My Journey as a Truck Driver

Try to go local and you'll make 50,000 your first year.

 

Good stuff, good advise. Everyone coming into this industry needs to expect the first 12-18 months to suck and go from there. It may not suck but have the expectation going in.

 

You might want to look into Schneider. I started with them back when they were still training. You'll not get top pay there, but they won't lie to you, they won't push you to do anything stupid or unsafe, if you need more training they'll provide it, if your truck needs repairs they'll take care of it, they have nice terminals and overall it's a good place to get some experience. I put in a year and a half with them then went to work for a flatbed company where I make decent money and I'm home on weekends. My personal opinion is that there's more money in flatbed or tanker work, but you should probably get some experience pulling a dry box first. That's not etched in stone, but that's what I did and I think it would make your life easier.

Another thing, I think you were talking about getting a bike rack in one of your earlier posts. You might want to look into Montague bikes. They make real nice folding bikes. I own one and I can fit into my cab when it's folded up. They aren't cheap - start around 500 bucks - but I love mine.

 

I've got to agree with the above post about looking at Schneider. I had Roehl all picked out to start with and for some reason never gave a thought to Schneider until I was almost finished with school. Roehl seemed like a really good fit but for me Schneider had just what I was looking for. They have a huge freight base and lots of different fleet options. Where ever you end up, good luck to you.

 

I'm on the midwest regional. Schneiders pay scale is actually .29 to start. They pay .02 of it as a non taxable "per diem" for the 1st 45 days. Goes to .33 at 6 months and .36 at 1 year. There is also shorthaul premium that is paid. All in all I found the pay and benefits to be pretty fair considering the miles available. Of course you'll need to pick the route that is best for you to go.

 

Shrug,You might look into usexpress,they have really nice late model trucks whereas the pumpkin seems to run alot of older rigs as does jbhunt.I would start with a dryvan co. first because you tend to run alot more miles vs.reefer,flat bed and tanker.You mostly drop and hook at decent times of the day.With reefers you show up at grocery warehouses at all times of the night,and early(1-2am) dels and sit with 50 other trucks to get unloaded and never get paid detention like they tell you.Reefer usually pays about the same as dry van so why hassle with all the b.s. involved.I personally am not interested in flatbed because of all the work with tarping loads.You spend alot of time tarping,till you get good at it,in all kinds of weather not to mention getting filthy dirty wrestling with a tarp in 30mph winds,rain,snow and heat(no thanks).I understand why o/o's do it ,because of the money,as a co. drver,no way for me.Tankers are ok,but Ive also heard they sit alot or do local runs mostly,plus the time getting washed out every ld(no miles).As far as the money youre just going to have to get out there and gain exp. before youre really an asset to a quality carrier.Its true that all the mega carriers just want steering wheel holders.The turnover rate for the big carriers is around 125%/yr its really unbelivable.But you sound like me when i started,no overhead(cell phone,storage,computer=300/mo)So find a co.that has good equipment and go for it,time goes by pretty fast out here on the rd and you can just keep moving up if you take care of yourself and enjoy it rather than listening to other people rag about every thing.Let us know how youre doing.

 

Posted by USX driver's wife .

 

I run tanker and there is little downtime . It depends on the terminal . Most of the tanks I get are preloaded . Deliveries are drop and hook or if I unload it takes less than 2 hours or we get detention time over that .
Many trailers are dedicated and just reloaded without washing . If a tank does need to be washed there is usually a clean tank ready at the tank wash for a drop and hook . My runs average 3 days . We have a few local 1 day hauls . 3 days runs pay between $650 - $850 .