Considering A New Career!

OK...I didn't think I would EVER have to add anything to my list of Don'ts for rookie truck drivers. But, life has proved me wrong once again...so here goes...

To The Photographers who become truck drivers.....YOU CANNOT, I REPEAT,CANNOT...MAKE THAT LITTLE SQUARE WITH YOUR HANDS TO FRAME A POSSIBLE PICTURE...WHILE YOU ARE DRIVING 80K OF TRUCK AND TRAILER DOWN THE ROAD.....

ok...I hope thats the last thing I have to add to that list.......

No self respecting photographer with any real knowledge of the subject would ever shoot a photo through a windshield of a moving vehicle. Not just for the safety issue, but the chances of actually getting a photo that anyone would care the least bit about is almost nil. No worries, Starcar.

I want to start a new career in trucking. But it doesn't seem sustainable long term.

The are only a few things that I am concerned about before pursuing a trucking career.

1.)If you get into ONE trucking accident -- whether its minor or serious -- your trucking career is basically over. If I am driving an 18-wheeler on a patch of "black ice" in winter and the truck jackknifes or I cannot stop and collide into something my career is over.

2.)It seems like trucking companies are heartless, greedy, evil companies that are all about making profits and could care less about their employees. I feel like they make you "speed" to get to your destination and get freight delivered on time! No exceptions. Just seems like a lot of stress from the pressure companies put on you and they throw you out to pasture if they don't like you or don't deliver on time.

It seems like the more I read about bad experiences from former truckers and the forums--it just seems trucking companies don't care about their employees and then being worried about not getting into an accident and not getting speeding tickets and --one mishap---its all over with. Too much risk.

Any thoughts on my two issues?

I want to start a new career in trucking. But it doesn't seem sustainable long term.

The are only a few things that I am concerned about before pursuing a trucking career.

1.)If you get into ONE trucking accident -- whether its minor or serious -- your trucking career is basically over. If I am driving an 18-wheeler on a patch of "black ice" in winter and the truck jackknifes or I cannot stop and collide into something my career is over.

2.)It seems like trucking companies are heartless, greedy, evil companies that are all about making profits and could care less about their employees. I feel like they make you "speed" to get to your destination and get freight delivered on time! No exceptions. Just seems like a lot of stress from the pressure companies put on you and they throw you out to pasture if they don't like you or don't deliver on time.

It seems like the more I read about bad experiences from former truckers and the forums--it just seems trucking companies don't care about their employees and then being worried about not getting into an accident and not getting speeding tickets and --one mishap---its all over with. Too much risk.

Any thoughts on my two issues?

Those drivers are giving you their slant, and you are not hearing the other side of the story. You are not hearing from the much larger group of drivers that are not disgruntled, because they are not angry and are doing other things than vent.

I am soon going to earn my CDL if all goes as planned. My attitude is this. If I go out on the road, and do as I have been taught concerning safety, and apply common sense when necessary, the odds of having a preventable accident are going to be lower. Could it still happen? Maybe. I will do what I can to control what I can control, and I am not going to worry about what I have no control over. If I recall correctly from his book, Brett, the owner of this website, drove for fifteen years without having an accident, so it is doable.

Hey Todd we're famous for pulling new truck driver wannabes out of the ditch - the very ditch that you've just slid off the road into. Do you see how useless your research on forums has been? It's filled you with misinformation and outright lies about an industry that very generously supports millions of families in this country. There are millions of truck drivers who make a very decent living doing something that they love, and each of them works hard at being a professional who protects his hard earned CDL , and the public motorists who share the great open road with them.

Now what you've been researching is what a bunch of people who couldn't handle the job have had to say about it. How would you feel about your wife and children being out there on the road with a bunch of rogue truck drivers on the loose? Yes, safety is a top priority with most all trucking companies, and if you are an unsafe driver you're going to get fired. It's just too dangerous to have someone who doesn't take this stuff seriously to be behind the wheel of 80,000 pounds of raw force. I actually know of several drivers who have had accidents that are still working, but there is a big difference between being involved in an accident and being an unsafe driver. Unsafe drivers are going to be causing accidents - they've got to be stopped before they seriously injure or even kill someone. And I can guarantee you that if you've been reading posts where drivers are "blaming their company" for making sure they can't get a job in the industry, your reading from someone who will not take personal responsibility for their own unsafe actions.

As to your first point about the "black ice", almost any company I know of will tell you to shut down somewhere and don't even think about driving in those conditions. They don't want you in an accident, they need you to be out there working and helping get the job done safely. When my employer issued me my snow chains (which are required to be on the truck by the D.O.T.) they told me to put them under my bunk and don't ever get them out. What they meant was when it's bad enough to need them it's bad enough to quit driving.

Your second point about those heartless, greedy, money grubbing companies is so far off base that I wonder if you've ever tried to put any critical thinking skills to use instead of just so willingly accepting what a bunch of people that you don't even have a clue about have to say about something you are trying to research. This is a business whose profit margins are slim, in fact, so slim that most trucking companies have to figure out other ways to make money because they just aren't able to do it by moving freight alone. Would you like to guess what one of their biggest expenses is? Well, it is their payroll. Yes those greedy sons of beaches spend all their money keeping their drivers paid up. If you're the type of driver who can manage to do this safely day in and day out you will be one of the many recipients of those really nice paychecks. Almost all jobs are paid based on your performance, well this one is no different, the problem lies in that this industry attracts a lot of people who think "well heck, I know how to drive, I might as well be getting paid for doing something I like to do." There is a big difference in being a professional and just being there for a job that seems easy to you. Those people you've been reading about always blame their failure on those corporate hate mongers who forced them into doing something unsafe, when the truth is, that the driver always has the last word on whether he thinks conditions are safe, or if they indicate he should find a safe haven and wait it out.

Okay I'm gonna stop my rant and give you a homework assignment now. Please do yourself a big favor and quit researching in the wrong places. Try reading some of the information in this Trucker's Career Guide, that's a good place to start. Also look up Brett's free book on this site and read it, you'll find it an easy read and very informative and entertaining. We also have some really great information available in the Truck Driving Blogs section.

Hey, if there's one thing we want for you it's for you to enjoy and be successful at your new career, but you can not go about it the way you got started. If we can get you out of that ditch you're in and get you started on the right track you'll have a 100% greater chance at success and you won't be another one of the unemployed "victims" that ends up over there at the Truckers Report blowing a bunch of smoke and scaring people away from the industry.

I wish you every success at this!

Amen to Tim and Old School. I'm not even going to attempt to add anything to that. I'm just going to stand back and applaud. Very well said!!!

Welcome aboard Todd! I hope you'll take that excellent advice to heart and have a look at the links Old School gave you.

Old School,

Your information was appreciated. It is a shame that there is a lot of negativity about certain companies and how truckers are treated. I have been burned in the past and my guard is up. The economy is in bad shape these days. Many people have experienced layoffs and lost a lot, including myself. I am staying hopeful though. I want to invest my time and money into a new career and reduce risk. I'm glad you brought a different perspective for myself to be aware of. I will look into the links you provided.

Onto ways of obtaining a CDL with less hassle and cost:

1. Many "starter" trucking companies offer free CDL training(which isn't free) to work for them. The catch is you sign up for a one year contract. However, many pay .23 cents a mile or cheap labor. Then if I quit I owe them the money back and interest. However, being a newbie you have to start somewhere and pay my dues.

2. I am checking out CDL schools in my city of Phoenix, AZ. Some are expensive. $4,000 or more.

3. Another option is going to a CDL school in Allen, Texas for $250 dollars. It only takes 5 days to get your CDL. Just get a motel room and pass all the tests and drive back to Phoenix. Total cost would be $1,500.

4. Take the CDL written test on my own and rent a Semi-trailer from a school to pass my skills test.

I am researching this amazing forum. So maybe I will find the answers here.

Thanks!

Everybody seems to want these local jobs, but most don't consider how those jobs work. They get paid by the hour for a reason, that reason is that it is a very physically demanding job. Most people don't hold up well for a lot of years of that kind of work. I had a young strong nephew that did that type of driving job for a while, but eventually he just couldn't keep it up - he was tired of his back hurting him all the time.

I wanted to revisit this because I forgot to address it before.

I misused the word "local", which is my fault. I meant it in the literal sense of the word, not in trucking industry terms. I know there's a lot of hype in working for the local trucking companies like Coke/Pepsi, Frito-Lay, etc. because you're home in the evenings and such. I'm reading that a lot of drivers say that's where the money is. I have a few friends who have done that gig, and it's not really something I'm interested in. Backbreaking labor indeed.

No, when I say "local", I mean there are a few smaller trucking companies who are nearby. One in particularly is headquartered less than 5 miles away from me. Great pay, great benefits. They were the first place I called when I decided to do this, but sadly, they don't offer company sponsored training , nor do they hire newbies with zero experience.

To The Photographers who become truck drivers.....YOU CANNOT, I REPEAT,CANNOT...MAKE THAT LITTLE SQUARE WITH YOUR HANDS TO FRAME A POSSIBLE PICTURE...WHILE YOU ARE DRIVING 80K OF TRUCK AND TRAILER DOWN THE ROAD.....

ok...I hope thats the last thing I have to add to that list.......

Starcar,

That brought a smile to my face and a chuckle to my lips!

Todd, irregardless of who you choose to get your CDL training thru, you will still have to "pay your dues". To get the experience, and to look good to prospective trucking companies, you need to stick with one company your first year. So with that said, it is important to really be strict about who you choose to spend that year with. Whether you get your cdl thru a community college, private cdl school, or a trucking company cdl school, you will be spending one year driving truck before you will look like an asset to any trucking company. I went to a 4 day CDL school. But I had driven alot of truck prior, AND we bought our truck, so I didn't have to show experience on paper..I just had to learn to drive OTR on a learning curve that nearly cost me my sanity. My husband had driven all his life, so he taught me the ropes. But I had to learn "on the fly", cuz that truck had to be moving for it to make the money we needed to make the truck payment. Its a vicious cycle when you buy a truck. I seriously doubt any trucking company would take you on after you tell them you have no otr training, and went to a 5 day CDL "mill". Even the cdl school that I did my 4 days at, has now changed, and its a 4-6 week school. If you do go to that 5 day school, you will find that you will have to go thru a trucking company school and go out with a trainer on top of that, before you will earn that solo seat you want. There's no shortcut to becoming a truck driver in this day and age....You have to pay your dues.

Hey Todd, your use of the word "starter" companies makes it clear that you've been all over the place doing your research. Those so called "starter" companies are the very ones who are willing to do you a really big favor and hire you, fully knowing that you have absolutely nothing to offer them because you are an unproven inexperienced driver who has nothing but a brand new shiny CDL. If you had any idea about the potential risk they take in giving you and any other new drivers a job you'd be calling them the most generous and benevolent trucking companies around instead of demeaning them with that "starter" title. Again I'm not being critical, this is just the result of modern day research on trucking - people get to thinking just like the people who are so prolifically providing such misinformation on the internet.

You really don't need to worry so much about those starting pay figures. I kind of got obsessed with this same thing when I started looking into trucking. The pay seems to be all over the place when all you are seeing is the cents per mile figures. You'll see one company that is claiming .40 cpm and one that is .27 cpm, and I mean that is pretty obvious that you'd rather get .40 cpm, at least that's how I looked at it. Well I had a lot of difficulties getting hired, for reasons which I won't go into right now, but by those figures I just showed you I got hired for a low cpm rate. Now here's the clench-er, a person that I became friends with got hired at the higher rate by one of the companies I tried to get on with. Now hold on to your seat, but after we started comparing notes with each other I'm taking home on average about two hundred dollars more per week than my buddy. So, if you can prove yourself to be efficient and productive your dispatcher is going to entrust you with good miles and keep you busy. The miles that you can productively produce is where you come out on top and make good money. I remember one of my teachers in truck driving school telling me not to get obsessed about those cpm rates that usually the lower rates actually made better money. I thought he was crazy, but now I understand what he was trying to say.

Here's my advice on school. Private school is indeed expensive, and if you just don't have the resources then it's out of the decision making process. Another thing that is out of the process is your idea of renting a truck and getting your CDL on your own. Here's why: no one, and I mean no one will hire you. You don't realize it now, but just having a CDL doesn't qualify you to be an eligible employee in this business. You absolutely have to have a certificate from the school showing the hours of training you received. This is required because the insurance companies that will be taking a huge risk with you out there on the road in an 80,000 pound vehicle not hardly having a clue yet about what you're doing. Can we blame them? I think not. Now that also takes the $250.00 school that you mentioned off the table because you are going to be required to have a minimum of 160 hours training on that certificate, and some even require 240 hours. In a (5) day school you'd have to be training for (32) hours a day. Yeah, that doesn't compute does it?

Okay, I think I just helped you make a decision about school. Your back to those "starter" companies. Here's the deal, don't get obsessed about making that contractual agreement with them. If you've got the right attitude your gonna love it once you get to start driving solo. Training may be intense and unpleasant at times, but it's a very short time compared to the great time your gonna be having out there on your own. We've had lots of people come through here that have gone with the really big companies like Prime and Swift and they are doing well and loving their jobs and their great pay. Take a look at our Company-Sponsored Training guide and you will be able to gather information on companies that offer training and what they require of you - you just might find a great match for you in there.

Okay I'm giving you about three years worth of research for free here, but one last thing and it's the most important thing I'm telling you. If you haven't started it yet please give yourself a big leg up in this business by going through the High Road Training Program.

You're gonna be such a great driver when we get through with you you're gonna wish you had never done all that prior research. I think your headed in the right direction now, just follow through with the good advice your getting and you will be getting a set of keys to a nice shiny big rig handed to you before you know it.