am i being realistic

Allow Me covered all the bases ...can't add too much to his comment. Some places pay detention time or they pay some for break-downs. Lots of times it just depends on the carrier.

 

Quit talking to recruiters at the half dozen bottom feeder carriers wannabes flock to . Make a real effort to find a decent job instead of following the herd .

 

Another big thing is where you live ,if you live in a dead freight area like fla. you might have a hard time getting home the way you want

 

Michael, welcome to the forum!

With what you stated in your post I can tell you for 100% certainty that this career is not for you. If home time is your first question you are doomed from the beginning! No two weeks is not realistic. Well its realistic coming from a recruiters point of view however the real truth is that you will be out for 6-8 weeks at a time. Even if two weeks was true you wouldn't make a dime. Every time you go home your pay gets messed up for three weeks, so as you can see that wouldn't fit into the equation.

A recruiter will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to sign up so that they get their commission. You want the real truth, ask to talk to a dispatcher. No dispatcher in the world is going to tell you that two weeks is the normal time out. In fact they usually prefer you never go home! Home time is a huge pain in the butt for a dispatcher to arrange!

Here is what happens when a recruiter tells you that hometime is every two weeks.

First off it barely meets your requirements for being home but you decide to give it a shot anyway. You then spend $6000 for school and quit the good job you have now and being home every night with your family. You go through school, orientation and 2 months of riding with a trainer over the road. You are then upgraded and issued a truck and introduced to your dispatcher. The first thing you ask him/her is if they can get you home every two weeks. You are immediately put at the bottom of the pile and go out and sit in your truck. You are now last on the list that your dispatcher picks from when they have a load. They now realize you are going to be a pain in the butt for them to have to get home all the time so they keep you an in area close by and then utilize you for all the grunt work. Your main job will be picking up and delivering everyone else's loads. Most of the time you will be sitting waiting to get loaded and unloaded. Once you get loaded you will drive 50 miles to a drop yard or to meet another driver to switch out trailers. The other driver will then run that load the majority of the miles since they don't care about getting home the dispatcher gives them the good loads and miles. So basically you do grunt work and sit around until you quit. This is called "starving you out".

I really don't want to sound negative toward you but you came on this site to get some answers and I am giving you the truth. There are so many other career options out there, I can tell you that surely this one is not for you. 6-8 weeks on the road with 2-3 days off in between is a looooonnng time! It wears on me and I've been doing this 16 years! I'm sure you have been talking to recruiters and others painting you a majestic picture of what trucking is like but its just not so. There are some good things about trucking but it really takes a unique individual to do this job. I take that back.... its not a job, its a lifestyle. You really have to be cool with living on the road. Going home every once and awhile is just a plus.

The only exception I would make to this is if you had a wife or significant other in which could get their license and do it with you. This way you wouldn't have to go home very often and you would be making a ton of money!

A solo driver really doesn't make that much money. In fact I think it comes out to less than minimum wage if you break it down hourly for the amount of time you spend living in that truck.

Feel free to "pm" me if you have any questions.

Good luck man...

 

Follow RickG's advice. Many companies have logistics divisions with dedicated accounts; the pay is good and good hometime. For example only: Schneider may have a logistics division with a dedicated account to a specific Walmart Distribution Center. The driver will load out at the distribution center and deliver to Walmart stores maybe even in several states. Once he is empty, he will either deadhead back to his disribution center or reload with a backhaul going back to his distribution center.

Some tanker companies do the same with dedicated logistics to a certain chemical company & some tanker companies hire new drivers. Schneider is one of them; I'm not pushing Schneider, it's just that they are so diversified they cover most bases.

Maverick is another example with flatbed & refrigerated divisions. Maverick also has dedicated division that hauls glass.

Greatwide is a good one for logistics and dedicated accounts. They do have company drivers & 0/0's. They have a pretty good website to show their setup.

Hope this helps & gives you some insight on how to research for your first driving job.

 

Wow that was long winded but extremely valid and true, couldn't have said it better myself chompi!!

 

I would say in your first year expect 4-5 weeks out. Then there are plenty of companies that you could hire on with to get home every 10-14 days. The typical OTR gig, especially reefer, is the get home nightmare but local and regional jobs can be found. As an example one of my old companies; They have you haul ice cream on the outbound and anything and everything on the load back to the yard. Typically you leave out Sunday afternoon and be back Friday. So they are out there but it takes some research.

Figure your first year with the mega fleets will get you 28-32K gross. Depending on your decisions and determination you can easily double that by your 3rd year.

Don't bother working out your hourly rate in this industry, it's a useless exercise that will depress you and there is no argument for a minimum wage comparison. We choose to work in this industry and the way we are paid will never change.

 

I agree with chompi, first time you deliver a load on thursday in dirtpatch okla. and have to layover till monday for a load going 300 miles & you didnt make a dime on layover, you will get sick of trucking fast! I think you should try a local food service company, or construction co., I dont think you will like otr