The answer for new drivers

I know what u mean, I tried to apply to go back to school for my heavy equipment ticket, but they wont send me cause I have my AZ. But I might still get it due to medical reasons. Both my shoulders are wrecked. No more flatbed work for me!

 

Member Since: Mar 2009
Location: Chattanooga,Tennessee
Trucker? 4 Years
Posts: 12

Of course, with your VAST wisdom and experience, you really should come on here and give a guy hell who knows what he is talking about. . .

 

As they say with the lotto... if you don't play, you CAN'T win.

 

I don't "browbeat every newbie on here " . If you're going to post try to be credible FYI I know there are some newbies on here than can and will make it and I've helped several of them with PM's and e-mail . I'm not going to post good employment leads here on the forum for 100 people to jump at . I don't recall posting anything negative to any newbie and I'm not the only one warning WANNABES not to risk wasting time and money trying to get a useless CDL . Did you read Stump's post ? He , GasHauler , and many others seem to be a whole lot more about what's going on out there than those that say if you have a CDL a job is a phone call away . If people come here determined to try to be a trucker and ignore good advice that's their problem . They'll be looking for a new path to choose after they've waited to get in school , wasted 2 or more months in school and are several thousand dollars more in debt . Unfortunately that causes a lot of unnecessary hardship for a lot of families . Some of them ignored advice asking "What am I going to do if I don't drive a truck ? " After getting a CDL and trying unsuccessfuly to find a job they're asking the same question .

 

Good comparison . It's getting so wannabes have the same odds getting a trucking job as they do winning the lottery . Some would no doubt get a better return on their money spending $5,000 on lottery tickets than trucking school . You're sure to have some winnings and you don't have to waste 2 or 3 months of your life .

 

This is true. But don't you want an idea of what the odds are, before you play the game?

 

Trucking is not for everybody especially now with the shortage of freight. One must have a minimum amount of bills to make it out there in this industry today. If youre going to drive OTR for the money you will fail in order to be succesful you must love this job.

 

And if you don't play you don't come out a loser either .

 

yeh - you can work 16 hours a day, 6-7 days a week - and make $20,000 a year driving a truck!

seriously, I had a pretty good looking W2 a couple years ago hauling construction materials before the housing bubble bursted. but for the last 1.5 years, miles for most drivers have been cut in half. and now, the cents per mile have fallen as well. I was at .39CPM 2 years ago. now I can't find a company that wants to pay more than .30CPM for the same work. and keep in mind, only HALF the miles on top of that!!

honestly, unless you consider $3.00 - $5.00 an hour to be good money, forget trucking. it's been going downhill for years since deregulation. it's just another industry where you can no longer make a living. I feel terrible for all the people laid off from good factory jobs (which were moved to china) who think they're going to "fall back" on trucking. we (Americans) better get used to a lower standard of living. you can look at this as a negative post if you like, or you can simply acknowledge reality.

 

Wake up and smell the roses, sir. This was nothing but constructive, and merely the facts until your posts.