New driver starting out

any otr job is gonna keep you away from your family more than youd like i think. especially at that age. dunno bout pam, i went to c1 in indy, but went with usa truck after school. didnt regret it, they were good to me as starter companies go. as for buying your own truck, when the time comes you will want to shop around to see who is gonna give you a good deal as far as who to lease on with. dont think pam will be the answer to that question, but for you it may indeed be, who knows. do your research, and for gods sake dont sign the papers for a lease purchase deal through pam or any other company til youve researched it THOROUGHLY. there are scads of crooked lease purchase deals out there, and even the good ones are a bad financial deal as far as what you will end up paying for the truck. my buddy went through a lease purchase...a "good deal" through a 3rd party. hes paying 56k over the next 2 years for a truck that in my opinion has a value of maybe 20k....MAYBE. you are better off going to your credit union for a loan, or saving up and paying cash. you will pay FAR less for the same amount of truck.

 

I have two kids, 16 and 3. Most starter companies will have you out for weeks at a time. It will be hard but you'll just have to make do with the time you do get. Call often. I call home and my wife puts my little girl on the phone. Get to hear about her day and whatnot. Plus for some reason, she loves to hang up on people. I think she may be destined to work at a telemarketer and become a slammer, LOL.

At any rate, I'm lucky in the fact that my company rarely keeps us out longer than 14 days. They like to route the equipment back as much as possible to keep it maintained and everything legal.

I wouldn't be so quick to jump into being an owner operator until you gain some experience in the industry. I got a good idea on what it's like with my former employer. I drove for an owner operator and the truck had 3 major breakdowns and essentially put them out of business and me out of a job. Drained their savings and credit line.

You need some sort of cash reserves to be able to float in case of such a major breakdown. Saving that kind of money is hard when you have other bills to pay and mouths to feed.

Do at least a year as a company driver and keep track on how much it costs to run your truck, how things like idling cut into your bottom line. It's an eye opener.

Plus you have to remember, that when you own your own truck, you are no longer just an employee, you are a business owner and your own employee. Too many guys look at the big bucks they can potentially make as an owner operator without realizing that out of those costs you have to pay your truck payment, your insurance, your fuel costs, etc.

Good luck and be smart.

 

If you're worried about family time. My best advise is to put in a year then start looking around for local operations(home nightly), or even regional(home weekends)

 

also for a family guy whos not afraid of hard physical labor (and is capable of it...its NOT easy) the food service industry is sometimes a great fit. upside: pay is among the best in the industry (the distributor near where i live pays its drivers an average of around 65k per year, great benefits, and profit sharing) and home time is pretty good (3 days per week at home every week. downside: its physically very demanding. you will on each run unload somewhere in the neighborhood of 50k lbs worth of product at various fast food joints. each run is 2 days. that 1st 50lb box of fries is easy....the 1000th box, not so much.

the company near me also hires "newbies". the one(s) near you may or may not.

 

A friend of mine works for a company like that. Hauls 14' doubles. Unloads 30-50k lbs a day. Makes around 80k a year. Very physically demanding. He lost something like 30 pounds in the first 3 months of doing it. 2 years no dot reportables and no moving violations in 1 year. I think it's preformance food group, or one of them. There's a few out of Detroit.

 

HAHAHA! That's absolutely hysterical.