How broke were you when you entered the trucking business ?

My husband started driving heavy equipment in the 80's and went from their to a grandfathered in CDL, drove mostly cement & dump truck's ( class B) til 2009, when he started driving a Log truck, then chip, then flatbed. I had a job that Paid all our bill's til right before he started OTR. I rode along on when I lost my job. We weren't broke, but by the time we paid off all our debt's it was a close call.

btw that 1st flatbed job just about did break us. I had to cash in my 401k, so we could stay afloat.

 

I was on food stamps ran for Mayflower a whole year with no profit as an owner op but I knew money was in it but had to hang in till the DUI fell off my record have had nothing ups and downs since then it was back in 97 I think I started? Good luck and don't let ya guard down in this industry!

 

I was recently divorced when I started out. I had found a girlfriend who was letting me live with her rent free. I didn't like her very much, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I used the last of my cash to pay for CDL school. When I got off the greyhound for orientation, I had $7 and half a pack of smokes. I only went home every 2 months or so for the first two years. Now I've got a girlfriend that I like a whole lot better, work a 5 day work week (home every weekend), and I grossed just under $60k last year. Things are going pretty well these days, but it was tough starting out.

 

Subscribing to this. Its gonna be real interesting to see where things go starting here in 2 weeks when i start my CDL school

 

When I started as a full time otr driver (I had been working locally as needed, so I call that part time), I had 250 in the bank, 13k in debt, just bought a small house and had my ssecond child on the way. Yeah.....it sucked

 

I was broke and had been for a while

I had like $40 which my exGF gave me for food for the bus and it had to last me basicly 3 weeks until my first paycheck. I later learned I needed $60 for the CDL (something my recruiter neglected to mention) and I had to provide (forage) my own food


I had ran out of money that week so I basicly starved all next week and orentation the next week they offered 5 meals for 3 days so you do the math

the $100 for completing orentation I needed immedatley (food and phone bill) I couldn't get until I was seated on a truck, fortunatley I got it right after I needed it


my point is, I was BROKE, I was basicly foraging for food during school

 

$3,000 in bank, house paid off, no outstanding debt. I took out a $5,000 credit card with 0% interest for one year for truck school (only cost $2,800) and buying stuff I needed (probably close to $1,000) so I left myself some room for error which I'd highly recommend you do starting out... paid it back in 4 months after I started working, so no interest payments. It took two months to graduate and get through orientation so the $3,000 went fast BUT I started getting paid a starter company pittance after that.

One year later almost to the day and I have $11,600 (probably would have been closer to $4,000 if I stayed with my starter company beyond 8 months- I have 2 months with my new company) in the bank which I'll probably use to rebuild my decimated 401k- no debt. I might have been in some trouble if I had a mortgage or kids to feed (just pointing that out). I had a decent corporate sales job before I was unemployed for a year... I did trucking as a last resort but I wouldn't go back. I think I'm too insane now anyways...

I always research stuff before I jump into it and plan for the worst case scenario. Starting out is a HUGE gamble and every bit the nightmare I thought it might be and then some... I'm very fortunate to be working for a much better company so soon... but again, I plan ahead. It is a lot smarter to come into this with some insurance because you can get your ### handed to you pretty easy.

 

Had pay saved up from the Navy, and a bit from my short stint at Walmart. Sold my car just before I went off to school. So probably about 45k. Paid $0 for the training after fulfilling my agreement with my first company.

 

I was self taught and earned a little while I had my permit by running with my wife's cousin (which we didn't do legally - he didn't sit up front. we ran like a team and the Boss just split the pay between us. Little 15 truck outlaw deal). I HAD to get away from Dude. He was a thief and worse and was gonna get us locked up. I had $250 from my check. I told my wife: "We can pay the rent or I can rent a truck, take the test and get my full CDL, get my truck and be on my own and pay the rent next week from my own check." She said: "We're already behind in the rent". I said: "Well, I guess I better not fail the test." She said: "If you do we'll get evicted. What you get now splitting pay and cutting it. If you pass, your first check will be enough for us to stay and then get caught up."

Talk about pressure. Wife and new baby, eviction. WOW. I was sweating bullets during the test but I passed. Wanted to go legit so I went to work for Werner and went broke during training because they wouldn't accept my previous employer's experience and put me on as a student. But with a little help from family and doing my six months at Werner I was able to get a decent paying job flatbedding til that company went under and I now have a dedicated home weekly gig that pays pretty good. Boy did we struggle for those first six months though. If it hadn't been for family pitching in we wouldn't have made it. My trainer was an awesome cool older guy and he bought half my meals. Taught me an amazing amount too and not just about truck driving but how to survive OTR and make it on entry level pay. In all fairness, some of our financial woes were are of our own making. My wife could work but wouldn't. The car tore up. All kinds of crap that had we handled better we could have made it without help.

 

Im going to enter the business in September got a job been saving a little money not as much as I should've been saving and ima struggle at frist but thankfully my fiancee is working and will be able to help so hopefully everything goes good