I am about to give up!

I really am sorry to hear that...

have you tried any of the expediting companies? When I was at the truck show in Louisville, I talked to several. Many of them have leased on fleets and take names of drivers to pass along to fleet owners. Also try Panther they are a nationally known expediter and might have something.
Again, good luck and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you...

 

Believe me it is hard to find a real job in the trucking business. The schools tell you there are alot of jobs and even have some contact you so you will give them you hard earned money and get that license. Then you find out that without experience you will make less than 32 cents per mile. Add in the cost of food and your home bills and you will bring home between 200 - 350 per week. WOW what a big check and you are gone all the time. Believe me the trucking business is for those that do not care when they are home, have no problem driving illegal and do not mind sleeping in a truck that has had so many cigarettes smoked in it that the interior wreaks. I have wasted 8 years trying to find the supposed great driving job and IT DOES NOT EXIST.

 

harleyman jax: now i dont no how nuch expeirence you have and in what but sinch your in fl i can tell you a few companys to try now these are tanker outfits but all are good compamys #1 bynum transport, lakland , fl.#2 indian river transport , winter haven fl,#3 oakly trransport just south of winter haven on us 27 , all are good companys but they do run hard but you make good mney for doing it . DONT GIVE UP things will get better . hope this helps . SOUTHERNPRIDE

 

Did you re-read what you posted? There are real jobs in the trucking business, BUT you like everyone else has to pay their "dues" You will work for very little while you do. Do you really think those good jobs just fall out of the sky? Nooo, they do not. You have to search and again you have to pay your "dues" Do you really think all the people out there with the good jobs just had them dropped in their laps? If you honestly do, you had better think again. I agree that the schools do tell you about all the jobs out there. That's what I was told too and I know better... But, I went anyway because I know that I will find a job, I'll pay my "dues" and in time I WILL make a decent living. I don't know where you're getting all of your information about running illegal and about the interior of the truck. If you did in fact run illegal, shame on you for doing it. If you didn't clean out your truck to the best of your ability, again shame on you. I am quite sure you weren't running so hard that you didn't have the time to do it. You were a driver for EIGHT YEARS and couldn't make a decent living? Why did you wait 8 years to decide it wasn't the lifestyle for you?Something wrong with this picture...

 

SEEMS TO ME LIKE YOU MIGHT BE EXPECTING TO MUCH IN A JOB ,driving a truck is just like driving a truck it will neve be like woking in an office and its not meant to be , as far as never being home how do you drive a truck and stay home at the same time aint gonna happen sounds like you need to go to work for burger king then maybe you can do it your way.
SOUNTHERNPRIDE

 

Please define "real job".

What are you looking for? A 9-5 ? With 3 weeks paid vacation?

Trucking is a real job. And yes the pay sucks, when you consider what we go through. But it beats the hell out of picking produce, or sitting in a cubical.

Very few of us look forward to leaving our families for extended amounts of time. But it's something we do. Because it does pay very well, for those of us who have our #### together.

And the majority of us DON'T spend our days running illegal. Hell, I rarely get 60 hours a week now.

Yes the starting pay is low. But you didn't really get the same pay as the CEO at the last company/industry you worked in, on day one did you?

I've done this for 20 years. Do you really expect to make the same as me? Can you do the same work as I do, in the same amount of time? Legally ?

Are you willing to do the same amount of work as I do ? If not, why should you get paid the same.

700 miles a day is chicken feed. I try to average about 500 a day now. But my personal finances are in order, too. If yours weren't prior to entering this industry, you're screwed straight out of the gate.

My 500 miles per day, leaves plenty of miles for the new guys to get. Although I will probably wind up taking their load, because they're tired and need a re-power.

Eight years experience? And you couldn't find a decent job??? Finding the right job actually means QUITING a sorry ### job.

Something recruiters and companies have been telling new drivers is a big no-no. Which is BS! If you never quit a job. How can you know what a good company is?

Even as bad as Covenant, Werner, JB Hunt, & SRT are. (I know from personal experience). They have drivers that are happy as the day they hired on, and would never consider leaving.

These same drivers have worked at places a lot worse, as have I.

 

Wouldn't you all agree that truckdriving, especially OTR isn't really a job, it's a lifestyle and there are many who can't or won't adapt to it?

 

Actually, it looks like Burger King might pay better than a lot of the companies on here.

Drive safe

 

Never have there been truer words.....newbs take heed.