Major Life Changes Possible in Near Future and Have Some Questions

Do you want to stay in the area you are in now? If so you could look into tankers, there is a lot of tanker movement in S.C. area. (This I know because I pull a tanker) But he's right go with the school, then look for the company. Most companies will hire you with good grades from school then put you through their training, some are paid some aren't. Good luck to you.

 

35-40K is a little high, especially for the first year. Second year, maybe, but first year will be more like 25-30K, on average. You might get lucky, but don't count on it. Freight is low, loads are scarce. It doesn't matter what your cpm rate is when you're sitting in a truck stop with nothing to do.

 

My husband is in his first year OTR and will be lucky to make $30K. His first three months the loads were better. The last three months have slowly been downhill with less and less miles. December has been a killer. This week he may not break 1000 miles. The Holidays may have some impact on that but overall the miles have not been there.

We hope that things will pick back up but you should be prepared going in that your expectations financially may be high for starting out. Good luck. Take your time finding the right match company wise.

I have some great friends from your neck of the woods! Would love to be out on the Santee Cooper right now!

 

you have "dreams" of driving a truck??? this needs to be addressed before anything else. maybe some of the other guys can burst your bubble on this one.

 

this gig is certainly not without its pluses. I loved seeing different places, and having plenty of "me" time. just don't be misled into thinking you're going to "see" the country and that it's like being on vacation every day - it's NOT.

money wise, right now, if you figure starting pay of 30 cents per mile, and miles as low as 1200 a week - and believe me, it really CAN be that bad when freight is slow, AND you're putting in 70-90 hours a week...do the math.

do you really want to pursue a job where you might only make $7.00/hour? be gone weeks and weeks at a time? sitting for hours or even days waiting on your next load? and paying $3,000-5000 to a truck driving school for this "dream?"

 

See your education officer on base about the VA/G I Bill payment option for an independant school. Just before I retired "the Guard" paid for me to attend Roadmaster in W. Memphis. However they only recognized it as a course because Roadmaster is affiliated with Mid South Community College. You know the deal. You have to go Find the right people cuz they "Aint" lookin fer you. Charlie Mike!

 

Shortround,

Having just gone through somewhat similar circumstances as you, I chose the private school route. I would try to stay away from the company run schools if possible. Also, there are a lot of companies out there that hire student drivers, and I'm talking about companies other than the 'driver mill' companies. Most are smaller companies (100-500 trucks) that usually don't make the news on forums like this one. Many prefer to hire from these schools, in fact. Starting pay is going to be .28cpm-.30cpm, although you can find higher paying companies. KLLM's starting pay is .34 for student drivers and they seem to be a good company. One company that I looked at seriously, and will again in the future, is Superior, a tanker lines. Their starting pay is .41cpm, even for students. I didn't go with them because they don't expect to have any positions available until March and I wasn't willing to wait that long to start working.

I would certainly think your military experience would make you a highly valued applicant. You're old enough to be responsible and are used to 'accomplishing the mission' regardless of hinderances, etc.

If you can settle on a company or two that you think you'd like to work for, I would suggest contacting them to determine in what areas they are currently hiring drivers/students. There are areas of the country wherein many companies hire, and other areas where hardly any companies hire. Don't settle on a destination, only to get there and find no one is hiring there.

Freight is down generally, given the current economy, and many are struggling to get miles. There are, however, drivers that are still consistently getting 2,500 - 3,000 miles per week, even in this economy. You might have to do a little more homework to find them, but they're out there.

Some will tell you it's also a bad time to get into trucking, because many drivers are out of work, hence, there are many experienced applicants looking for work. I would add, though, that a lot of companies are using the current surplus of drivers to clean thier ranks of those that likely shouldn't have been driving anyway. The problem drivers are finding employment hard to come by, but the applicants with clean driving records, stable work histories, no criminal records, etc., are still finding jobs, even without experience.

As to suggestions for schools, I just finished with Sage Technical Services. They have multiple schools around the country and seem to have one of the better reputations. Sage was also one of the less expensive that I found ($3,600). I've spoken with several carriers that only recruit from their schools. You can google them to find if they have a location near you.

Good luck!

IronRydr