If trucking is what you want to do then I would say that your situation is better than most getting in. No kids, no house, wanting to team, etc. I agree with twilight that you should both start together. I work for CFI and drove solo for a year and now team with my wife. I can tell you CFI is no different than any other company, or worse. www.cfidrivers.com is just a cheerleading site and if you want nothing but CFI spin then by all means visit it. I used to be a moderator there so I know quite a bit about it. It's just a recruiting site. But as far as the company. I rank it average with the other companies you mentioned. The main thing you want to decide is where you can spend at least a year to get an idea about what trucking is all about. people can tell you about it all day and recruiters can give you information till you are blue in the face. But if you can't commit to a year without a doubt then I would not worry about it anymore. It can be fun. It can be interesting. It can even be scary. But no one can tell you if you will like it or not. The fact that you are gonna team will give you a bit of a financial break that a lot of solo's don't have but really that depends on if both checks go to the same place. I would recommend marriage first but that goes with my personal beliefs which I won't share. Let us know what you decide.

 

i'm with cold frosty mug,
Have your girlfriend become an RN , per diem rates here in SOCAL are 40-60 $$/hour, then you can have a sugar mama like me. My wife is a speech language patholigist in the medical field and cashes in 120-150/hr
when she does private practice stuff.

Two years of school and she can make 60-100k-- There is a HUGH DEMAND!!

Then you can otr for a while then land something local.

Best wishes, hard decision to make.

 

Now we're doing more of that fuzzy math?

$52,000/52=$1000.00
$1000.00/(8.75*7)=$16.33

So, if you never took a week off and worked every hour allowed under the law, you would be somewhere in the $15-17/hour range. As a team, per mile pay is better and more of your allotted hours are spent driving, so the rate is even higher.

First year? I made $47,000. It seems that $40,000 is a pretty commonly achieved figure.

$40,000/52=$769.23
$769.23/(8.75*7)=$12.56

Again, that's using the ludicrous assumption that the only way you earn $40,000 is working exactly 70 hours every eight days and never taking time off. Perhaps we should consider that we get a day off for every 7 out. I'll spare you the long form, but this means we work 6.125 days a week. So now:

$769.23/(8.75*6.125)=$14.35

My point? I don't really know, just that you should take whatever people say on these sites with a grain of salt. You want to drive a truck? Good for you. Drive a truck.

The people who think they speak for everyone usually speak for nobody but themselves. Ask more pointed questions as you make your decision and try to identify the people with an agenda (it won't be difficult). Once you've identified those people, remember who they are and take their 'advice' for what it's worth. And when it comes to recruiters, always get a second or third opinion. And then, if that second or third opinion came from a driver, get a fourth or fifth one. That's about my only advice to you.

 

If you add up all the unpaid time you spend waiting in line, traffic, fueling, dealing with lumpers, waiting for the qualcomm to BEEP! with a load, scaling, paperwork, docktime, hunting for empties, local work, looking for places to park, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...you will see that you are easily putting in 85-100 hour workweeks.

Let me guess how you log your docktime:

15 minutes check-in
line 2
15 minutes check-out

Each and EVERY time. :roll: And then you'll claim that you're running a legal book and ONLY working 70 hours per week. HAH! What a crock!!!

And any extra $$$$$ you make runnin' the road goes right out the window in truck-stop meals, laundry, showers, etc. $52k to live out of a fiberglass box? If that job was half as good as you make it out to be, there wouldn't be the 120% average burn-out rates, the sign-on bonuses, advertising, etc.

To the original poster, stay away from irregular-route OTR trucking. Too many hours for the $$$$$. Too much time away from home. No overtime. 7 TIMES more likely to be killed on the job than workers in other professions. No social life. Wayyyyyy too many freebies.

Nuff' said!

 

No I don't log 15 minutes for check in or check out. It takes about 30 seconds to say, "Here I am." I just flag my arrival. Log it like you do it, that's what I was taught. If I'm not working, I'm not logging on duty. It's really not complicated.

So should I be paid for watching movies, reading a book, or sitting and reading posts from bitter people on a message board? Are you guys who are not in a truck being paid for the same? I doubt it. My guess is that you get paid while you're actually working, as do I. The copout about working 80-100 hours a week is simply ridiculous. I work anywhere from 45-60 hours a week, which is less than I did in previous careers.
Go ahead and show me where I made it out to be good so that I can try to quantify what "half as good" would look like. I'm pretty sure I look at it for what it is - a change of pace from what I've done before. While you're at it, show me how I can throw my money out the window. I'm apparently missing something, as I currently spend quite a bit less than I did when I was home every day.

The turnover rates are the result of people, apparently like you, who shouldn't be doing the job. Recruiters put butts in the seat by any means necessary and people have some romanticized fantasy about what it will be like. People who know what they're getting into, apparently like me, seem to do just fine.

I thank God that I have never felt the need to overcome my own misery by degrading an entire population of people who choose to earn a living in a different manner than I do. To the original poster: Do what you want to do. Make the most of whatever choices you make and you'll come out fine.

 

Having been super excited to become a truck driver all the way to hating every aspect of the job I can say to the original poster. If you do it, do it for a year! You will probably go through all of the emotions before you find out what it is like and if you like it. to me it is a means to an end and my wife is with me so that makes it better. when she wasn't I was about to quit. but that is just me. for my friend Vito, he gets a kick out of it. He pretty much has since he has started. So, weirdo's are like that. He also likes Notre Dame, but we digress. The point is IF you really want to do it, DO IT, and don't look back. But it takes a lot more patience than your average person is willing to deal with. I admit I have much less of it than I did when I started. But trucking is trucking! at least I think it is.

 

What a joke! :roll:

So I guess you give that detention money after 2 hours of sitting at a dock back to your employer right? :roll: Why are the first two hours worth less than the others?

No because I'm not IN THE TRUCK.

I'm paid for everything because unlike you, I value my time. I'm paid to sit in traffic, waiting in line, dropping/hooking trailers, PTI's, fueling, breakdowns...the whole enchilada. I don't work for free like you do.

COUGH!....Bull$hit!!!!...COUGH!!! :lol:

The staggering turnover rates exist because people see how much they put into the job versus what they get back plus all the time away from home and say forget it.

 

Just wondering how much training does it take to become a certified ass wiper er I mean CNA! :shock:

 

Being a trucker is a lot like being in the military with time spent away from home and missed holidays.