Your Ideas about trucking job, kids and Insurance!

1. Yes, most definitely, especially if your record is squeakly clean as well as your criminal check.

2. Sorry, don't know.

3. Navy dads have done it for years. It's all in the attitude. If your wife/significant other has a fit every time you're gone and is all depressed and weepy, your kids will have a heck of a time. If your wife/significant other is a strong person who can handle it well and keep a happy face and keep their lives stable and busy and happy while you're gone, they'll do fine.

With the advent of the internet and the cell phone, it's even easier - you can talk to them often. You can even talk to them via a laptop with a camera so they can SEE you.

If you can do it, they'll be fine. Many do it and do a great job of it. It's never easy but it can be done, especially if you're only planning to do it for a couple years then get back local again.

4. Sorry, can't help you with that one.

Best of luck to you

 

hey mindbender, starting out the words 'good company' are kinda tough to find. im in the same position trying to get the magical 2yrs OTR under my belt, then look for something local. Im going(did 9 mos. with PTL) with US Express on the 2nd of Jan. They claim u can run regional and be home every other weekend. Im going 48 states, i'll be out 10 home 2, according to what they say?!?! we will see though! US Express has a terminal in NC close to Winston-Salem and Tunnel Hill GA, close to Chatt TN. Those are reasons i went with them, 3-4 hrs from the house, so it would kinda make sense that freight is around here (SC) so hometime shouldnt be a problem.
sorry to ramble, hope this helps

 

It's easier to complain than to do anything about your situation. I have encountered countless drivers that hate their jobs because of the way the company is treating them - yet they do nothing about going out and find a better place to work. I've pretty much lived by the motto of if I don't like it, go find a new place to work. Went through a LOT of companies to get to the place I am at now, but the intense trouble was worth it.
Think about it, every place you go to get hired, you have to go through their orientation. Many of these places are going to basically eat up a week's worth of your time and pay you next to nothing for it. Meanwhile, you still have your monthly bills to pay. After orientation, even if you're an experienced driver, you're still going to have to drive for a week or more before you actually see a paycheck worth anything.

I did that 5 times in 2 and a half years - it was not easy, and I'm not ever going to say it was. I get into the job, think it was a good one, only to find - the same old crap with a different name. Go find another job, repeat of the same. The job I'm at now was a total fluke - I had gone through a temporary driver company working temp jobs until I decided on the NEXT job I was going to take - of which I had narrowed down to 2 offers. The company I'm at now wasn't paying anything. I told them I wasn't staying, the general manager came out - we talked for almost 2 hours. At the end - I was quite happy with the promise of pay in 90 days, AND the beginning pay, which was more than they were offering other drivers coming into the company.

So, I guess it's all how motivated you are to move up and get out of the rat race. I wouldn't even want to go through what I did for the few years before I got to the place I am at now. After I retire from this company and my boys are old and out of the house, I may go over the road again for a year or two just for the "fun of it". Yeah, some will think there's no fun in such a thing, but I always used to love driving on the state highways versus the interstates and looking at all the scenery many places had to offer.

Good luck.
bb

 

trooper, you worded that perfectly! enough said

 

For all intents and purposes, you have little OTR experience. Finding one of those "good" jobs will be difficult.

They exist, you just have to keep looking.

It's kind of like tending a garden. Weeds grow, they are green, just like the garden. The only way to keep them out/pulled, is to actually go out and look at them first.