Thinking of going back to trucking

Well. Don't make it about pride. Have at it if that is what you want. Go for it. So you do a little refresher and a time with a trainer. With your previous experience there is no problem showing them you can drive or back etc. Paperwork might be something else what with the changes to Elogs and such. I understand you cannot move a inch without Elogs recording it somehow. I might be wrong. My time was long before Elogs and 34 hour resets. That 34 hour would have been nice for me and wife again, we did not have that in our time. It would have cost too much money each week just to sit that long.

Build some savings. Make sure you find a company that pays you for the load you just hooked on to your 5th wheel. Soon you send in the loaded macro on QC, the next beep should be your netpay after taxes and option to direct deposit or cash for that particular run. You can then run it like a business.

12 years is plenty. I don't think you will be too worried about the turkey Inc of companies too long if at all. Someone would take you on.

 

Where do you live? The expert on this is @Chinatown

 

May Trucking Company hired a driver that has been off the road 10 yrs.
Craigslist; may take 50 phone calls, but someone will hire you. Talk to some people & leave some messages.
If you still have a cdl, KKW Trucking will hire you.
Freymiller sometimes cuts a lot of slack on a gap in driving; 5 yrs. gap on the website, but they bend the rules.
Western Express will probably hire you.

 

Yeah, after I posted, I saw your name "SoCalRed", being that I live in NorCal, I shoulda figured out where you live. Lol.

 

noticed a billboard for dot trucking the other day on I-5 The ad claimed their drivers make $76,000. a year

 

Are you ready?

 

I would try Gardner in Chino before KKW in Pomona.

 

Maybe they made that much.

Inflation you know. There are retail expenses in the truckstop with meals approaching 20 dollars when nutritionally complete with proper fluids. Each. That's 280 a week for two meals a day. 7 days or... 1040 a month, Or roughly 12,000 76000 just became 64000, Then you have the taxes which will probably be around 39% or higher bracket. Call it 39000 net. Then the state taxes, if you are in a state taxable situation. 15% maybe That's down to 29000 net. Social security is another 6% more or less plus local taxes. That is net 22,000 You already paid for the meals for the year cash. 22000 roughly gives you 1800 a month for your house, utitlies to the same, family food, gasoline etc etc etc. It's not much. Poof.

Not everyone should be driven by what someone thinks they can make in trucking per year. You have a sitaution where it's feast, famine according to economy. Mileage etc.

There are small oppertunities to make a bunch of money. I recall my trainer position paying salary, FFE wanted to make my spouse a trainer, taking advantage of her previous supervisory experience as a marine corps sargeant. Two trainers on the house hold with them would have a salary approaching 5000 dollars gross per week, netting 3000 just about after taxes weekly that's 150,000 a year. Teaching newbies how to back to a dock. most will master it, some will never be truckers. That kind of income would have turned us into something that the Lord would not have approved of in this life.

Money is wonderful, in this secular world of Trucking that makes it go around and round. Without it nothing moves.

Don't go chasing after the 76000 billboard. Not everyone gets to make that much. If they did the associated costs and product and so on would be very expensive indeed. Recruiting involves marketing. And marketing involves one of Man's 7 Vices. Money happens to be a vice for some. If you really want it you wont be hiring on as a company driver no sir. You will have ambition to own your own 1000 truck out fit and let People worry about the little small people stuff such as earning enough mileage pay each day to survive.