Mr. Trucker

Well, I have finally done it. My wife and I had the conversation this weekend, and after nearly a month of lurking, I'm ready to share.

I am currently 34 years old (35 in a couple weeks) and have taught middle school for seven years now. Every year around spring break I always start considering other professions due to perceived low wages and student behavior--students start what is known in the biz as "the spring break slide." However, while teaching doesn't pay great, one thing that isn't talked about is how mid-level it pays. It is very difficult to quit and start in a profession that will pay you as much--or more--than you're currently making if you have been teaching multiple years. I've seen a statistic that most teachers quit and make less at their next gig.

Last year was particularly difficult. After having moved from a rural district in Southern Idaho to a large district in coastal North Carolina, I was ready to quit mid January. I put some serious thought into it and had settled on trucking, I had even applied at a company and had a back-and-forth with a recruiter. However, the student who I was having a particularly difficult time with--who was coincidentally in my largest and most challenging class--was removed from the school (I have mixed feelings on this). There were also a few other changes, so I settled in to finish out the year. Other than half-heatedly joking about quitting to get my CDL occasionally, I had resigned myself for teaching for the time being.

At the end of June, my wife told me about one of her coworkers essentially using her entire salary to put her children in daycare. My wife and I spoke about wanting to have children in a year or two, and she reaffirmed her commitment to being a stay at home mom whenever we do start a family. While I'd never expect her to give up her career, I do support her stance. Staring down the barrel of fatherhood, I began thinking about a career change once again. My current,and most likely salary teaching will be around 50k. Though I'm sure there are many families that can and do get by on less than $50,000 a year, my wife and I don't live extravagantly and we currently have a combined income of around 80k. Selfishly, I have a hard time imagining raising a family on much less.

On just a random day in early July, I downloaded American Truck Simulator which began to grow the seed already planted in my head...

Just a bit of background about me so this doesn't seem quite so random: I completely understand that ATS isn't an adequate representation of truck driving. I grew up on a family farm and even operated my own farm for five years before I began teaching. I have driven many hours in a 10-wheeler (mostly a stack-retriever) as well as countless hours in other equipment. I have even spent time some time in a semi (my brother owned two Kenworths, a T680 and W900). I wouldn't ever call myself a truck driver as of now, but I am confident in my ability to get a semi from point A to point B given enough time, light traffic, and good roads. My wife has a background in trucking as well, her dad owns a trucking company and her brother also trucks, so she understands the business. While I'm not confident I will be able to replace our combined income with trucking (though I'm hopeful), I'd definitely have a higher earnings potential than teaching.

After chewing on truck driving for the last few weeks (and playing a lot of American Truck Simulator), my wife and I had a discussion yesterday that went surprisingly well (I do wonder if she was thinking similarly to be honest) and agreed upon me getting my CDL. I want to get my license out of pocket, and there is a school within two hours that offers a 16 week, Saturday-only program. This way I can still teach and coach football this fall while building our savings back up (we bought a house in May that drained our nest egg), as well as fulfill my contract obligation that I give the district at least 30 working-days notice that I resign. While I would need to speak to them about it, some of the companies I am targeting offer tuition reimbursement, so I could still essentially end up with a mostly free CDL.

I should have my license by December, and depending on how well the school year goes as well as the truck-job market, my plan is to start driving sometime during the first half of 2024. I'll keep those interested abreast of my progress!

Welcome Dan, welcome to the community and welcome to your new career pending. You may want to strongly consider doing company sponsored training. Also, while you are planning, please look at some of the resources on the site because trucking is a purely mental game.Brett’s podcast was absolutely awesome as I was preparing. It psychologically gets you ready for what you’re going to face out here when you’re ready to move forward.

Best of success to you sir let us know if we can help in any way.

Paid CDL Training Programs

Becoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Truck Driving

Update

So I have had to postpone my CDL course as I couldn't secure funding. My wife and I bought a house last June that drained our savings as well as made it very difficult to get a loan for school. Since I wanted to go to a private CDL School, I couldn't use a student loan like I figured I could (Sallie Mae has a career training loan, but it has to be through an actual school-school is my understanding). Then because of the recent mortgage and the credit ding that comes with that, any personal loan I applied for had stupid high interest. Like, high enough to make Visa card blush.

So I held off for the fall, however I think it may have been a blessing in disguise. The local community college has CDL programs, including weekend ones. It's also pennies in the dollar cheaper ($910 vs $5000+). The next weekend course starts in January, so I'm going to try and apply this week to make sure I get a spot.

While a little disappointing, I wasn't really planning on quitting teaching mid-year anyways. It may even be a higher quality class as the hours are nearly double than what's required.

Zen Joker, thanks for the reply! If something goes awry again, I may look at company sponsored training , but I'd prefer to put myself through a CDL course so I'm not contacted to a job or have to owe money if I go a different direction. Plus, with the weekend schooling I can get my CDL while still making my income. Thanks for the hint for the podcast, I'll look into it!

Dan H,

You should really consider the company training route to obtaining your CDL. This way you will have a guaranteed job to start out with and you will only need to stay a year to pay off the training.

If you obtain your CDL from a local school you will find it very difficult to find a job in this difficult economic times. Companies are being more cautious and selective in the hiring of anyone outside of their training control.

You have purchased a home and are planning to start a family soon. With your wife wanting to be a stay at home Mom, are you prepared to be away from her for extended periods of time? A local job is not always available and the pay may be less than you expect. Good luck.

Thanks Navypoppop for kindly telling me to temper my expectations. The time away is somewhat a concern, but we both are willing to give it a go. If she could, I think she would go back to being a flight attendant in a heartbeat.

I also don't expect to make 80k out of the gate as a beginner, but replacing or out doing my teaching salary of 45k should be doable?

Thanks for the heads up about the market. Do you think it would be wise just to call recruiters and just ask if they prefer to train over hiring a graduate?

Dan H.,

Thanks for the personal reply. I drove for 44 years before I retired and most of those years were local or regional. I wanted to be home as much as possible for my family. The little things like taking care of a home, quality time with the ones you love were very precious to me.

I found that working for one of the large LTL freight carriers will provide a good income with plenty of benefits. I worked for Conway Freight before they became XPO and my son is working for Estes.

I believe that the pay for any freight carrier should be near $25-28 per hour and 70-75c per mile for linehaul. I am probably off on the pay as I don't follow them too much.

If you desire to be on the road you will find it hard to land a good job because of the economic times we are in. All in all I feel that you can expect to make a good living either local or OTR.

As long as you and your wife are on the same path with the choices you make it will be a great life. After my 44 years of driving my wife and I are full time Rvers as my avatar shows our rig and I have been retired for 12 years and enjoying the good life. Good luck.

Update 2

Well, after Navypoppop's reply, I held off on apply for the spring CDL course until last week. I was listening to Andrew Huberman's David Goggins interview on the way home from work and it made me rethink the passive approach of waiting until the summer to do a paid CDL program.

I sent an email last Tuesday asking if there were any spots left in the Community College course and was told there was only one remaining. I talked it over with my wife Tuesday night, and as soon as school was out Wednesday I went in to sign up if the spot was still available. I figured if the universe didn't want me to take the course, the spot would be already filled. The lady that signed me up at the Community College told me I was lucky, as others had called in saying they were on their way to sign up.

I started lightly studying the North Carolina CDL manual Thursday evening, and then seeing that it was nearly identical Highroad Training (I had started the General Knowledge portion last summer), I started exclusively studying from the Highroad Training 2.0. Saturday morning I went in and got my physical done and spent the rest of the day finishing the Highroad Training. I took every practice test I could find online and on my phone on Sunday, and yesterday, Monday, I went into the DMV. Shockingly, it was all but empty, and I got right up to see someone. I received a 100% on all three tests, so thank you Trucking Truth!

I have my folder together with all the materials I need for class (physical, permit, driving record) and will start in 11 days. The course is every Saturday-Sunday until mid-April. There are several trucking companies that are connected with the school, or at least advertised on the flyer, so while I'm not particularly excited about the companies, perhaps I might receive an offer at the end of school? If not, I do have a list of other companies I'm targeting. And if I'm not meant to drive truck, $900 isn't a bad price for a cdl that could come in handy someday.

Started my course last weekend and it went well enough. There are only 6 of us in the class, so our instructors said it was the best amount, as we'll have two groups driving and we should end up with more hours each than if we had a full class of 8. We mostly spent the first two days reading out of the ELDT book and taking the quizzes at the end of each. We made it through about 8 chapters, spending close to an hour on each. While it was interesting, I could have probably gotten through it on my own a lot quicker had they just told me what to read and high light.

I suppose my current occupation is coming in handy already. My understanding is we will be taking a written test and have to score an 80% to pass the class. The test is over the contents the book taken from the quiz at the end of each chapter, so I have been entering the questions and answers into a quizzing website that I use for my students to practice the questions.

I've also been drawing on my elementary spelling test days to begin working on brute-memorization of the pre-trip study guide they gave us. We were told to read through it, not to necessarily start memorizing it, but I figure there's no time like the present. I've been trying to memorize the different sections and I write out the section from memory to test myself. I suppose that is one of the benefits of taking a 13 week, weekend course. I have the benefit of the 5 evening days to review stuff for class.

Anyways, onward and upward!

What you're doing with the memorizing and writing it out from memory is exactly what I did to learn the pre-trip and it helped immensely.

I started doing that before I got to training using Daniel B.'s pre-trip guide on here, then just had to tweak the verbiage to match my company's/testing state's.

The pre-trip is very important, but it's not like when you had to memorize the Preamble to the Constitution.

Her is a link to Daniel B's Study Guide

You have to know the parts and such, and things that can go wrong, like broken, cracked or damaged. So, recognize the parts and their names, then know what to say. It's no that hard.

Some more advice: the pre-trip is the examiner's first impression of you. Be sharp and know your stuff, that will help you get that "benefit of the doubt" on the rest of the test.