Another should I......

You can't feel like a profession until you earned the experience.

$440 a week take home is better than what others get. You will get some of your taxes back if you learn what to do about keeping track of expenses. $100 a week for food, really? Some do $50 a week, I did for a few months and didn't starve.

It is a career, you earn it as a career like any other career. You have to go through an initial time period where you are low paid grunt. As for being paid less than unskilled labor, not true, many of us may never saw less than a couple hundred a week in our pockets and we did what we needed to do to get out of the newbie job and into something better.

 

"We"?

So which is it...you want out or you're looking for another gig?

I see. Another driver who used Swift to get his foot in the door, but now plans to split when it comes time to pay the piper.

Sounds like a plan.

Wow, a young person with integrity...hard to believe that these last two quotes came from the same person.

 

I gross $1300 a week average....

From reading all your comments I have to say that it is not going to get better for you.

Rather than try to convince you of anything it sounds like your mind is really made up and trucking is not for you.

You should quit now... go back to school or busing tables or whatever makes you happy...

 

I remember same situation quitting CRST after 2 months(except I only had $238 in my accounts. Guess what no one wanted to hire me because of 62 days experience.Took me 8 years to get back in a truck. Found a small co just starting out willing to give me a shot. I mean its your choice but I would hang in there build up some experience( about 2 years and get all the endorsements twic card also. Now you can pretty much go anywhere local go home at night. 440 clear no rent etc. is really not as bad as you may end up actually earning (economy is bad). I worked a series of arm pit jobs and didnt like it (you had to do a lot of work) Felt bad all those years not working up to my potential. When I finally went back to driving(local this time) I loved it grossing over $1000 week not feeling like a grunt,not worrying about money. I know living in a truck sucks. Saying take some experienced truckers advice and hang in there tough it out. JME

 

You're right, I'm just having a hard time giving up everything just to drive a truck. LTL is definitely where I want to end up, but I think for now I'm just going to stick it out with Swift.

We can't have inverters so I have to buy all my food. I tried living of sandwiches and food i bought from walmart but I just couldn't do it. The time it takes to prepare and clean afterwards eats too much into my sleep time. At 62mph I roll into truck stops with lest 15minutes on my clock most days. Only way to get 3000 + miles a week. I think the little extra money I spend is worth the time I save.

 

Well ultimately, you have to make the decision. We can only make suggestions on how we would proceed. You said you knew what you were getting into from the start so I think you should see it out. Yes, trucking is a professional career but as was stated by other members, you have to earn that "professional" title once you get positive experience and learn to master some tricks of our trade. My suggestion is to honor your contract, whether buying it out or til contract maturity, but don't burn your bridges, always leave a company on good terms. Hope this helps, but you gotta make the decision that best works for you, you gotta live with it.

 

Please do get offended, but.... You said you came into trucking because you thought it was a career. To be successful in a career you have to master it. Think about it for just a minute. Youre just starting. You cant start at the top pay. You spend $100 on food a week? you clear 440 a week after insurance? Not bad. Remember you are getting educated also. So you are getting paid to learn for a year or close to it. Stay on this forum and you will drastically shorten your learning curve as far as for who to drive for and what you should and could be paid. You could go back to being a bus boy or working in a factory for sure. But what is the potential of that Vs. Driving for a good company or eventually being an O/O? What ever career path you choose there will be tough times, times when you wonder WTF you are doing. Believe me.. this I know. It is going to be what you make it. Anyway, dont quit the business without giving it a fare shake. You will regret it if you do. Oh...This applies to life in general, Im not speaking as a driver cause Im not one......yet. And just because you can get a CDL and keys to a truck doesnt make you a professional.

 

Good advise so far thanks guys.

The money is not really the issue. If I was able to come home every night I would be trilled with trucking; I do enjoy it.

My problem is that I feel like if I'm going to give up my life to drive a truck I should at least make a good paycheck. What truckers sacrifice and the amount of work they do should come at a hire premium to these companies. All I'm saying.

Going to go sleep so I can be in my truck tomorrow before my DM gets to work. I'm off to bed.

 

Do the work. Eat the ####. Somebody will notice your hard work. May not be your current employer. Put in a couple of years keep a good attitude. Find a better job. This is every profession.

 

As a few others have already said, you have to pay your dues and EARN your stripes. Yes the amount we drivers do for the money some make doesn't seem right but put yourself in the company's shoes. Consider the risk they are taking on you. You have virtually no experience, have no real clue of what you're doing and they gave you the keys to a @$150,000 piece of equipment (tractor & trailer) that will have thousands of dollars of freight in it. You have to prove that you're up to the job of picking up and delivering said thousands of dollars of freight without damaging the freight or their expensive equipment.

Keep your eye on safety at all times, do all you can to make yourself a better driver and the money will follow, but it will not happen without the necessary experience. $840/week gross is pretty good for a newbie. Most LTL's around here won't hire anyone without at least 3 yrs experience, so, if I were you, I'd fulfill the contract with swift then move on to a regional company that will get you home at least once a week, get more experience, then go for a LTL job.

Get a good 12v refrigerator and get a 12 v lunch box oven and the tinfoil pans that it uses (get the pans at Walmart- cheaper than the truck stop), you can warm up soups, leftovers, sandwich meats, and all sorts of stuff with one of those, when you're done eating, throw the pan and your plastic silverware away, no mess. I would put roast beef or turkey and gravy in mine, then put it over a couple slices of bread. When I was OTR I ate for $25/week and spent another $8-$10 or so a week on filling up my thermos with coffee, the 12v coffee makers at that time sucked bad. I never ate in truck stops.