Come on in and tell me all about your truck driving school/career ...

[Large_Marge]

What could be better than Large Marge becoming a truck driver?
Anywho, I’m thinking seriously about attending truck driving school, and have gobs of questions:

1. Did you get what you wanted from the school/career?

2. Would you recommend the school/career to someone else?

3. Do you think you got your money’s worth?

4. Are there any schools/companies I should avoid?

5. What should a newbie look for in a trucking school?

6. Is OTR as horrible as everyone says it is?

7. What’s the worst part of the job?

8. What’s the best part of the job?

9. How hard is it to go independent?
Opinions from non-truckers are welcome, as well.

[sub](I’ve coded all the questions so all you have to do is hit reply. Thanks!)[/sub]

[A.R.Cane]

For some reason I’m unable to post a response to the original thread, so I’m going to try posting my response here.

@Large Marge

What could be better than Large Marge becoming a truck driver?
Anywho, I’m thinking seriously about attending truck driving school, and have gobs of questions:

1. Did you get what you wanted from the school/career?
I attended a company training course. (1981) I think it was about five weeks, but only two weeks were devoted to driving. I had to put up a deposit of about three grand, if I had failed to complete the training, or left the company in the first year, I would have had all, or some of that withheld. This was the household moving business, so much of the training was about inventoring and properly loading household items, as well as proper documentation and other administrative requirements.

2. Would you recommend the school/career to someone else?
I would not recommend trucking in the current job market. Truck drivers aree exempt from the Fair Labor and Standards Act. Almost all long haul drivers are paid by the mile. A typical company driver, after several months to a year, might be paid 35 to 40 cents a mile. They receive little or nothing for time not moving: ie: time spent loading or unloading, or waiting for either, time spent waiting for a load, time spent waiting during a breakdown or repair. There are also other situations, but if the wheels aren’t turning, you’re not getting paid.
Even if your kept loaded and busy, it’s still not a very good deal. If you are making top dollar, you’re very rarely home and when you are they frequently want you to cut you off time short. Drivers who are very productive are at a premium. Under current DOT regs., you have a 14 hour day. Once you open your log book for the day, no matter what, you must shut down for 10 hours after 14 hours. If you stop for a meal, it comes out of the 14 hours. If you take a 2-3-4 hour nap, it comes out of the 14 hours. If you have a flat tire and it takes 3-4 hours to get road service, it comes out of the 14 hours. Are you getting the picture here, all kinds of things can slow or stop your miles, but they don’t stop the clock. On top of that, you can only drive 11 hours out of the 14, the “hours of service” are a bit complicated, but the rules do not favor the driver, either in safety or in the ability to earn a decent wage.
Let’s say you can average 3000 miles a week @ $.40 a mile for 50 weeks, that $60,000.00 a year, but you’re never home, you’ll have living expenses on the road and you probably won’t live a long life.
Even those who have been in the business for a long time are having trouble. Many of the more successful are doing specialty trucking and have learned how to maximize their time and contacts.
I don’t have a lot of current info. about trucking schools, but from what I hear they are way overpriced. Many community colleges offer truck driving courses and while they take longer that the private driver schools, they are much cheaper and, from what I’ve heard, much more comprehensive.
3. Do you think you got your money’s worth?
4. Are there any schools/companies I should avoid?

5. What should a newbie look for in a trucking school?

6. Is OTR as horrible as everyone says it is?
7. What’s the worst part of the job?
I’ll sum it up by saying that you get very little respect. Even if you have your own equipment and are operating your own independant business, your just another truck driver to most of the people you deal with.

8. What’s the best part of the job?
Traveling and seeing this great country, but of course you have little time to really explore and rarely time to stop.
9. How hard is it to go independent?
You can do it yourself, just visit the http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/ and you can learn most of what you need to know to obtain federal operating authority. Of course there’s a lot more to it than that. Insurance is almost impossible to obtain unless you have several years of experience, even then it will cost you around 6-10 thousand a year. Recordkeeping and reporting requirements are strict, w/ severe penalties fo non-compliance. It’s not a business for amateurs.

Go to bartending school, at least you can drown your sorrows for free when you realize it’s a mistake.

Opinions from non-truckers are welcome, as well.

[sub](I’ve coded all the questions so all you have to do is hit reply. Thanks!)[/sub]

[A.R.Cane]

Need some MOD help here, I should have posted this in IMHO. Can one of you please move it? Thanks.

[Rico]

@A.R. Cane

Need some MOD help here, I should have posted this in IMHO. Can one of you please move it? Thanks.

<mod>

No problem! Glad to help!

</mod>

[Czarcasm]

And then I merged the two threads.

[nonacetone]

I don’t have a truck driving career (Hell, I can’t even drive a stickshift, for Og’s sake), so I should just keep out of this one, as I know I will be of NO help to you whatsoever.
I wanted to go ahead and post anyway, because my husband does have a truck driving career. He’s OTR and has been for over 20 years.

If you have a family, please consider their feelings. You WILL NOT be around much, unless you can find a decent company that allows you family time, weekends at home, etc. The pay isn’t all that great, unless, like I said above, you find a decent company to work for.

I wouldn’t go to a ‘truck driving school’, but go with an established company that has their own training. You can get your CDL that way, plus your HazMat, if needed.
Starting out, I wouldn’t think you’d be running any ‘real’ HazMat, but, that all depends on the company, I suppose.

You must keep up on all the laws. Federal and state. The DOT (Department Of Transportation) are sticklers for keeping a clean, up-to-date logbook. It is best to go with the DOT rules, as the fines are VERY steep, and most companies don’t pay for YOUR fines or tickets. So, keep that in mind. Most of them want you to run like a raped ape, no matter WHAT the DOT says. You can’t really do that, though. I wouldn’t advise running two (or more) logbooks, because if you do, and the DOT finds them, you’re in deep shit.
It’s a ‘live and learn’ type thing, I guess.

You always have to have access to cash. So, a credit card or two are a must, along with cash. Most companies give you a card, to use for fuel, etc. But, you’ll also need to have access to your own cash, just in case. Whatever you buy with your cash, the company will reimburse you every cent. At least the company my husband works for does.

Food is another thing. My husband always looks forward to coming home on the weekends, to get a decent meal, as he can’t find decent food on the road. It’s mostly fast food or truckstop food. Not the most appetizing stuff in the world, nor is it healthy.

The toughest part is being away from your family for so long. My husband worked for a company once, many years ago, and they kept him out for 6 to 8 weeks at a time.
Now, he works for a great company and gets home every weekend. Truck driver spouses/SO’s are a VERY understanding bunch, let me tell you!

Good luck to you, Large Marge

[pullin]

Check this site out. It contains a lot of the info you want.

Good luck.

[Tinkertoy]

This Thread is must read if your thinking of becoming a truck driver.

[Lips_Obsession]

I worry about some of the truck drivers after an experience I learned of involving a friend of mine. I’d known him from grade school and he’d always been a flake. Couldn’t hold a job very long, so he decided to become a truck driver. After some initial training, he was partnered with an experienced driver and sent out on the road for some training runs.

One time, he was driving and his partner was catching some rest in the passenger seat. He suddenly awoke to honking horns to find my friend straddling the dotted white line down the middle of the 2-lane road they were driving on. His partner, horrified that they were driving half in the wrong lane, asked him what the heck he was doing… my friend replied, “I’m Pac-Man…I’m eating the dots!!!” :eek: :eek: :eek:

Thankfully, he was relieved from duty that day and moved on to another less-than-stellar career…

[A.R.Cane]

Truck driving, as a job, has declined over the past decade or two. Hauling rates haven’t kept up w/ inflation and therefore driver pay is also low. There are too many trucks chasing too little freight. A concept called Just in Time delivery puts pressure on the industry and the driver and exists to minimize storage space by receivers, especially in the grocery business. Rising fuel prices have added more pressure, diesel is more expensive than gasoline in most areas, where it used to be considerably cheaper. All the trucking companies are scrambling to attract drivers and it’s because many fail to pass minimal training requirements, or quit as soon as they see what a poor job it is. There was a time when you picked up a load, checked in, by phone, w/ your dispatcher once or twice a day and then had a sense of freedom and responsibility. This attracted people w/ an independant streak, people who were capable and enjoyed working w/o constant supervision. Now there are electronic links that make it not much different than working on a factory floor. The feeling of freedom and independance are nearly gone, demands on the driver are strict and closely supervised. There is widespread belief, among drivers, that once illegal aliens get recognized, so they can obtain driver’s licenses, the trucking companies will hire them at even lower wages. There’s also the issue of allowing Mexican based trucks routinely into the U’S., which is going to happen very soon, and will place more downward pressure on driver wages.

[Belrix]

…in a thread called The Realities of Professional Truck Driving

[A.R.Cane]

@Belrix

…in a thread called The Realities of Professional Truck Driving

In reading the linked thread I see several references to making good money. That’s just not true. If you factor in the hours that a driver has to put in to get a good sized paycheck you’ll often find they are working near minimum wage. The example I gave in my first post, of making $60,000 as a company driver, is very near impossible and to do it would require working 80-100 hours a week and almost never being home. That would also mean that your living expenses on the road would eat up a significant part of your pay. If you own your own truck, you can make pretty good money, but you’re still putting in long hours on the road, plus you have the additional burdens of running a business and maintaining your equipment.