You never hear about lot lizards becoming truckers. I guess because they make more money than drivers and are home every night. But they have to fingerprint every load....
You're prey, and there's predators everywhere and don't ever forget you're prey because the predators won't forget... Someone will be along to explain it better than I can, though.
I will give you my personal opinion. Don't get into this, just switch employers in your line of work, maybe a different city and state. Your field makes the big bucks, in our line of work, you can make money but it takes time, and we also go thru some BS like in your line of work. If you have family, it's gonna be a big adjustment if you go over the road. But if you decide to take the plunge, do it on your dime. You pay for the schooling, cause if you go with the mega carriers, they will own you for at least a year and if you quit, they will charge you for the schooling, training with interest. So there you have it. Don't do it, but if you decide to try, pay for your own school. When you realize this isn't for you, you can go back to the real world of IT tech like you said.
Well, it's been several months and I'm still planning on trucking. In fact, I quit my IT job 3 months ago. Moving to Portland OR in a month where we'll live for a couple years while I truck and wife goes to nursing school. Long term, the plan is to buy a home in Eastern or Southern OR. I'm planning on going to truck school around February. I'm going to be meeting a recruiter for Schnieder in a couple of days. It sounds like I need to be quite weary of what they say, but I feel it will be good to at least talk to him. Any particular questions I should consider asking? Or any other advice for meeting with the recruiter? TIA!
Puyallup resident here... I thought you were moving to Eastern WA? No matter, because there should be plenty of opportunity in the Portland area (although personally, I'd work in Oregon, but live in the Vancouver area...).
Also talk to some more recruiters: A&M Transport in Glendale,OR Leavitt's Freight Service in Springfield,OR A & M Transport is a transportation company engaged primarily in hauling truckload shipments of general commodities in both interstate and intrastate commerce. A & M Transport was founded by Andy and Marian Owens on March 3, 1989 and is located in Glendale Oregon. The Company is owned and managed by the Owens family and now proudly employs 3 generations of family members. A&M Transport is a 165 truck operation. The fleet trailers consist of dry vans, flatbeds and taut-liners (curtain vans) so a driver has options when it comes to the type of equipment that he or she wishes to operate. A & M Transport operates throughout Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada and Arizona with most of the activity occurring on the I-5 corridor. The principal types of freight transported by the Company include consumer products, retail store merchandise, food products, paper products, beverages ( alcoholic and non-alcoholic), industrial products, steel products, lumber and other building materials.
A year or so ago another guy moved to Eastern WA, then went to CDL school and found a real good job pulling doubles hauling some type of oil. It's some small outfit he said and he applied thinking he had no chance of getting the job. You might find something like that in Eastern OR after you move there. Keep notes of anything you find out about and use it for future reference.
We were looking at Benton City, WA, but currently have changed minds to OR (where I grew up and all my family and childhood friends are). But, you never know, could change our minds over next couple of years.
