Starting driving school soon and looking for honest answers/opinions.

You still have to maintain some kind of a personal life or you will burn out! No matter how much money you have or make, you can never buy back time. It is simply unavailable. So many people work all of their lives saving so that they may retire and spend time with their families and unfortunately many of them die before this is achieved. All I am saying is that what a company has to offer is just as important as the company itself. You have to make a serious decision that is not easy to make. Do I slave now and hope to retire and have a life later, or do I find a happy medium where I can enjoy life now and hope for a decent retirement. You will not work 50-60-70 hrs. a week and maintain any kind of personal life, because that's hard enough to achieve working 40. A quick summary for you, if you make 40 cpm. and you drive constantly legal for 5 days straight you may get 11,000 Mi. for that month. this will get you about 53k a year. The HOS rules along with electronic logs will limit what you can legally achieve. I hope the best for you and if you find a company that is going to pay you 70k a year running legally right out of school (or even with 2 to 3 yrs. experience) please let me know who they are so I can go to work for them and you can get a recruitment bonus. Cat's in the cradle brother, best of luck to you!

 

I recently started with Maverick. Good company but MAN are they strict. Going through their training reminded me of a mini military training process! They do a very good job of training 'just out of CDL school' newbies. When it comes to flatbed I'd go Maverick, TMC, or Boyd Bros.(Boyd may not hire in your area).

BUT first I'd think twice about that flatbed thing. Last week I was strapping and tarping a full trailer load of lumber just south of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. -3 degrees strong wind and a company that wants you out of the way FAST! That means NO GETTING IN AND OUT OF YOUR TRUCK TO WARM UP. You haul a__ getting it ready to roll and you're STILL out in the weather for over an hour.

I'm 55, in good physical condition, and entered into trucking just a short time ago. I changed my mind from Maverick reefer to flatbed cause I thought I wanted the 'physical workout' of flatbedding too! Let me just say...think twice about that move. I think I'm going to move out of it. It's not about the tarping, strapping and chains. If I were doing that indoors all the time or outside on perfect 70 degree spring days...I'd stay with it. But that usually is NOT the case. Rain, snow, sleet, freezing cold...sweltering heat...think long and hard about it.
On a 34 degree rain and sleet day where you live, go line up three vehicles end to end in your driveway. Now, without stopping or running inside to dry off or warm up, throw two to three straps around each one without twists in the straps (remember if this were the real thing you'd have to climb up on them...about 12 feet in the air cause they'd be up 5' 6" on the trailer). Now pull two to three tarps over them getting all the wrinkles out and securing them with 50 to 60 rubber bungees that may break and smack you in the face or arm.
Have fun with that.

I love the driving so far...no family to leave behind anyway. But I am going to move out of flatbed....some guys love it, thank God.

To be slightly fair to this I will say that the one thing about flatbed I DO like is WHERE you go to pick up and drop. Dry van you'll nearly always go dock to dock. Company to company. Interstate hiways and city streets. Flatbed you can end up at construction sites, small out-of-the-way businesses, and other 'backroad' locations. Makes it a little more scenic and interesting. But even this can be a headache for a novice driver!

 

I applied for TMC but I also applied for a tanker position with Superior Carriers. I would prefer the tanker if I have an option.

 

Yes I agree I am 57 and I don't think I want to do flatbed for these reasons.

 

I would recommend two ways of looking at this:

do the flatbed thing with hopes of moving to step deck and then specialized, rgn's and stuff

tanker experience can get you into gas hauling locally where you can make serious money and still be home every day

so, who ever you decide to go with, consider my advise as I've done both and loved doing both.

 

Apply with :

Decker Truck Line
Melton Truck Lines

Do their online application and give them a few days to look it over.

Here's some tanker companies that hire new CDL graduates and you will need tanker/hazmat, TWIC and maybe a passport for Canada.

Schneider Bulk
Trimac
SVTN
CTL Transportation
Superior Carriers

 

No it doesn't...as long as you sign on with a decent company

TMC is great. Right out of iowa...if you work hard, very decent pay. All new trucks to. PM me if you want more info in TMC. I was a company driver, then a trainer, now and owner op for tmc.

 

Ill get in and out of my truck all i want when its -3. The company isnt the one outside strapping it. Make sure you have a good set of gloves and a good jacket.

 

Great reading here. I'm a recent grad too. Just recieved my Class A this past Friday and have been doing alot of research. I'm 48 and left behind 25 years in the apartment industry. I've been trying to decide if I want to do flatbed too. There are just so many companies to look into and research. Like many, I guess I'm afraid of making a bad choice and I'll never really know until I get out there and just do it. I've looked into Averitt, Melton, and Baylor, to put near the top for me.