Wanna Switch from milking cows to trucking

Welcome to the trucking life; best wishes.

 

If you own your own truck there isn't much difference in trucking and farming. You will still work 80 to 90 hours a week. The only thing different is you won't be pulling as many tits. Lol. I grew up on a dairy farm and its the same. You save your money during the good times to pay for the slow times.

 

4 to5 grand a month ...that's great money! If I where you I would stay there till you can't take it anymore. Driving a truck you will make 50k if your lucky. Driving otr is not all its caked up to be. Think long and hard before you take the leap! Good luck if you decid to do it.

 

Hi! If you love working with large animals, look into horse transportation companies. The money can be great. You would mainly transport to big horse shows and shuttle between racetracks.

The only thing I will say though, most companies will not hire newbies ... At least around here. One of the biggest on the East coast wanted me to drive a TT for 1 year (didn't have to be OTR), then come back. Wound up with a local owner-op, but I have to drive the non-CDL rigs and trucks until I get some time under my belt. That doesn't mean you CAN'T find something out of the box. You may find that with your animal and heavy equipment experience, someone may just take you after school.

But, even if you have to go OTR for a year or two, it's worth it in my opinion (if you want to stay connected with large animals).

 

Ok....Right now the teets you work with don't tell you what to do.......once you're driving a truck EVERY teet will be telling you what to do.

Don't do it. You won't make the same money,no company driver takes home that kind of cash and wages are on the decline in the industry.
Are you subject to any fines as a dairy farmer? Are there Dairy farm police? As a driver you will be subject to fines for mistakes and those fines can easily wipe out a weeks pay or more. There is also the DOT which is a Police force that basically greets you as you enter each state and each state has it's own laws in regards to trucks and what is required of them.

Companies don't treat drivers well..........simply look at the number of complaints on this board. Imagine if someone in a store bought a dairy product,took it home,came back to the store complaining it had gone bad and complained. Now imagine if that compalint went into a file that belonged to you (afterall you produced the milk that went into it) and event though there are dozens of factors that came into play once that milk left you and ended up with the end consumer,you are being left with the blame.
In trucking we have a DAC system where companies can arbitrarily blame drivers for pretty much anything and have it recorded in a file that stays with you forever(Again,go through this forum and look at the number of DAC compalints).

Do yourself a favour,don't drive a truck. You're going to take a pretty big paycut to deal with an inordinate amount of new headaches that just won't be worth it.

If you have a good head on your shoulders go do something else other than this.

 

This maybe a very good angle for you !!

A specialist can command much better pay than the average truck, and sometimes specialized gigs come with other perks.... like long paid overlays, complete with a fat per diem including a hotel room.

I lucked into driving showcase shortly after starting my first go around at this..... which is trade show displays and/or high value, very fragile freight that paid multiple times what dry vans make.... its just a specialty that pays very well.... there are other specialties... and since you have extensive experience with animals,.. something along the lines of Njnoob's suggestion sounds like a great way to bring your past experience to the table and cut a path less traveled.... and better remunerated.

If you have young kids however, I would advise against trucking... buy your own farm instead....

if being somewhere, for someone is not important, listen to all sides describe their experiences of trucking, but never believe that it is all the same for everyone... there are many niches in trucking... many different ways to truck.....

 

keep your old job

 

Haul milk