Thinking about going to trucker school?

If I were you I would prob go to a community college and take they're Truck Driving Class. It's normally around 800 dollars. If you go to Sni or Swift's school then you have to stay with them for a year and half otherwise you have to pay them back. Correct me if I'm wrong but it'll be around 5,000 dolloars. Save yourself the 4,000. As far as backing, it takes practice they'll help you while your in school to get the basics. And shifting a big truck is NOTHIN like shifting on a manual car/pick-up truck the gears ain't synchronized, but you'll figure it out. It's all about the timeing. Be willing to spend anywere from 6 months to a few years over the road, only come'n home a few times a month. If that don't scare you away then go for it, for sure. Wish you the best of luck.

p.s. don't not go do it just because you don't know how to back up or shift gears... thats why we go to school. you won't be the only one there that doesn't know how.

 

My hubby and I are coming up on a year soon and couldn't be happier. We went to a really good school and paid for it on our own, that seemed to give us more options on where we wanted to work. We got on with a great company, our only wish would have been to do it sooner! I still cant believe how much we get paid to do what we love, road trips and traveling.

The first time you get into a big rig its pretty daunting, but after driving now, I feel more nervous in my little car when I get home! It feels like a tiny little Go Kart!

I would not suggest this job to anyone who needs routine, because this job is anything but. If you have a little bit of a wandering spirit then you will love it. I also recommend a small pet if you are an animal person, our dog makes everyday so much better out here.

Good Luck in your search!

 

before you make your decision,read this board - and others - a LOT.

If you go OTR, you'll give up a lot of stuff you might take for granted: Partying hard every weekend, hanging out with your buddies, a schedule that allows you to watch your favorite TV show, regular access to your own books, freedom to just up and go somewhere....the list is long and varied.

Basically you live in a 10X10 box with a changing view and sometimes inadequate climate controls.

On the other hand, you do see things you've never seen before. Most of the people I've met have been pretty cool.

The long and the short of it is, don't jump into trucking without a LOT of research and thought.

 

Hello Profit-of-Doom You neglected to mention if you're married with children, divorced, or single. Your marital status is a factor because your wife & children will suffer from your absence. As a newbie driver, you'll be gone from home from 3 to 5 weeksat a time (as a 48-state OTR driver). You need to sit down and talk to your wife about how she'd feel, living like a widow while you're gone on the road. As a fresh-out-of-trucking school graduate, you'll start at a pittance mileage rate. They'll give you plenty of miles (more than you can handle) because the trucking company is turning a larger profit margin from you, than what they get from an experienced veteran driver. For example, if a load trip was 3,000 miles, & you're paid 28¢ per mile as a newbie, while a 3-year veteran driver gets 34¢ a mile; it would cost the company $840 to give you the load, while the veteran driver would be $1,020 in payroll cost. The trucking company saves $180 in labor cost to assign the load to you, instead of giving it to the veteran driver. This is one of many reasons why OTR trucking companies are having driver turnover problems. The ones who exceed 5
years in OTR trucking experience a decrease in their weekly mileage.

Learning to drive a semi is not difficult, the issue is whether your family will suffer from this drastic change of your absence as a father & husband. If you go to the nearest OTR truck terminal, observe that a lot of truckers' wives are a bit on the heavy side. When women become emotionally depressed, they tend to begin eating more, resulting to obesity. If you enter this profession, I recommend you tell your wife its only for the first 12 to 14 months that she would bare your absence, and you'll quit OTR to get an
hourly-paid local job after you've established your 1-year of verifiable driving experience. If you sign-on with the no-money-down, trucking company sponsored training, they lock you into a 1-year commitment to stay with them.

Consider that you're not eligible for local trucking till you establish your 1-year driving experience. If $$ is an issue, then trucking company sponsored training is not a bad deal, but you can't quit. If you resign or be terminated, your contract stipulates you have to pay their training fee, or your credit rating will suffer. The contract is being treated like a bank loan, but you pay them by working with them for one year. I've heard that some companies (Swift) will try to provoke you into quitting within the last 4 months of your 1-year employment obligation. Your mileage drops or you're assigned BS loads where the shipper/receiver are reputed to take a whole day to load/unload a trailer.

When you do quit, they withold your last paycheck as partial payment for your trucking school training cost. To avoid this psychological mind-game dispatcher play on drivers, soon as you upgrade to solo driver, tell them you want to get on the waiting list for a dedicated account near your residence. You're paid salary instead of mileage, and work is steady. As opposed to mileage OTR, you'll have your good weeks (3,000+ miles) and bad weeks ($400 or less net pay). The good weeks are the July through December, when you have back-2-school, Labor day, Thanksgiving, etc... these holidays and events trigger consumer spending. People are buying food and merchandise due to increased consumption when guest or family get togethers are invited over the weekends. The slow periods are February & March, when companies across the nation are telling shippers not to send any orders because they're in the midst of inventory. Any stock in their warehouse is subject to inventory tax. At this period, giant carriers like Werner, Swift, JB, etc... have their terminal yards full of loaded trailers, but the consignee doesn't want to take delivery until after they've completed their inventory.

A trick to avoid paying inventory tax, is to unload your warehouse of pending orders, and having the trucking company store your excess inventory in their terminal. Because it's considered "in-transit," the inventory is in limbo; neither the shipper or receiver owns it, so neither has to pay taxes on it. In reality, the trucking company is holding it in storage, and had agreed to hide this excess inventory for free, in return for more orders to be shipped in the future via an exclusive contract, where the carrier is promised a volume of shipment every week after the tax filing deadline has passed. Its a common tax evation strategy that is perfectly legal.

 

My husband and I are starting trucking school next month and we are looking for a company that will let us take our dog. It has been a little scary for us since we were looking at covenant and now we read alot of terrible things about them. Can someone out there give us any advise on companies that are good for team drivers that allow you to take your dog.

 

I had never been inside a semi truck until I [a woman] attended Semi Driving School in Sun Prairie Wisconsin, they really put you through your paces, with classroom, practice area [outside] and road time but I loved it from start to finish and learned an awful lot, I no longer drive as I have Partkinsons Disease and am 62 ys old but I WILL BET ANYONE i CAN STILL
put a trailer into a dock blindside and beat most men at it.
any more questions please ask

Oklmia