Local Job For Newbie

Yes I get that old school you are an experienced, highly successful driver. To do what you're doing at your age is nothing short of awesome. I can eat humble pie.

But where I "humiliated" myself in this conversation well you lost me there. My whole intent in this post was too let the OP know there are local opportunities available. Like I said a few times without the local opportunities available today that are working with entry level drivers I wouldn't be one today. I'd have to wait until my daughter got older and some other factors in my life.

We got lost in 'translation" here I think. I infact agree with most of the things discussed on this forum. And I would not recommend local to start but if no other choice is available to that individual I like to at least let them know of the opportunities.

Yes maybe I should of been more clear out of the gate as well i was referring to more so Linehaul than anything else. Or something similar to what Don picked up at Fab.

For the record, I completely understand where you're coming from. I raised three daughters myself and missed out on a lot of things due to being self employed and having commitments other than my most important one.

Forgive me if we got too contentious.

Here's the deal... I don't recommend going local first under any circumstances. I do recommend if someone wants to get into this that they get their spouse and their children involved in the discussions and make sure everybody is on the same page. The most practical approach to a local driving job is to get a good solid year of over the road experience under your belt. That gives you a decent foundation, and also opens a lot of doors to you.

I realize there are a few people who get hired as local drivers with no experience, and often it is in the LTL sector. Typically it is their location which allows this, not so much the record of success they've had of hiring new inexperienced drivers. The reason we push back against advising people to go this route is because we've had members in the past who tried this and got fired for minor accidents. These were really good people with excellent driving records, and it usually involved poor driving conditions like snow and ice.

I stand by my advice of taking incremental steps to obtain your desired goals. It is just plain old fashioned traditional prudence that makes for success.

I congratulate you on being able to be home with your family, that's a real tangible blessing. I just think it's best for our spouses to allow us to get to that point by taking the safest and most productive path to that goal.

My family and I discussed this career change for more than an entire year before pulling the trigger. They knew I was committed to it, and would be gone for lengthy time periods. We thought I would get a local job later on. As it turned out they have all enjoyed cruising across the country with me at various times, and I've discovered I thoroughly enjoy the lifestyle. In addition to those things I've been able to make the same levels of money that I hear those high paying line haul jobs provide.