Laid off from IT looking into CDL

You can easily start at trucking companies where you will be home every "weekend". If you look hard you can usually find a starting truck driving job where you are home daily/nightly. The bigger the company the more likely they will want you to start OTR and OTR at big companies often means being gone 3-6 weeks and being home 3-6 days. MOST newbies think the only trucking companies in the country are Prime, Swift, CR England, Werner, and a few others because those are the names that pay for placement on search engines. Search Craigslist and Indeed just to see the names of trucking companies in your area. The more research you do the better your results. MOST newbies just decide picking a first trucking company is like taking nasty tasting medicine. They accept it's going to be bad, they won't make much money, do almost no research, and then CHOOSE to work at crappy companies. There are MANY choices. Don't rush into a crappy choice. It can decide if you even stay in trucking. Pick well and those driving jobs are a lot easier than other driving jobs, and they often pay much better. Just to emphasize again, Houston is one of the "meccas" of tanker companies. And a good tanker company is much easier than an average or lousy dry van or reefer company. Learning to drive with a tanker is just a few extra details, not brain surgery. ANY careful driver can learn to do it safely, ANY.

 

If you want to run the roads for awhile, try refrigerated trucking:
Freymiller - www.drive4freymiller.com & click on "Recent Graduates."
FFE - www.ffeinc.com
Navajo Express - www.navajoexpress.com

 

$50K is very low pay, even for a new cdl school graduate.
Probably make $65K your first year in tankers.
Tanker companies hire new cdl school grads because those drivers have proven they're a good asset for the companies. Don't waste time with a dry van outfit if you want tankers and the big paychecks.

 

Good luck to you and please keep us posted with your progress.

 

Follow @Chinatown advice.
Don't "settle" for that $500/wk bring home.
There's a LOT of time and work involved to get that.
Even as a noob, you can do better.
You're obviously somewhat intelligent coming from an IT background, so you should pick up on the mechanical part of this fairly quickly.
Most of this career is COMMON SENSE and proper application of said common sense.

You'll be flabbergasted to see how many morons can't walk, chew gum, scratch their butt, and tie their shoes.
Yet, they'll be given a CDL.

It's downright scary.

You can easily double.. nearly triple your previous earnings in a very short time IF YOU CHOOSE WISELY and don't nibble at the first opportunity.
LOOK AROUND !

 

I make a great living in the trucking business, but it sucks starting out. I really never recommend it for a plethora of reasons. But if it’s what you want to do, and are mentally prepared for it, it can be rewarding eventually. My advice is below, but I agree with everyone else. Do tanker or flatbed starting out from the get go.

I did drive for Schneider when I started out. I actually liked it. I was home every weekend and I thought I was paid great take home avg about $850. Keep in mind this was maybe 9 years ago. I lived in San Antonio and was dispatched out of Dallas. Unless things changed I believe you would be also working out of Dallas. Houston is for the tankers only. I don’t think you would train in Houston at all. Schneider treated me fairly and it’s not a bad company. There’s also tons of dedicated routes going home daily with coca-cola.

Once you get your CDL and hired on, they ship you to Dallas where you’ll do some computer courses and classroom work for 3-4 days then you will be issued a trainer.

 

With a bulk tanker at 21 yes. Cement. Easy. Idiot proof.

But the other half of the fleet had gasoline tankers, fuel tankers and bomb tankers etc. We were told none of that until 25 due to insurance. I would never anyway. It took me until 30+ to grow up a little bit with trucks.

Chinatown has given you many good things to look at. Emphasis do not depend on 500 a week. That's half what you should net. 500 is like 0.34 a mile from 1978. So it should be easy to understand how stagnant pay has been these last 40 years.

 

I came from IT as well into trucking from Austin TX. Its definitely a good change if you are sick of the corporate world.

The advice you get in these forums will not steer you wrong.

I trained with FFE in Dallas and they didn't care who went home, but you had to present the next day at 7AM sharp. I usually went home for the weekends and that's it. During the week I stayed onsite.Really its best because you are living and breathing trucks, and when you are on the road, you are doing that anyway.

 

Back when I started the locals wanted 2yrs minimum exp & the schools steered you to OTR. Nowdays I see locals wanting as little as 3mo to a 1yr. I have even seen a few that will train you to get you a CDL.
I know plenty of drivers now that never drove OTR.
Do you want 2 spend 24hrs a day basically chained to a truck for however many days or weeks the company requires, with half of that time being uncompensated?
Whatever you decide take this advice. If your time is worth anything to you, at some point get a local driving job paid by the hour with OT. If your goal is to travel the country that is fine too. But remember this, you will get compensated for half the hours you work versus local at best.