Pay is about to get slashed as a taxi driver, so I'm looking at becoming a trucker...

If they will lease you a truck two seconds after you have your CDL it is a CDL mill. Never lease a truck. Never buy a truck until you have at least three years without an accident or moving violation.

 

My adviser given your wife's unfortunate cond. Don't try truck n she needs you at home you need to run hard and as a team driver to clear 500 to 700 weekly. And where you live will depend greatly if there is a lot of freight going through your region where you live.

 

What town do you live in?

 

I've worked for Carter Express in Anderson for a year. The freight is mixed and there are local / regional routes. I don't think they can guarantee all local runs to a new driver though but it should be possible to get mostly local runs. How far are you from Anderson?
I trained at Ivy Tech in Muncie. I was unemployed so DOT paid half and Carter paid the other half with a year's contract. The training was fine. There was plenty of one on one instruction and the testing is done on site. Some of the guys there had bad experiences with Trucking School in Indi where they load up 4 people in the truck and expect you to learn by watching! They may have contacts for other employers that are 100% local.

 

You could drive for a beverage distributor or a foodservice distributor. It's hard work, but you're home every day.

 

Living that close to Indy you won't have any problem finding a local or regional job. Complete a good CDL school at a community college. Start checking Careerbuilder website for local/regional jobs. Get all the endorsements; tanker/hazmat, doubles-triples. Go to the top of this page and click on "CDL Practice Tests." On trucking jobs that say "experience required", ignore that and apply anyway.

On another thread today a new driver just graduated was offered a tanker job with a cement company. I've done that for awhile and it's not too bad, just noisy and dusty, but home every day. You deliver dry bulk cement/flyash to construction sites, interstate/highway building projects, ready-mix cement companies, etc. It's easy work to, just hook up a hose and turn a pump on and you're unloaded in average 1 hr. Another driver a few months ago landed a good hazmat tanker job at graduation somewhere around Ft.Wayne. The local/regional jobs are there you just have to be aggressive looking for them.

 

Here's another thought, you have lots of experience with the public and driving so look into local transit. They often have paid training to get a class B and offer benefits. You'll have a predictable shift and be home every night to see your wife.

 

A class b job might be a better fit for you. Same pay as driving a cab and home every night.

 

sling pizza around town. not joking

 

Bring me a pizza!

I tip delivery drivers well to make up for the not tipping I do to waitors!!!

Put medi- on your cab and get hooked up with the local nursing homes.