What should I do to take my career to the next level?

Im in the same boat as you 27 but same experience and wants of bettering my career hopefully someone will respond with some good advice

 

Your young, become an o/o, buy yourself a nice truck!

 

What about an LTL company in the cities?

 

Blachowske Truck Line in Minneapolis is hiring and pays $55K - $65K per year.
I've done dry bulk with a different company & the money is great.
Also try Foodliner in Minneapolis for good pay and equipment.

With those companies mentioned you should have a pretty good standard of living and be able to save for your own truck someday. You need a big bunch of money in the bank to get started with one of those big chicken light trucks/trailers doing the West Coast turnarounds.

 

lease. purchase. that's the way to become rich.

 

Buy a truck that does the job, take that extra money so you can enjoy life away from the truck. Its the only job I know of where you are expected to put in 50-60+ hours a week other than a lawyer.

The guys with the tricked out 379s maybe making money but they are spending it all on the truck. That is perfectly fine but it is about priorities. What I have seen and why I don't care for the chrome. I think it looks nice to a point but why I will never invest a cent in it. I know a guy that bought a brand new 2014 Mack Rawhide at auction that had about $10,000 worth of chrome and nicer touches on it with less than 5000 miles. The thing was literally driven from the plant to the previous owners yard where it hadn't been used yet. It sold at auction at the same price as everything else. The guy did not get an extra dollar for all the chrome. I saw it about a week ago, it actually looks worse in the winter when covered in snow and road grime than a regular new truck. You can spend an hour every night washing the thing but you will part way with a few hundred a week doing that.

 

If you take the time and talk to the drivers with the "tricked out" trucks, you'll find that they started with a regular, inexpensive truck and worked their way up over the years to where they are today. If you want to be an owner operator, start off small, with a truck around 10k. There's lots of them out there, and if you take your time, you'll find one with a recently overhauled motor that will last you for a few years, maybe longer. Then you save your money, and step up to a better truck, and after a few trucks, and a lot of experience, you'll have that "tricked" out truck.
And no, the guys with the really nice trucks are not all spending everything on the truck, unless they jumped the gun and bought one to begin with. Believe me, you'll appreciate it way more if you work your way up to it. And you'll be able to afford it too.

 

In all seriousness look at an LTL company. Old Dominion starts at .47cpm and there are several I know that left walmart and drive for them. I worked there for a while before getting hurt. I don't have bad thing to say. They are HQ in my town and the CEO actually gets out sometimes and meets the people who make him rich.

 

Somebody notify this mans employer that he needs a drug test!