Trying to be a trucking driver

I'm always heavy. Everyday. We are on overweight permits for 104k. It doesn't bother me one bit. I also have an 18 speed manual. I can't imagine pulling that weight around with a 10 speed. With the hills forget it. If the final weight on a farm pickup trailer is under 80k gross there is something wrong with the farm.

 

I might be a little off base here, but how about this one?

 

Yeah but many of them can't adapt to driving itself.

 

I dont gross over 60k and that's really pushing it. I dont like hauling heavy weight. I make just as much hauling light as I did when I hauled heavy

 

I made 80k my first year trucking. You guys always leave out detention pay and fuel bonuses and such that gave me an extra $15k per year plus the mileage. It's hard to believe unless you do it.

 

How do you get 15k in fuel bonuses and Detention Pay. Walmart is big in extra pay because they get paid to sleep in their trucks but most driving jobs don't have 15k in extra pay. Most only get a couple extra hundred. I get detention pay and almost never get it because I do a lot of drop and hook. I just got 4 quarter miles bonus. It was $300, just wondering what you got in fuel bonuses or detention pay.

 

The Peeing Peelot

 

All companies have different incentives. All I know is when I looked at my paystub it had yearly total pay in miles and detention, weekend pay, fuel bonuses and it was always around $15k. A lot of times I had a Tyson live load so my appointment would be at noon, the load would be delayed for 10 hours, so I got $200 detention while I slept plus the long miles after they rescheduled the delivery so I would sometimes get $2000 weekly checks from that.

 

Just sitting here and spit balling, but why not do both? Get the CDL, get out on the road for a year or so, clear your head, get the itch out of your system, and then go back into IT for a trucking or logistics company? You'd have some street cred, a good understanding of how the system works, and still pull down IT money rather than truck driver money?