Be honest, is trucking a good job?

Being a long time heavy hauler I must ad that no company will take a green driver, Heavy Haulers is one job you will have to pay your dues.

Yes heavy haulers do make more money, but you earn every penny.

 

i'm just getting back on the road , here's the deal he threw at me, 3 loads per week , pay on percent of the load, so let say this load pay's the truck, $1890 ,i get 22 % @ $414 er so, next is load is $1245 and my 22 % is $273 er so and last load pay is $1745 @ 22 % is 383 and grand total is $1070 er so, ya i can live off that , some loads might be higher or lower , but i don't think that bad for a week , i never paid by % before so this will be a new thing for me, and i run mid west regional in a Volvo un governed , sure beat's my $240 a week job now that i have now.

 

The guys knocking the job, why are they still here spreading their misery? I pay a mortgage, car payment and all fixed bills off of $314 dollars a week. I make a lot more than that and can pretty much get by in life doing almost anything because I don't chase the dollar. I only stay out 4 or 5 days at a time. I don't get burned out and I can still enjoy other things.

 

Not necessarily . There have been quite a few posts on here by newbies with potential that got rejected at orientation simply because recruiters brought in more wannabes than were needed . Far to many pay thousands for a CDL then for whatever reason leave the industry for whatever reason before earning that back . Others get terminated before meeting employment obligations of company training and end up owing thousands more than they earned .
Your earnings are not based on how much you are willing to work but on how much work dispatch gives you .

 

That is a good point on, being able to work harder and make more money, though that assumes your carrier has miles to spare and I think most do regardless of what they may say.

While most truck drivers would agree with you, that it isn't unethical, even necessary to not log accurately, I believe the general business consensus is that it is unethical to sign your name on a legal document, that is willfully inaccurate. Just because it makes your life easier and it is rare to get caught, doesn't make it right. I might not agree with the law on many grounds it doesn't give me the right to break it, and I consider willful disregard for the law to also be unethical....

Of course that is my opinion on it, but new drivers should know that there will probably be a fair bit of pressure to edit your logs, for better or worse it there are very few drivers who do things 100% legal, doing so will be a handicap in this industry.

 

All these posts by drivers with 10 years experience is irrelevent . Newbies aren't going to make that money . The thread purpose was to see if trucking was a good career choice . Let's hear from some new drivers with less than a year experience and see what they think of their career choice . You might also go to the Ladies Room and see what their wives think about it .

 

Trucking is what u make of it. all trucking companys have their problems but bottom line is their customer and getting the problem off dispatch and on driver. they do not pay actual miles run. on a 1000 mile run u will probably get 950. most towns and citys and law inforcement are anti trucks worse the further north east you go. and sometimes there is a reason but truckers in general are pretty good. problem is more company policy and federal government regulation such as a computer telling you when to sleep eat ect. working together to make your life as bad as possible and in mean time destroying trucking but most in office never had a real job. always paper pushers with no common cents so they dont care

 

1. Sign on to "mega-carrier"
2. Attend cdl-mill
3. Go out with trainer for 5-9weeks
4. Get out there and run like crazy to show you can and will
5. Start seeing more miles
6. Once obligation is fulfilled 1-2 years take clean record and good service to a carrier that suits your needs/wants or keep rolling with the company you started with if it works best for what you want to do.

Training period 200-350/wk
First 3 months 200-500/wk
6months 300-600/wk
1year 500-800/wk
Usually caps out their with training companies solo. Always the potential for more or less but that's a general average. Its usually feast or famine week to week. Just a matter of finding the right company that fits you.

 

I don't agree Rick. He asked if trucking was a good job. I answered with yes. Schneider trained me for FREE and my first year was a lot of fun.

The reason people are miserable a lot of the times is because they are one paycheck away from financial ruin. I'm not and trucking suits me fine. It does now and it also did when I was starting out.