Not to rain on your parade, but you would be getting into this industry all wrong. Getting into trucking is easy...getting the miles or the right paycheck is hard.....there are people who don't make $3600 per month that has been driving for a few years.

This career choice will bankrupt you if you enter with that kind of debt. you need to lower you bills first, then think about driving.

And your timing is all wrong. You should wait until late April - early May when things pick up.


Good luck with what you decide. :wink:

 

I understand I would have to run hard with minimal home time to start. I have a little money set aside probley 3 months worth. I just need to know who to go with to hit a little over 40k range 1st. year. After 1st. year, or once I sell my house my expences will be cut down considerabley.

 

You've got to consider a few things first.

For one, you'll be in school for anywhere from 3-4 weeks with no pay. Then you'll go out with a trainer for a month or more making pauper wages. Right there, you're two months in the hole.

So that leaves you around 48 weeks out of the year to earn miles as a first-seat driver. Most companies start you out of the gate at around .28 cpm or so with raises up to about .34-.36 cpm after the first year. Let's use an average of .30 cpm then and figure 2500 average miles per week and knock 3 weeks out of the year for hometime. 45 weeks X 2500 X .30 = $33,750 + $1,000 for training month pay = about $35,000. Don't forget to factor in expenses such as tools, CB, cooler, motor carrier atlas, CDL, sleeping bag, etc. You won't get a paid vacation nor any holiday pay at most outfits until AFTER your first year (gee, what a deal!). And the bennies? Well to put it bluntly they suck.

 

In my part of the world, Super B chip haulers can make $60,000 a year and logging truck drivers can make $70,000 or more. And these guys are home every day.

And many of them are drivers with less than one or two years driving experience.

And I have seen it many, many times where they are making that right out our driving school.

I graduated a guy three years ago, and he was pulling in 400 a day, for as many days as he could stay in the truck. That was in the Fort MacMurry area.

In his first full year he made close to $90,000. He was 20 years old at the time.

 

How much is that is US dollars.

 

90,000 CAN is about 77,000 USD

 

:roll: Yes, there is big money out there, I know... BUT Very few drivers could ever do the type of driving that pays very well. If anyone could do it, it would not pay 6 figures. Duh... I tried the whole week before Christmas to train a 50 yr. old male, 1,000000 miler, instructor, trainer, no incidents, accidents, tickets.... NOPE couldn't do it. Not even close. You must have a natural ability.... Some things can't be taught

 

No getting around it, it is a young mans sport.

Everyone we send up there is in their 20's or 30's.

 

New World Van Lines

 

Many of the CDL schools have a evenings and weekend deal for those who want to keep their current job as long as possible.

Doing HHG as your first gig would be hard core. If you were ambitious, young and in superb shape it could be worth a shot.

But I think that most folk should start off with dry van for the 1st three months or so.