Go for the CDL now, or wait and see if things rebound...

Plenty of refrigerated company driving jobs, even in an economic downturn.
Right there in Southern California:
Northern Refrigerated Transport
Freymiller
Decker Truck Line
DOT Transportation
Osterkamp Transportation - milk tankers (yes, they hire new cdl grads. Just hired one in Bakersfield)
Contact these and ask if they hire from Roadmasters in Fontana. They all do, but for your own peace of mind, call and ask.

 

Robertson's Ready Mix hires new cdl grads and just opened a new terminal in Las Vegas.
Robertson's is headquartered in California.
Locations

• Kern County
• Los Angeles County
• Orange County
• Riverside County
• San Bernardino County
• San Diego County
• Imperial County
• Las Vegas Nevada

 

We have a guy working here from Reno. For what its worth, he said local gigs around Reno dont pay well for what they expect of you. As far as waiting on a rebound in the industry. This industry is and always will be cyclical. If you really want to do this, go for it. No need to wait. By the time all of your training is done the afore mentioned upswing may be well under way. My advice would be to get your training and CDL from the govt if you can for at least a couple reasons. One is you've been paying taxes for years....get some value for yourself out of those taxes. And second is you want to try to set yourself up where you are not contracted to, indebted to, or beholden to some mega for any longer than you have to be. There are always driving jobs out here for a hard worker with a clean record even in the midst of the worst downturn. And you will need to be as flexible as possible if the downturn is protracted so you can move if need be. Just my 2 cents.

 

Penske lost a contract with GM. That means someone else picked it up. Doesn't mean driving jobs were lost, it just means the work Penske was doing is done by a different company.

Point is don't look at one or even a dozen terminals closing. What matters is the total number of drivers needed.

Also don't worry about miles right now. Get the CDL, learn hos, inspection, and stuff like that you have to know. Miles will be lower for the first little bit anyway. Gotta walk before you can run.

 

Flatbed, refr, or tankers, Nevada is nice because iirc it's income tax free. Which means more money in pocket. Also suggest not doing local work unless that's something you have to do.

I personally say live in the truck and get a ups box for an address in an income tax free states, go to work for someone who pays insurance,h a 401k match, and will pay per diem.

 

Sit down and decide what is it you want to do and then make a plan to get from today to the day you are doing that thing. It' far cheaper than collecting credentials that are being sold, but not really needed. MOST college degrees are nothing but plans to take money form students and transfer it to colleges and schools. If your lifelong dream was to hold toy cars and say vroom vroom over and over I promise some college would have a degree they would claim would make that possible. Schools have a business interest in making people they can't make a sandwich without a degree in the culinary arts.

I would find a company that hires people that do what you want to do and talk seriously to them about what do you need to have to have one of those jobs. Having a degree doesn't necessarily translate into a better future. MOST people who start college never finish and most of those people are left trying to repay student loans for a degree they never finished.

Work on your destination and then decide how to get there. Once you have the destination you can focus your time, ebergy, and money and then benefit from the results. I spent 4 years and got about half-way through a Bachelors Degree. Once I discovered my step-by-step plan it only took me 2 years to get the B.S. and 2 AS degrees in the field.

 

There will always be trucking jobs, for those that put the effort in to be a good hand and have a good work ethic. That said, do not expect to go to school, especially one of the carrier schools and make top pay right out of the gate, it doesn't happen, and just like any proffession, you start off on the bottom, it is then up to you to go up from there.
Many people get in thinking it is easy money, and in a literal sense, it is, but if you are one that thinks you should be getting paid for every minute you are away from home, you will never be satisfied.
I have had my licensd since 76, I worked construction for several years and got a lot of extra hours because of it, but didn't use it for my primary all the time, but I have never seen the day since I have had it till right now, that I could not make a few phone calls and be making a pretty good living.

 

Now is a terrible time for getting into trucking. I only made 1800 last week....

Seriously get your cdl and keep it clean and you will always be able to find work. It may not always be the work you want but you can always find work.