New CDL class A with lots of questions

Follow-up to the above query:

Generally speaking (there are probably exceptions to this, somewhere)...but, as a "rule of thumb"....the more specialized the freight you pull-- the more annual income you can reasonably expect.

This goes back to the tanker suggestion--tanker is more specialized (generally speaking)--than pulling "boxes".

--Lual

 

Then ask yourself this qtn: "Do I really want to drive a bus--or would I really rather drive a big rig?"

Also: what does a local bus driver pay top out at? 150k? 200k? More? Or less?


If the bus driver gig suits you, and pays the same or more for your requirements, then go back and get that passenger endorsement--and get that local bus gig.

For comparison: LTL and other big rig jobs are paying probably $130k-$150k in your area, with the right freight, carrier....and experience. Maybe even more--if you team drive.....

--Lual

--

 

Something else to seriously think about....

with that local bus driver job--you will be dealing with the public A LOT.

This will obviously include quite a bit of what one could easily call, "riffraff".

Whether you really want to tolerate that sort of thing daily is of course, a personal choice.

I'm sure this is (in part, at least) why the local bus crowd is paid $100k per year--especially in that part of the world.

In contrast--if you drive a big rig, you are insulated from that sort of problem--most of the time.

Decisions, decisions......

--Lual

 

Dude, hate to bring some news to you about reality, but this industry is full of negativity and made up of a lot of miserable people - YOU can't avoid them nor can you tell them off because they can ruin your day.

ALSO another thing, don't even think of the owner operator thing for a bit, first get on the road, you may not be able to drive.

We are in a decline with over-capacity and on top of that rates are still messed up.

Take 5 - yes 5 years out on the road.

 

Truckingdaytrader, i get what your saying. We are in similar situations. I'm so tired of being lied to, i give zero ducks telling a company to get bent. I also just got my CDL-A although through a company sponsored program. I had to tell them to get bent over no detention pay and some shady team/training.

I took a local driving job, $20 an hour last two weeks, which turned into being a funeral technician for lack of a better explanation. Told them to get bent when they went into semantics about what they left out of the two interviews. Mandatory 6 days per week, no wonder they can't find "drivers" at that pay. Actually i hung the phone up on the "boss" i saw twice in two weeks. Warning signs abound but the risks you'll take when you have so much skin in the game.

Local/Hourly is proving challenging and i live in a hell of a lot better of a freight market than you. Bus/Passenger isn't going to give you that CDL-A experience to satiate the monster you mentioned ####ING insurance companies! Local acquaintance i have known/trusted for years has his own authority and he told me as a new driver it was going to cost him $1500-$1800 per month IF his company would insure me. Granted he had a couple of high profile incidents, his best friend didn't lower his dump bed and took out power to a significant portion of our city.... insurance company made him fire his best friend. Perfect driving record. CDL over ten years. I offered to drive at $10 an hour less than what he pays his drivers and never got a return call. More to that story i guess.......... My thought process was $10 per hour x 40 hours per week = $400 x 4 weeks = $1600 per month WIN/WIN. I get the experience and they get cost savings and possibly a solid employee for years...

I see two paths with our lack of experience:

Passenger endorsement, CDL-B, local coach, highest pay. School bus is part time and seasonal
Teamsters, Yellow here is ALWAYS hiring (i dread to find out why) but requires doubles/triples, tankers and hazmat before they even look at you

@201 From Milwaukee? PTSD? Speaking my language bro. Where would you start hourly in Milwaukee?

@lual I read that thread you suggested for TDT, thanks. Read the whoel thread even and now i'm fortified with riboflavin!

 

My wife is a Nurse Practitioner who i supported through her program years ago. I'm not above working for a fair wage especially trying to get experience. I'm upfront and transparent with my background and work history and laugh when these places will do anything to get people in the door and then slowly change terms. We had a cadence in the Army that game reminds me of, "A yellow bird... with a yellow bill... was perched upon... my window sill. I lured him in... with crumbs of bread.. so i could smash his ##### head."

Our cost of living was dirt cheap until the housing scam (government allowing corporations and foreign entities access fannie/freddie) still it certainly isn't as bad as where you are. In 1995 my 1st house, a Cozy Cape Cod here was 45k. Similar housing in Concord, Bay Point or Pittsburgh, CA was running 275k. My uncle was hell bent on talking me into working in the gold mine where he was employed in Nevada. I guess living in Nevada sucked.

I'm to old and beat up for trades and there is ZERO work/life balance there much like trucking. Feast or Famine. Most trades guys here when working do 6 day work weeks and 10-12 hour days. You get work with your tradehall and dont piss off your business rep. Meaning you take whatever crap work they throw at you until you pay your dues and grease the right hands.

The only trade i would even consider doing again parallels situations in trucking. Specialty work. Fire Suppression, Sprinkler/pipefitter. Plumbing apprenticeship + a couple of more years specialty training. Electricians are some of the smartest trades people you will meet. I fricking hate electricity, shocking! Getting zapped early in life by a guitar tube amp, in excess of 277v, gave me a very grounded respect for it.

I got to thinking Northern California... aren't you in logging country? There are a couple of members here who post frequently who talk of their logging tales driving real trucks, chains & manuals and all that. @MartinFromBC or @Lonesome ?