Another Newbee with Questions

No

Yes, many do.

Do you want to be home daily or go over the road? Do you care what type of trailer you pull (van, tank, flatbed,..)? Chinatown will fix you up...

As a new driver you're not going to have any leverage (I've been driving nearly 5 years with a spotless record.. and I still don't have any... lol), however... going to a private school or community college will give you choices... attending a company school will not (that company will own you for at least a year).

As a driver? Nope

 

I've changed my opinion about "free training" that has a trucking company giving you CDL training/license in exchange for a contract of 1 year driving for them. There are some good companies with good CDL training. Those are good deals. IMO Prime, Roehl, Millis and some others give much better training than the typical CDL mill's 3 week CDL training, like I got. The key is picking a company which is a good place to work, not just "free training" and convenient to you. Compare the pay from the "free training" companies versus the trucking company you would pick if you brought your CDL to them. If they pay is the same I would be comfortable working under a training/employment contract.

The most important decision you will make, besides deciding if/when you enter trucking, is where to get your first year of experience. If you puck a company that is a mis-match with your needs & expectation you will be miserable at best. At worst you could be pressured to work illegally or in a dangerous manner and get a bad record and/or be fired and blacklisted through DAC/Hire-right.com. Pick a company to work for then decide how to get the CDL. CDL school is usually too short & too busy for you to choose a company during school. You must get 1 year of experience, with a clean record, so you can pick among the best companies. Most people leave their 1st company, no matter how much research they do. You won't know all of the things you need to know about this job to pick a long-term company until you work as a driver.

The starting pay you mention is about right. It's easy to make $40-50k the first year. That's a big pay cut. This job puts a lot of stress on family/relationships. You should seriously consider if your wife actually supports you making this change and is independent & happy if you are gone for a werk or more at a time. It's a LOT cheaper to get another career than get another family.

I don't worry about robot trucks
It's a story idiot "journalists" use to get eyeballs. It's clickbait. My past industry has been rapidly automating for 50 years
It's succeeded in reducing pilots in the ####pit from 3 to 2. 50 years of effort in a tremendously simpler landscape has not brought about passenger carrying robot aircraft, just gee-whiz "news stories" and wish-casting from nerds. Nobody can say if trucking will disappear. Even if some trucking is automated, much of it will not be automated.

I have college degrees. Nobody cares. If you have the personality & desire to work in the trucking companies as a stationaty office type, your degree might help you at some larger companies. I haven't any desire to deal with more than 1 customer at a time or multiple drivers. Experience in the industry is usually what companies want. If you start driving, they see you as a driver only. If you want to work inside, pursue that. Some companies are ready to move good drivers inside the company in other jobs and some companies virtually lock drivers out of inside positions. The degree, in my experience, is a non-factor.

For the most help, indicate your location. Also, search for trucking companies locally. If you stick with internet searches you're likely going to be funneling yourself into the compaies that spend the most on Google ads, not the best employers. Don't consider leasing a truck and "being your own boss" NO. MATTER. WHAT. After a year o f driving, maybe. Most newbies are leaving in less than a year. You can't get a real picture of this job from the outside. You have to do it. The better you are selecting a company that matches your needs, the easier the job and the better your chances of getting your 1 year experience .

Search this site. Read the relevant threads. Then ask specific questions. We can't pick a company for you anymore than we can pick shoes for you. A good fit is the determing factor in companies & shoes.

The skills to get a license are easy enough to learn. All possible test questions & answers are online & free. Half of trucking companies offer tuition reimbursement if you borrow money for school. Even if you have cadh for school, it may make sense to borrow money. Just to get the company TR.

Just assume you can learn everything, you can. Assume you can get hired, you will. And concentrate on an honest evaluation if your family will support the move. Lastly, find a company that impresses you with their operation and treatment of drivers. That will determine your success.

 

You can work at about 50-75% of companies as a newbie. You can work and be home daily/nightly or a week or more at a time as a newbie. There is a big spread of pay based on what type of work, time away from home, area of the country. It's a matter of sifting through the options and matching them and your needs.

 

The first time you have to take a dump in your truck and eat a day old sandwich you will have an epiphany (like WTF was I thinking?).

 

First myth.

Trucking work is secure. It is MOST CERTAINLY NOT. Ive had 50+ jobs in about 15 years roughly. Half of which been dismissed, fired etc using a old rule that allows punitive dismissal as a disciplinary measure. For the smallest problems. The camel that breaks the back so to speak.

Every driver running has a manila folder with a name on it. That folder sits inside the DM's desk until it accumulates a predetermined amount of negative points. I once for example was reported for eating breakfast three hours early to make a one simple 45 minute run to Baltimore Blue Circle two hours early. I deliberately showed at 1 am to the yard to fetch my tanker truck and go get the meal out of the way (And a few other things) hours early before going to first loading way before normal start time. The dispatcher going to work spotted me and reported me into management. at that point I was pulled in later that day and given a talking to, a one way conversation.

That's a example. There was no need for that. But it happened. The smallest stuff...

Anyway.

You are in a very good position. I suggest you ride it to the end of retail which will not going to be happening any time soon. One of your new stores have been opened in my area and they have introduced pickup line three deep from internet sales to compete with Amazon. We shop very little via Amazon. Maybe 40 total dollars a year while walmart gathers 150 dollars a month. (It used to be one thousand plus in retail medicine billing until the unnecessary announcements by pharmacists made me a target when I filled oxycodone I stopped filling at WM. The money goes to a local pharmacy now something on the order of 10K a year with a range of 5 to 10,000 medicines a month filled)

Walmart has made sure to pull certain products in the computer area that does not sell well. Guess what. Newegg and Amazon gets the money most of the time. But it's not a end of life situation for WM. They are big enough to take a reduction in sales from that department.

You are a big boss. What you say determines in some cases the future of people.

In trucking you are nothing. Just a driver being told to go here, go there. Get going, yer late. Why are you still here. What is wrong with you. Off to the drug test you go. Then abuses accumulate from there.

I don't want to be negative. Ive been through it and I'll do it again. Because I am good for it.

Your 90K will turn into a 45K first year with anywhere from 7K to 24K in personal expenses, tolls, lumping, losses in tickets, scales etc. You will effectively take home 20K. First year. Maybe. If you don't get dismissed over something your first three months.

I can go on, but I think I'll stop here. You might wonder why do I do this if it was so bad? Well... there are a certain mold I am made from that does not fit anywhere in society, office cubicles, around bosses (Am actually a crew boss in trucking at auction sales now and then. I have a good crew who are fantastic but need education in either manual or automatic depending on their training.) and quite frankly it's best I am alone in the working world. Trucking is one of the last big things anyone can do with a spot of training and a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears. Combined with staying awake and moments of terror in life and death situations brought on by yourself or idiots around you.

Good luck. But I suggest you stay in that managers office and ride the retail to the end. It will be a while yet.

 

He won't do that; read the guys post; he won't poop inside his truck. He didn't reach the level where he is now in the corporate world by pooping inside his vehicle. The thought has never crossed his mind.

 

I'm not pointing any fingers Dario but don't believe everything you read. You don't sound like someone who drags a big fat wagon of BS around with them creating their own absolute tsunami of misery and imaginary victimhood with every step. Keep your nose clean, drive respectfully and defensively, get you butt out of bed and go to work early or on time without a laundry list of petty complaints, join a reputable company and follow their policies and procedures and 99% of the time you won't hear one single solitary peep from your supervisor nor anyone else AND in all likelihood you'll have a job to the grave. Ya just gotta decide if it's right for you and your family.

 

One of the best posts ever. Well done.

 

I once microwaved a 4 day old McDouble.

 

Lol, trucking will certainly humble you. One minute you're going what's that doing here, the next you're going look what I found.