Fastest Way To $6 Figures In Trucking?

That was the path I took when I got out of trucking back in the mid 90's.

Went to work for a construction company that did mainly scale jobs for the state. After a year of that I went union. Was probably the easiest way for a young guy starting out with a young family to make really good money and still be there to enjoy everything.

If Fla had a strong union base for construction I would not be doing trucking right now.

EDIT:

Just looked over your list.

I would have been classified as Operating Engineer.
The scale they have posted is only a few dollars more than what I was making back in 1996. I started at $21.77hr base with a $4.33hr fringe. So basically $26hr. The $4.33 went into a tax deferred IRA. With overtime,.. added up to about $10k a year on top of my base salary. We also had Comp time where you could build time to get paid days off,. or add to your vacation time.

By 1999 I was making $33hr Union, local 77, Marlow Heights Md. That was good money back then. I miss those paychecks.

Hurst

 

Learn how to play no limit poker. buy your truck and take loads into casino destinations for the weekends. Poker will be your primary job and trucking your hobby.

 

You make $100K/year sound like a lot of money...doesn't take much in this industry to swing that projected $100K net profit into the red.

 

Apply at a car hauling outfit. Learn for two years as a company guy. Hansen and Adkins has a terminal in Smyrna Tn. They will likely train you. Or USAL is in Smyrna as well. Both have plenty of company drivers making 6 figures and home regularly, as in every few days or every weekend at the least. Stay away from Union outfits if you want to do it within five years, it'll take a while to build enough seniority to work year round.
After a few years buy your own truck and trailer hauling cars and 100k will seem like minimum wage. You can send me a thank you card in 5 years. Don't waste your time as a young guy buying a truck right now, car hauling will be a piece of cake for an ambitious driver.

 

You can start by not idol-izing name brands like Gucci

 

This tells me you need to step back and think.

$100k is really easy to make, really easy, but it is how you sustain making it for a long time that matter and from what I am reading in the quote above and in your other posts is you lack reality. Getting a pre-2000 truck? seriously get rid of that idea. Get something that can be fixed and parts are still around. that 1999 FL century is a dino and so is that KW long nose.

The same goes for the money, have at least $15k in the bank because you will need it. Learn how to run a business, learn how this business works and then figure out where you want to go.

Leasing on with some of these companies are not in your best interest, so look around, there are thousands of companies out there, and you won't make the big bucks until you get your time in and pick a segment that allows it to be made easily.

 

If you live in Nashville, TN there are probably 50+ companies within a hundred miles of you that will get you home every weekend and you'll make the same or better than Knight living 2 months at a time in the truck.

In your shoes again I would go to Yellow Freight, ABF, or Wal Mart. Back when I was your age Wal Mart wouldn't consider anyone who had worked at more than 1 company in like 5 or 10 years. They were very selective but they have relaxed that a lot in the past few years. To get on at a union gig I would have been doing a bunch of bs work on the docks and that's not what I wanted. Now they pay experienced drivers big bucks to ride shotgun and train newbies out of school. It's so easy to get a good paying company gig now compared to 15 years ago.

No-one has pointed out the learning curve of owning a truck. Very few people hit the ground rolling and net $100k that first year. I haven't everdone it in several years. Come close. But my first few years were a big obstacle and I actually lost a lot of money. Without a cash cushion I would have been wiped out long ago. But it never really grew like I wanted it to. It's good to have high expectations but understand if it was easy everyone would be doing it. Most people don't last 6 months.