Driving straight trucks for experience

Depending on the straight truck job, you might be better of forgetting about AZ altogether.

 

In the old days many drivers started off driving smaller trucks and then moving up . I drove a freightliner fl80 straight truck with a bunk on the back running in the GTA and us .Now a days i think most of the large companies Dz experience isn’t going to count for anything . Also i’ve found out a lot of DZ local jobs in GTA pay close or more as a local Az regular gig .Vac truck ,dump trucks and roll off jobs for example can easily pay $30 plus a hour the problem every one wants experience for each specific job. if your lucky and land a union DZ job working for a town or city you can make over $30 a hr and have a nice pension at the end .Having A Az doesn’t always mean more money it just gives you more options

 

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Use to be almost required to do two years straight truck before anyone would let you do semi. I did about 3 years straight, then got lucky. Guy I worked for expanded and got a single axle Hino and a 24’ pup. I got my semi license using that.

 

I started off with straight trucks and worked my way into pulling trailers then into semi units. Construction companies are a good place to start.

 

Like this poster says, you can make more money with a straight truck than a highway tractor. Somebody has to go out and bump a couple dozen docks a day so those other idiots get to be truck drivers. Lord knows they can’t do it.

 

100% agree just because you have a Az and can pull around a trailer doesn’t mean we get paid anymore then a straight truck or any other DZ type truck .Hell even a smaller cube van delivery driver probably makes just as much as a local tractor trailer driver pulling a dry van or reefer around

 

Straight truck experience is excellent
The driver in this truck on a ice road,,sorry, no drama, he was given basic 30 minutes instruction then on short and long haul. It’s a straight truck (Manual transmission, air brakes, single sleeper berth) and the guy had 3 years driving a car.
2 months later I took him on 16 hour run to get his AZ and turned him loose again. All the drivers I trained got about the same amount of training. No issues and they all ran steady up the North shore on 17