Young Guy Wanting To Get Started In Texas

Please stop putting stock in what you read on the internet...it’s is unchecked, often embellished information posted primarily by people that could not hack this industry, or performed poorly or who were unsafe drivers. You have zero clue about the individual who wrote the headtrash you read and they could care less about helping you make the right decision./blockquote>

I spoke with current driver and got there opinions. After ready bad stuff about them I went straight to the drivers and I heard geeat stuff from them like I said. But they did mention a few negative

G town not sure if you read my whole response or just read first sentence. But I said read bad stuff on internet. But I talked to their drivers who had good stuff to say. Then I listed the o ly negatives I found. So that was me explaining to him not to listen to what people write but to go straight to the people working there.

You can struggle to make ends meet at a MegaCarrier, or you can be make great money and enjoy what you do at the LTL company.

CJ Linehaul , I'm sorry but I'm not letting you slide with that remark. Do you want to clarify that for yourself? If not, I will do it for you when I have time.

I’m interested in this also. What kind of numbers do you need to make ends meet? My biggest surprise is how much I’m making as a rookie and how easy to make that much by just being smart and applying myself.

CJ, I've waited patiently for six hours now to see if you would respond to my request that you clarify this statement...

You can struggle to make ends meet at a MegaCarrier, or you can be make great money and enjoy what you do at the LTL company.

I stated that I would clarify it for you if you chose not to, so here it goes:

Now, for all of you reading this, I want you to realize that CJ is your very typical driver that you will come across a thousand times during your trucking career. We are continually having to point out his erroneous remarks, yet he is still convinced that he has got all the right answers. His only problem is that he can't ever seem to find those answers for himself. You see he is continually seeking out greener pastures because he just can't seem to find any trucking job that is good enough to stay at. He makes the huge blunder that is so common among the many wannabes out here. He is convinced that there is some golden nugget of a company that will understand how to treat him just right, and keep him in the money. I've lost track of how many different companies he has worked for in the last couple of years, but it is something like three or four. Maybe he will enlighten us, because I could have missed a few. At one point he was trying to convince us that being a team driver was where the money was. He was adamant about it, but he soon gave up the pursuit because it let him down. Then he went solo for a while so that he wasn't hindered by a co-driver. Not long after that he realized he still wasn't making money, so he determined that switching companies was the cure. Then we heard all about how great his new company, Ozark Motor Lines, was treating him - once again, everything was grand! OMG, what a surprise, now he is no longer with them, but he has seen the light, and if you want to make money you have got to steer clear of the Mega Carriers. After all they are going to keep you down so that you can "barely make ends meet." You see, if you want to be making some real money, like CJ is, you've got to get into LTL. Now, that's where the money is!

I am going to make a prophetic declaration here, and predict that our friend CJ will soon discover some other secret insider's tip about how to make the most money as a truck driver before too many more months go by, and we will be hearing about the next great trucking opportunity that opened up it's doors to him. After all, how could we blame him? We all want to make the most money we can at this don't we? And surely the best way to make the most money is to take advantage of the experience we've been gaining from these greedy top heavy companies we've had to work at for such cheap wages just to get ourselves to this point. Who could argue with that approach? Well, apparently not many can or do. That is why I wanted you to realize that you will meet thousands of truck drivers like CJ if you stay in this business for even just a few short years. They are everywhere, and they are a constant source of misinformation to the many rookie drivers that we try so hard to help.

If you want to establish yourself as a Top-Tier Professional Driver you simply have got to make the Commitment to jumping in here and sticking it out until you get things figured out. This whole trucking career is very much oriented to the individual who can muster up something for himself. It is a career that provides success oriented people a platform to prove they have the drive, initiative, and ability to produce at a competitive level that sets them apart from their peers. CJ says you will barely be able to make ends meet, because that was his experience - he has struggled at this career, even though he has often tried to convince us with his calculations and glowing reports indicating how much money he will be making. For some reason each attempt has fallen short of his expectations, much like his current fascination with Linehaul will undoubtedly unravel.

Folks, it's not the type of freight you haul, and it's not the name on your truck's doors that will establish your success. Those things will have little to no bearing on your success at this career. You can spend a lifetime seeking out the latest type of freight you think will finally put you over the top. You can switch companies from now to eternity thinking it is going to make a difference in your take home pay, and you will find yourself just as frustrated with your trucking career twenty five years from now as you were with that first "starter" company that you thought treated you so badly. I'm going to tell you how you can recognize somebody, in their rookie year, who is going to be a really successful truck driver. They will be turning big miles, earning good money, and be very satisfied with their first trucking job. Poor CJ never got to have those experiences because he was focused on all the wrong things for success. He just knew that those team drivers could make more money. After all, he had done the math, and it was clearly evident! He left one factor out of his calculations though. He left out the ever present threat to success at this career, and that is the lack of understanding of how this whole career works.

Continued...

Successful truck drivers learn how to get things done out here. They make things happen just as if they were self-employed individuals who know they have everything to lose if they fail. Successful truck drivers will figure out how things work at their company (this includes what some people call starter or Mega carriers) and they will learn to communicate effectively with their dispatcher so that he can keep them busy. Those successful rookies learn early on how their dispatcher wants to keep their wheels turning. They figure out how that dispatcher needs constantly updated information so that he can have them pre-planned for the next load. They also realize that they have got to be 100% reliable with no excuses. They know their success stands solely on the reputation they have built with their dispatcher. They understand that this relationship with the hand that feeds them has got to not only be established, but it has got to be steadily maintained with efficiency, accuracy, and flawless execution of everything they say they will do. They know that the first little bit of doubt they put in that dispatcher's mind about their ability to "git er done" out here will come back and affect their miles in a negative way. They recognize their responsibility as paramount to success, and everything they do is based on that conviction.

I have witnessed these trucking wannabes for years now. They are all the same. They are only happy when they have a new job, and that is only because they haven't had enough time to screw it up yet. You give them six to nine months and they will already be getting antsy, looking for a scape-goat, someone or some reason that they can point their finger at. They are always on the prowl for that next great opportunity, and as soon as they find it they waste no time in repeating their same old behavior of royally squandering their umpteenth chance at proving they can handle themselves in a way that would establish them as productive professionals.

If you want to make good money at a "starter company" or a mega carrier, you absolutely can. Nobody pays me to make such remarks. Nobody has me on a chain. I have proven this fact repeatedly and done it at companies where there are a host of miserable drivers that don't have a clue about how to get themselves to a level of professionalism that will reward their bank account and their sense of self worth. I got rejected by so many trucking companies when I tried to get this career started that I had to go with the only company that would take me. It wasn't long until I was getting driver of the month awards for my levels of productivity. I was getting frequent unscheduled raises in my CPM that no one else was getting. I was getting recognition for MY accomplishments. That is what this career is all about. You prove that you can get more done than the other guys and you get all the best treatment. That is no easy task either - you had better bring your best game every day, every night, and every chance you get. Your performance out here will establish you as a winner and a success in a very competitive arena. Your lack of any credible evidence that you understand what it takes to be competitive in this arena, and your inability to keep up with the constant demand for a high level of competency and execution will put you in the constant job seekers category.

Success at trucking is very rewarding. Constantly seeking out success in trucking, yet not being able to grasp it, is a never ending frustration. It produces many newly rekindled false hopes at each new employer you start with.

Old School, you always bully me.

The rookie at the Mega Carrier will make between $40-60k first year.

The rookie with the LTL Carrier will make $60-90k first year.

But go ahead and discredit me, and rather than encourage others to follow the path they desire to take in this industry, or give them other options that maybe they’ve not thought about, let’s just feed them all to the OTR MegaCarriers.

For a man with so much experience in this career field, I’m surprised that you don’t understand that LTL money is better than Mega Carrier money.

Money is the only reason I’m out here working. Money is the only reason a lot of people are out here working. You’re mad because I chose to better my financial situation? Mad because I didn’t make my wife and kids live out in the street while I was out here in the truck? Mad because I had two vehicles repo’d first year trucking and thought I should have stayed at that same company that never paid well?

You judge me because I worked at a few companies without ever thinking about my home-life situation. I guess you’re single. Maybe you’ve never had a wife and kids? If you do, then you should understand my reasons. Then again, I don’t answer to you.

And you waited six hours for me to clarify all of this to you? Some of us are out here working on a Sunday, thought you’d figure that one out since were in the same career field.

CJ, you've said exactly one thing of value - Linehaul is a good option. No one has said it isn't.

But Old School is of course dead on with you. He described you perfectly. You're the guy that always thinks he has it all figured out so you go and proselytize about your newfound wisdom to the world, then it doesn't go the way you expect, so you completely change course and start over again with more newfound wisdom and more proselytizing.

It's like nutrition people who touted the benefits of low fat and low cholesterol, then make an about face to the benefits of fat and cholesterol is no longer bad at all. Then it's over to vegetables, then it becomes micronutrients that are the key, but wait - now it's the microbiome we should be nurturing. Each time they come up with this newfound wisdom it always trumps their old wisdom which had trumped the previous wisdom. All you have to do is wait a little while and it will definitely change again.

Old School is also right that this industry is full of drivers who never stop doing this. They change jobs every 6 months thinking they've always found this new hidden gem of a company or a new type of freight that is just magic. The honeymoon lasts about a month, then they start to sour on it, then immediately they start looking around for the next great thing.

And don't BS people and say stupid things like:

You can struggle to make ends meet at a MegaCarrier, or you can be make great money and enjoy what you do at the LTL company.

That's total BS. We've had a ton of drivers in here, including Old School and Turtle, who made over $50,000 their rookie year in trucking. Anyone worthwhile makes $40,000 - $45,000 their rookie year. You call that barely making ends meet? No one would.

We have quite a few experienced drivers in here that are making $65,000 - $75,000 working for the mega carriers.

Not only that, but you're really going to claim you "enjoy what you do" at LTL? Seriously???

The pay is great, but by God it better be because it's so painfully boring and repetitive that you'll want to gouge your eyes out after three days. It's the trucking equivalent of working on a production line. I've had jobs like that in trucking and I wanted to drive straight off a cliff by the third day it was so boring and monotonous. There is no adventure, no lifestyle, no new scenery, no new people - just tedious boredom day in and day out. Yeah, sounds super fun just going back and forth on the Interstate between the same two places every day of your life. Lucky you.

If you're a family man and you want to be home every night, Linehaul is a great option. You'll make great money and get home at least most nights. But my God I'm not kidding when I say it is literally the most boring trucking job on the planet. Unfortunately it's also a pretty hard job to break into as a new driver unless you live in certain places, mostly near major cities in the Northeast and Northern Midwest.

You said:

I had two vehicles repo’d first year trucking

Well then you're about as good at managing your finances as you are at figuring out how to make top money in trucking.