Have I lost my mind???

It's probably worth driving someone else's truck first to make sure the lifestyle fits. Or at least make sure you allow for the possibility that it doesn't work out as planned. I left my company job last summer and leased a truck. 8 months later I gave the truck back and went back to my set schedule at the company I couldn't wait to get away from. For me, living on the road was a miserable experience. It sounded great in theory and a lot of guys love it but I'm too much of a home body. I don't regret it at all. I learned a lot and I knew from day one that I had a place to go back to if needed. After 8 months in business in a bad market I covered all expenses including the penalties for breaking the lease and walked away with roughly the same amount of money in the bank as when I started. I had to try it or I would always think it's what I wanted. Now I know both that I am capable, and that I'm actually happier driving someone else's equipment and having a predictable schedule that I can plan my life around.

 

If you are just wanting to play truck and don’t need it as a means of financial support or possible bankruptcy for most, just do like a lot of us do and get a classic truck. (25years old or older.) Restore it and plate it antique ( here in Tejas) or historical in other states. Insurance is cheap. No CDL required in most cases. Travel around the country to all the truck shows. Make tons of lifelong friends and meet lots of folks like yourself that had no truck background and nothing to do with the industry but just had a common interest in them.
Tejas is still a very truck friendly state for us to do this, but as more and more people move in from truck hating states we are afraid it will change. Jump on it while you can.

 

MiFamilyGuy, I agree 100%, OTR trucking in itself is not for everybody, and owning a truck is not for everybody... it seemed like I dealt with enough hassles as a company driver, and I didn't need the extra BS. And I didn't mind driving somebody else's truck, as long as I was with the right outfit. That's important too, being with the right outfit... as some companies are better than others. Not having to worry about all the additional hassles involved with ownership freed me up to pursue my own agenda... namely, being a paid tourist, lol.

 

Recently some of the Brokers are really demanding. Tracking and calling half a dozen times. Often a different person every call. It’s aggravating. They’re becoming a nuisance. Last week I was thinking how most jobs I’ve had treated me much better, because they wanted to retain their drivers. Some of them are flat out Unprofessional rude idiots. Some are decent, but less and less it seems.

 

Many moons ago when I did the occasional tql or chr load say from Tennessee to Ontario and they'd have different people calling for check calls I thought I'd play an innocent little game on them by saying mt current location was Evanston, WY, or Albuquerque NM, anywhere way way off route. All I ever got was "okay thanks."

 

That's what I hate the most. There's been a few times when I said hey, you just woke me up, your other agent just called me a few hours ago. Nothing has changed since then. I'm gonna be on time for my appointment. Don't you guys communicate with each other

 

I'm noticing that my phone battery keeps a charge longer now that I've uninstalled all of those tracking apps. And you're absolutely right, so many of those brokers are absolutely terrible to deal with.

 

If you will be satisfied cruising the highways, Id say hire on with schneider and get your experience and in 6 months or a year you can become a lease operator with them. I think the lease program is called schneider ‘choice’. If Im not mistaken.

Or you can get 6 months to a year experience, buy/lease an truck, and go to landstar.

With 6-12 months experience you will still be learning new stuff everyday simply driving the truck so having an office staff handling much of the necessary paperwork and making sure all your T’s are dotted, will allow you to focus on driving.

You really need to experience life as an otr driver before you make a commitment.

If I started over Id probably strive to start at TMC or another reputable flatbed company and that way you learn securement as well as driving. Then Id probably then focus on matching the equipment with heavy haul or at least matched for the rigors of delivering to construction sites/ off the beaten path type of work.

There’s a lot of different types of work and reefer (frozen food) is the worst. (Yes I would rather starve to death than hear your reefer starting and stopping all night 5 feet from my head)

 

Well, you might be putting the cart before the horse so to speak shopping around for trucks at this point, but that's fine to do preliminary research like that and learn as much as possible. If you don't even have a CDL then you're going to either have to go to driving school for a month, or get hired onto a carrier that will front-roll you the cost of school if you go work for them. I don't recommend the latter option if you can avoid it and sounds like you probably can.

Have you considered starting smaller and running a "hotshot" setup? It's trucking...the job is the job the lifestyle is the lifestyle whether you have a big truck plated for 80k or a little one plated for 26k. This type of setup is becoming more and more popular and there is money to be made. Not as much as with a big truck of course but it's a place to start and you actually don't even need a CDL, although it takes some major constraints off your operation if you have it. You could also sign up at one of the RV hauling outfits and still get a pretty darn good idea of how trucking is. You'll see the country and have some fun even. All you need to get started with that is a nice little 3/4 ton or 1 ton diesel pickup and some hitches. Its nice because you're not a company driver so you have the freedom but you also get a taste of what it's like to run your own equipment hauling for hire.

 

^^^ That's good advice! ^^^