needs advice to get started

Have you ever been OTR and tried to get a local? Get a call wanting to interview the next day and you are 7 states away. Most locals that you mentioned has strings attached. Most mixers want exp. Some 2 years. Some of the local jobs I had I seen my family more when I was OTR. A lot of locals have junk trucks they won't fix. If a newbie gets a local good chance it is a ate up outfit that nobody wants. They will burn your CDL or it will be seasonal. Then the newbie decides to go OTR and guess what? Not a recent CDL grad. Local experience doesn't count. Back to school for a refresher....

 

That´s right. You deliver a load, dead head a short way, pick up another, rinse, wash and repeat.

 

Take some time and familiarize yourself with trucking. I think you are a little hazy as to what a truckers life and duties are. Otherwise I believe you will be in for quite a shock if you just decide to jump in. Not trying to be a smart*** but I just read your last few posts and that's not quite how it works. Also do a little math, this will help you understand what you will be capable of achieving as far as pay. Truckers get paid by the mile. New drivers let's just say are making .27-.30 cents a mile. Let's see $45,000 a year divided by 46 because you are going to drive 52 weeks a year. That's roughly $980 a week for pay. Divide that by your .27 cents a mile and that is 3630 miles a week. Lets pretend you can't drive 7 days a week so we'll aim for 6. That is 605 miles a day you must drive to achieve $45000 a year. Maybe show this to your recruiter and see what he has to say about it. That's a lot of driving for a newbie my friend! What do you think about it?

 

Your doing good as far as places to start for knowledge. I was just hoping you weren't signing up for school tomorrow! Yes, the unfortunate thing about trucking is that you spend long periods of time away from home. For those that don't have families it's a good career. However sometimes you don't have a choice and need to provide for your family.

 

Maybe 30k...for 70 hour weeks eating fast food. You can make the same with two mcdonalds jobs and be home everyday.

 

Yep, you have glass half full folks and glass half empty folks! Which one are you?

 

If you had said you were young, no kids, no wife, I´d have said go for it. But being married with kids, OTR, I´m telling you, don´t do it.

I did my OTR single, no kids. No way I´d crawl into a truck OTR again. Not trying to be so negative here, just trying to save you some trouble bro.