Profile For Jonathan M.

Hey, thanks for sharing everyone! Giving me some new ideas to work with here. Hope more people decide to share what they collect. 😂

Hey! TEXAS resident here too. I always considered the Hazelwood act an alternative myself but how exactly does that work anyway? You make some valid points and I'm not big on school anyway. I think after a year with this company, I'll look into school.

And yeah, I called the VA and they said BAh un dallas comes out to 1800 a month.

Hey so is anyone familiar with the use of the GI bill in conjunction with going to school? Is it worth it? I'm a little late in asking as I've already used mine with Steven's Transport, and they gave me a VA form to fill out that states ill be receiving 1800 dollars a month from the VA which is BAH, and other allowances for On the job training/apprentice program.

Sounds like a good gig to me anyway, but I was wondering if anyone found anything better?

😮😮😮 $1,800 a month. Dang. I'm only getting about $900 a month, which is about average for the companies I looked at.

Keeo in mind that it will likely dip by 20% every 6 months until you either max your available GI Bill remaining, or complete their program (use the max months for that company).

Even though I still haven't received a dime from the VA for it yet (my paperwork is still processing with the VA), I'll give my thoughts on whether or not I feel it's worth it.

I tried going the college route, but that didn't work out for me as I needed the GI Bill money to survive and it was highly inconsistent. As a result, my work/life/school balance was all messed up and didn't work for me. I needed something different and more consistent.

In trucking, I've heard and read many experienced drivers say thay pay the first year isn't very good...in some instances pretty bad. As a minimum, I feel that using the GI Bill for an apprenticeship program in trucking will help to offset that.

As for what the DoL Heavy Duty Truck Driver Certificate is worth to a company...maybe nothing, but it doesn't hurt to have it.

For me, the extra money in my pocket is worth it. When I run out of GI Bill benefits, as a Texas reaident, I can use the Hazelwood Act to get a degree down the line if I so choose.

This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but I've looked and couldn't find much more than "these training companies are just using it to get money from the government".

With Roehl (where I'm at), apprenticeship program drivers get training that while available to other drivers, isn't required of them (in some cases unless something bad happens). This training culminates in the Trainer Foundations Course.

So I'm pretty new to trucking. I'm in week 3 of training OTR right now and I've been looking at all the cute merchandise that there is in each state.

I wanna' know what are some of the things you guys collect from each state? I was thinking about getting a polo shirt from each state, but I either dont like the fabric on the shirts, or the logos on the shirts are stupid huge.

So what do you folks collect? Show pictures if you have any, aaaand go!

Hey so is anyone familiar with the use of the GI bill in conjunction with going to school? Is it worth it? I'm a little late in asking as I've already used mine with Steven's Transport, and they gave me a VA form to fill out that states ill be receiving 1800 dollars a month from the VA which is BAH, and other allowances for On the job training/apprentice program.

Sounds like a good gig to me anyway, but I was wondering if anyone found anything better?

Wow. Thanks for the replies everyone.

So something is bothering me now. Crockpots and electric coolers?? Are there outlets inside these trucks or something? Or do I need special equipment. (Yeah, as you can see, making the decision to go into trucking was...Random). But if there are those of you who are living off of greens and are going to walmart, then I can see how beneficial that would be. I guess I would spend the first few paychecks eating out before I could purchase myself some of the good electric stuff you're recommending.

Thanks for all the feedback, I really appreciate it. I'll def invest in some dumbbells and get my work out on.

Hey everyone, I'm about to begin this CDL training thing here this coming Monday and while this is something I've never really looked into before or even considered. I'm actually a little excited to see more of the country while being OTR. (Hopefully its as great as everyone here makes it out to be)

Anyway, there is one issue that has been on my mind this entire time and its...Food... What do you folks eat while on the road? I dont want to stop at every place I go to and be limited to unhealthy/greasy/high caloric meals. Also, sitting down all day for 8-12 hrs at a time? How to maintain a healthy body? Is working out between stops with calesthenics sufficient enough for all the sitting down you'll be doing?

Sorry if I come off as difficult. I just dont want to ruin my body, and I wondered whether there are people who have experience with this and are able to juggle maintaining good health and driving OTR.

Thanks in advanced.