Looking For Advice From Real Truckers

I am currently looking to start a trucking career. I will need to find a company that pays for cdl training. My problem is picking the right company. I have a family so do need a decent home time schedule but my biggest concern is pay as I have to be able to support my family. I have no Delusion's about being home all the time. I know that I am likely to be out for 2-3 weeks at a time. I'm more looking for a company that I can be sure to make around $600 per week. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

Working two jobs back home would be more stable.. Even if they paid minimum wage it would be more stable. The pay out here I really inconsistent.

Thanks Hudson,

I am definitely switching just trying to find the best company that I can average $600 a week.

Working two jobs back home would be more stable.. Even if they paid minimum wage it would be more stable. The pay out here I really inconsistent.

Listen, we totally understand you're pretty disillusioned with trucking right now but please don't take every opportunity to tell people to stay away from it.

John, first year drivers in this industry usually average maybe $32,000-$36,000 their first year, about $40,000 your second year, and it normally tops out around $55,000 for most drivers. There are always exceptions of course, but those are numbers you can count on. So you won't have to worry about finding any companies where you can't average $600/week your first year.

Thanks Brett

I'm really trying to find out the best companies out there for new drivers I know I want to be a driver. Just trying to set myself up to start a good career by picking the right company. If you could give me some ideas about good companies to work for I would really appreciate it.

We have all kinds of great stuff we've put together to help you decide which companies will suit you best. Have a look:

• Article Category: Finding The Right Truck Driving Job
• Trucker's Career Guide: Choosing Your First Truck Driving Job
• Forum Topics Tagged "Choosing A Trucking Company"

Thanks Brett

I will continue to research. Thanks for the article's.

John, welcome to our forum!

The first response you got is a great example of why we need to have moderators in here. You titled your post as looking for advice from "real" truckers and what you got was far from that. With all due respect to Hudsonhawk, he is a rookie who is struggling at this career, and probably is not going to stick with it. That's not a problem, trucking may not be the best career choice for him, but for him to respond with what he did to your inquiry seems a little bit like he's got a burr in his saddle.

just trying to find the best company that I can average $600 a week.

Here's the new flash: There is no best company that can help you average $600 bucks a week. This career is totally performance based. You get paid what you earn, and you earn what you get by getting things done. Now the problem with that, and also the reason for Hudsonhawk to say what he did, is that it is not easy to get yourself established in this career. Anyone who is just jumping in here as a total rookie is going to have some issues and some problems for at least that first year. Hudsonhawk has not even gotten the hang of this stuff yet, and he's given you an answer based on his very shaky start in this business. John, I started my career at Western Express, a company that has a ton of terrible reviews online, and probably not a place where you would think you could average $600 a week. I've been getting letters in the mail recently from an attorney who is putting together a class action law suit against them from a group of truck drivers claiming that Western Express didn't allow their drivers to even earn minimum wage during the time period that I was employed there. Here's the funny thing about all this - I was earning around a thousand bucks a week as a rookie over there, while the malcontents were scraping by on less than minimum wage. If you can prove yourself and get things accomplished in this job you will make some decent money at it. The secret to success out here is being able to produce against all the odds that are against you, and you can tell from what Hudsonhwk had to say that there are problems associated with getting oneself established as a "mover and shaker" out here.

Personally I think it has very little to do with the company you choose. I've had great success at both places I've worked. I am now employed with Knight Transportation, making very good money, but still hearing the same old sob stories from the Knight drivers who just can't cut the mustard here. My advice would be to find a company that seems to suit you well as far as the pay rate and the home time policies and then jump in there with both feet and see what you can do. Prime will help you get your CDL , and pay something like 700 dollars a week during the second phase of your training. They don't pay you anything for the fist three or four weeks during that initial training period, but once you get past that you start making some pretty decent money even as a trainee. They will advance you a couple of hundred bucks each week at the beginning if you need it, but it will be deducted from your paychecks incrementally later when you are earning money. You can find some information about them and other similar training companies by going to:

• Company-Sponsored Training Programs
• Forum Topics Tagged "Company-Sponsored CDL Training"

As a new entry level person into this career you would be doing yourself a favor to learn as much as you can before you jump in. These are some of of the best resources I know of:

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road Training Program

Take a look at those things and then feel free to bombard us with your questions.

Looks like Brett was already in here while I was formulating my response. Oh well, between the two of us I think we covered it.

Like I said, feel free to bombard us with questions, and we will do what we can to help you out.