong with my head!!! To all of you Men and Women out there who really have done this and love it, I applaud You! Now i'm going out there and be able to say i have what it takes!
Peace out Folks! I'll post again after i get a lap-top and i'm out on the road.