Looking into a Trucking Career

Roehl is very organized, will train you, generally well respected. very good equipment and support. if you are a hard worker they will run you like mad. pay is very good for a company that trains. good benefits too. home time a lot of options.

 

21 years old. Several companies hire at 21. Help this guy, with some company names!

 

I would but they're all going to be companies that won't work for him. Don't know how they treat vets. But there ain't no way he's making 45k a year starting out at werner, swift, crst, cre, etc. And be home every weekend. It doesn't work like that. I don't know much about running tank. I know everybody around here wants 23-25 and at least 1 year t/t exp. The smooth bore boys want tank exp as well. Can't say I blame them for wanting tank experience. I watched one of their drivers slide through an intersection last winter. I can't speak for Texas things might be different down there. But a lot of the expectations I'm seeing aren't exactly realistic. Some experienced drivers aren't making that much. Suppose LTL would actually be the best route still unrealistic right out of school though. SAIA is the only ltl company I know of that hires at 21, starting city driver is 19.50 or so. Benefits are great, right along with vacation. But they require a year of exp. There are occasions when you can get lucky and land a local gig. Down in tax I'd suggest talking to farmers too. Grain hauling doesn't pay the greatest at times. All depends on who you work for. Had a buddy making $15/hour 120 hours every 2 weeks. Money was good and he was home every night but running grain locally you run like a son of a gun. Start at about 4:30A.M. run down to the elevator be there by 6, wait till they open at 7:30, dump by 9 if you're lucky, run 80 miles to the elevator, load run back to go get dumped. He was running 4-6 loads a day, usually got off around 3 depending on weather he could make it back to get his last load of wheat dumped by 4. If he could get dumped by 4 he'd get off about 5ish by the time he got backed in and his post trip done.

There are a lot of options, but compromises have to be made. If compromises can't be made either on the wage or home time, or what he wants to dont see many options.

I can't speak for the oil fields, don't know anything about them. My neighbor ran a tank and has dealt with them before I picked his brain for a while about it. Buddy ran a hopper so did I, my dad currently runs a hopper., and daddy ran ltl for years. Me I've ran flat, van, and hopper.

 

Maverick and McElroy have weekend home programs.
Maverick drivers make over a grand a week.
Schneider tanker division drivers make good money; one posted he makes $1200.00 a week.

 

Easy turbo. You gave a list of what you wanted met. I gave you an answer. That's god that you have offers on the table with good pay and decent home time. You want to prove me wrong more power to you go right ahead nobody's stopping you. I never said you wouldn't make over 45k a year. I said you're not going to make 45k a year with the companies I listed and be home every weekend. Like I said go ahead prove me wrong. Problem is what you want to prove me wrong for is because you didn't read and jumped to conclusions. As I said you gave a list of what you wanted I gave you an answer. Don't like it that's fine.

As for not being a company driver long, becoming an O/O and running under your own authority good luck with that as well. I will tell you though the dream you have isn't as rosey as it seems. I don't think you really realize what goes into it. There's a lot more to bing an O/O than buying a truck, and that's if you're going to lease that truck on with a company. There's a hell of a lot more that goes into having you're own authority than goes into leasing on. Your authority, BOC-3, insurance, etc etc. Not to mention dealing with brokers and shippers. After you have waited 30 days for you authority to be granted. And some brokers won't even touch you till you have 6 months to a year in business. Its not as easy as it sounds. Then you have the record keeping, safety audits, logs, ifta, keeping your expenses, nights out etc for the accountant. That in itself can take a week at the end of the quarter to grt straight if you dont stay on top of it. Heck it still takes me even eith everything entered on a spreadsheet a good hour to file my ifta.

Then you hwve the truck maintance trailer maintaince and break downs to pay for. To service both of my trucks once a month is over $700, full brake job is due on mine in the next 6 months (probably done in the next 3), drums, slacks, s cams, bushings, shoes parts cost is over $1000 for all 3 axles. Then you have rubber to pay for. Steer tires ain't cheap drives are about as bad and you wither pay it once and get a 200k out of the set or pay the same price and change them out 3 times over that same amount of miles. Just put steers on both trucks in the last 6 months. Even after discounts bill came to over $2000 for both trucks. Drives will be due next year on both trucks there's another $4000/truck if not more. And did I mention brokers don't like to pay for 30-40 days from the receipt of your invoice?

You can get mad at me all you want, you can tell me I'm wrong with what I've just explained to you on the owner operator side, and say what you want. Ain't going to bother me. I don't believe in sugar coating things for people or telling them what they want to hear just to make them happy.

But what do I know? I'm just a dumb nebraska farm boy that was in the cab of a white before I could walk. And live with a man that's been driving for 34 years, and has been around trucking since the 60s. Who in turn learned from his dad that started driving back in the 40s.

 

I'm in the same situation as the OP. I'm leaving the military after 15 years in the earlier part of 2014. I already have a local trucking school picked out and got a pre-hire letter from the Roehl military recruiter. I am going with their flatbed division. I tried some other flatbed companies and they all but hung up on me in mid-sentence once I revealed that I had yet to attend the school. So far I feel like I have good start, but I'm still beating the bushes in my area to see if I can start out with a local company.... just in case that's a possibility for me.