MN Cabbie Soon to be Trucker

Hi all,

This site is amazing. I've been lurking here for about a month, and I figure it's time to say hello. *wave*

Currently I am an Independent Contractor (driver) for a large taxi-company in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, but due to fuel prices climbing and lease payments swelling while revenue has deflated over the last four years, I have grown dissatisfied with my choice of work. And into my life walks Mr. D.; a drive-away driver that I transported to his next pick up, 90-minutes away. It was a good fare, believe you me, and we had a lot of time to talk.

Drive-away drivers, apparently, pick up bobtails, dock trucks, buses and whatnot, and drive them to wherever that they need to go. Then they grab another job (hopefully) near them, and off they go again. Surely someone can correct me / clarify how this works, but whatever, it sounds similar to my job - minus the slobbering drunks - and it reportedly pays much better. It also entails lengthier runs than I'm used to, and after years of tramping about the Twin Cities, the chance to stretch my hood a little sounds appealing.

Some quick Googling of Mr. D.'s company led me to some threads about it on these forums; then I nosed around here a bit more and I read about oil-field trucking, and about wiggle-wagon wrangling, and a day in the life of an LTL driver, and of lot-lizards, and the lumper game, and about schools near me, about super-singles about skateboards about surge-slapping, about HHG, HOS, EOBR and comic books, and....

I enrolled at Century College. I thought I would only be able to do the one 40-hour week, $1,000 Class B course, because I certainly cannot afford $4,000 and four weeks off work for the Class A course, but they have a federal grant that covers the entire tuition for military veterans taking the CDL-A course. I couldn't whip-out my DD-214 fast enough. I hurried out and got my CDL permit with Doubles and Triples, Tanker and Haz-Mat endorsements**, my DoT physical, my DMV record, and I wait for class to start.

I'm so stoked. The last few weeks have been crummy at work, but I don't care because I put in my notice and I'm movin' on up. The local job boards seem full of opportunities, and I might even find a nice, local hourly-paying job. Goodbye, working for free!




**To whomever put together the Truckers Report CDL Practice Tests; Thank you, thank you, thank you. They were an immense help.

 

I remember seeing that; it's why I added Tankers to my permit, but I already forgot who that company was. I'll have to look again when I get home. Thanks, Chinatown.