What should I expect in my first 2 years as an OTR driver?

I just finished 2 years June 1st. 1 year otr and 1 year local.

My thoughts?

I wish i finished college..

 

That's rude.

 

The question you have asked is very hard to answer as a lot of the issues you will face truly depend on you.

My first two years. I start off by going to a community college for schooling. I was fresh out of prison and was on parole. Not too many here would have that as an experience. No one would hire me. No one. I had zero chance. I started with a local shingle supply company. I drove a flatbed with a fork lift like thing on the end. I forgot what they are called. That job was only a one or two week job. I trained their other driver and once he was trained I moved on. I did not understand at the time that trucking jobs are not that easy to find. I then tried on with Fed Ex and did good but the company wanted more information on my felony. By the time they finally approved of me, I had started with Keystone Automotive Operations out of Kansas City, KS. The man who hired me was fired three days after I was hired. I was assigned the Kansas City to Houston, Texas run. It was a team run. Two runs one week and three runs the next. Nice gig. I had no idea how to back up. My teammate did all the backing. Oh, I forgot....

My problem with having a felony was that everyone wanted experience and I had none. I had been in International Banking before prison (not related) and had only the 2 weeks experience. So, I made up my experience. I gave them a number to my Doctors office, he is also my best friend and they called him to verify my employment. I personally wrote my own recommendation. It was glowing.

Anyway, the Keystone job worked out to 45 cents per mile. One driver there quit. He had a run to Denver from Kansas City. I figure out that if they gave that run to the four of us who did the Houston run that we could do it on the weeks we were only doing 2 runs. That run was a Friday run so we pickup 1000 per month extra. That went on for 2 years until one April snow storm hit and an Orange trailer clipped me during a snow storm. I ended up in a ditch. Destroyed the trailer. It was empty but my job ended that day outside of Denver.

But I had my two years in and a highway patrol officer as a witness to the accident. I was able to get another job within two weeks.

Now I am sure that no other trucker had the same experience their first two years.

Most go more like this. You go to school with a big Mega company or get a CDL through a private school. You get your CDL after a state DOT signs off you passed your test. At that point you get hired by your first company. If you choose over the road with a major, you will be assigned a teacher of some kind. Your pay will be 30 cpm or close. What it is is a paid internship. Some trainers will actually train you. Others will sleep all the time and let you drive. You will be locked up in a small 72 inch sleeper with someone who can make or break your career. This is why being in prison is a good preparation for trucking. If you survive your time with a trainer you will be given your own truck. It will be a truck that someone who just got fired will turn in. They will put a new mattress in it so that is different then prison. You then make it or break it on your own.

You will have dispatchers who talk to you like you are an idiot. You will get angry because you have been on the road for 3 weeks at time. You won't eat good and healthy meals. And you might become way to familiar with your right hand. Time alone is lonely time.

You will see your pay increase if you stick it out. By the end of two years your choices really open up. Stick to it and don't let the day to day things bother you and you will do fine.

Always remember that no matter what problem you run into on the road, someone has had that same problem before. If you are in trouble anywhere, ask for help from another trucker. They will help.

 

Pretty much sums it up, I've never felt stress like i have doing this. After a while you start learning the areas and it gets easier so that helps. I got so accustomed that I only want to run the 11 west, I only once did a trip to Miami and I wasn't impressed with the south/east. Never been tk the north and north east.. and I never want to be.. a lot of the he i5 for me and love it

 

Avoid the drama of the Megas.
I think you have already chatted with Chinatown so he will have a handful of options available to you outside the normal Megas.

Been driving almost a year and to be honest, it's not all that bad, but I signed on with a pretty good company too. So it's worth the time and effort to do your homework on the companies that you are considering driving for.

Good Luck and Stay Safe,
MD

 

Moffet. Good post wooly

 

You're gonna have to love it to stick with it.

 

My first year went like this: I started from scratch. Took a truck driving school. Coudln't find any local work anywhere in CA (where I live), so, via a placement guy, took the only thing I could get - work for a well-known refrigerated company based near Dallas. They promised me all sorts of things, such as home three days every three weeks, a 'western route' that would keep me more or less on the west coast, etc etc.
None of it was true. I was never home sooner than 4 weeks, and more usually only every 5 to 6 weeks. I was never home for holidays (TG, Xmas, New Years) They never had, have or will have a western route. I spent 80% of the time I was out there in the midwest or east. I drove a Freightliner in which the AC never worked right, opti-idle never worked right, and it was never fixed properly when I would go through the main terminal every month or so. I had a brief period when my batteries were on their last breath and the company WOULD NOT GIVE ME NEW ONES. Wtf? So I limped along for awhile having to jump the truck with the reefer to start it in the morning. It finally gave up the ghost with a load on the back and the tow and new batteries cost the company almost $1,000. Served them right, but the downtime cost me, too, since I wasn't on the road.
You always think all the BS will be worth it when you do big miles, even at my starting pay of $.27/mile. Trouble is, they don't give newbies a lot of big miles. Just little 600, 900 or 1200-milers. Sometimes less thanthat. With only a few of those a week (and after taxes and health insurance) my weekly pay was sometimes exactly zero. That happened I would say 6-8 times the first year. Most weeks I would make at least something. But the weeks were few and far between when I'd do more than 2500 miles.
I liked the driving, but the waits are interminable. If I waited less than 4 hours to get loaded or unloaded, that was considered instantaneous. I had waits at one meat plant of 25, 31 and the all time worst - 36 hours. This is after arriving ON TIME. And in case you're wondering, I didn't get paid to wait because "the delay wasn't the company's fault."
(BTW, there is noplace worse to be stuck waiting in the summer than a bobtail lot downwind of a Texas meat-packing plant. This includes Hell.)
If you wait until sundown to try to find a parking spot for the night, you will likely be SOL. They're just not out there anymore. Too many freakin other trucks. So try to start really early (4:30 worked for me) so that you can start looking for a spot in the early afternoon. Before I learned this, I spent many nights parked - legally and otherwise - in dirt lots, an old drive-in movie theater, abandoned car dealerships, closed restaurants, etc. Sometimes you just park on the side of the road.
My first year, I drove almost exactly 100,000 miles and I made $17,000 - that's BEFORE taxes.
FWIW, if you can survive the first year, it does get better.

 

#### man how did u survive that? What part of CA are you in? Could've went with Knight... #### glad you made it through, I wouldn't have, not for that money. I left knight after 9 months for a local gig, specially when I noticed I was only making average 2500 a month.. which is 600 a week, to me, thats garbage.. u can live off of it, of course but I work too hard for that kind of money. Good luck on your next company.

 

That is a good idea.
Although, there are very few left out here.