Hello

Isn't that the truth!

 

@Chinatown is our resident expert on all things company on here. He may stop by and chime on on some possible options for you. He knows considerably more than I do in that area.

 

Welcome aboard, you came to the right place. A member named Chinatown will help you, except it may be 3am in China. If you don't have any experience, he'll most certainly direct you to a school/ driving job, like Roehl. There's some shady ones, so choose carefully. He will know. As far as the job, things have never been better for women. My ex-gf drove for 30 years, and when she started, ( 80's)she told me stories that would curl your hair naturally. It's changed from "get back in the kitchen where you belong" to "as long as you can do the job, go for it, we need you" . Better equipment, comfy cabs, automatics, all are a big help today. There's all different kinds of trucking, from flatbed, the most challenging physically, to a van where most of your work is driving. Be advised, in a van or reefer, you may have to restack or "finger print" a load. You can hire lumpers, people that are not hired by the warehouse, but will unload your trailer, but it isn't cheap.
You are in the right position, kids gone, single, because trying to mix family and trucking is the kiss of death. Good luck.

 

I never had a company offer to pay a lumper, and in the 35 years, I never hired one. Some jobs are called "dedicated delivery", which means, you go to the same places all the time, but those are usually direct to the stores, and no lumpers, but I think, if you unload at those places, you do get paid. It can take hours. Tanker is the best, but very hard to get into, or dump truck is pretty easy, but boring as heck. And you have to be flexible. There will be times where you will sit over a weekend,( and it could be Christmas) the world just doesn't work like dispatchers think. Social media has made that idle time more tolerable.

 

Most reefer and dry van companies these days don't let the driver unload. The trucking company pays for lumper service.
I don't know of any reefer OTR company that requires the driver to load or unload.

 

Based upon what you've written, I think you'll do fine.

I started in 1994, but have been in and out of it since then. I'm back in it now, and still looking around for something else.

Another member here posted something that sums up my feelings about trucking perfectly:

"Trucking sucks, but everything else I'm qualified to do sucks worse."

 

They all furnish lodging and meals.
Prime Inc. has a school in Salt Lake City. I'd pick them over CR England.
I think you'd like Jim Palmer Trucking. The pay is really good for new graduates from their school in Missoula, Montana.