beginner questions

am single and a little over 50, clear driving record,been working at factory job for years. dead end and does not pay as much as used to anymore, stuck in same rut,starting to get old and if going to make a carrer change it needs to be soon.have a bad knee and need to get fixed and afterwards not recommened going back to my factory job. own house and have lots bills, house auto payments.
how much stress in starting out in trucking? how much do you get #####ed at? how much money can you make? i am just an average driver,not a proffesional.not sure if trucking would work for me unless can get local route, where get to same places all the time and know the road, taking off cross country sounds hard. it would be nice to get out and go places, i never get nowhere, gas is to high. same old boring rut

 

Spend a few minutes on here using the advanced search function (near top of the page) and you'll get all your questions answered......and then some. How bad is your knee? (Getting in and out of a truck might be a challenge)

welcome to TTR btw

 

I know how that is being in a boring rut.It happens in trucking too.Same thing day in day out very predictable.Trucking isn't as fun and well paid as what some may think.The pay actually sucks.Your factory job probably pays more.Dont join trucking till you get your knee fixed.You may fail the physical.You may or may not make enough to pay your bills and live on the road.You can live on the road for around $10.00 a day providing where you eat and don't smoke.You really have to learn to budget your money when you have all the bills at home.Starting out trucking is highly stressful if you let things get to you.Like the nagging of the dispatcher and companies.But in duetime you get less stressful.Trucking is all routine,one day you'll be able to drive,back,get lost and ect with the best of em.Back to the pay,you as a new driver will literally make spending money and that's about it.Hope you are caught up on your bills like maybe a couple months ahead.In a nut shell that's the short version of what trucking is like.

 

Speak for yourself, I made over 60K my first year as a company driver. After 9 months i became a trainer and made over 80K. Work hard and there is no ceiling to what you can make. Theres a lot of oppertoonity to buy your own truck after a year and if you want eventually a small fleet.

 

Don't be giving false hopes. For every one of you that succeeds there's a thousand that get starved out. That included a lot of potentially hard workers that got starved out.

 

You mean eventually buy A small fleet or work in a small fleet?Well you're the rare exception to what I said.On an average the drivers don't make anywhere near that.Many sit sit and sit.Its not because some may say they're bad drivers.Alot of the dispatchers are about as worthless as a 3 dollar bill.Companies are consistant with the sitting but far from it with the miles.

 

That's some scary #### right there. 9 months and you are training people how to drive.... no wonder this industry is going to you know what in a handbasket.

 

I meant owning and running a small fleet. With hard work the sky truly is the limit. I'm not giving false hope. Last I checked average driver salary at tmc is over 50k. if your FM is bad, get a new one. At TMC hard work truly does make the difference. They give the best freight to the best drivers. One of my trainies was lazy and only drove 8500 miles when he was with me for 5 weeks. He only makes around 750 a week or 39K. Another trainee that worked hard while with me, (got 14800 miles in 5 weeks) now makes around 1100 a week or 57k a year. He will probably make more that I quit because we were both in the same fleet and same area. I got the best freight and he got second best. He only has 3 months under his belt and is making some serious money. Yes a fm can make a difference, but if he screws you tmc will get rid of him or get you a new fm.

 

Great piece of advice for anyone wanting to flatbed go with TMC.It does matter a lot on the company.Some companies who shall remain nameless have pretty much dispatchers all on the same page,they make drivers sit.

 

Only time i sat is when i ran out of hours. Most of the time i got a load within 15 min of submitting my empty. ( alot of the time i had a preplan) In 18 months, i sat load less 4 times for over 1 hour. only once did i ever sit more then 3 hours. And that was when they were trying to get me to a terminal when i quit, and all the freight was int he wrong direction) Sit, you cant make money if your sitting. I never got how drivers have time for xbox or tv...if i wasn't driving I was sleeping or eating.