I would agree with Gman. I worked LTL local for awhile. You want a 8 hour a day job, dont go LTL. Each day when you come in dispatch has you figured for at least 10 hours. Although if you only worked 10 each day, 5 days a week, you were lucky. Most averaged around 11 to 14. Now if you are lucky and get a Line Haul gig, there the hours are usually less but around 10.
Although ltl usually will take 6 month experience at the least, or it was when I did it. Some places may even have a dock to driver program, where they hire you as a dock worker and use you as a driver when needed. Until you prove to them you can drive. For local be sure to get your backing down, lots of tight and crazy places you have to get into and back into.
Actually, local is in my opinion tougher then OTR. Just my opinion, good luck in whatever you do.

 

That is the info i needed, many thanks guys.
I guess now I will try to find the company and training program that has the shortest, or best, commitment. I am sure there is a ton of info about that on here,

 

Proper rest, diet and exercise are habits you develop through discipline, no matter what you spend your day doing.

 

On my side I'm more than willing to work as many hours in the day as allowed, but until my son enters school I can't hit the 7+ days OTR. I can dig 2 to 4 days, but raising and taking care of family as well as working is a tough racket.

 

Normal eight hour days, driving a truck? There's an unpleasant surprise awaiting you, unless, perhaps, you plan on being a municipal employee. Then your primary function won't be as a driver, but you'll emerge from it being able to do more than sit in a cab all day.

 

If you're into keeping in shape, watching your calorie & fat intake, you'll be a very small minority. Myself, I carried a set of dumbells & 60 lbs. in weights to exercise my arms & biceps, then fast-walk or jog in the mornings & evenings. As I exercised, divers gave me a wierd look while talking on the CB radio as I went pass them. I imagine they're saying "..there goes that health freak again. Hope someone runs him over for being a show off." Go to any gruck stop and observe the vast majority of drivers have a beer gut on them. I didn't believe news reports in early 2000s that diesel fumes are carcinogens, but now that I'm receiving chemo and had a cancerous tumor removed in my rectum, I guess the study was accurate after all. Back then, I assumed the subjects they studied (truckers & diesel mechanics exposed to diesel fumes daily) were mostly cigarette smokers. I never smoked, and sadly most of these veteran truckers have an increased likelihood of getting cancer later in life. But that's part of the occupational hazard of trucking; if its not falling asleep behind the wheel to meet a 7am delivery deadline, getting a knock on the door to be staring down the business end of a gun because they want to tie you up and steal the tractor and the cargo onboard, its being diagnosed with cancer later in life because you breathed diesel fumes while walking through truck stop or walking to & from the shipper/receiver office, past trucks idling their engines to run the AC or heater. It goes to show, life is a bitch, and then you die prematurely from cancer. The rest of you reading this, get on the CB radio and ask "anyone know or heard of a driver getting cancer after driving 15 years or so??" The response will make you stop and think real hard on whether you'll get cancer eventually.

 

Hello everyone i am also new here and it is co incidence that i am also looking for some advice about this and thanks for some advice.

 

" local class A jobs that work a normal 8 hr day."

HAHAHAHA oh my god ... good one thanks for the laugh.

The only truckers who can stay healthy...er.. ish are flatbedders and bedbuggers. As for eating healthy good luck with that... it's damn near impossible. And the average bedbugger (who does the work not just drives the truck) could twist the average bodybuilder into a pretzel.

 

[QUOTE=cdreid;528829]" local class A jobs that work a normal 8 hr day."

HAHAHAHA oh my god ... good one thanks for the laugh.

I only worked 54 this past week, have the weekends off, and made just over $1400 for the week. not to rub it, just saying it can be done.. However the week before I used every bit of my 70 hours, and just cleared the $1400 mark as well, so in the end it is a wash, take the good with the bad..

Timberwolf

 

I guess I was one of the lucky ones. I got a linehaul job right after I got my CDL. It wasn't a cakewalk, but compared to OTR trucking, it was easier, of course. I had a five day work week and weekends off. My hours were approximately 2 pm to 2 am. No unloading or loading of freight. Took me about 2 years to not be a total zombie, though. Those night shift hours weren't gentle with me. As for linehaul being every trucker's dream, the OTR drivers at my company didn't want to do the linehaul route because they thought it was too boring just driving, driving, driving , plus it paid less. To each his own, I guess.