16 year old wanting to be a trucker

I have a friend who put himself through college doing appliance delivery and installation for a local appliance store. I also hear UPS hires college students to help with seasonal packaging, sorting, and ride along helper for drivers. Maybe getting into something transportation related like this part time would help you develop some communication and time management skills to help you be successful later on.

 

take all the welding , auto shop, machine shop and business management courses you can in high school.

Then go get an associates in business , this will serve you well , if you go owner operator , cause first and formost you need to be able to sucessfully run a business or just start lighting your money on fire now...

I would also suggest doing a stint in the military between high school and going into trucking,

its good training , teaches you discipline, work ethic, values, how to get along with a wide variety of folks too. Also you can drive truck there and get your basics learned there before you turn old enuf to drive in the real world..... When i started most places would not talk to you if you were not at least 25 for insurance reasons, now its recent experience lol more bs to rob you of another nickle.....

 

Do yourself a favor and pay attention in your math classes. Whether you are trying to figure out how much weight you can carry, how far to slide the tandems, many hours you've worked this week, how many miles you have to drive, calculate your fuel mileage, how much fuel you can buy to stay legal on your weights, how far you can drive on that amount of fuel before you'll have to stop again, etc., etc., etc...it isn't "complex" stuff, but you'll use it a lot more than you might think.

If your school has an auto shop program, take all the classes you can. Knowing your way around the mechanical inner workings of a car isn't an exact crossover, but there are enough similarities that it would come in handy at times. Since you can't drive interstate until you turn 21, it might not be a bad idea to go to your local community college and study diesel mechanics while you're taking that truck driver training class. Worst case scenario, it'll give you something to fall back on if the truck driving thing doesn't work out. Best case scenario, you'll know more about the truck you're driving and how to fix it (with the certifications to prove it) than a lot of "mechanics" at the company shops...which will put you in a MUCH better position if you ever decide to buy your own truck. So, when you DO experience a breakdown, you can diagnose the problem and tell whoever you need to tell EXACTLY what is wrong so that the service truck that shows up has everything they need to fix the truck the first time. You'd be amazed how many drivers there are who call in to their company's breakdown department and all they can tell them is "the truck broke". They wait 2 hours for the service truck to show up...then the service truck guy finds the problem and has to leave and chase parts to fix the problem. 3 hours later, he's back...fixes the truck in 5 minutes...and the driver is on his way again. If the driver knew enough about the truck to give the company an idea what might be wrong, the service truck would have had the right parts on board the first time it showed up.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, though, at 16 you are just now learning to drive or just received your drivers license. Treat that license like the most valuable thing you've ever laid eyes upon, because your desire is for that license to be your bread & butter in the future. If you have speeding tickets, crashes, etc. on your driving record, you'll find your options severely limited when you start looking for companies to work for. With a clean MVR, you'll have a much better chance to be hired by a GOOD company. The better your driving record is, the higher up in the stack your application will sit.

That and stay away from drugs & alcohol. If you celebrate your school's homecoming victory a little too much and get yourself a DUI, your driving career will be over before it gets started. Also, keep in mind that in this industry you will have to pass drug screens....pre-employment, random, and "for cause" if you give a company reason to believe you MIGHT be using. Even if you aren't dumb enough to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after "experimenting" with drugs, a possession charge on your criminal record is also going to close a lot of doors. If you have stayed clean up to this point, good job...keep up the good work. If not, today is as good a day as any to get yourself cleaned up. Drugs and a driving career are NOT compatible...you've got to pick one or the other.

 

I did not join the Army to do anything, but learn to drive trucks and drive them. I did not join to make a career of it, only to be able to drive large tractor trailers, at an age that was not conducive to commercial driving. It was strictly a means to get to a goal. I met the minimum age of most insurance companies, when I got out and still had 6 years valuable experience, making me marketable to many carriers.

 

Go to college and learn and experience all that school has to offer. Listen to some of the other drivers, No home time, No family time no time for your favorite things like fishing and hunting driving is tough, sure you get to see the country but, their are other ways to do it. After you get a degree and you still want to drive you will always have that degree to fall back on. Good luck and God bless you, not all kids want to work nowadays, you will do fine......

 

well son, you will not find a better training program, they will teach you many valuable things , plus you get paid to learn and do the job , housing provided, free medical and dental 3 meals and a bed to sleep in. You go to truckin school , they gonna lighten your wallet from anywhere near 2 grand to 8 grand then teach you enuf to pass a skills test at dmv and then once you pass your cdl its sia- nara.... But you still don't really know nothing, till you spend time with some kind of trainer who will ( if he gives a crap) teach you how to actually do the job.... A large percentage of us out here on the road are veterans of one branch of the military or another, myself it was nuke submarines....

 

If you were going to join the Army with the aspiration of becoming an owner/operator someday, I think the Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic MOS (91B) might be a better way to go than the Motor Transport Operator MOS (88M). You can either learn how to drive a truck, or you can't.. it's really that simple. And if you end up being one of the people who can't, then the Army isn't going to change that. And, if you did enlist, you don't necessarily need to be a truck driver in the military to get into it on the civilian side. I was a Combat Medic in the Army, with no designs of ever driving a truck.
Got any stables around where you live? Go work at one of those, let them give you a chance to maneuver a gooseneck horse trailer around. Maneuvering one of those and maneuvering a 48 - 53' trailer... the basic principles remain the same. If you can get that part down beforehand, you will have a serious leg up when it comes to CDL school and working with a trainer.
And if you don't want to join the military, don't. I'll tell you right now that I don't love the Army, and I would never encourage someone to enlist who didn't want to.

 

Usually, in your case...what you do right now can REALLY hurt you bad if you plan to be a trucker in the future. In my case, it was drinking under age. I was 17 yrs old and was at a teen party that got raided. I had ONE beer, had it in my hand when the cops poured in. Went to jail. Joined the local PD when I turned 21. The drinking under age didn't bother me. Started running Canada in my late 30s. The Canadians pulled me into their immigrating and started asking me about my arrest at 17. "You gotta be kidding me!" One stupid beer as a teen almost cost me an extra $100k in income 2 decades later. Unbelievable. You want to drive? Are you sure you want to drive? My first driving job was at 18, Class D with an F endorsement. Nothing big, major or fancy, but it gets you started. Autoparts stores, hotels, donuts...whatever. There is a delivery job for you. Its a stepping stone. Keep your nose clean and protect your driving record at all cost. That's what you do now.