Considering Becoming a Trucker...Some Questions

Just a word of advice on saving yourself some money. Assuming you have access to gi bill benefits, you can use chapter 30 or 33 which ever you have access to, to pay for your course. That's what I did. I didn't have a single penny out of pocket to attend my school

 

Pay out of pocket for school if you can so you aren't obligated to stick around anywhere you don't want to, but I recommend going out on the road for 6 months to a year anyway with a starter company. Give it a try, see what it's like. There are some company's that will send you right out on your own without the team training crap if you pass their road tests. That's what I did with Watkins and Sheppard and it was excellent experience. Eventually I moved onto local jobs, linehaul jobs, and regional "weekends off" OTR jobs but getting the full OTR experience right off the bat was valuable.

 

St Louis? Take a look at the Brewery, yard jockey might be something. It will be intense though because all loads go into a yard that is on the bottom of the hill on the property at the east corner.

You talked about a certain pay that you are used to. If you get into trucking at any level local to OTR, you need to discard any idea of making this much or that much. It's a feast and famine situation. Plan on 11 to 14 hour days if not more if you are not running a logbook.

You will want insurance ready to go in case you get into a wreck and are sued in civil court. Civil Insurance range from half million dollars to two million for a few more dollars each month. That way if things go really bad and you end up with a judgement against you that will defend you in many ways.

I can think of better places than St Louis to run in for a variety of reasons, usually the parasites and thugs as far as Im concerned. But it is just me strictly speaking. Baltimore was not all that either.

 

St. Louis is a lovely town. Go Rams. Oh, wait, they all ready went to LA. Well at least the Cardinals win the world series. Oh, that was the Cubs and before that the Royals. The Royals, they are Kansas City right? Yes, and KC has the Chiefs. I guess living in St. Louis is okay if you settle for second best.

 

St Louis was not that bad, except one difficult night where a group of 4 wheelers smashed each other in a friday night on the old 70 between arch and old stadium. I called 911 and recieved a recording, all lines are busy wait time 20 minutes... please hold.
I'll be ###### if I hold while people bleed under the crunched metal.

 

When 911 put you on hold, you should have called Abigail Beecher, your history teacher, for advice.

 

Check out community colleges with truck driving programs. My state had a grant for people wanting to better themselves. I paid $200 total out a pocket for my CDL, I wasn't locked in to some crap company and it was Better program than most independent trucking schools. Only 3 students in my class. So got lots of wheel time.

 

mml373
Thank you for your service!!!

 

I'm not sure how much large scale farming there is south west of St. Louis but that could be another option. In Minnesota I know that there are a few that are big enough where they haul grain pretty much year round.
As of last year farm drivers did not need a cdl if the trucks have farm plates. Even to ones that require a cdl don't usually care about experience as long as you catch on reasonably quickly.
A negative aspect might be the money but during harvest it's pretty #### good.
Just throwing it out there, a lot of people I know learned how to truck on a farm but it may not be your cup of tea (or you may love it?).
Thanks for all you've done for all of us for the last 20 years!

 

Ruler foods will have you home every night.

They are using st Louis as their testing grounds to launch nationwide.

Quickway & the other sub services for Kroger would hire you as well. I delivered to a lot of Rulers from a gig I took out of boredom earlier this year.