Profile For New Englander

I'm younger than almost everyone else I see out on the road.

And I'm lazy for the same reason that a cat catches mice a few hours a day and sleeps the rest.

I like cats... they like me too!

what you do is easy. You've haven't done what we do.

that's true. I'm happy squeaking by with eight or nine hundred dollars a week right now. I'm sure I wouldn't last a week in your shoes. But then again even eight or nine hundred a week is more than I need.

I guess I'm gleeful because I finally found a job I like where I don't have to totally bust my butt to make enough money to live on.

I'm sure in the future I want to make more money but for now I just need $700 a week.

my name question is, can you make $700 a week as a part-time truck driver?

After driving 6 months I'm starting to get the sense that I don't need to drive 5 days a week to make that kind of money. Many days I make $170 or more.

I would rather run really hard 3 or 4 days a week to make what I need and then take the rest of the week off.

I'm asking about it here. That's all.

I'll admit I am really bad about getting sidetracked and I posed the question while asking about a lease. That's why everybody jumped on me I think cuz I did not ask my question clearly. I apologize for that.

Ok we get it. Thanks.

You're right, trucking is less politically sensitive than most professions. Of course, you make one tiny mistake in trucking and you might be dead or you've killed innocent people, which probably doesn't happen often in a classroom.

We're glad you're enjoying trucking. Most of us enjoy it very much ourselves.

Thanks yeah. You're right about the deadly aspect of it and I thought about that. It reminds me of when I was a little younger and I asked an army guy I knew why in the hell he does a job where he could die tomorrow and how can he put up with that and he said you get used to it or something.

I didn't understand it back then but I think I'm starting to understand that. This is a dangerous job but you're not focused on the dangerousness of it. You're focused on just doing the job.

At least I think that's what he meant.

New Englander keeps piling it on:

But. Here's an experiment: go sit on a spike. it hurts right? now go sit on a mat of hundreds of spikes. notice how it doesn't hurt and you float?

Like I said you are on a different planet. Like they say in Shark Tank, "I'm out".

Nothing wrong with being on a different planet so long as you're making money and are happy and no one is getting hurt.

I guess I have Rosy colored sunglasses because I see everyone else my age doing a lot worse than me. I see no reason to get down when things are all looking up!

But again thanks for the advice. I'll stay away with owning or Leasing anyting because I just want to work part-time not go broke.

So here you go, I'll answer your one question to the best of my ability.

Ready?

Get your year in, protect your license. Find a company within a reasonable commute from home with a Dedicated Account or contract, many of them will slip-seat part-timers. Or to the extreme, buy a truck, and proceed to flush your savings and holdings down the drain cause running a leased truck 3-4 days per week will create seriously negative cash flow. Lazy people don't mix well with being a L/O or O/O. You'll lose your a**.

Good luck.

Get my year in, don't screw up, then go drive for someone else. Dedicated account or contract. Ask if they'll slipseat a part-timer.

Did I read you right?

When I go looking around for a part-time job like that, is slip seat the key word to use on the job search engines?

Thanks for the advice! That is definitely something to go on :)

The trucking industry is way harder than a job interview. I can BS my way through an interview if I have to. Nobody at recruiting cares what you have to say. Give us the info and 48 hours then we'll decide. An HR rep doesn't check anything. I can put President of The United States on a resume and they'll say "pretty cool, why did you leave?". You're also confused about the signing bonus. You don't walk in the door and get 10K. You'd have to be there a good couple of years to get that full bonus. It's more of a gimmick to offset the cost of training. Additionally they get someone with experience that might be willing to train for a pay increase leading to more no experience recruits that have to pay their dues and start at the bottom of the payscale. I disagree that every Tom Rick and Harry can get into a truck. Look through the threads for the proof. "I have 3 DUIs 20 years ago and nobody will hire me"; "In had 2 preventable accidents and nobody will hire me". I've experienced this myself. I had an accident in a non CDL CMV in December of 2013 and Schneider told me they need 7 years in a CMV. They said "reach out to us in December 2020". No chance to explain no my side of the story. It's all black and white. I'm glad you've found something you enjoy doing and it pays the bills, but don't say that anybody can get into trucking and there's no interview because you don't have to wear a suit. That's bad information and a bad stereotype. Shouldn't be spreading that info.

You're right, you're right. I have a 100% clean background, so maybe that's why I haven't had those kinds of trouble finding a job.

I understand the bonus delays, it'll take me another 6 months before I get my bonus of roughly 2k, and that's on top of the 100 dollars a day they paid me during two months of training. But that is totally unheard of in teaching where I come from, and I've never heard about it in other industries either EXCEPT the military. It just gives me a sense of companies being somewhat desperate for drivers, or at least having to compete for a small pool.

Don't get me wrong, competition is a good thing! It's what built America.

I guess I don't like having to BS my way thru an interview, I'd rather just speak my piece and be very, very honest. Obviously that is a disadvantage in certain industries. In fact, I got chewed out at an interview for a teacher training program because I did just that. I still got in, but the state canceled the program anyway. Something about Connecticut's state government being underwater... go figure!

The thing is that the job interview in trucking lasts like... well, it lasts *at least* as long as company training! Which for me was 7 weeks. You're right about that.

But. Here's an experiment: go sit on a spike. it hurts right? now go sit on a mat of hundreds of spikes. notice how it doesn't hurt and you float?

same thing with trucking I've found. it's a lot easier to deal with an ongoing interview by taking it a day at a time than for me to deal with one make-or-break interview and hafta put on a suit and tie and pretend to be someone I'm not.

I think the stereotype about trucking is, like you said, untrue. From what I can tell, the truth is that if you keep your record clean, avoid accidents and tickets, and don't quit when you get frustrated like all the other recruits, you'll make it.

You're right, doing all that isn't easy.

Most people I know got arrested for something, or partied during high school and went driving one night, or get sick of the elogs, the traffic, and the emissions glitches so they just quit.

But to me, if you can do those three things, and just keep plodding along, it's not that hard once you get used to it.

There has never been an obstacle in trucking for me yet that I found insurmountable or a situation that I found impossible to understand.

I know I'm enjoying myself.

The water is cold at first, but it warms up once you freeze down to it's level :P

@Reyn R.

Yeah thanks for the encouragement. I'll keep looking for that perfect fit. I want to stick with my first company for a full year, it just seems like the proper thing to do since they spent money to train me and all.

This is the best job I've had in my life. It's simply a matter of once you get to know it you want to customize it to your evolving preferences.

I don't know how you guys don't see it.

Driving a truck means I don't have to leave my religious values or personal beliefs at the door. I don't have to go through propaganda bullcrap. I don't have to beg for a job like everyone else my age. I don't have to work for free for God knows how many years at an internship. I don't have to spend years and years to get a license to practice my job.

This is a great! it's amazing!

Does nobody else in the room get this or am I just coming from such a corrupted culture that Trucking appears great in comparison?

I think you misunderstand. Just because I can get a loan with low interest rate does not mean I have anywhere near millions in the bank.

It's called a margin loan and you basically use your stock account as collateral. So if I have $20,000 in stocks they'll let me take out $80,000 on a loan with a low interest rate because they know if I don't pay up they can just confiscate the stocks. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about where I would be getting the money from. My point was that I could put down money on a truck if I got serious...

And yeah I know New Hampshire is the tail end of the trucking industry which is a shame because I love the people up there and the culture. Connecticut is just so nasty and stagnant it's like a swamp!

I don't think you experienced drivers understand just how good you have it. The last 6 months of being a solo trucker has been the best job I've ever had in my young life. I enjoy driving. Simply put.

As far as those of you who insist that you need to live to work and that being lazy as a sin and that Trucking is a super-competitive Ultra difficult job I have some words for you and maybe this is a reality check or maybe it's just because I come from a different background and I take a different View.

Ready?

The fact that my buddy from CDL school got in the three accidents within six months at a major company and they didn't fire him speaks volumes about your position of advantage over the companies you work for. Only a Desperado would have standards that low. If a teacher hits a student three times in 6 months they're going to jail.

There is no sin and being lazy because I've seen the unpaid internships that all my buddies from college got, I've seen how companies take advantage of their workers. There's nothing wrong with me trying to leverage my advantageous position to find a way to get more home time and to do less work.

The fact that there is almost no interview process to get a job at some of these companies is amazing. The fact that they're paying bonuses just to join is amazing. I'm coming from a college background and I can tell you that this is a gravy train compared to that. GRAVY. TRAIN.

You should look at some of the PhD students that spend 10 years paying money to study and can barely get a job at a crappy University. You do 10 weeks of training and you got a job at a trucking company that pays what they would start out at after all those years.

Every week my safety manager tells me about a trainee who crashed the truck or failed inspection or got a ticket or quits and the turnover rate is so high that the fact I've managed to not quit for 6 months and not crash and not get tickets means that compared to the competition I'm doing a lot better. Like I've done better than 90% of the other rookies.

So yeah I'm new to all this and I don't know much but what I can tell you is that for a fact drivers have the advantage in this industry whether you guys realize it or not.

If you guys have a good work ethic that good for you I guess but my standards are lower I just need six or seven hundred dollars a week to get by and if I can do that in 3 or 4 days then why not have a shorter work week?

You think I'm a troll because I'm looking at my options and because I can clearly see that I do have a lot of options compared to other Industries... There is a reason that I decided not to pursue education. It's a lot of work and you have to beg for a job in deal with a lot of stupid obstacles and I have a friend going through that right now who's studying to be a math teacher.

I can do a lazy job as a truck driver and be me or I could be in a master's program to get certified as a Spanish teacher but I would have to sit through Multicultural education classes and all sorts of other BS.

If you guys would rather become a politically correct teacher and be afraid to speak your opinion to your own colleagues then be my guest go get a college education but I can tell you for a fact that this is like a breath of fresh air in this industry.

My family has a tradition of being teachers but I'm done that industry is so damn corrupted that's why I got in the trucking because I wanted an industry where I like the basic function and I do enjoy driving and I also didn't want to have to deal with BS.

As annoying as the elogs can be, it's a lot better than begging for a job and having to tow the line and everything you say and how you dress. The university I went to had antifa riots recently because some conservative speaker was coming to speak in the students decided they felt threatened or something... in trucking the worst you got is an aggressive driver and you just slow down and give them space.

I like working in a job where they don't try and tell me what gender pronouns to use. Like I can say he or she and people don't throw a fit. That's not the case if you're a teacher.

It doesn't matter who I vote for in elections it will not get in the way of me getting or keeping a job in this industry.

Compared to 4 years of college and becoming a teacher afterwards this is a breeze. Hands down No Holds Barred. you have it easy. At least until big brother makes his way into the trucking industry...

But yeah sure if you think I'm such a moron troll then go into teaching like I was once planning to... I hope you guys have fun ;)

I'll stick with the trucking and try to find my balance thank you very much.

In some areas of the country, Roehl does indeed offer a part time option. It's slip seating, of course, but they can do 7 on 7 off, and a 7 on 3 off 7 on 4 off.

I do not drive for Roehl so I don't know all the details but those kinds of arrangements are available with them near where I live.. don't know about the Northeast. Call them and find out, but I'd avoid any lease or truck purchase like the plague.

yeah I checked with Roehl, they don't offer it where I live or in New Hampshire where I'm planning to move.

Shame.

But yeah, I'm getting the sense to avoid leasing and purchasing. I think I'll take you guyses advice.

O/O and lease would give me "freedom" to take more hometime, but that's an illusion.

I guess I'll hafta settle for a local job... although if I'm going to be running regional home weekly, ODFL linehaul seems attractive... 50+ cpm, all drop and hook, my current company has me do linehaul from time to time and it's pretty good. of course I'd hafta learn doubles but wth I'll learn doubles just like I learned trucking: with practice and time.

Honestly my company safety manager and a mechanic wanted to start a business, I guess they saw something in me, wanted me to go in w/ them, but again running a business is a headache.