Profile For BigOleKraken

My wife has a pretty decent gaming laptop, it has a 3gb version of the GTX 1050 in it with a Ryzen 5 processor but I need to add some more ram as it only has 6gb (usable). I’ve got a nice set up at home but with this job when I’m home I don’t want to isolate myself at a desk away from my family. I may sell my desktop rig to get a good laptop for myself but idk an Xbox series s sounds good too.

Hey I was just curious if any of you are gamers and if so what kind of set up do you play on in the truck. I grew up on Xbox but for the past few years I’ve played on a PC. But PC gaming feels like it would be too bulky to do in a truck comfortably, I may go back to my roots and get and Xbox to take with me.

Thank you everyone for all the advice. After talking about it some more she is open to the reality that I may have to work away for a while to get the experience needed for some of the local opportunities around near home. We live 5 mins for an Ashley Furniture distribution center and a Toyota manufacturing plant that both have local shuttle runs but require at least 9 months of experience. I'm looking into an intermodal place call IMCG that runs out of Memphis that I home daily but if that fall through I'm going with one of the regional jobs until I get enough experience for the shuttle run places.

Have you spoken to companies such as Averitt? They have a "dock to driver" program that's pretty much what it sounds like, working on their docks and training with one of their trainers. Depending upon the terminal, you might have line haul options. I know this because I spoke with one of their recruiters last week. Looks like they have a terminal near Tupelo? I think several of the LTL carriers have training programs, but I don't know that for a fact. Maybe some others here will chime in.

Keep in mind the experienced pros here typically do NOT recommend you start in city P&D, and I agree with them. Having done some driving years ago, I know that P&D can involve getting in and out of a lot of tight places, and increases your odds of a fender bender (or worse) considerably. That's why I suggested asking about the line haul option.

I have been looking to Averitt, the depot here has a lot of regional opportunities and they have a night shift shuttle run that just runs to Alabama and back to bring trailers for the OTR runs. But I feel like the night shift would be just like being away because I wont see them hardly anyways.

Have you made her aware that doing OTR or regional for a year will most likely open up a lot more local options for you? Sacrificing a difficult year now could be more worthwhile in the long run.

That's what I've been telling her and she is starting to come around. She wants me home at least on the weekends so reginal is probably going to be the way I go unless I just find a gem of a local place, but that's looking unlikely.

Hay, Kraken !!

Have you looked into LTL?

Here's a thread that almost, if not, ALL of our LTL guys have contributed to. This may be something the wife could approve!

Running Doubles / LTL & Linehaul

I'd normally tag more links/threads, but I'm coming out of a bad winter cold.. ^^ That's a start! The main guys are in there.

Best wishes!

~ Anne ~

Yeah I've been looking into LTL, I've got some friends that do that and work a 4 day week which would be ideal. I've got doubles and triples, tankers and hazmat endorsements I just don't have any experience so I need a place that's going to train me some.

So I’d like so advice one where I should start my trucking career. I’ve been looking into regional jobs and have found several that train and give me the home time that “I” would like. However my wife decided that instead of telling me before I paid all the money and went through the 200hrs of training to get my CDL that she doesn’t want me to be gone at all. There are a few local places that are hiring cdl grads near me in north MS but they are food delivery services which is not something I really wanted to do. There are great local jobs around me but they all require 9 months or more experience. What I want to do is go with the regional position to get experience and then down the road one of the better local positions, but I have no idea how my wife will react because she just sprung this issue on me. I was in the process of getting hired when She just up and decided that. Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm in north Mississippi, I know there is an Old Dominion and a Southeastern depot about 20 minuets away from where I live. I guess my next step is to turn in the application to the trucking school here and get started. If I can get something local that will take the only reason I had not to do it out of the equation.

Thanks for the advice guys, I had heard a driver talking about how much he was making doing LTL on a podcast so I'll look into the companies around hear that do that. There are alot of trucking companies near where I live and a Ashley Furniture distribution plant about a mile from my house but I know for a fact they require 2yrs of tractor trailer experience for their line haul department.

Ill be 30 this year, I'm married, I have a 2 year old little girl and I just bought a new house. My wife just finished her masters and has started her new career and now I'm looking at getting into trucking, which I've thought about doing for about a year now. I work as an audio technician and make about $35000 yearly, it pays the bills but Id like to make more and I honestly just don't have a passion for audio work. Some of my audio gigs had me driving a pensky truck all trough the south east for shows which was my favorite part of the work, diving that big truck to and from the gigs. I think I would like a trucking career but I have some concerns. I am very worried about getting into trucking and missing too much time with my little girl. I want to get on to a local route but I know most local routes are gonna want you to have a year of experience at least. Also I've been doing my current job for over 8 years and the guy I work for is a really good person to work for, hes help me out on many occasions and even payed me for days I missed just to help me out. So leaving a good work environment like that is a concern for me especially when Id be getting into a field I know very little about. But every time I see a truck rolling down the highway I just get a feeling that I should be doing that and making a better life for my family. If anyone, especially drivers with kids, has any advice for me about getting into the industry or weather I should stay out of it, I'm all ears.