From Seattle with some newbie questions

Typical pay package for newbie's......bend over. Go work at McDonald's. you'll make more and have a life.

 

Woodinville has a good trucking school - check them out.

Whatever you do, don't leave your State to go work elsewhere. If you have to, run the I-5 corridor with a local OTR company. You will get lots of experience on hills, winter driving and chaining up. These are skills that will be invaluable once you seek a local job in Seattle. Some companies will hire you with as little as 3mo experience. Charlie's Produce, in Seattle has a ton of hours available. Starting pay rate is 18/hr. Downside is that you have to work nights, typically midnight to 10am to 1pm. They have hired greenhorns right out of trucking school but they are looking for the right fit - maturity, able to pass their driving test, integrity, responsibility, etc. They also have about 50 class B drivers - you are driving a box truck, delivering produce to restaurants, stores, etc. As a class A driver, you can easily earn 50k/yr to start, but you have to be willing to work nights and plenty of overtime - but you are home with your family every day/night.. Drivers use a hand-truck to make deliveries to various restaurants scattered around the Puget Sound. Olive Garden, Outback, Red Robin, Black Angus, Red Lobster, Anthony's to name a few. You get to drive brand new equipment(nothing over 500k) and half of their trucks are automatics and eventually all will be. The nice thing about CP is that everybody in management was at one point a truck driver - owners, supervisors, some other staff. It's an employee owned company, with distribution centers in ALaska, Oregon, Idaho and Seattle. It's big and it's getting bigger and they treat their drivers very well.

I wouldn't work for any company OTR. It's highway robbery making 25-35cents/hr and you don't have a life. I did go that route and wish instead that I contacted as many local companies as I could, until I found somebody willing to make me on. I know one fellow that called about 150 different places until he found one that would hire him straight out of trucking school. There are ample opportunities driving in and around the Seattle/Tacoma ports. Some companies will hire you with very little experience. Try oil and gas companies too.

Good luck!

 

I realize this is an old thread but I'm curious about this 'Grant' you spoke of...
Also, how did things work out?

 

Can't you just ask if they have any drivers that retire? Sure cuts out a lot of time.