Truth about home time? Newbie question

Just check out the school, if they are worth thier salt, they won't lie to you.

 

You can get lucky and get a job with a local driver as a newbie, but it can be difficult.

As far as recruiters at schools are concerned, they only want to get you in the door, so they usually will tell you anything. The same is true for company recruiters. I always say "If it sounds too good to be true, then not only is it probably not true, but it's MOST-LIKELY not true."

Keep in mind, if you have to go OTR, as a new driver it is VERY difficult to get into a truck and be home every weekend while still being home weekly, and still make decent money.

This is not what you want to hear, but it's true, so here goes... The BEST way to make money as a new driver is to go home once a month. That way you get a chance to go on further runs. It is really hard for a "newbie" company to provide you decent pay and still limit how far out you can get without missing the home-time window.

Unfortunately, you're probably going to have to settle on either Bi-Weekly, or once a month hometime.

 

Union positions are a different kind of beast entirely. They usually want you to have some kind of experience first tho.

Also with that 70k, how much of that time at home is actually spent doing something other than sleeping. Another not-often mentioned "penalty" of local driving positions is the hours. Some places will require you to work 14 hours a day or more simply because "it's legal." This means that you still only get 10 hours to yourself every day, 8 hours of sleep and one hour for dinner, another hour for morning shower/breakfast, and you run again... Oh, and you have to include travel time to and from work every day..

Basically, every one of these driving jobs takes a toll on home-life. You can make more driving local, but never spend it because you can't find time. Make less but have better quality home-time OTR, or have no quality either way.

Bottom line, NO company is perfect. Talk to the drivers for some of these companies, look them up online, and talk to recruiters. The truth almost always runs somewhere in the middle of it all. Drivers bloat problems they had with the company. Recruiters are paid to make their company have a pictures of rainbows and butterflies coming out their ... Online reports can be a little off because of the annonymity of it all.

You have to find what you think will work best for YOU, not the other person, and then take a shot ata it. Let nobody talk you into anything you aren't ready to do.

I am not saying don't drive, but I am saying, make sure it's right for you before you make the jump. Also, check with a community college, while the course can take longer, it can save you THOUSANDS versus going to a "CDL Accademy." That way, the job shift won't kill your savings account.

 

hey bob
I am a recent school grad 4 months on the road. I work for a team operation, they offered me 2 options 20 days on 10 days off , on a 3 man team. The other is 21 days on 5 days off. I actually chose 21 /5 , however they keep us as long as they possibly can without getting us home. My other classmates were held out for 2 months. After fighting with them over the qualcom, calling supervisors ,they agreed as a favor to get me back in 30 days.
nice ahn!
good luck

 

hey 'thinking', consider this as well ALL those LTL companies will most likely require ALL endorsements, haz, dbl/trpl. And the truckdriving schools, dont get you those. thats up to you to study and test for those endorsements. they arent hard to get, but the school wont spend time on them. IF you go OTR, you WILL be out for 2 wks minimum. i work for US Xpress and i get home every other weekend, but the miles are crappy, so you gotta look at what you will tolerate. {out longer, more miles/money, out shorter, less miles/money}
good luck

 

What more can I say?

Drive safe

 

tough very tough.. I think your being fed a line to get your 5500.00.. Which btw seems high to me also. At best your gonna get offers for a regional job and home every 2 outa 5.. maybe..lol