Think about becoming a trucker

Some of the best money I ever made in trucking would have to be back in the early 90's I would point to the loads Ive had to run which really did not need that much of nursing. Came out close to 2000 a month. That's around 3000 today in inflation.

Fast forward to later years near 9-11 FFE paid me too much for the work as a trainer. I think it was round 6000 take home a month and if I ran LA to Avenel NJ and back, with the spouse twice each week, the monthly income is just.. what is the expression... irrevelant. Where do you spend all that money. Overflowing with money. Almost as if ok, I work one month a year with wife and go home for 4 months and do nothing but lay on the sunroof in that money.

The miles did not matter, 20 miles or 20000. You ran em.

In the late 80's I borrowed 2500 for 4 months training weekends. I worked a tavern each month. in between. What I made after that hauling bulk would have paid that school bill in the first 6 weeks flat after taxes. I brought home... oh.. 700 dollars second check, 500... third check somewhere between 5 and 7 and how. toss it into the bank who cares. After a couple of months... the bank smiles at me. I was 21 at that time.

When you are poisoned with that kind of income relative to the pricing of that era you get to where you don't care about the money. Goes through your fingers like water. I did not know what to do with it. In the bank it goes.

When they started talking to me about investments and things I don't understand I told them to be quiet and just keep my checking account stable whatever the amount is in there. I'll get to it soon enough.

That school bill was not paid for 7 years. Why? it's only. 50 a month. Big deal. It's paid.

Today's school costs of 6000 and beyond. Hell I might as well attend ground school and flight for a small class of license below pilot for what I am capable of doing. It would cost at least that much in terms of hours in both ground and air to solo.

Or buy a car. Or something else.

What I cannot stand is the trucking schools reality that I have seen with everyone waiting 3 hours for a 10 minute turn on the dusty gravel to pull up and back a couple of times is not learning anything for 6000. There are better ways to do that.

 

fun or not with how badly ive been struggling ill take anything at this point, granted even if it isnt that much work maybe less with slightly less money aswell ill take anything at this point i just want to be able to support my family.

i have about 6k put aside for this reason solely that it could come into use to get into a career, ive spoken to a few good schools around mississauga that fit in the range as well, so what would you say?

another thing to note for you guys is for my driving history i have 1 big speeding ticket from over 2 years ago which the instructor at one of the schools noticed and advised me to talk with a couple companies first before jumping into school because being under 25 and having a infraction might make it very hard due to insurance, i talked to a person at Challenger who advised that it should not be an issue since i no longer have the demerits just the ticket so i can move into the training and speak to him after finishing, what do you guys advise on the note of my drivers abstract can it be a big issue?

 

Challenger won't have a problem with it, Highlight or maybe Day and Ross also, everyone else will be a no go, as you need to show clean 5 year abstract.

I will write more in a bit, just a little busy right now.

 

awesome ill have a look into those, i look forward to your reply. thanks for the help!

 

You don't have to pay for school upfront btw! You can either go on social assistance and get the program paid for you in full ($8500) or go to the school directly and apply for their in house financing they have which is monthly for a few years. Where are you located? Highlight offers a paid AZ program where they pay for your school upfront, you go to sprint trucking school and you have to sign a 2 year contract.

I had 2 speeding tickets within my 3 years driver abstract and I got hired at highlight. I got turned away from many companies but Highlight hired me.

 

If you can afford to pay for school yourself, do it. Do not go through a company school. They will make you sign a two or three year contract. They own you. Will run you to death and pay ####. You have a family?

 

A contract actually brushes against the American 13th amendment, also bordering on what I used to know as Indentured servatude from our Colonial Times. 7 years service you shall stay with a blacksmith, silver smith, printer etc. At that time you are fully trained and you go establish freely at that time. But not before.

Thats 230 years ago.

If you can avoid a company providing funds or a length of time to remain with them then you are free. To leave the company should things do not workout. And they wont. You watch. Maybe even run you into the ground within 90 days. Then fire you. And next thing you know no one will hire and there you are. And for what.

Be careful about this. It's important to run with a class act for a while, as in 18 months or more. The more the better.

 

id rather not get under financing if i can afford the classes at the moment, just my view on finance.
as for the route of going through the company and being bound by a contract id rather not lock myself in right away as you never know how the company will treat you and how things will work out.

exactly what i was thinking, paying it off myself while i can rather then getting stuck under contract and monthly payments, i have a wife, no plans for children at the moment while we both build our careers and business.

id love to be able to go with a good company and be able to stick long term even more then 18 months would be the goal if they are worth it.

 

Fact is, you will be on the road a lot. Your wife has to be on-board with you being gone.

 

Not trying to be an ###, but we did all that at Bison, and made $1600 net every 2 weeks, sometimes as little as $1000. You're also not sharing a truck.

5-6 days is nothing, are you doing 2 full days off after that? or just 36hrs? 16 hour days, is the norm in trades/warehouse and such, I find I only do that in Canada. In the US its way less. Not saying its easy, but it could be a lot worse.

Are you getting pushed? or do you decide how you like to drive?