I am thinking about being a truck driver

I went to Roehl in Marshfield Wi. Close to home. I can only vouche for my limited experience but making 40000 in the first year is a probably not going to happen. Everything is new and you are always experencing somthing new right away. I started flat bedding and I'll be happy to be around 30000. The first year is hard but gets better afterwards. Good Luck

 

p.s. school around Wi costs 2500

 

I payed a little under $4,000 for school in ohio

 

My first year at schneider grossed 36k. I can prove it, but don't make me.

 

They are lieing like a dog. You will not be placed in a job that gets you home every couple of days. It just don't happen, not to trainees, and especially not to trainees and paying 45k a year.

If you ever take any advice, please take this. You have a family you obiviously want to be near, and love.

You will not make 45k your first year. At most starter companies you are lucky to make 25k, usually less that that taking into account all the low pay training you will be subject to.

You will be gone 4-9 weeks at a time, with only a few days off after this time.

You will go weeks, maybe months, with little to no money coming in. As stated earlier, you make almost nothing while training, but you still have to eat and survive. By the time advances and taxes are taken from your check there won't be anything left.

Many drivers have lost their cars and homes, and finally their family, while trying to get started into the mess that has become new driver hell.

Take my advice and work two jobs if need be to save yourself and your family the hurt of what is to come.

I usually don't give answers like this, but I have read your story too many times, and been here to read the results. Go to the new drivers section, or the bad trucking company section and read what the newbies go through. Better yet, go to the ladies room and read what you are considering does to many of the wives. Don't let this happen to your family.

Now, I write this with the impression that you need to be home, your wife needs you home, and finances are tight. If I am wrong on all three of these points, then still read the sections I mentioned, and proceed cautiously if you still desire to get into trucking.

 

Well, you're not gonna make a million bucks driving truck.

What was your MOS in the Army?

What I CAN'T tell you is how much you should be paying for schooling..When someone gave me the opportunity to ride with them to get my cdl, I hoppped on it like white on rice and got my permit. ONE week later I had my license. I can only contribute that to God for giving me the ability to be a quicker picker upper, and that I took every word my "trainer" said very seriously.

 

Stranger is right about the school lieing to you. The school's job is too get you your cdl-A. They will do that for you but they will just say something like "no locals are hireing right now" But it doesn't matter to them because the school already has your money.

We had reps from Coke and a local food distro place that needed drivers come to our school. This surprised me because their want ads usually said that they needed class a drivers with prior OTR experience. After talking to the reps I learned that they would rather hire someone off the street and TRAIN them to get their cdl to drive if they proved themselves to the company rather than hire a know it all ex otr driver who didn't want to load the trucks.
I know several people who got their cdl-a and b from Budweiser, Coke, Fed-Ex, and UPS. I know others who now drive local but they had to do the otr for a year. I originally got my cdl-b for free at the public school system driving a bus. I just got my A at a comunity college for 3000.

I was in a similar situation about four years ago. I wanted to drive for a living but couldn't leave the wife and kids at the time. A different local trucking school tried the same lie to me but I didn't fall for it. Neither should you. Now my famliy situation is allowing me to do this. I am gonna try the OTR thing for a year. After a year I can move into one of my company's divisions that gets me home every weekend if I need to.

 

Sranger is giving very good advice here. If I had to do it all over again I'd go to the communty college to get my CDL and stay away from recruiters. I believe it's far better to have a job while you're in training so you will not be desperate to get the first job that comes along. After you have your CDL YOU go out and find the company. It's real simple. Just down load the addresses of trucking companies in your area and go out and talk with them. I've always stayed away from companies that need recruiters. Just think for a minute and ask yourself why a company would need recruiters in the first place. I'd much rather work for a company that drivers want to work at and go after instead of the company going after a driver.

Set yourself some goals and work towards them. Don't settle for a company that runs drivers through the door as fast as they can. Check to see if there's any drivers that retire from the company or check to see how many years the drivers have with that company. It's very sad when I see a driver with 6 months experience and he's now a driver trainer.

 

GasHauler has brought up an important but often under-emphasized point in this industry... one of the most
important questions you or any other potential driver can ask a company when investigating a new job is,
"On average, how much experience do your driver trainers have?"

If the answer is anything less than 18 months to 2 years, do not walk, RUN! Consider this scenario... you want
a situation where both you AND your trainer both have less than one full winter's experience on ice and snow?

Seriously, if your priority is to be home every day for your family, consider local construction driving or perhaps
limo, bus or taxi driving.