Big plans. Scared!!! Need advice! Thanks!

A few questions
1. Do you have family?
2. How long can you stay out at one time?
3. Are sure about the maverick and about moving to Texas? You can live just about any where and drive otr.
4. Have you visited some truck stops and talked to drivers before? Once you get into trucking nobody will want to give you the time of day when you apply for a different type job. Either they stereo type you as dumb or they know that it's too easy for a driver to get back in a truck.
IMHO you need otr experience not regional experience. Those refer companies in the Midwest will get you miles, if you don't take too much hometime. Then find a nitch in the trucking industry. The specialized stuff pays better than dry vans, but some of that is seasonal. And nobody is gonna tell you that sometimes you spend a day or longer at a truck stop waiting for a load. Might want to go to work for a company that has 379's before you buy one. I'm pretty tall and big and I wouldn't buy a Pete if I won the lotto, just me, I don't fit. I would buy a freightliner classic XL, who's hood is longer than a 379's. And lots of leg room. They're several companies that will pay for your cdl training. If you have OK credit go to road master's driver school, get it financed for 1 year same as cash, they offer that. Then find a company that pays well and pay your tuition of yourself. That way your not locked into a company for cdl reimbursement, they will sue you if you leave before your time is up. This is part of the game. Any trucking co that hires a student driver gets like $7500 tax credit for each driver then they get the driver to work for one year, but if they don't give you the miles you will leave I promise, then they will sue you. And that Pete you wanted to buy will have to wait a few more years. Very few companies look out for the driver. So do as much as possible on your own. Then after you've been in the trucking industry for ten+ years ask yourself why did you leave your white collar job for this, I was a branch manager for a finance company before I started driving. Now I wish I had a job where I could be home every night with my kids. I've applied but I get the dumb truck driver stereo type thing in all the interviews. I've even had one lady say you don't sound like a truck driver. LoL

 

Not driving yet, but like yourself, I have plans and they involve accepting Walmart wages, if necessary, when starting out.

 

Duplicate post

 

I look at it like this. I don't want to wake up 1 day and say #### I wish I would of done that.. I am 47 years old I have a Masters degree in business. I have spent the last 25 years as running the US division of a Global equipment manufacturer. I was married for 20 years and have 2 grown kids in 2 different parts of the country.. So after helping a friend/ former employee get through a not so good experience with a Mega carrier school. I re-discovered the passion for the trucking industry I had forgotten about a long time ago.. I have run heavy equipment am certified to run everything from D-10 Dozers Skid Loaders Track Hoes HH 400 All terrain Rock Trucks Forklifts to 300 ton Overhead Cranes.. I decided this is the time for me to finally do something I have always wanted to do and that is OTR driving. My point is that your post and posts like yours from this trucking industry forum have been a driving force in making me want to be an OTR driver and part of this industry. So I wanted to say THANKS to all...

 

There is no way I'd haul glass for that amount of money, that stuff scares the hell out of me.

 

I have a four year degree, owned my own business, but I grew up driving trucks and always felt I could return to it if I had to. Well, had to came one day and even though I had done it before, the novelty quickly wore off, especially waking up in a truck stop every day, never having your own bathroom, pissing in a bottle, a hassle to buy and keep fresh food (or eat truck stop food) and the constant noise of being surrounded by trucks whenever you stop to rest. Combine that with never having regular hours (forget going to sleep and waking up on a predictable schedule, you will be waking and sleeping according to the load you have to deliver) and the trucking lifestyle becomes more than many can or are willing to take.

I knew what I was getting into and really enjoyed driving trucks, but when it came down to it, I had never driven for more than three months at a time - the summer time between school. So doing it day after day for months and years quickly became boring as hell, because once you get the hang of it, there is not much to it, except that it can be VERY stressful. Pulling a full load in rain or sleet in the pitch black dark through heavy traffic while trying to navigate directions to a place you've never been can start to wear on some people. Plus my eyesight was much worse than it used to be, and that made it even more stressful. I had only driven in good weather and rarely at night, things I never considered before I started full time.

The OP said he wanted to be alone which is what I prefer as well, but in this business you are not really "alone" in the way you would be if you weren't surrounded by trucks and truckers wherever you go. Yes, you are alone in the cab but you are in constant contact with dispatch and the shipper/receiver, and as I said when you stop you are surrounded by trucks and noise. It is NEVER quiet and you are never alone.

So ask yourself if you are really okay with that, and better yet, if you can figure out a way to take a vacation and find someone who will let you ride with them for a week to really see what it is like, then at least you will have a better idea of what you are getting into before you commit to it.

What Slowpoke said above about once you get into trucking is absolutely true; what you did before trucking will be hard to go back to once you have driven a truck for a while. Just because your friends are making more than you are without a degree is no reason to quit, most likely you have career opportunities to make more the longer you are a biologist, especially as you put your time in and show your employer(s) that you are serious and will stick with it - not coincidentally, just like trucking.

 

6 mos. experience and can move to heavy haul with Lone Star Transportation in Ft. Worth, TX. (lstinc.com)