My 21 yr-old Son Wants to Drive. Which Training/Rookie Company?

That is the point. Trucking is a crappy "lifestyle." If you made it work for you and enjoy it. Good for you. But I am just saying a 21 year old kid with his whole life ahead of him should pick a better career choice. I wish I did when I was 21. How many Indians, Banglegeshis, Russians, etc you see running these trucks across the country? Are they "living the American truckin dream" or doing it to survive since they have no education here and basically no other way to make an income?

 

Even the so called "great companies" are always hiring..Why, ? because anyone with half a brain can see that the driver in the trucking equation, is being "dumbed down" to keep those cheap wages and exploitation Life style rolling. Eventually, we will all be replaced by a machine, because the flow of new blood is not "dumb enough" for the bottom feeders. People (especially the newbies-God bless them) are smart enough to see right off the bat what this business is all about. If trucking is such a wonderful "CAREER CHOICE" as so many have espoused here, then WHY are we still in the only business EXEMPT from the Fair Labor and Standards Act ? Ya know, that lovely federal law that gives your employer the legal right to screw you ??? You may make all the jokes you want about the proverbial "burger flippers", but that burger flipper has a lot more labor rights than the trucking employee. He is mandated for overtime pay etc..We get shafted and call it a "lifestyle choice"...And, we continue to bend over..

 

Crappy in your OPINION, not your "fact". I notice you highlighted my comment on family problems, family problems are more then just a divorce. I originaly left over the road because my wife had cancer that is a family problem. However my family has had no issues with all the drivers in my family and we all work for different companies or are indie truckers. This is not a bad career choice in MY opinion because there is money to be made in the right areas under the right conditions if you are willing to shut your trap when you need to , haul the freight you have to, smack some heads when required to, and the rest will take care of itself. You didn't like trucking and wish you had other options, then it IS YOUR FAULT for not getting out of your truck and finding something else. YOU could have found the time and money to leave if you actually wanted to, nobody chained you to the steering wheel and welded the door shut. Sounds to me your bitter at trucking because you never had the guts to make the call and get out because if it was so horrible and such you would find an escape. No ifs ands or butts about it.

 

You "lifestyle people" just don't like when somebody throws your bad career choice up in your face. Oh well, heard this before..Oh that's right..."Your a "trucker"...sorry

 

Bad career choice? I'm not sure how averaging 90k a year over my driving career was bad. Bought my house, got my kids college fund full. Please let me know where it was a bad choice, I am all eyeballs.

 

But about 99% leave because they see how it really is. And they do the math, and figure out that that proverbial "burger flipper" we all seem to love to criticize, is actually getting paid for all his/her time, which most drivers DO NOT. So...who is smarter ? Burger flipper or someone who doesn't place a value on their time ??

 

Actually I did try to driving a paratransit van. While better than trucking. Try surviving on $1100 a month net pay. Heck the disabled I drove made almost that sitting on their lazy a s s es collecting disability. Right now I am trying to get into anything but driving a truck. Warehouse worker, dispatcher, office worker, etc. I am willing to take a small pay cut but not 50%. You see it's not always so simple. We need money to survive and are sometimes forced to work a job we dislike or even hate.

 

And "Longhaul", you may be the exception..I work for one of those same companies and am at pretty much 6 figures, 5 day a week etc. Would I recommend it ? No..I have a job people on this board work years to get to (as I did)...But would i choose it for my kid or anyone else's ? Absolutely not.

 

I'd love to see your figures on this 99%. I do value my time, quite well actually. Is it my fault you don't know how to make the most use of the time to generate the maximum dollar out of your day? Or are you one of those drivers who sits around waiting for stuff to come to you and complain about the dead time. Funny, I always managed to find loads on my down time which then oh gee cut down on dead time. I often called ahead to terminals i was dropping freight near let them know i was in the area. Gee got to learn a lot about freight in those areas and what dispatchers needed. Often got loads waiting on me because I had already called them. Freight slow down as a solo guy, then stepped up my game became a trainer and got paid more money while getting more team freight. More freight more miles. When training had leveled off pay wise bought a truck got more freight. See the pattern here? Its on you driver, nobody else to maximize the dollar to your time.

 

I am going to throw my $.02 in here. I started driving when i was 21 (27 now) and it was hard at first but I really like what I do and have had offers for office jobs but proudly declined them because i like what I do. It makes a man out of a boy in some cases.

Richieryan I would have him do a private school and go with someone like maverick or roehl. If private school isnt an option then prime is actually a pretty good cdl school for training. Many people will argue with my last statement but either a.) They have never been there but feel they should voice their opinion anyway or b.) did go there but wasnt up to par to be a driver and flunked.