Water Ripples

sound like a plan. but be warned! once you get behind the wheel it is very hard to leave it. hope your other half is ok with it. it took a few years for my wife to get use to me being gone a lot. that was over 30 yrs ago. but now we wouldn't have it any other way.

 

You don't have to be separated from your baby and wife. Put where you live in your profile...general area.

 

To be able to send some good paychecks home to the wife; prepare ahead by aquiring all the endorsements on your CDL plus passport and TWIC ID Card. If you don't do all this, you're limiting yourself to employment choices.
Attend an accreditied 160 hr. CDL school. I use the word "accredited" because some companies require that and some don't care as long as it's 160 hrs.
Companies such as Trimac Transportation and Superior Carriers only hire from certain companies on their list that are accredited.
There's some Trimac drivers that post on here at times that are in the $100K + pay scale.Takes 24 months to reach that.
Most tanker/hazmat drivers start out around $60K - $65K and move on up from there.
If you have money left on your GI Bill for education, Schneider Bulk will pay that to you on a monthly basis, ie. something like $1100.00 a month.

 

El Paso:
Here's some companies that hire from that area and hire new CDL grads.

Trimac Transportation : Hires new CDL grads at certain terminals. I recommend a visit in person if there's a terminal near you.
Groendyke Transport
SVTN
Schneider Bulk

Another vet posted last week he was just hired by Groendyke right out of CDL school.
Mesilla Valley Transportation has a CDL school in El Paso with financing. If you want tankers, call the tanker companies and ask if they hire graduates from that school.
I would also call Superior Carriers and ask if they hire from El Paso.

 

A lot of companies out there won't even look at you without at least a year OTR (I didn't say all - see Chinaman's post above this one- ). I guess it has something to do with insurance, that's one reason.

Another reason could be that most people who are new to the industry don't last much past 6 months behind the wheel (at least, that's what I've seen first-hand in OTR). These companies would probably prefer to hire someone who already has at least some idea of what he's getting himself into, rather than take a chance on a new driver who's just going to get disillusioned and wind up quitting halfway through his first year.

 

Truckin' gets in your blood and the longer you do it the less appealing an office cubicle looks.
I pulled hazmat/tankers 48 states and that was a good fit for me, plus made good money for my family.