Retiring from the Army next year, ready for another career

Where will your location be after retirement? This concerns the hiring area you will be in for various companies.
www.OOIDA.com is a business website for the owner-operator, so take a look at that website.

 

To answer your truck question. Me personally If i had to have a new truck with the new truck smell i would order a glider with a 12.7 with 500hp detroit. But if shopping used i look for 1998 to 2003 . I love detroit, so everything would have a 12.7.detroit no questions asked. But if you live in California you can't have either of my prefrences.

 

You are fixing to get into a war between emissions trucks that are a certain model year built versus the old iron that was built prior to a year. Your war will be also with Elogs with certain trucks that are built after a certain year with enough computer power to process same. Older trucks will sell at a price way beyond what you will expect old iron to because there will be companies seeking to bypass the Elog mandate by keeping older equiptment that cannot run Elogs on purpose.

IT is not a career in the sense you might think of it. Your first year out here on the highway will be a dangerous time because you can and will be fired for anything that is preventable, your fault. And records are kept in your name via PSP, DAC services and others with one purpose. The bigger the offense you got fired for the easier it is not to hire you again in this industry. Basically a black listing system designed to keep the riff raff out.

You will see people here on the forums who do drugs, test positive for it and learn that they cannot and will not be hired to run a big truck any time soon. As in years if ever. Trucking is a very safety sensitive industry that has to comply with so many laws that something somewhere is violated sometimes at least once a day.

The trucking I remember is not the trucking today. It's no longer the same. The biggest thing is that training in school is barely enough to get that license, if you don't scare the examiner too bad. ANy examiner who has remained in that DMV testing big truck people wanting license would not usually scare easy. lol.

It is not a true trained professional. It takes months or years to polish a bad driver into something close to what a professonal should be. 100 people wanna drive a truck. in 6 months 70 of them are not truck drivers any more for a variety of reasons. Out of the 30 left about 5 to 10 will still be driving trucks after 10 years. The rest would be dead, disabled or in jail etc. Or out of the industry.

There is no rank structure in the trucking like that of the Military. When you are told to be somewhere at a certain hour and date, you will be there. If you are late and it can be proven to be your fault, you are fired and getting home from 2000 miles away is your problem now.

There is a whole group of questions in trip planning you need to learn. Is there snow, ice or bad weather, Tornadoes forecasting? Hurricane maybe? What about heat or wild fires? Once you go past all that, you now understand you have to be somewhere to load and there is only a certain amount of time you have legally to do this work that is draining away. Versus the time you need to drive the trip to the delivery early enough to not be late. There are companies now who write drivers up for being early as bad as they are for being late. It's stupid. I rather have your trailer delivered a day early than 10 minutes too late. (*And it will be...)

Single drivers are a liability in this industry with the HOS services. You need to be a team now to get into the money when done properly. 65K a year is not real money. Think a figure larger than 140K a year for two people on up into the 200's THAT is where you want to be in trucking. Not grubbing a 5 dollar dish of chili wondering when your next 400 dollar paycheck will hit...

It also means to manage threats. Going into say, associated grocers in St Louis downtown at night might get your throat slit for nothing. If you are running a million dollar mckesson load due into Detroit tomorrow, it is a much less threat level. (Once you get clear of memphis...) and a way way better working environment where people say good morning, good afternoon etc to you. Because you are doing something way more valuable than hauling a basic load of potatochips into St louis...

Good luck. But remember this. For every one of you that goes into trucking, be prepared for that unwashed person by the dozen who does not have the values for America as you do.

 

Good trucking jobs are plentiful where you'll be living in Colorado. Anything you want with reefers, dry van, flatbed.
After 12 mos. experience there's tanker jobs that pay well, such as Groendyke just north of Denver.
Many companies websites have "experience required", but they bend the rules for high quality applicants and hire new cdl grads or drivers with less than 6 mos. experience.
McLane Foodservice - hires new cdl grads and make about $70K+ per year starting out.
New World Van Lines -Denver, CO -$65,000 - $85,000 a year
Watkins-Shepard - dry van company owned by Schneider.
Trimac Transportation - Brighton, CO - $57,000 a year. Whether you’re a recent CDL school graduate, a former military service member or an experienced driver, Trimac Transportation has the perfect career opportunity.
System Transport - flatbed & terminal in Commerce City.
Savage - $72,454 per year hauling diesel fuel. Some terminals haul coal, ash, limestone, petroleum coke, water, petroleum products, chemicals and sulphur.
Navajo Express - refrigerated company headquartered in Denver.
-Two new cdl grads posted, with pictures, they were hired to haul diesel and DEF to Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores. The trucks & tanker trailers are painted with Love's yellow colors and Love's decals.Gemini is the core carrier for Loves and usually require a couple yrs. experience, but, as with many companies, they bend the rules for a top quality applicant.

OK, that's a few you can take a look at and start a list of any you're interested in.

 

OP, starting back as a company driver is a good idea, as you know this. It's better to get back into the "swing of things" as an employee, as opposed to on your own dime.

Now, what works for one, doesn't work for another. Some like highway, but eventually that novelty wore off for me.

I like to work normal hours and be home, so I own and operate my own dump & pony. Others like the highway. It is personal preference in this regard.

If you've never owned a truck & trailer before, I urge you to have your finances WELL in order before buying anything. And I mean REALLY well.

I actually operate a very well kept 1994 model year Kenworth W900. Non-emissions essentially, that has never really caused me much downtime. Some drivers demand new, with warranty and all that, but the emissions crap on anything 2007 (or was it 2008) and newer seems to be just a problem for guys, especially in the vocational work that I do.

 

We are soldiers dude! Trained killers. Conditioned to adapt.