A little feedback, please!

If you decide to take the plunge you will find out that besides being real good at truck driving, truckers ( in general) are VERY good at complaining. Some with merit, others just to complain. You too will be able to add this to your personality. ( if it ain't there all ready) Also, they hardly agree with one another on anything.Hence the complaining.

If you're thinking that driving a truck will enable you to be a paid tourist. Well you might want to re-think that part of it. You'll see LOT'S of country, ( through the windshield of the truck). The really cool places where you might want to stop and see, er, well, NO TRUCK PARKING.

It is after all A JOB. It is WORK.

The rewards can be there, the sacrifice to achieve them is there at the top of the list. I would never discourage anyone from jumping into the pond. Just enter with EYES WIDE OPEN.

I LOVE trucking, but I have been accused of not having much sense at times either.

Like anywhere else there are GREAT PEOPLE who drive, HONEST, HARD WORKING, REAL
PEOPLE.

Good Luck

 

"and any owner operators (of which I will likely be one) who care to respond."


Jimmy P, let me get this straight. I assume that you are retiring from a non-trucking career. Have you ever even driven a Big Rig? Have you done ANY research into the trucking business aside from visiting this (or any other) internet message board?

If the answer to either of those questions is "no", then I would strongly advise against jumping feet first into becoming an "owner operator". If you want some solid advice, here is what you do -

1)Go to an INDEPENDENT and reputable truck driving school that is NOT owned by a major carrier. See if you would even enjoy the physical aspects of it. Consider for example if you could sit behind the wheel for up to 11 hours a day.

2)Consider the extreme change in lifestyle your "new career" will likely be. Do you have a wife? Kids? Nice home? Pets? Anyone or anything that won't mind you being GONE for bare minimum a week at a time, and likely (if you want to see the country) months at a time?

3)If you consider #1 and #2 and are still wanting to become a trucker, then do yourself a HUGE favor and work for somebody else before you go out and purchase your own rig. "B.J. and THE BEAR" it AIN'T. It also isn't "Smokey and The Bandit". In reality it can be hours of boredom followed by brief flashes of terror. It can be a weekend stuck at some crappy truck stop with lot lizards banging on your door at 3:00am wanting to know if you "want some company". It can be arriving at a shipper at 10:00am abd being told that your load won't be ready until 11:00pm that night. It can be a three hour traffic jam up and down mountains where your left leg starts cramping from holding the clutch for so long.

Now imagine you have some huge truck payment due each month and decide - "screw this, I'm gonna quit". What then? You think there is a chance in hell you can get your investment back? With all of the taxes, title, tags, insurance, not to mention fuel, tires, breakdowns. You will walk away bitter and in the hole.

Do your homework, go to school, talk to some truckers in "real life", get a job with a local outfit and see if this is a good life move for you. If after you get some practical over the road experience you still want to be an o/o, at least you won't be going in blindfolded.

That's my 2 cents worth anyway.

 

They make money by constantly turning over new drivers. If you only have to pay a driver .26 instead of .37 wouldn't you just keep hiring newbies. These companies are large enough to carry their own insurance. They also make a ton of money leasing trucks. This makes them essentially a broker that rents trucks of which are third party so they don't even have their name on them. It really is pretty ingenious. You can make money at the mega companies but you will have a much better chance with a company that doesn't treat you like a number. Their dispatchers are each responsible for a couple hundred drivers. If you got a problem get in line! I would much rather run with a DM that is only responsible for 20 or so drivers. You are going to have much better success and control over what you doing. Just my opinion though. A lot of people like to follow the herd!

 

It's just like all the companies that advertise. You're are never going to see a great company advertising if they keep their drivers. There's no need for it. So you don't see many drivers that have good things to say about great companies when there's no need for them to take the extra time. They're out there making the money.

I'm a firm believer that drivers that go through experiences should pass on the information to new drivers good or bad. I've always said it's like working up in rank in the military. The more experience you get the more opportunities you get as long as you keep your work and driving record clean. But I'm retired and have the time. There's also the factor of not wanting a bunch of drivers coming into their job that might threaten their position. I was never like that, I tell everyone to start looking for a company that you want to have a career with. I've explained many times that you have to seek a job differently than the masses. Use all the avenues you can think of to get a job but most just rely on the recruiter and end up at the bottom feeders.

So the high turnover rate is due to the low pay and the operation. If you had a company of trucks plus a school to teach anyone to drive you'd want to push as many people through for the money as you can. It only makes sense.

 

Gashauler said it!!! The companies that aren't advertising are the ones that have happy drivers and low turnover rates. These are the companies you want to set your sights on. Don't follow the herd! Good luck to you!

 

Trucking now is nothing like you remember it-except maybe the rates.My prediction is that you won`t like what you see,especially if you plan on buying another truck.

 

Jimmy, you aren't entirely "new" to trucking, so I apologize to you if I came across a little "hard", but many of the posts I've seen on this board that are asking similar questions to yours are from guys who have never even once sat in the passenger seat of a rig, and they immediately start talking about buying a truck and seeing the world etc..etc...

As far as obtaining a "CDL", there are plenty of online practice tests that would help you pass the written portion of the DMV. It probably wouldn't hurt to take a class at a local community college if only for the opportunity to get some wheel time before taking the driving portion of the exam.

If indeed you are a "free man" who can pick and choose what you wish to do and how you wish to do it, then I'm quite sure that you could still find that open road out there, but if it is in any of the major shipping lanes (Think I-95), you will find way more traffic than 40 years ago

Best Wishes!