Okay. I finallypulled the trigger

Yes. I've been a Bishop Cabinets dealer for 25 years. I'm a one-man kitchen remodeling show primarily, but I also installed for other companies when I had slack time, and they had the extra work.

The construction industry in my area isn't good. Cabinet installers now make less than what I paid my own installers 15 years ago. If you're an employee in a skilled trade, you'll only be making $10-$15 per hour. If you're the contractor, and you've got a bunch of crews running all the time, you'll make great money, but you have all those people-related headaches that have made my life miserable in the past.

I had a showroom, a full-time sales rep, and two full-time installers. It sucked. I went back to being a one-man show after a year of that hell. But nowadays, it's so competitive you almost have to give the cabinets away to do new construction, and the remodels which have more money in them are too few and far between.

The real impetus for me doing this was working new construction last summer when it was 108F "feels like" temperature, and I was slogging through 2' deep beach sand carrying heavy saws and tool bags back and forth, fighting for space with four or five other tradesmen, an me being 56 years old. I thought, what if I could drive a dump truck or something through these hot summer months, then go back to kitchens when it wasn't so hot?

I'm not going to relinquish my cabinet dealership, and I may figure out a way to do trucking part time, and still do these nice remodels when they come along. Maybe I'll get my own authority one day, buy a used truck, run for a couple weeks a month and fit in a remodel one of those off weeks. Who knows?

But for now, I need to do something different.

BTW, are you saying I can't make $1000/week with TMC? This Asian Mai fellow has exposed the pay stubs of two different TMC drivers, plus I've been following and communicating with a couple of current TMC drivers on YouTube. It certainly seems doable, maybe not until you get better at time management, but five loads a week making $250 per load seems reasonable. That's over $60,000/year...with no debt...plus my wife's income and benefits as a teacher. That doesn't sound like something that would drive me back to kitchens full time.

I'm going to do my year, get some good experience, then see where that goes. I'm going to have fun, act professionally, remain positive, and be grateful for what I have...and I'm going to be driving a big, beautiful, black and chrome Peterbilt (hopefully) that will satisfy some strange urge I've had since middle school

 

That's good to hear. I met a Werner Dollartree driver who lives near here. He said the same good things about TDI. He's home often. Got the dedicated route right out of school. He doesn't hate it.

 

Thanks for all these recommendations, Chinatown. I contacted this one already. It seems fitting because of my eight years as a USMC naval flight officer, except this time I' be actually driving Do you know if they hire out of Florida? There are three major military bases within 45 minutes of my house if that matters.