Profile For Joshua

Just something to consider, it seems like you are leaving IT because you don’t want to take a pay cut. If that is correct, I would encourage you to reconsider. I have been in your shoes. I worked in IT for 5 years when the company I was with shut down my facility. Due to the fact that where I live, IT jobs are few and far between and trucking is dominate, I went to trucking. Drove for a full year (OTR and dedicated) when I was contacted by a recruiter about an IT job close to home. I took a chance at it and am back working in IT (making more than when I was driving). I can assure you, if your pay cut is only to $25 to $30 an hour DO IT! You most likely will not be making that much trucking. During my time driving, my checks were usually between $500 to $600 a week after taxes and benefits. The most I got when all the stars aligned was about $1200 but that was very VERY rare (and was because of how my miles landed that week). Plus being paid by the mile causes checks to vary a lot. In a 40 hour a week job, that’s about $17 an hour but trucking is a 70 hour a week job (you do the math). I’m not putting down on trucking by any means because I very well may be back driving at some point as I really enjoyed driving. I was just offered more money to be home every night with the fam so was a no brainer for me. I Just wanted to make sure you can make the best possible decision for yourself and have the info needed. I mean if you have the option of taking a job at say a min of $25 an hour, it will most likely pay more than you will make driving (from my experience). Now, if your in an area like me and there are no decent paying jobs near by, by all means truck it up brother. Just something to consider before taking that leap because once you do, it’s very hard to do interviews when your constantly out of town if you decided you want to go back to IT.

One final note, if you do not have a wife or kids and are in it for the adventure (and not the money) then by all means go for it. Just wanted to bring the financial aspect of it to the light.

I do have a copy of my most recent one. I have both of them. I’m well aware I have to have a copy on me at all times. The question was I don’t know which one DOT has attached to my license. Some clinics and/or companies submit it for you so I’m not sure if my latest one was submitted. Since my first one was still good and I have it on me then I really didn’t care if it was submitted. If it wasn’t then the first one is all that matters. Also to correct you it doesn’t matter if you fail one after passing. If DOT doesn’t have that on record and only have your valid passing medical card attached to your CDL that isn’t expired. You’re good. To avoid issues I will most likely go ahead and get it renewed sooner rather than later though.

Thanks for the responses. I know my first company said they would send it in for me and I believe the clinic the second one had us go to did the same just not sure. I know I go by the one DOT has. I just don’t know which that is since I don’t know if the second one sent that in. Rob T mentioned checking the status on a state website. I may try to find out if my state has that as that answers my main question as I wasn’t sure if states had such info available online. Didn’t wanna just call the hey patrol office and ask as I’m sure that’s frowned upon. If I can’t find that, I will probably just get a new physical sooner rather than later to play it safe. Thanks everyone

Is there anyway to find out what medical card DOT has attached to my CDL? Long story short, my first company did a physical and sent in my medical card to DOT. About 9 months later I obtained a regional/dedicated job and of course that company did a physical but I’m not sure if they sent that one in or not. Basically my newest medical card expires in March but my original doesn’t expire until June. Just trying to figure out if I need to get another physical soon or if I have a couple more months.

Like big Scott said any company will require OTR training. At KLLM you get $507 per week for 4-6 weeks then start out at .45 per mile when you upgrade to solo. This is the highest starting that I have seen anywhere. KLLM is also trying to make their policy’s more driver friendly like allowing company drivers to now have pets and changing the hometime policy to earning 2 days off per 7 days out and only require you to stay out 7 days before going home for 2

Hi everyone,

It's been a really long time since I have posted anything on here but I have continued to read posts. I just wanted to update everyone with me. For the past several years I have thought about driving and at the end of June this year I decided to do it and started training at the KLLM academy in Jackson, MS. I completed their 3 week course and obtained by Class A CDL and have completed 4 weeks of my OTR training. I am on home time now and only have one week left til I upgrade to my own truck. This has been a great experience and I have driven in situations and places I could only imagine. Although the time away from the wife and kids is hard, it will be worth it to provide them a great life. (and driving is so much fun). Anyways, that's all I really have for now. I hope to be more active in the future. Until next time, stay safe everyone!

Well that's not as bad as it initially sounded. At first it sounded like they just had you sitting in a hotel room for a week.

Are you going to document your school and training under the "CDL Training Diaries"? Please do. I read all the updates everyday.

Yes I will. I start school Monday and plan on starting my training diary Monday evening. I will be doing my training at Truck Dynasty Driving Academy. CFI also uses Crowder College for training.

So they sent you there almost a week before your first day? That sucks! Most companies have you travel on Sunday (or Saturday depending on distance) before the Monday that you start.

With so many Prime drivers in here, maybe someone can answer this question. Why are all Prime trucks different colors? I understand some truck companies may have different colors for different divisions (and of course the O/O's will have different colors) but it seems like every Prime truck I see is a different color regardless of the division. Just wondering if there is any rhyme or reason as to their truck color madness?

When it comes to a regular job, you are paid for vacation based off your hourly pay rate (8 hours per day off) or for salary, you are paid the normal amount. I know most companies offer drivers a week after being with them a year but how do truck companies calculate vacation pay being that a truck driver's pay is based of miles driven? Since they are not driving, how do they decide what to pay them?