Away from kids question

That all depends on the driver and the company. Mavericks avg is 52.5 the 1st year.

 

Trucking is one of the few jobs that you can go to school for a month, go with a senior driver for another month and start earning 35 to 40 grand your first year.

Most other jobs that pay that much require years of schooling as in college or vocational school.

It is conceivable to make more than 35 to 40 grand your first year as a truck driver but it is highly unlikely. You can and should get pay raises each year. You can leverage your experience and switch companies to get a huge bump in pay (provided you have a clean driving record and no accidents) but you have to be VERY careful.

I started driving back in 1992 (went through an 8 week school from November 16th 1991 thru January 16th 1992). I had 3 young children ages 3, 2, and 1 baby on the way when I started driving. I knew I had to provide for my young family and 6.35 an hour at Mc Donalds just wasn't cutting it.

Fortunately for me I had a strong capable wife that stuck by me while I went thru school, training, and finally over the road. She had the tough job. Worrying about me while I was gone, taking care of the kids, waiting for me to send money home, and waiting for me to call each night.

I spent 4 to 6 weeks on the road at a time when I first started driving. It created quite a strain on our relationship I must say. My children grew up without me. They had nice clothes, better food, great insurance, and a stay at home mom but no dad (as I was always gone). It took me 4 years to get a job that let me be home each weekend and I had to move from Maine to Pennsylvania to get that.

My pay went up each year for 6 years then dropped when I lost my first job.
Starting in 1992 at JB Hunt 28,000, 38500, 48500, 52500, 60,000, 61,500, Got fired in 1998.

Started new job at TSL in 1998 45,000, 48,000, 52,000. Company went out of business.

Started next Job at Eastern Freightways in 2001. 58,000, 68,000, 78500, 74,500, 71,000, 69,000, 60,000. Pay dropped due to Hos revision, and bad health which took me out of the drivers seat for 3 months this past year.

I post these figures to give you an idea of what is possible with hard work and sacrifice. It is truly up to you though how hard you want to work and how much time you want to be home.

 

You have to be OK with yourself. I loved the road for the first 3 or 4 years. I also was pretty much a loner. I just looked around. It was great. I would say your the type that makes it. The guys who have families or more important things at home are usually miserable or they just wine all of the time, when they just start out. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's a life changing shock. You can't be home all of the time and make money. It's a lot of stress if you allow it. Go for it.

 

I'm somewhat of a loner myself. I have something in the work's but there's no telling how that would go. I have my blood family to worry about but my mom is stressing about me driving. Me, I don't mind it. I've had wheel time and 7 year's of passenger seat time. I love it. It's relaxing to me because I'm not busting my balls and breaking my back working a dead end job worrying about where my life is going, but that just got a huge turn around. Sure, stress will be there through training but after that and I go A seat, I know I'll be fine. Just no illegal running to drive up stress. You never know if you have it until you try it. Thing is some people do and some don't. It's all up to you bud. Good luck!

 

Fortunately for me - my wife and I *started* with a here-again, gone-again relationship (military - both of us), and have pretty much kept jobs since then that keeps one or the other of us out of the house for (effectively) days at a time.

I don't anticipate any problems with that.

My boys are both in their teens- so Saturdays off are important (do NOT want to miss their sporting events), but if I have to.. we'll deal with it. They started out in life with a stay-at-home dad... and then an out-of-town dad. It's a long story.

If I've missed anything in their growing up, it's probably because my eyes were closed at the time.

Fortunately, I don't NEED my job to pay 60-70K a year. In fact, 40K would be on the high edge of NEED. So, I can afford to be very, very, picky - once I have a little history. (a noob is a noob and is NOT likely to get a zillion bux a year. So long as it meets my base needs, and is legal... I'll deal with it)

But that is one item I'm going to insist on with any company. Ride-alongs. And I'm ###### if I'm going to pay for the privilege of spending a few days with family members (yeah, I've run into companies that don't allow ride-alongs, and others that actually charge you a monthly fee! can you say "fat chance"?). If my wife or one of the kids wants to spend X time on the road with me, they're gonna come along.

I'm very comfortable by myself. In fact, most of my wife's friends consider me pretty much a hermit gone wrong. Long periods of time alone are .. well, what I am. I can be alone in a crowd. Alone by myself is less effort.

I love to drive. I *particularly* love to drive in the mountains. (After my training sessions in the mountains the other day, I wanted to go back up. A couple of my classmates arrived back at the backing range still a tad green or grey - after being down on the flat for at least half an hour. )

If you are starting this job with a new family.. or a family inexperienced with long separations, be very careful. Listen to what your S.O. says. Listen to what that S.O. *doesn't* say, as well. It's not worth your family - so keep a close ear out for those first hints of fraying at the edges.

 

i worked off shore for 8 years and noticed that the seperation brought us closer together. communication is key. and cant be alot of jelousy. good luck to you

 

This rings true.

One thing I do to help the kids help at home is we bought a map of the US. At bedtime Mommy helps the kids find where I am at that night on the map so they can keep track. They love it. It's the little things that matter the most.

 

Went I first went out on the road, that's exactly what I did, big map and colored pins, now I have to do it all over again for the grandkids....