Strategizing the long term.

Worst to best in my opinion. Reefer, Van ties with flatbed,tanker,heavy, specialized. As far as money. Reefer, van, flatbed pay about the same give or take a few cents, tanker a little more in some cases lots more.Heavy then specialized. Reefer, van and flatbed as long as you have a CDL they will train you Tanker endorsement same they will train in most cases. Heavy usually requires flatbed experience and specialized usually require flatbed and heavy experience. Or you could get lucky to know someone who is willing train you to short cut any of the steps to specialized.
The pay? Worst to best. Cpm, by the load or % but you gotta watch this. Can you make the loads or is the %/loads just like cpm in the long run. Hourly with a set amount earned in a year.Then salary.
Its better to be paid a set amount a year than one based on production. I'll take a set amount rather than one that promises you could make so much a year. You could make up to 60 thousand. Dude we will guarantee you 55 thousand. I'm taking the 55.
The deal is if you work per mile, load, % they control that. If its hourly they don't. You work your hours a week you get paid the same. Unless they cut your hours. Which is harder to hide than saying we don't have loads sit there this weekend.There are a lot of ways in production they don't pay you for work. Hourly as long as you're clocked in your're making money. Salary? Again you know what your going to make. In some heavy haul and specialized they will pay you salary. Due to the fact the loads take so long to do and they are spread out in between.If not they pay a super amount so you have a chance to stay with it between pay days. The best deal or the best ones to work for and how to get them. Hit and miss, word of mouth, know someone.

 

You're searching for the largest reward,

with the least amount of effort involved.




Good Luck.

 

Judging by your profile I'm assuming you don't have your cdl yet.

First thing you'd want to do is research, then research, then when you're done with that, research some more.


It may be tempting but the highest paying jobs may not be the better jobs. Just keep that in mind.


I'll tell you this, do some researching on companies that hire in your area, see what their requirements are. If you want to do oversize and specialized then look into flatbed. Starting out you may not be making much money until you get a few years of experience in.

I pull tankers and even to get where I was I needed 2 years experience and had to be 23 years old. When you start with a company, try to stay at LEAST a year. I had 3 jobs within my first two years of trucking and it almost kept me from being hired on at my current company.

Tnmt posted really good info and I agree with 123456. You're going to have to earn that good paying job, took me two years to find my niche in trucking, I thought I was good with flats until I started with tankers.

Just be careful and good luck

 

Why is it that nearly everyone that posts here (that do not have a CDL) want the highest paying jobs right out of the box? Sure, I know that trucking DOES PAY in many of the different segments, as one gathers up experience, but why don't some of the wannabe's just "get started" by doing the simplest thing first, and go to school?

This way, while IN school and learning, they can do homework regarding what segment to get into. If everyone tells them this or that now, and they go to school later, they will get the idea that they DESERVE a lot of money out of the box, since so many tell them which is "better", when in fact, they have to prove themselves first. Also, I believe that while in school and actually see what is involved with driving, they may find driving is NOT for them.

Giving someone (say) advice that reefer is HIGHER paying, is only for now, who really knows what reefer will be paying in 3 months, 6 months from now? Maybe more perhaps, but then is that an absolute guarantee in later months, or years? Then, who is to say, who will actually BE HIRED on by some of these outfits? Let's not forget, many that post here have a criminal record, or terrible driving record, what get's said to them then? If the job they WERE TOLD was the best, will NOT hire them?

Just sayin' is all.

 

If feel ya brother

 

Maybe it's because of my old(er) ways, or the "way it was" back when I first started out. One HAD TO HAVE x-number of years driving LONG haul, before a city job could be had. ONE HAD TO HAVE at least 5 years experience before a tanker job could be had, and that even included swimming pool water tankers! ONE HAD TO HAVE at the very minimum 3 years experience for Werner Enterprises would LOOK at your application, and the owner back then, touted how they ONLY TOOK the "best of the best".

Now look at what revolving door CDL Mills, and federal funding for training, and low pay's created since way back when. It IS at times sickening to see that some drivers are not getting paid for all miles, for all hours worked, are working longer hours, and the benefits packages? Anyone even know what a benefits package is these days for drivers in the private sector? When I did long haul I had a pretty darned good 401 plan, and health benefits that would rival the near best Teamster places. Gone are those days.

I almost (but not really) feel sorry for anyone falling for the schools advertisements of a fistful of dollars in one hand, and the ad reading something like, "You too can make this much money". Problem though, the schools NEVER tell the students the out of pocket monies they will need to even make a dent in the health benefits co-pays.

 

All really good questions , only thing is there isn't 1 or even a dozen " really good answers"


You can start at a decent rate of pay , at a good copany , with good equipment , good benefits etc right out of the box.....entirely possible. But 1st "you" have to decide just what niche in the industry "you " want to occupy. That may take a few different ways to come to fruition , you can go out get your CDL's , and try your hand at a couple different kinds , but ( job hopping ) isn't never a good thing. Or you can do some research go to different companies , talk to the folks there , ask all kinds of questions , then make a choice. But , 1st you need to know what YOU want.....

OTR can pay well , even great , but home time isn't good , LTL is good , but at times really hard work , food-service is the same , tanker is good , so is flat bedding....see where I'm' headed...it all depends on you. I did food-service for over 30 years , loved it , some guys would never even want to talk about doing it , they love tankers / LTL , etc.....trucking is one of if not the most individualized professions out there....you gotta love being where you are , doing what you love , to love it..... Hope this helps Good Luck & Happy trails.....TTTD.

 

We live in the age of instant gratification, some (but not all) have forgotten what it means to work hard and work your way into a job.

I started off as a bag boy for the previous job I held. I worked my way up the chain from bag boy, to cashier, to produce, to customer service, to pharmacy. Took me 7 years but boy did I climb the ladder.
Trucking is the same way, and I'm starting off as a bag boy, again. I don't mind it, but as I said too many people don't want the work to get the reward.

You've gotta be born before you can so much as crawl or coo. And unless you're one of the very lucky few, you're only going to get a job cooing or crawling to begin with.

 

It's good you're doing your research first to find your niche. If at all possible, try to think of anyone you know who's been a successful driver for a long time. even if it's just a casual acquaintance, they'll likely be more than happy to help you out and you'll probably end up being good friends.

When I started, I was fortunate to have a friend with over 20 years exp who's done a few different things,, reefer, flat, dry, tanker, LTL. I really liked what he had to say about tankers, so that's where I went. He also gave great advice about sticking with a company and not being a job hopper, driving in snow, being an owner op and tons of other info.

You can get a lot of that info here, but it's really nice to know someone in person who's done well and has been thru it all.