Help!!

someone mentioned a dedicated acct but most companies call this a truckers weekend where you get home friday evening and leave sunday or get home saturday and leave monday.. not a true weekend

eitherway if it works for you go for it.. i did retail dedicated service for 3 years and when you get home your dog tired and you have to leave as soon as possible so you can make a paycheck and work the system good otherwise you won't make any money and won't be happy

 

Look up vega transport out st.louis. They run %90 new volvo 670. And you will be home every weekend and even mid week. I worked for them for 2 years. Good luck

 

I dont know of anyone at swift who is home every 2 weeks and is making money except for the coors dedicated run. 24 days out is what Im doing, gives you 4 days off, and you can make some decent money

 

I am home every week, making a nice dime and putting a nice chunk into savings.

If you want to be home weekly, you need to find a regional carrier not an OTR company.

 

Being home every week and making decent money are doable with an OTR company. (notice I said every week not WEEKEND).

I'm home every week and ocassionally a weekend and I run OTR specialized flatbed stuff mostly oversized. My last two weeks I got home on Monday about noon, left Tuesday was back home Wednesday night and Thursday night and gone again. I would have been back home already but the tornado's a week and a half ago took out our main customer for a few days so they had me run to California with a super load (over 16' wide) then back up here to the yard so I could get my APU replaced. I will be leaving sometime later today with an oversized going back to the house where they are going to have me run local next week.

So for the past two weeks ending tomorrow my miles were 7270 and my gross was $3233.25. Now I know that cannot be done fresh out of school, I have been driving for 23 years and until last Wednesday had a spotless record both driving and CSA. Oregon put a stop to that but sometimes those things happen.

I'm a beleiver that you can make more money in flatbed work but you will do more physical work for that money, you not going to just bump a dock, close the doors and roll. If you can work your way up to specialized and oversized there's even more money to be made but the BS little fines from the DOT also get larger. ($550 in oregon for being less than 1/2 mile in trail from another oversized load and $97 for the oversized load sign covering up the license plate on the trailer. Not CSA reportable because they are in violation of a permit not a driving offense but live and learn)

About 7 months out of the year you will have more daylite than hours availble to drive but over the winter months you will not have enough daylite to run a full day and as such the paycheck goes down along with the miles. I'm fortunate to have gotten on with a company that pays for sitting which can be a real bonus waiting on permits and such. Luckily I haven't had to sit other than one day in Wyoming waiting on Colorado permits. On the super loads we go to a daily pay regardless of miles since some days are 500 miles and the next might be 5.

Now with all that BS out of the way, I have a friend who got laid off from a manufacturing job and the state paid for him to get his CDL. He got on with a local carrier hauling bulk cement in a pnuematic tank and is home a few nights a week and at the very minimum Saturday afternoon to Sunday night. Quite often he has to head out at 1 or 2 Monday morning and they run their arse's off all week but he made just north of $60k last year.

 

Your attitude seems right.
Take what they tell you, expect half, be happy with half of that.

The first few years of any new career are hard, this is no different.

Keep a positive attitude, get some safe miles under your belt and you can pick almost any job and get hired over a whiney under achiever.

Good Luck to you.
Welcome to the Jungle!

 

MNdriver, you have 8 years experience! Correct though in that he needs to go to a regional company.

I try to tell all newbies that if you can hack at least 6 weeks then maybe think about something else. Reason being is they spend a lot of money going to school only to find out they have to stay out for long periods of time. Puts a dirty taste in their mouth and they quit. Its also very hard to make any money if you aren't staying out at least a month at a time.

Are there exceptions? Sure, but rare! You also really have to do your homework and think outside the box. A mega-carrier is most likely not your best choice.

Now being from Missouri you will be more likely to get by the house unlike someone that lived in FL per say.

Good luck man!