Am I being realistic?

Stevens, memory serve, is a refer company. How do you expect to get 3,000 miles per week, load & unload all those wonderful refer loads on to pallets at the rear of the trailer, wait 5 or 6-hours for a dispatcher to find another load, sleep, eat, fuel, shower, get stuck behind the coups for inspection, & everything else associated with the job?

 

He is new to this racket, he will figure out the ugly truth of what he has gotten himself into. I would not recommend trucking to anyone I know, even if times were good. It took me many years out here to make a real living wage, where I could actually enjoy my earnings. And that did not happen until I paid cash for my first truck and leased it on to an outfit running auto parts locally. It's now all down hill from here.

Mike

 

DJ I'm not even a trucker and I can tell you right now those recruiters will blow smoke to get you to work for them.
I was seriously looking into getting my CDL and I know the first year rookies out there usually won't even make $40,000 a year,especially right now with the economy in a wreck so I'm holding on to my little job for right now.
2000 miles(if lucky) x .030=$600 -taxes-health insurance-weekly expenses=not much left.

Take these people's advice and wait it out,that's what I'm doing.

 

UNLESS, you see flashin' red or blue lights in half your mirror,
and hear a siren.
If so, believe what you see and hear and
pull over.
A Trooper probably wants to give you sumthin'.

 

Yep you wont get 3000 miles, thats what companys used to tell people. Now the ones I talked to when I was looking say 2400, and from posts on here seems 2000-2400 seems to be the norm these days, and thats what i have been getting on avg. Had one week 3k miles but just cause I had a couple 1300plus trips that week.

 

Man that's the truth. That's why I always say you've got to go out on your own and do your own leg work to find the job that might fit your needs the best. This guy is stuck because he's got to pay back for his CDL school but a person that pays for their own is way ahead of the game.

Once you have your CDL you can download a list of trucking companies in your area and then hit the bricks. If you call and fill out applications on-line then you're just like the rest of the thousands of drivers looking for work. You'll blend in and there're be nothing special about you. But if you go and see them and ask what it takes to work for them I guarantee you you'll be remembered before anyone in the stack of apps.

Just be sure to download trucking companies and not trucking jobs. You'll need to weed through the list but you can get more hits that way than any recruiter will ever tell you. You might get lucky and find the perfect job because the best jobs never advertise like the bottom feeders. Besides, you can find out what companies are better by just looking over their terminal and talking to a few drivers. You also might get lucky and that company that doesn't have an opening may just refer you to a good company they know. THEN if you strike out you can go to the recruiters and take what they have. But you'll know you've checked the job market completely over before you jumped to a recruiter.

 

There in the bold print is your first mistake. "The recruiter was saying..." Most companies pay recruiters incentive based on how many butts they get into orientation seats. So they make up their little formulas to make the math look good. Most recruiters have never been on the road. Heck, most probably have never been inside a cab! ("Hey, what's that little yellow diamond shaped knob for?") I agree with Waterloo and others here. You are NOT going to get 3000 miles a week in this current freight environment on a consistent basis. Stick with Ben Franklin, who believed that if you keep your expectations low, you are never disappointed, but frequently surprised.