So... what's the best advice to succeed?

Here's a tip for you since you have a family. Find a trucking company that has a terminal or drop yard nearby. This will allow you to park your truck for free on home time, and most of all, it shows you the company has enough freight in your area to make that investment. Living in FL, I ended up parking a car in Chatt so I could actually get home. Had I went with one of the companies with a local yard, that would have never been an issue.

 

My hubby made $500-$700 bring home with a mega carrier also, average. He had tractor trailer expierence local, so that may have helped, but talking to the others at the yards they were makeing the same. Some were happy, some were not, expectations. Run. . .Run.

Do your time, as many hrs/miles as you can. If you aren't happy OTR after a yr, look for a local, but din't quit til you get it.

 

All of thats great advice but the most important thing to learn is not any of that but how you handle your money.

Learn that and success will follow.

I see all to often people complaining how broke they are, some are begging for fuel or money for food while working at a job. Too many people get way in debt and have to make the big bucks in order to survive and fail then blame everyone else for their failure.

Don't be like them, get some goals, get some idea how to track money (like Neat system or even a basic ledger) and learn how to save money on the road. Don't become someone who needs to get some toys or big bad CB that they can hear you in Moscow. Try hard not to go into debt, that's the killer of a lot of possible successes.

If you can become frugal on the road, learn how to save, build up credit and then have goals like buying a house or property, or a truck of your own, then you are ahead of the game. All the other advice comes into play when you work with customers (like being patient and try to fix their problems for them) or with a employer (learn how their system works for you) or just people in general. I stress this with my drivers, that the customer pays for their wages and it is the customer who they are there to service - then I talk about Roy from Shipping Wars and how he wouldn't make it in the real world. As for an employer, having a goal and finding a company that fits your needs is number one, then learning who's who, how their system works and even kissing a little butt every once and a while helps.

 

Ramen noodle are NOT good for you! The salt alone will drive up your blood pressure.

After training, invest in some small appliances, but only what you will use. Refridgerator ( walmart, apt or dorm fridge) colman cooler if you don't have an inverter ( just watch it the cords can get hot).

Even just the cooler or fridge can save you money.

We have a microwave, toaster, crockpot and george forman grill. But we also have a 2000watt inverter. Oh, I almost forgot I just bought a waffle maker. Most of these appliances run 750 watts or less, except the microwave. (they have those)

I don't cook everyday, I could, but the days I do I know we save about $20 or $30. Less in saveings if we were eating fast food, for the two of us thats still about $10 or more.

Just ideas to keep at the back of your head.

 

Food for thought.

Couple years ago, I got on a tyraid with my wife about food money. " we need to watch the budget" "eating out to much" blah blah blah......

We discussed it and since we track finances in quicken, we had it pretty easy seeing where the money goes.

We decided to not change things, other than mark down the food we threw away.

We learned we spent LESS overall money eating out that we did cooking ourselves. The biggy being the food we threw because is sat too long in the fridge, extra portion sizes etc.

I noticed the same thing with road food. I try to avoid lots of perishables in the truck. Yeah, I pick up some fruit now and then but it's not something I keep "on-hand.

I keep other stuff on hand that won't spoil too. But when you really look at things, they are so loaded with preservatives and salt, I don't like them.

I try to eat salads and grilled foods when I do eat out.

 

A terminal near home would mean nothing because OTR carriers will run you all over the country.
I wouldn't get a passport. It isn't worth it. Canadian scales are tough. I've checked OOS records of carriers at safersys.org and every carrier has a much higher rate of OOS in Canada.
A key to success is not following the herd to OTR carriers with a high turnover rate. Look into expedite straight truck. There is potential to become a fleet owner and your wife will love the huge sleeper. Acceptable expedite availability is 75%. Many drivers run 3 or 4 weeks then take a week off. Many campgrounds accept expedite straight trucks.

 

It sounds like you're going in the right direction but here are two issues, you should consider that if you live in your truck just find a place to crash every once in a while, why pay rent when you're not going to be home.

The other thing is food, you can live better than that if you learn how to be frugal. I did the ramen noodle, hotdog stuff for a couple years and I ended up in the hospital because of it beside becoming fat. I switched to buying veggies and good food, not afraid of taco trucks (seriously I did well when I was in Texas, one taco and a salad was a good dinner and lunch for that matter).

I was talking to a very successful fleet owner last night and he saw my post and laughed at my suggestions because until he got a grip on spending and saving, he was making about $1100 net and had nothing to show for it by the time the next check came around.

 

3 words; microwaveable steamed vegtables.

Yummy and good for you.