Searching For The Mystery Company

Thanks to all for your suggestions and answers. After hearing the suggestions, it sounds like wait a year until getting into tanker. Get the basic driving skills down. Make perfect sense.

With respect to what do I want to haul, the answer is driven in two parts. I would like to drive loads that provide high pay, and require a unique set of skills. Wide loads, DOD, Hazardous Tanker.

With respect to home, I have a wife of 28 years looking eagerly to real medical care and a home we can own. Super Sleeper looks like a nice way to have a home and travel.

With respect to regions of the country. No California, No NE states. Central US looks like a good start for first year? What is everyone's thoughts on best regions to cut teeth first year? Keeping in mind that October 15th CDL school is complete, and heading to orientation and training with a company.

Thanks Everyone! Remember I am a rookie looking for help from the professionals!

The super sleeper idea won’t match up very well to your ultimate goals. They weigh to much. My truck has a 72” sleeper and weighs almost too much for tanker loads. Wide loads if overweight permitted you maybe could do it, I’m not sure.

Hey Carl, it's great having you in here!

We're amused at times by the misconceptions people have about trucking. For some reason most newbies think there is this golden opportunity out there, hidden like a needle in a haystack, that will fulfill all their wildest dreams of wealth and adventure. They have these ideas that say the best way to make money in trucking is to work for some super special company, or to haul this extraordinary type of freight. We see it all the time. We were rookies once, so we understand it.

One person thinks they want to haul hazmat freight, another is convinced that oversized freight will fulfill their wildest dreams. Some are convinced hauling freight for the Department of Defense somehow pays way better than moving standard commodities. They strain at compiling data. They engage their search with spreadsheets, and compilations of unnecessary information that leads them in directions that are useless and futile.

Let's talk factually. Let's be realistic. Getting started in trucking is not usually as glamorous as we like to think. For a very surprisingly high percentage of new entry level drivers it's a total bust. Part of what so abruptly kicks them in the groin is their total misunderstanding of how this career works. There's nothing special about learning to succeed in trucking, just as there is nothing special about hauling unusual types of freight. Don't you think if the money was all reserved for tanker drivers we'd all be driving tankers?

Here's how you get to the point of being a successful driver. You simply get good at producing positive results. You prove yourself productive. I'm just an ordinary 60 year old guy driving a common old flat-bed truck. I make great money, and enjoy the heck out of my trucking career. There's seldom anything "special" on my trailer, but I was recently told by our operations manager that I was the highest paid driver in our flat-bed division. I've only been here five years. How did that happen?

The way to the top is to be productive. You can haul boxes of Mac and Cheese in a dry-van and make great money, as long as you prove to be better at it than everybody else. It's a performance based business. The level of pay you get is intrinsically bound up into how much you can get done. That means you've got to apply yourself to being productive, and that's a tall order. Surprise, surprise... what makes you an effective earner of top wages at trucking is how you conduct yourself out here. It has very little to do with what type of freight is being pulled behind your tractor.

Take some time to read these articles. I'm hoping they can point you in the right direction. Don't limit yourself into certain regions of the country or to certain soecial types of freight. Free your mind from your pre-conceived misconceptions. You yourself will be the determining factor in your success at this, and no spreadsheet calculations will help you figure that out.

What It Takes To Be A Top Tier Driver

Do I Have What It Takes To Succeed At Trucking?

Show Me The Money!