Inexperienced tanker driver

Here are my thoughts, keep in mind I am not currently driving, but did many years ago and follow this stuff pretty closely.
You want to make the most money, but you also want to be home as often as possible, and you also want decent working conditions. When starting in this industry you can likely get two of the three, maybe not! As example,
A: Get on with a company like Tribe which is close to you. You would have nice equipment, make decent money, and not get home much. As a new driver this would be pretty nice as far as working conditions go. (I chose Tribe because of their location and what I've read, I've no personal experience with them)
B: Get on with a large carrier who promises to get you home "every weekend", not make as much, and drive crappy equipment while dealing with poor working conditions. You'll be looking for trailers and dealing with maintenance issues on them, going places where everyone hates you because of the color of your truck. You might get home weekly, but you may fight for it. The miles may be crap and you'll sit at times.
C: Get on with someone like TMC or Maverick and work your ### off doing flatbed. You'll get home from everything I've seen with those two.
I don't think driving tanker is like a magic bullet, the first year's experiences may give you a lot of "B" above, and you still may not be home or make money.
D: Drive local in some capacity.
You have to choose, and I'm not sure it's worth giving up what's necessary to get home regularly during your first year out.

 

PS, sorry to walk on your thread Firespock. It is a very good read!

 

88 Alpha. About being able to come home with Dry Van. If I go to Orientation for Dry Van it wont be far from home so I will come home every day before I go out with a Trainer. But if I do Tankers, training will be 28 days in Texas. SO thats one advantage of doing Dry Van with Schnieder but the pay will be less. I am not making much more than $20,000 a year now (yea i know thats bad). SO I am looking to get into something with better pay and tanker sounds great,.

 

Not to be an *** but the fact that you even MENTION getting home every day while in training as being an advantage of choosing dry van over tanker is a real red flag. Come on man, this is a job where you may be gone 3+ weeks at a time from home, getting home every day during training should be the absolute least of your worries. Ok so you can get home every day during the first 5 days of classroom training. Then you won't get home for a week while you're out with a trainer, then yeah maybe you go home every day again for the last week of classroom stuff. Then you leave home for the first time in your own truck and maybe you won't see it for three weeks.

Dry van or tankers will make you over 20k a year easy, doesn't matter which. Tanks are a little more involved but will pay better. Neither come with any guarantees on when you will get home. And that includes whatever guarantee your recruiter, your dispatcher, etc., tells you.

 

Very true 88. The way I look at it is that if i go Regional I will be home weekly, if OTR I will be home every 2 weeks for 3 days. But as far as Orientation. If I choose Tanker then I am gone from home 28 days off the get go. But if I do dry van yea I wont be gone for 28 days straight. I rather do tanker because theres more to it than just driving and backing. But then again I havn't been on the road periode, so dry van or tanker wouldn't matter. I never been away from my wife so I hate to just up and leave with everything to take care of herself. And I have a 3 year old I get every other weekend. I tell my self if I go ahead and do Tanker OTR it will get us on our feet and put us in a better living situation. Guess it's time to make SACRIFICES. lol ANY ONE KNOW OF ANY OTHER GOOD COMPANIES CLOSE TO ATLANTA? Not looking at Warrener, Swift, Maverick, Avverrt, or Roehl.

 

Financially, I think doing the tanker route would be the smartest option. SNI offers great training and if you choose not to stay with them, with 1 year of experience pulling tanks for SNI all kinds of doors would open up for you.

However, with a family including a little one at home, you may really want to second guess any kind of OTR (even regional for that matter) trucking job.

Home weekly usually means rolling in one night, getting maybe 1 full day off to accomplish everything you wanted then you take off as soon as that clock is up. Usually the home every 2 weeks schedule means out 2 weeks, home 3 days, out 2 weeks home 2 days, or vice versa. In general expect 1 day off for every week out with the megas. SNI is a little better with hometime than many.

 

Yea I know what you mean. I only get my daughterevery other weekend, so if I did OTR i would be able to get her when I get home. SNI "told US" stay out 2 weeks get 3 days home, stay out 3 weeks get 4 days home. So who knows. I think tanker would be more exciting. I drive a Volvo Super Sleeper with a 53 footer at school. We drive alot and I can already see that it would get boreing once you get on the Hwy. And I think it would be better all around to drive OTR for 1 year and as a tanker would be even better. #### me and my wife don't have much money and pretty much live check to check, so if I got Tanker OTR for a year it would really get us on our feet. Then after a year I can find something thats Regional or Dedicated.

 

you need to stay out a minimum of 10 days for bulk otr before you can take home time. you could do 10 days on, 3 days off. i've been doing 11 on and 3 off. there are a few times when this won't work like may since it has 5 weekends, but for the most part you should be able to be home every other fri/sat/sun.

 

What would I google to find a company that I can send all my Trucking Expenses to? You know someone that I can have do my taxes at the end of the year.