Looking to get into trucking. Done research have questions????

Sounds like you have a good background and have done good research. I dont think those tickets will be much if any issue with W/S but call a recruiter to find out for sure. But i can tell you this DO NOT get that ticket in a W/S truck....or anyother for that matter.


The school you have picked out is great and has a very long list of companies that will hire from there. so you'll be way ahead of most of the people in orientation just based on your training and exp.




For backups Look at Epes, then if you cant get on there try KLLM (a lesser evil in bigish companies).



You'd be in a great spot for W/S too you should be able to be home most weekends if you want or you can stay out n keep running. So hometime will deffinatly not be an issue.




Any questions make sure you post them one of us will be able to answer it for ya.




Good Luck!





American Trucker

 

if i remember right you get $100 month until they pay you back for whatever you paid for school.




American Trucker

 

If he puts 10% each paycheck away in a 401k/IRA, in a conservative investment, (Mutual fund, etc) he could easily have a million well before his retirement age, if he starts NOW.

 

Like Gashauler said there are many other unique opportunities out there in this industry that the newbies just don't think about. They all usually just follow the herd and sign up with one of the top 5 mega carriers! The schools and recruiters make it easy for you to get on with these companies mainly because they get paid to send you to them!

Companies like Watkins are good in that they are large enough to keep you busy yet small enough to treat you like a human being. I'm sure A.T. can give you better stats but I am willing to bet his dispatcher doesnt have 200 drivers under their watch. When dispatchers have less drivers they are more apt to help you and also treat you like you are not just a number. Your dispatcher is going to be your number one key to success. If you can build a more personal relationship with them then this will allow you to scratch each others backs.

So do your home work and find yourself a good company from the get go! Remember you don't have to haul freight. There's Dryvan, reefer, flatbed, tanker, heavy haul, dump bed, etc... There are also opportunities like Nascar, Budweiser, CBS Sports, Concert tours and events/shows, Carnivals, Motorcycle Freight/bikeweek tour, hauling horses cross country, cows, zoo animals etc... Also hauling money, missiles, bombs, nukes, planes, boats, cars, oil refineries and oil field positions etc...

The possibilities are #### near endless!

Good luck to you!

 

Thanks for the posting chompi, I find it informative and up-beat.

Without sounding like a smart-A what differentiates what you list from 'freight'. Is it because? Say you drive for the circus you have more other work (ie stagehand) between hauls, and freight is just drop off?

Thanks

 

We had three types of retirement plans in place. A retirement investment plan where you could put in 2% and the company would put in 4% of your wages. Then we had a retirement savings plan where you could put in 4% and the company would place 6% of your wages. Then we had a standard 401 plan where we put nothing in and the company took care of that. As soon as I started I placed the max in to get the max out of the company. The savings plan was great because yoy could borrow from it and pay back yourself. You could choose how your money was invested either by company stocks (which I did) or mutual funds. I was lucky because I had a good chuck of stocks and they split 4 for 1. That's what put me on top.

I believe it would be hard to find those kind of benefits anymore since all the companies are getting tight. But my point is to look around and find the best you can. And then invest as much as you can to get the max out of the company and leave it alone. That's the hard part about saving for retirement is having the money put away when you need it. My military retirement helped there but most do not have that luxury.

 

I'm not an experienced professional, but I know one thing:

LIVE DEBT FREE

 

W&S is stringent about their drivers safety records. I had 2 previous moving violations but since I had a good work history and no DUI/Felonies they over looked it. But they expect you to behave while you are in their truck. Your location in NC probably means you'll get decent home time.