i have to admit this is tempting

Dude, you whine and cry about how these $12 per hour jobs are beneath you. Even though you're making NOTHING!!!! Think about that.

Go ahead, scoff at that statement. But before you do, understand this- I make $27.56 per hour. Time and a half after 8 and 40. Full pension AND 401k (100% company match). Company paid health insurance (for the entire family). 6 weeks vacation, home every afternoon (late morning some days) and am off every weekend (unless I feel like working Saturday for $40 per hour).

Know how much I started at this company for? $11.85 per hour! That's right. And nope, I didn't have to work years to get to this rate. Less than 6 months.

So I sucked it up for 4-5 months and now I make a decent wage and am funding a nice retirement. Shoot, you've been on the internet crying about that long.

Get to work. And by the way- there is NO DRIVER SHORTAGE! Stop saying that. I know you heard it, but it's not true.

DISCLAIMER; I only state those numbers to prove a point that those lower paying jobs often lead to something better. That's all. Just to prove a point with the OP.

 

One thing that made me appreciate all of the trucks I drove, and none of them had an APU.. was that I love old cars, old trucks and old big rigs.. seeing what they were driving always made my truck feel like a luxury... wow,.. they didn't have AC.. just widows and a flap they could open to get more air flow.. and a little fan or two.. and the seats they sat in was no where near the nice seats we have to day that adjust in just about anyway imaginable..
Most of them you I couldn't even stand up in.. and I am only 5'3"... and I can't even imagine driving one of those double or triple sticks...

Kind of crazy when you think of the positive advancement there have been for the driver.. AC, idle management and APUs, more room in the cab, more comfortable seats and bunks.. cell phones, gps, big national truck stops all over.... being able to get tv, movies, gaming systems to kill time.. satellite radio.. better highways and interstates... and still so many struggle...

You take a truck driver of yesteryear and bring him through the time machine and put him in one of these trucks and he would be blown away.. you take a driver from today and send him back in time and put him in a triple stick with no AC, a spring support seat with his small tiny slant of a bunk right behind his seat.. and he would just cry.. and cry...

 

only 5'3"?!!!!! Whoa.

 

No offense but it sounds like you caught one hell of a lucky break. $11 to $27 in six months? That's unheard of. It usually takes at least a decade to climb the pay ladder that exponentially. The OP will never get anywhere near that kind of money at a temp-to-hire job.

I agree with him that $12 an hour is not a livable wage but also think he needs to man up and give this trucking thing a serious try for no other reason than his wife and kids.

 

Whatever it is you are doing at work has become attractive to me at those rates. I would work pretty hard to earn that.

 

Sorry, but you're wrong. There's 800 employees where I work to prove it.

Granted, a lot has to do with your location. But I don't even have one of the better jobs. I stay here because it's 5 minutes from my house. I could drive 40 minutes further every day and make $20-30 grand more per year instantly.

The money is out there

 

Well Dumdriver you are one smart cookie... lol, sorry I should of resisted..

Loved your post.. and it is so hard to get that through to so many new drivers.. that you start somewhere and go up... so $12 and hour may lead to $14 then $16 and up again... they want to start at the top and for go the time, effort and work..

As for the driver shortage... the sort of is... there is no shortage of CDL drivers.. even no shortage of CDL drivers looking for work.. but, there is a big shortage of drivers like yourself.... drivers gaining experience and building a solid work history...

Companies learned the high costs of driver turn over.. and now are focusing on Driver retention.. which starts with weeding out the job hoppers...

 

I should remind you that there is a little love for the old iron, wrenching away underneath after church on sunday prior to running to Baltimore SW wilkens ave shedds to physically load 24 pallets of country crock butter for Hunts Point nY later that night around 4 AM give or take depending on battle with the GWB traffic. Wrenching on that tractor was not paid but it was a expression of making sure whatever is fixed is possible and ready for battle up there as it were.

Today's computer truck spits a code at you and shut down in a heartbeat if there was a suficient fault or error. That I see as a liability. I see a number of loses over the years with the newer trucks, the provitable three gauges, tach, speed and something else in addition to the bare necessity for younger drivers who do not get good training on evertyhing that drives a big truck with all the gauges, switches etc.

It makes me feel disscontant (Did I even spell this right? Big word) to be talking of things I know about while aware that a percentage of the audience would have lost the attention span, rejected the old english structure and in other ways shown that I cannot be tolerated trying to be certain to have a proper and informative converstation with you or someone else.

 

ad356 I should commend you for sticking to your guns in the forums. Weaker people run away or try to whine to a mod that they are somehow being reamed.}

The United States is suffering somehow a really harsh economic situation overall. 30% of People cannot write and cash a 500 dollar check according to finaincal websites I follow from time to time. Zero Hedge. Some of it is crack pot and hilariously BS, but some of it contains very tinely information in real time.

Im on disability pernamently. Due to wear and tear of trucking. I have no regrets. However.. my biggest challenge is learning what I might be able to do in the future and go do it if the USA suffers enough of a loss in Disability to cut the benefits 24% I also have a 9 month allowance to work anywhere and make unlimited wages without losing my place in the program. IM very carefully holding that one to the vest. I can see myself working a 900 series or somewhat larger CAT front end loader in Arkansas if I can get my transport issues solved on that money pit Tahoe. The big wheeled loader is not work or adds to my existing level of inflammation or pain nor is it a threat to my bone less which I refuse absolutely to rule my life.

My own morale is good most days And I choose to use some of this time to help you and others here in this forum where possible. And fight evil.