So You Want To Drive a Truck

milesandmilesofroad · Oct 11, 2013

Sean Q:
No disrespect but if you don't know how to find loads, your going to stumble fast!!! If you have your own authority, then you need to get out there and start hob nobbing with shippers!!!

Question though, if you went out and spent all this money, why would you wait until now to find customers? buying trucks and trailers is the easy part, finding customers who have good loads is the hard part.

this industry for the most part gets the crap loads, the good loads often stay in house, when a shipper has trucks of their own. It's easy to give away the loads that don't derive much revenue for a shipper while keeping the high dollar generating loads in house.

it often costs a shipper less money to operate their own trucks than it costs to have an outside carrier take a load.

born&raisedintheusa · Oct 11, 2013

milesandmilesofroad said: ↑

Well isn't that special? You want to do the one job in America that so many will tell you is beneath them, yet when they need a job, they come a knockin in our industry. Seriously, I don't know what your expectations are but after I'm done, you may want to run the other way, because I'm about to drop a load of reality on your loading dock.

First, if you really believe anything any recruiter tells you, your putting faith in the wrong basket!!! Recruiters are sales people and they get paid to recruit you!!! If your a trucking school student, these idiots will come to visit your school, and if you think they are coming there to help you, your wrong future good buddy, they're coming to generate commissions for themselves and referral fees for the school.

Now if you make it through school and get that CDL, you get an opportunity to train over the road for weeks with someone who is getting paid to train you and a bonus at the end, if you pass the hiring road test.

oh wait, didn't they tell you that??? Yes, you have to take a final skills test to get hired on for that job you've just spent weeks running around the country for $240.00 to $350.00 before taxes and deductions. Yea, you may have enough $$$ during the 20,000 miles training to eat, do laundry, and send a few dollars home to momma to pay all those bills that keep piling up.

ok so now you got the job, now your in for what is called work. Your life will now consist of driving, loading, unloading, route planning, trying to maneuver a big rig or the biggest straight truck you will ever see down the road. You might think about leaving your nice street clothes at home because you won't have much time to go out and party, your running the road weeks in and weeks out for cpm pay, which is cents per mile. It's like a dollar bill.

you run all over the place and a dollar is generated from your efforts, this is referred to as revenue to the truck and this goes to your boss, the big trucking company that allows you to call yourself a trucker. Then money comes out of that dollar to keep your truck rolling along with all the other gerbals and the 22 cents to 28 cents or whatever your getting to keep, is your cpm, cents per mile pay. Now if your getting 28 cpm, for every 1000 miles you drive, you get to earn $280.00. Huge difference between reality and the bull doozies your recruiter told you you could earn.

oh yea lets talk about home time. Hey your getting 1 day off for every week out, woo hoo let's blow our air horn for that. Well what does this mean exactly. It doesn't mean that your driving six days and getting one day off a week.

it means that when you get time off, you have generated days off based on how long you've been out. So to get a full week of, you need to roll 7 weeks straight, so at 7 days a week, that's 49 straight days of work to get a week off.

most recruiters will you that your out 3 weeks and off 1 week, now the problem with this scenario is that in three weeks, you've only generated 3 days!!! so now let's say your driver manager tells you take this load to Chicago and I will get you three days off, so now your thinking cool, I get to go home after taking this load to Chicago, and you drop the load and get ready to go home. Well the problem is that lets say you live 1250 miles from Chicago and your next load is in Indianapolis. Do you really think your going home??? Your three days off will be sitting at a truck stop in Chicago or somewhere between Chicago and Indianapolis.

no company is going to let you dead head 1250 miles which means 1250 non paid miles, fuel, wear and tear, just so you can go home for 72 hours??? Not happening unless you own the truck and if you own or lease to own your truck, agree you really gong to blow through money to go that far home for 72 hours???

trucking is a good job and good career for those who don't go through life with blinders on!!! it's a job and a paycheck, that's it.

what makes me qualified? 44 years, 4.2 million miles and only having been with two companies in 44 years.
Click to expand...

What are the 2 companies that you have been with?

born&raisedintheusa · Oct 11, 2013

883BedomRider said: ↑

I think he told it like it is and straight forward.. he did say in the second to last paragraph that it can be a good Jon if you don't have blinders on..

The thing to realize and a hard pill to swallow for in newbies.. is that until we have a couple to few years into it we don't know t if we will or are going to be successful..

I know.. many, many many will disagree with me on that.. pretty much all the drivers with over 6 months and under three years..

But, just like any career change in any field of work.. it takes time to get established and settled into the career.. do not confuse getting a weekly pay check with being established and settled into any career and especially tricking...

There are many things beyond ones control in trucking that can ruin ones career..

A few years ago.. back In 2009.. I think it was.. right before Christmas a ladge company closed over notht.. leaving drivers stranded all over the country.. they were told to drive there trucks to whatever place znd turn them over... If they did not and attended to drive the trucks home they could be charged with Stealing the truck... Also.. the fuel cards had already been cancelled.. drivers who relied on comdat cards for there pay were sol..

There were hundreds of drivers that woke up to find they were out a job and stranded...

I don't remember the company.. but it was a fairly big company that red New drivers...
Click to expand...

This is a PERFECT example why a driver should always have extra cash or credit on him or her, should an unforeseen emergency as this come about.

milesandmilesofroad · Oct 11, 2013

Schneider and CRST

milesandmilesofroad · Oct 11, 2013

Arrow was a perfect example of a company that was always busy and had nice equipment but obviously was mismanaged

Tonythetruckerdude · Oct 11, 2013

milesandmilesofroad said: ↑

Schneider and CRST
Click to expand...

just curious..did you start your career with Schneider or CRST.....

Saddletramp1200 · Oct 11, 2013

Dispatch to me, We will cut your fuel card off. Really, your so petty, you will threaten me? Are you going to hold your breath and stomp on the floor too? Guess what. I carry 2000.00 in cash always. I can get home from anywhere. Plus I'm not a company driver. We can, we can,

123456 · Oct 11, 2013

44 years

over 4 million miles

Impressive, good job !!

Fourpaw · Oct 12, 2013

I'm going to revisit this thread with another up lifting post. I just talked to a driver working for a food distribution company, he does some mowing and landscaping on time off so that's how I met him. Anyhow, he has been driving for 9 years, 3 of them for this food company and says he will do six figures this year! Guess what, he also says he loves what he does. He said he would never join a mega carrier and be gone from his family for weeks on end. Apparently, his schedule is very nice, with seniority of course.

I think there is quite a bit of hope in this industry. I come from the aviation industry where jobs really are hard to find. You can be gone from your family for extended periods and making food stamp wages for years. This is the same industry where your experience means little to nothing. It is all about seniority within that particular company.

For what its worth, I've been flying for 14 years this month, I've been looking at the trucking sector for about, if not more, of the same time, hence the reason why I frequent these forums.

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