Help a trucker wannabe out!

If you want to be a national driver (lower 48 and Canada), you can absolutely give up on being out for 2-3 weeks then getting 2 or more days at home.

You can expect to spend 4-6 weeks out and spending "maybe" 34 hours at home.

That's just the way it is for the most part.

Oh... and that 34 hours will be at your companies convenience... NOT yours.

 

No...

That won't even will be the reality even years later if you are a company driver.

I am telling you the way things ARE, not how they MIGHT be.

There are of course exceptions, but they ARE rare IMO.

 

What you imagine and what is realistic don't necessarily match up.

There are variables.... Many of which I've already mentioned.

I'm not trying to talk you out of anything. I'm just trying to give you things to think about when it comes to your desire to get into OTR.

I have no reason to lie to you.

 

I can't think of one driver who thoroughly enjoyed being with his or her trainer... however, it's a necessary step in the process, and with luck you'll get a trainer who knows what he's doing (odds of being paired with a female trainer are slim to none). The first thing to do will be to suck it up, pay attention, and run with the CB on at all times whenever you're at the wheel, not to yak but to listen in and learn what you can from the old hands who key up their mikes. Same goes for when you're in truck stops, doing your laundry or whatever---talk to hands with experience, and remember that age is no indication of experience in this industry. The old dude may have just finished school last week, while the young guy who looks wet behind the ears has at least 10 years OTR, and he grew up driving a hay truck on his family's farm or ranch.

There's a lot of negativity out there, but some of us are out there by choice, and we love doing what we do... attitude makes all the difference in the world, and, if and when you do upgrade to solo, it's a whole new ballgame. Of course, with that added freedom comes added responsibility... trucking has its serious side, serious as a heart attack, and you need to stay focused in critical or dangerous situations (bad weather, heller traffic, etc.), or you'll wind up in a world of grief.

You seem resolved to become a truck driver, and you seem aware of the downside to that when one has a family... contrary to all the negative opinions slung by naysayers, there are good jobs out there which would give you more hometime, you just have to find 'em. Many regional companies run "out and back" (like the spokes of a bicycle wheel, radiating in all directions). Many OTR companies run from coast to coast, with time off between each overall trip.

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but some community colleges offer CDL-A training, and many companies offer in-house training, provided you commit to that company for "x" number of months. If I were you, I'd start by calling companies listed by state at www.fleetdirectory.com , where you'll find company phone numbers, links to company websites, info and hiring or training practices of companies, etc. Other jobs can be found under the "Transport" column of Craigslist, but those ads tend to be geared toward experienced drivers.

Another tip: if you're serious about getting your CDL-A and hitting the road, do yourself a big ol' favor and pick up this book at www.bumper2bumpertruckbook.com . A little pricey at $59, but worth every penny, with easy-to-read text and helpful diagrams, especially where backing is concerned. This book was recommended to me back in the day by an old hand, and I'm still thankful to this day... I had a decent trainer as well, and that helped. He was younger than I was at the time, but he knew what he was doing, and he came from a long lineage of truck drivers, which also made a big difference.

By the way, as a last resort, if you're stuck with a bad trainer you can politely request another the next time you're in the yard... but you better have some ###### good reasons for doing so, unless you want to be perceived as a whiner who will cause even more problems for the company in the future. I put up with a bad trainer for a few days when I first started out, then I walked into the Safety Director's office and quietly told him why I wanted to switch to a different trainer; he was cool about it, I went out with my new trainer and never looked back... best thing I ever did, I reckon. That truck gets mighty small when it holds two people who don't get along well for weeks at a time.

Remember, driving a big truck is NOT like driving your 4-wheeler. You may not understand why your trainer does things a certain way... just pay attention, and ask questions if necessary, as long as they're not frivolous in nature. You've heard the old line: "The stupidest question is the one that's never asked..." This holds especially true in trucking when and where safety is concerned. That one hand was correct, one big mistake and your career may be over before it really begins. My personal motto is: "ANY DAY YOU DON'T KILL A WAGONLOAD OF KIDS IS A GOOD DAY." Makes it easier to put the piddling b.s in perspective...

Okay, that's my spiel for now... I'm only doing this because I have a sneaking suspicion that, family or no family, you may be one of those hands who will grow to love truck driving, as some of us have. Whenever you hear some whiners carping about their jobs in a truck stop, just remember this: the hands who had good days aren't going to bother squawkin' about 'em. I came into this industry at age 34, and neither you nor anybody else could pay me enough to do anything else... I occasionally wonder how my life would have been had I bagged my CDL-A even earlier, but there's no point in considering it. Whenever I'm on the road, I have the time of my life... like permanent vacation. That's my $.02, good luck to ya, hope it all works out for the best. "Adios!!!"

 

Dont count your chickens before they hatch.