Trucking CDL Student, looking for honest input!

Wow that is sad. Your whole advice is to give up all hope because we are doomed. May as well head on down to the food bank tonight and start stocking up. Wait for someone else to come save him I guess. Desire and attitude are no help? Really? What a depressing way to look at the world. Why do you even wake up in the morning?

Again I stand by my prior statements.

 

You do realize that the more newbies keep working for nothing sooner or latter you will be working for nothing as well???

 

You all seem to think trucking is the only job that has been affected by the lay offs. You keep telling these guys to get a local. Ya'll need to pull your head out of the sand and look around. There are very few local places hiring that can foot the bills. At least with trucking they don't have to pull roots and give up what they got homes, etc. Maybe these people don't want to pull their kids out of school, etc. Yeah I know things have slowed. Trucking companies have went under, but you have a better chance of getting a driving job than finding something local.

Most of the time the first job that sees the economy picking up and on the move is trucking. These goods have to move and when things pick up they will return to normal. It is easier to have a job that moves than have to move a family. These people are out there beating the streets looking for work coming home with no job and bills to pay and hungry kids. A man has to do what he has to do. Should we tell them to go to trucking to make big money? No, it is tough, but I see a window of hope in trucking. I see plants shutting the door at home.

A person can do several things. Look to improve their situation. Turn to a life of crime that will cost them everything in the long run. Hold out for that 3 dollar an hour Mickey D job that they let you work 30 hours a week and that has a flood of people running to because they have been laid off. Go to school for 2-4 years and hope that job doesn't fold. Or go to a trucking school for a month or two and hope you can survive that trade.

Or we all could join a cult and drink poison because the sky is falling. We are in some rough times here in America. We keep bailing out all these fools that are not going to change their ways in business. I can see why a person would want to roll the dice and take a stab at trucking. No doubt there is some risks there, but telling them to stay home and starve to death is not the best option either.

 

You realize that people have been saying that for...how long decades? Centuries?

Newbies aren't working for nothing, lets drop the dramatics. I go back to the Schnieder example. If this constant stream of greenhorns was so great they wouldn't try to end it would they? Didn't JB used to hire rookies as well yet they too gave it up. I realize that many JB haters reside here but the proof is there. They have made money and I am sure they have many, many drivers there that are happy to be there.

 

I was starting to feel like the only glass half full person left around here.

 

You're not It's hard to feel that way living the life, I'm sure trucking is not what alot of the more experienced drivers are used to. Hence the reason for the sky is falling ideas... I like the honesty and truth in this forum, it has taught me quite a bit, but, as with everything in life, what works for some doesn't work for others.
I'm going for my CDL, I expect NOTHING, I'm in the mindset of I'm taking EVERY ###### load noone else wants and going to HUSTLE my butt off doing it. I won't be a millionaire by any means doing this but it's a paying gig

I'm between Werner (trucking school recommended them to me) and Watkins Shepard (on this board they're talked about highly) I can make it.
From what I read get the first year satisfactory under your belt and then if there's something better go for it.

 

No doubt it's not the best time to get into trucking. I don't think anyone would recommend someone leave a current job to get into trucking right now. Miles are down, people are holding onto the jobs they have, companies are able to be more selective etc.

The OP isn't talking about leaving a current job though. He also isn't asking if he should get his CDL. He already has it or is currently in school and is asking for information on which companies he should consider. I don't know the answer to his actual question but I would think desire and attitude matter more when things are bad, not less.

Best of luck to you husker rage.

 

Right , let's take Schneider for example and look at this discussion between Chris Lofgren , CEO of Schneider National and Senator Peter Defazio during a House Transportation Committee hearing

Mr. Lofgren. Let's understand and let's go back. From the
point of deregulation, in real terms, the real wage of drivers
in the truckload industry is less than they were making in
1980. And the reason is that competition.
The other side is that driver pay is our number one cost.
If you are going to increase the number one cost to roughly
almost 40 percent to start to achieve some of the wages that I
know people can get when they drive for Wal-Mart, those costs
have to be recovered. And that has been part of the challenge
with the industry, is that people haven't been willing to cover
those costs.
So driver pay is our number one cost. It hasn't changed in
real terms since 1980; it is actually less. So we fundamentally
think it is an issue but, as a private industry, we have to be
able to recover the industry in that cost, and the market has
not allowed us to do it.
Mr. DeFazio. Well, I guess I am puzzled by the market. If
everybody is confronted with the same situation that you are,
has to deal with the same labor pool that you do, real wages
are down for drivers except at Wal-Mart and maybe some other
major firms, the other companies must be having the same
problems you are.
Mr. Lofgren. They absolutely do. And so it is--
Mr. DeFazio. Okay. So then perhaps--so you are saying your
solution is we import cheap labor. How about we start paying
people more and the competitive market just drives everybody in
that direction? Because if we don't open the door to a flood of
immigrants who will work for less, then maybe everybody is
going to have to raise their wages and you won't be at a
competitive disadvantage.
Mr. Lofgren. That is a great thought, but as an industry
where you have to deliver returns to your shareholders, the
issue is in the long-term it will happen; in the short-term it
is not something that is going to get solved in a year or two
years or probably even five years because, again, you have to
go to the marketplace. It is kind of a truth or dare--
Mr. DeFazio. Well, then maybe what we ought to look at,
maybe the Federal Government ought to set a standard wage and
benefit package. Then you wouldn't be at a competitive
disadvantage and we wouldn't have to be talking about importing
labor. And anybody can go above that, but can't go below it.
Mr. Lofgren. Well, with all due respect, sir, I don't know
that you guys have proved to be real successful in those kinds
of activities.
Mr. DeFazio. Yeah, well, it doesn't sound like you are
being real successful in your business here, because you want
to bring foreign labor into a Country that has a labor surplus
among people who have less than a college education, and it is
projected to continue. And as you pointed out, you are paying
people less than in 1980. I don't consider that to be a great
success either. It may be profitable, but at some point you
have got to have a middle class, and truck drivers used to be
middle class. If we want to put them in the poverty class, then
you are moving in the right direction.

So no , Schneider drivers aren't working for nothing . They are working for wages that are less than what was paid in the 1980 . It seems things stated behind closed doors at a hearing are quite the same as what recruiters claim .

 

I'm more with the spirit of what MO family man was saying.

with some reasons even:

trucking is a skill set that many if not most are able to accomplish, holding a wheel. you can whine about all the "its more than just that" crap all you want. Your driving, it isn't rocket science, just basic coordination and if you aren't tripping over your own feet you can probably do the job if you "want" to. Spelling for the most part is optional, as is, speaking english and anything but rudimentary math.

Lots of guys have been losing other jobs. Hey I can't work at (fill in the blank) so now I'll go drive for a while until the economy picks back up... good thinking... but there are a finite number of trucks to be driven and most of those seats are taken. So now there are more drivers than seats (unemployment stats). Like musical chairs somebody is left standing and its the guys with less experience and checkered pasts.

The economy, at this point, is down roughly 20%. This means there are 20% fewer miles to drive but the same number of trucks to keep rolling and a whole bunch of guys wanting those jobs. OR More competition for what is there.

Big companies are going broke...? not really, they are just being more efficient and leaving trucks parked that aren't profitable. They can't park the driver as easily and keep them readily available if something does pick-up, so they are not hiring and are splitting loads amongst the guys they really don't want to have quitting. Its a balancing act. Frankly they deserve to go broke though because for years they have been playing one driver against another to suppress wages, wonder how it feels now that they are in that situation, being pitted against other behemouths?

supply and demand as far as labor goes is still in vogue... guys with squeaky clean records and lots of experience are unlikely to have a problem getting a job.

having a job that pays well is different, lots of guys have been making 60k easy... well they might be making 40k real quick... and if they won't do it for 40k maybe some of those unemployed but qualified guys will?

personally my job is great, thus far, and full steam ahead as usual. Hope it will stay that way too...

but when I chose what to drive... I didn't do what everyone else was doing either, pulling a box. to much competition then and way to much now...

If ya took the easiest most common job?

if ya were making money and spending it all gone like it would always be there???

you may be screwed !!!

but trucking will be fine and it will always be here and you'll make a living, maybe not Friday but overall, long term, you are going to average a pretty good wage.

$60k x 10 years = $600k

vs

(60k x 8 years) + (30k x 2 bad years) = $540k

you been working ten years and haven't squirreled away some gravy???

ya might be screwed...

btw I been on this job for 8 months. I found it after my other company folded.

MO family man... I think he's been here 4 months and making more money... than previously???

and we are still hiring.

experienced drivers with impeccable records.

I agree the economy sucks...

but its just one more opportunity...

the papers are still full of want ads... go get a job, even a less than perfect one, and buck up until you pop out the other side...

 

Seems you contradict yourself . The same number of trucks rolling in one sentence and parking trucks that aren't profitable in the next .
Your points about more competition for driving jobs and experienced drivers with clean records doesn't exactly sound encouraging for newbies .