Unbiased Opinions Needed

@Chinatown can help with this one

 

No sir. Find a more regional company...one that just goes out and back in. There are paving companies, construction companies, demolition companies, rental equipment companies, and the companies that pull equipment out of the ports. And there are plenty of ports...Savannah, Charleston, Brunswick, Jacksonville, Port Canaveral, Miami...etc.

“But Six, they all say that the drivers have to have a year experience or something.”

That’s to hire you as a driver. Get your foot in the door first and then apply to be a driver. Bet they have you training in a month.

Luck in battle.

 

Bet they don't. I tried for 2 and a half years to get a local driving job using every avenue available. You had to have a year of experience, period. After 2 and a half years of no's I sucked it up, decided to go OTR and had not one job, but 2 job offers, in 45 minutes.

 

If you're really a fitness freak and want to work hard, I suggest food service*. Flatbed is a tiny bit of work followed by long hours sitting on your ###. It's not the workout some would have you believe. Most flatbedders would get their ### kicked if they were fingerprinting 20k 5 days a week.

On the plus, most of those jobs will get you home daily or every other and you'll make more money than probably 80% of drivers on the road and 100% of the companies you listed in your op.

Just a suggestion.
* not all food service companies are the same. Check the subforum before jumping head first.

 

Food service is tough. But if fitness is your thing it might not be too bad for you. Check out McLane or Sisco. These jobs pay very well and you will be running ramps with handtrucks.

Also beverage companies like Pepsi, Coke, Budweiser etc... its hard work throwing cases of soda all day but you will get home everyday. Being you are fit to begin with, you might actually enjoy it after a month or two.

Then theres the Dollar store accounts. Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree. All are hard physically demanding jobs that pay fairly well. Family Dollar was the worst cause of them being older stores with smaller lots and you set up and unload using rollers. Dollar General is more about pushing fully loaded carts, 3 at a time, onto the tailgate then into the store (less dependent on store employees is always good) Dollar stores should get you home Sat afternoon until early Mon morning.

 

Check out Flagler Technical institute .I went there and the training was great . We did night time driving and even coast to coast trips . 7 people in my class with 3 instructors and 3 main trucks/trailers . 320 hour 8 week course !!

Also keep your license in FL so you can avoid paying state income taxes

 

Best thing you can do is get your CDL on your own so you’re not locked down with some company who’s paying you crap wages . As far as being home on the weekends or even home for 34 hour restart is a little unrealistic for a rookie . You might be better off starting off with dry van and get the one year of experience and then get into flat bedding maybe with a company based in Florida

 

Forgot to mention Rinaudo out of Florida and Bulldog out of SC.

 

Your experience is not representative of what I have seen.

There are multiple home-daily companies that will hire recently licensed drivers. Even those that require one year experience will often bend their own rules to hire someone that walks in and shows initiative.