[acslam]

Alright, this is another one of those "Should I do this?" threads. I'm 22, about to head off to CDL school, very clean driving record and such.

I realize that heading into the industry and starting out OTR is tough and will take over much of my life.

Currently I've got a couple of jobs, one of them is pushing snow for the Mass Highway department. Pushing snow, when i get to do it, does pay very well. To the tune of 90 bucks an hour, roughly. And I've invested enough of my time and effort into my truck and business that I don't want to give up that opportunity come the next cold season.

Is there any way to mix these two or perhaps switch seasonally? I'm completely open to trying to change to regional/local driving for the cold season, which is what I'm aiming at - long haul 9 months a year or so and switch closer to home when I see a possibility of getting called out. I've talked to some companies, and they say I can switch to their regional division, but that would still have me away from home a week at a time.

Realistically, in pushing snow I only get a good 2-3 days notice of most storm events. Really huge stuff the weather guys can see maybe a week in advance, but I've learned that I usually need to be on guard as often as possible.

I'm looking right now at Schneider and CFI, leaning toward CFI.


Anyone do anything like this? Any suggestions? OTR seems to me like it would actually be kinda fun.


Sorry if this post is useless, feel free to delete me.

[Mars]

I am not a plow guy, but the hours you work and the time you are in a truck can carry over in a useful way into trucking. I got into it because I am not a suit and tie office type, the politics make wanna hurl.

[coastie]

That will be hard to do. will not say impossible but hard.

[dano2006]

Yes it is possible.... if you do local work. I have a plow on my pickup an get about the same rate per hour in MN. I do local sidedump work so it worked out great last year because the days it snowed we didn't haul any dirt. I would say do't worry about it until september or so do what ya gotta do for now.

[bonzo]

you should see if dot will hire you as there employee. in illinois i be hired by idot for 6 to 8 months for winter work plow highways do road repair when there was no snow. was a good deal 7 to 3 pm and all ot after that including weekends. also it was all there trucks . could have also got on full time 12 months after the first couple of years of being seasonal. its worth checking into.

[Mackman]

If you run a dump truck in the winter it is the slow season anyway so you should be able to do it.

[vavega]

another seasonal idea could be sod and or landscaping. plenty of work in spring/summer/fall and then say 3 months off to snow plow.

here's a listing of companies, scroll down for massachuetts

[marylandkw]

I really think it would be hard to balance the two.

I own my dump truck and hang a blade off it for the snow and I often "fight the clock" when I get called out.

Most of my customers try to stock up on material anticipating a few days of low supply due to the weather. So when the storm is a coming I get really busy and have to worry about being home in time to hang my blade and get back to the state yard to sign in on time.