How much experience is "experience"

I agree with a lot of that, but few newbies will take home 1200 per week. Gross 1200 per week maybe. Net, not so much.

 

Carolina Logistics - www.carolinalogistics.net has cdl school in Candler,NC
East-West Inc. - www.goeastwestinc.com has cdl school in Swannanoa, NC
CFI - www.cfidrive.com - has free cdl school in Joplin,MO meals & lodging and transportation there provided.

 

Why can't you earn a grand a week? I started making more than that. Its not a dream job, I team and load my trailer. But I'm out 3 weeks and get about 5-6 days off.

 

You can make over a grand a week with Schneider Bulk.
Sometimes they pay for private cdl school or if you pay for cdl school yourself, Schneider Bulk will reimburse the tuition back to you up to $7000.00
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Indeed. If 4 grand is what seperates a trucker from actually trucking, or a million dollars seperating a fighter pilot from being up in Active duty along our Nation's skies or in war or patrol in peace...

The money is such a minor barrier. I have nothing myself. And managed. You wont believe me, but I did manage. If I can do trucking school on half a tank, a pack of smokes plus a part time tavern work to get through the few months of schooling etc you can too.

One time I took on a full time job doing dishes all night, every night, came up with over a thousand dollars in a relatively short time. Then I was ready to go back on the road without having to borrow anything.

Not having to borrow is to be American. Where possible.

Your state has programs where if trucking is a form of vocational learning to turn you into a economic positive support rather than a liability on unemployment or worse... then that is what they will do. But you have to pay them back. The faster you do this, the more free you are.

There is a old saying, if you need nothing bank smiles at you. If you are in debt and needy you smile at the bank, so which is it you prefer?

I will back the spicy bank saying by adding a little thought. If God does not want you to be doing something, there is a good possibility HE will make sure the doors are closed in your face. If that is the case, find something else. Trucking is not for everyone. And god only knows how many people we must shake out to find the good strong material to hand a load to and know darn well it's going to be there on time without trouble.

 

That I think can be arranged.

Companies have talked big for so long with much hot air whipping the newbies to school panting on the promises of nuggets of gold every mile just for them.

Guess what. Time to have the companies pay the piper. If the company does not have good freight or the good revenue to afford a 1200 dollar a week driver, then the company is not where that driver wants to be with. That's one of the reasons I found Mileage pay to be obsolete with companies constantly flipping .32 a mile to people who don't understand that is top wage 40 years ago. It should be 50 to 65 a mile to start or it's equivalent.

Sometime ago I wrote a thread about minimum wage. It was universally thrown out if not outright laughed out of here. Guess what, there is finally some talk about getting those truckers paid properly. because even the Dept of Labor noticed that the pay for truckers have fallen these last 30 years. Gee you think? Sheesh.

 

I will make one more post to explain further a little bit.

This is not college where you get to go and party while you incur debt, mooch off parents or whatever partying while deciding that you will be a video game programmer or some dance master in Broadway Arts degrees or something full of fluff.

When you complete the trucking school. (Which is usually really hard to fail....) you are going trucking. I hope you like it. God help you if you don't.

Regarding the payments.

I took on a 2500 loan from uncle sam with one form in 10 minutes at the trucking school office in highlandtown of Baltimore downtown.

My first job I was netting almost 2500-3000 a month. On nothing at all. No bills, no nothing. money money money money. whoo. Money drunk.

That was not good.

That's why I say pay the debts and get going. Not just the little tiny 90 dollar a month due on that 2500 dollars which took almost a decade to pay off by collections from Uncle Sam. If you do not know what collections is and you have Federal Debt? HAha not even death will escape that debt. It will be paid.

That is why I say you are going to have the money to pay it off fast.

Now. Here is the problem.

Our Nation's economy is based on would you like fries with that? Or Amazon pack the boxes chop chop while peeing in the bottle until you drop.

Ultimately saddled with a house, land, family, children, bills bills bills and cars that need fixing, medical bills to pay etc no wonder you cannot come up with 4000. I know I cannot. I need about 6 years to do it. I can probably do that in less time. But I wont be alive that long anyway. So Im at the end of the road.

It's a young man's game. The chance to do it will be then at 21. Not at 40 and stuck with dead end non paying jobs etc.

 

I cannot tell you why a company will refuse to give miles to a newbie. But I can tell you that sending you say from say Fayetteville Arkansas with Chicken to Seattle, then unload, and same day go to Yakima for a Boston Market Load due in 6 with a 2500 miles or so to run (More than that probably) you are going to be tired when you reach Boston.

You don't have the stamina yet. You will get that when you have run enough and then it will be good.

The miles pay system is obsolete, it dates to the 1930's for crying out loud, with a specific federal exemption dating to that decade in the 30's SPECIFIALLY excluding all trucking from the then new Overtime laws and imposing the limit of 70 hours a week, twice what most people doing actual industrial work making good money would be doing in half that.

If you are smart you will stay home and make the money in 40 hour week instead of chasing the unicorn at 70 hours a week and more than that invested in that big rig and it's loads, problems, dispatch etc. Your wife will resent you for bringing home so little when you find that you are also spending roughly 8000 a year for food on the road.

I don't know about you but I can go to a grocery store on a few thousand and probably buy years of food than paying retail price for a bowl of chili. I beg to differ.

And the schools? There needs to be a reformation of sorts. Backing forward and backing to a set of traffic cones on a two acre gravel lot does not begin to replicate a actual working distribution center when your dock is about a foot between your trailer on either side. And the recruiters need to GTFO out of the school. You cannot even manage a trailer, much less get smoke blown up your arse to join a bottom feeder or whatever else. You don't yet know what you like to do in trucking. For me it's hauling medicine. No one told me about medicine in school nuh uh. You are on your own.

I hope whatever it is you are seeking you find it or found it. Trucking is not what it used to be since deregulation.