Laid off from IT looking into CDL

Life without sausage or bacon would not be right. lol
Even if it is just a biscuit and sausage, or sausage gravy.

 

My wife drove some, but NOT WHILE I WAS IN THE TRUCK. lol
I had her drive a little on a couple of jobs we did, not over the road type stuff. The first time I ever had her get in a truck, I needed her to bobtail and bring me a truck to Salt city, so against her will she grabbed up one of her girlfriends and met me there. lol
Both of my daughters drove over the road for a while though, I did not teach them though.

 

Bacon is a necessity. Cook your own sausage. Don't let other people do it. And served appropriately is a delight. WShen I say don't ever eat sausage I mean don't eat it at truck stops or any Iron Stomach.

Handle your own sausage to ensure proper care, handling. and cooking hygiene.

I had more than one co driver got sick from sausages in different places.

Im only talking about the food. The innuendo sounds disgusting. I know people are laughing... But you need to take care of your stomach and use to care to only eat sausage you know was cooked properly.

Bacon is easier cooked. Lazy teens can cook that while texting frying on a pan. But sausage is baked and need to be looked at.

Nevermind. I failed. Going to bed. I enjoyed talking with you!

 

THIS!!! OMG, SO MUCH THIS!!!
Over the course of a 20 year career I've been laid off three times, never due to job performance but ALWAYS b/c of cost cutting. Twice my entire work groups jobs were sent to India and this last time and they were sent to Mexico. One group I was in even had a 99.8% QoS rating! Didn't matter in the end, some exec figured they could get the same work for 1/3 what they were paying us so out it went. And just like you I'm sure, I was bald-faced lied to and/or pushed under the bus by more executives than I can count. At my last job we hadn't had raises in five years b/c the company always seemed to be struggling come review time every year. The only reason I stayed as long as I did was b/c it was a 100% work from home position, but the remote nature of the job actually made it easier to off-shore in the end.

This last experience has been a serious wake up call for me! I'm never going back to that field!

My hope is to be able to hit around $45k - 50k in my first two years, that's about what I was making at my last gig. I've been trying to keep my expectations modest and humble. You hear a lot of different things about what people are making and can expect to make particularly as new drivers. I've seen anywhere from $35k to $65k for a first-to-second-year driver depending on where they land and how they choose to work. Personally I'm hoping strike a balance somewhere in the middle. I'd be willing to work OTR for 2 week out stretches and then two days home for the first year to to two. I don't have any kids so it's just me and the wife and the dog and she says she's okay w/ that schedule for a short while but I still don't want to end up in a situation where I'm gone so long and come home to the wife having an affair and the dog doesn't recognize me.

This is pretty much my plan. I'm planning to do a year of OTR and then look for a regional or dedicated route closer to home.

I checked Schneider's web site and the HCC driver training program is listed as a "Featured School" some I should be good. But I do intend to call them and make sure as well as ask some other questions like tuition reimbursement if I pay for school out of pocket.

Speaking of the workforce grant though, I went over to the TX Workforce Commission office today to get the process started on applying for a retraining grant and was told flatly their grants don't cover CDL training. Apparently they typically only issue grants to students attending programs that have > 300+ contact hrs per semester usually for multiple semesters AND they usually only work w/ people who have been out of work for 6+ months. When I asked why the counselor wouldn't say directly ( although he admitted people came in all the time asking about grants for CDL training ) but he hinted at they had determined that relative high cost of training ( $3500 at HCC ) coupled w/ the unusually high turnover of first year drivers had essentially been deemed a bad investment.

No matter to me, I can afford to pay out of pocket and then hopefully get on w/ a company that has tuition reimbursement ( I also plan to write it off on my taxes ). If push comes to shove though I'd be willing to get on w/ a company specific school. I had just hoped to avoid having a commitment after the fact.

 

You cannot cry over spilled money unmade.

I could turn into a real bitter sob if I thought about what wife and I let go of when we each averaged 34K teaming the hell out of FFE for essentially a year. I could have done that on my own, but not the cross country runs between Company Yard in LA to Avenel, those were crucial. Thousands a week. No complaints. Subject to a whim of a Jersey dispatch who probably wore out our welcome showing up for a hour to drop hook and wait on his papers. HURRY up. LA dispatch ONCE qualcommed us as I tore that century almost recklessly out of Avenel under the US 1 overpass and roared onto it 40 mph speed limit and lights be ######... message

"You going to be ok on time? Looks like 10 minutes." We told them we will be there within 7 minutes plus or minus and they better not hollar at us because we have a governed ####### 63 mph truck for 2790 miles. We took a risk, skipped one fuel stop gained 24 minutes (Holbrook... crucial for us... very risky) and a couple of other wild driving that wife did never see from me. She hid in the bunk.

We made it 7 minutes to the good.

If we had a rig.. that could Snort through foot pipes and spin two turbos with unlimited everything... imagine what we could have done with that.... that oughta just silence the nervous june brides in dispatch.

And for what? But they were waiting on the #### thing. So... eh... PAY US. NExt trailer to jersey please.

 

I've pretty much decided I'll be running solo. I'm not antisocial or anything, far from it actually. I have a lot of very close friends and my wife is the most important thing in the world to me, but that doesn't mean I want to be stuck in the space the size of a gas station bathroom w/ any one of them 24/7 for weeks at a time. That just seems like an unnatural way to test any relationship let alone your own patience and character. Frankly there are times when our two story, three bedroom condo seems just barely big enough for me and my wife. I don't feel the need to push patience and endurance in an area where the only escape would be to hurl myself from a 40 ton moving vehicle in the middle of the highway!

I'm actually an only child and I've learned to be comfortable w/ my own company and thoughts
over the years. I can think of hundreds of ways to entertain myself w/ out others being around. I tend to think this would make me well suited to being a solo driver.

 

See you on the road !

 

I kind of breezed through the posts but will say this. Im glad you decided to show up on the forum to do some homework that most don't.

The school will have recruiters come and give you that fairytale speech. Don't fool yourself into believe you have to be out for weeks at a time in order to earn your stripes.

Don't be scared to look into ltl (less than truckload) work if you want to be home daily and still make decent $$$

You will need tank/haz/doubles endorsements.

 

Came across this last night:



The video is from 2017 and I'll note that the comments section in the video are turned off.

Thoughts?

 

There is a lot of truth to what he is saying. You can tell a recruiter is lying when their mouth is moving.

That said, trucking is not a utopia where everything is supposed to be golden sunshine, white bunny rabbits, and fields of flowers.

Trucking is a job. You are expected to perform. If you cannot or will not perform, you will not keep the job long.

Mega carriers vary wildly. Western Express is *NOTHING* like Crete Carrier. Stevens Transport and CR England are as different as night and day.

Some larger carriers have higher expectations than others. Some have different business models.

Here are three examples.

Western Express is a second-chance company. They accept slightly more risk in their drivers. Some criminal history might be fine. A spotty driving history might be okay. Other trucking companies might not even consider a driver that Western Express will hire. Because they take more risk, they pay less.

Stevens Transport is a completely different business model than most. They are a training company that also hauls freight. They have some of the best training classes and new driver support in the industry. However, once the training is done, the pay is low, and they *WANT* you to get out of their truck to make room for the next graduate. By making a lot of their money from training, and paying drivers less, they can compete strongly in the OTR reefer market despite only having a single terminal.

Crete Carrier tends to skimp a bit on their trucks. No APU. No electronic locks. No desk lamp. Until recently, no inverters unless you bought one. Their IT department has left some pretty significant holes in their electronic driver support options. They pay a solid company wage for experienced drivers though.

Here's the thing. There is no such thing as a dream job for anyone who isn't willing to go out there and make a good job into a dream job. This means putting up with a little crap from time to time, whether you are a company driver, lease operator, or owner.