"Snowbird" Trucker: Is It Possible?
 

I need to bounce an idea off you guys. All feedback appreciated. Here's my situation. I'm an old bachelor who lives in a house that's paid for and hardly has any bills except a godawful property tax. :sad:
I've got a pretty decent bank account, so nothing is making me sweat at the moment. This old house is located out in the country on the bank of a beautiful little river in southwest Florida. I love it here. That is, I love it here from about November until June. Then it becomes hellish. The heat, humidity, rain, lightning, and most of all, several varieties of swarming, biting insects make me wish I could spend the summer months somewhere else, like our part-time winter residents, the "snowbirds" do.
I don't have enough money to completely retire, or to maintain a second residence in a northern state. Also, at the moment I have no income at all. I'm living on my savings. I'm pretty frugal, so I've been getting away with it. But, I know I've got to get back to work in the not-too-distant future.
Although I went to truck school and have a Class A with everything except HazMat, I love my home too much to always stay gone as an OTR trucker. A few years ago I settled into a niche as a local tri-axle dump truck driver. I greatly enjoyed it but unfortunately our local "construction boom" turned into a "construction bust", and everybody either went out of business or keep their dump trucks parked most of the time. Nobody's hiring, and the local dirt mines look like ghost towns.
It's apparent that if I'm going to stay in trucking, I'm going to have to find employment completely out of my area. I'd rather not be a fulltime OTR driver.
Here's the idea I want to bounce off you. Would it be possible to drive my RV up north somewhere at the beginning of every summer and find a job driving dump trucks or whatever for agricultural, road building, construction, or mining interests? Ideally, summer would be their busiest time and they could keep me busy. Then in the fall I could come back to Florida to enjoy our beautiful winters fishing, hunting, and tending to my vegetable garden and young fruit trees. Then, when summer is near, just lock up the house and head north (or west) again.
Are there any seasonal truck driving opportunities for a guy like me? What businesses should I be inquiring to? I don't have a clue.
Any ideas and advice will be looked into. Thanks.

Have you thought about seeing if some trucking companies would be willing to hire you on as "seasonal" help. Work 6-8 months OTR and then take the rest of the year off and next spring/summer go back on the road with the same company.

I know some farmers around this area that do that. They drive in the winter months and farm in the summer.

It would be very possible in the oil and gas fields where most of the road building for wells is done in the spring summer and fall and drops off on the winter.

Interesting
 

I'm in the Pacific Northwest and would like to head south for the winter/spring.
My problem is I don't have 90 behind the glass.
so all suggestions welcome (single with pension so money is not a deal killer unless............... :evil:

Actually.... you wouldn't even need to put an RV anywhere, unless you really wanted to. Most companies would be flexible as to where you take your time off. If you wanted to stay out for the whole summer and accrue days off, a company like CFI would do it for you. Then in the winter you could take your time off in Lee County. I live just north of you....and I drove for them for a long time.

Manpower,MTS, Ryder to name a few

In a word
 

Yes. Easily. If you have experience and want to do that you could do it pretty much anywhere you want. Dont even have to drive otr or anything. I'd suggest a SMALL company. A big co is gonna fill you full of hot air then start pushing yo uto do more, start "forgetting' their promises etc.

You could drive anything from a dump truck to otr full time for a few months. Heck try "ice road trucking". Oh and there are a few co's that hire out of florida, especially western fla anyway.