WHAT TO DO?
 

I am wanting to start a otr trucking driving career, This will be a second career for me I was in the banking biz for 12yrs I just got burned out... I have a 6yr old daughter and a 6 mon old son...


Every fourm that i have read states that if i go over the road that my family will be done that i will no longer have one because they will leave lol... But here is the deal I need to to get in to a new career im burn out with my last career and i feel that i would really enjoy trucking but i dont wanna loose my family trying to suppot them.

I have a really good friend that is a o/o and he tells me that he feels that after im with a company 6 mons to a yr that i would buy my own truck just because he knows me and i really can't work for someone else.


Really my question is for people that have a family and kids and that are driving over the road and there family has been ok and have not left them.


Thanks in advance

Re: WHAT TO DO?
 

OTR driving and families just don't mix. Their is way too much you miss out on. Now that doesn't mean you can't change careers, but you will want to be close to your family at all cost. Get your CDL, then find a local job. It's not as hard as you think. By the time your kids are grown up to be on their own, you'll have more than enough experience to go OTR, and enjoy it more. Plus you might even want to take the wife along, so the two of you can spend what years you got left together...(at least until you forget about her at a truck stop, and leave. :P)

WHAT TO DO
 

tHANK YO FOR YOUR ADVICE,M I HAVE ALWAYS HEARD THAT YOU CAN NOT GET ALOCAL JOB WITHOUT EXP....

Where to start.....

Local driving: How easy or how hard it is to find a local driving job, especially for a newbie, depends on where you are at. If you live in the middle of no where and the largest towns within a 2 hour drive are 20,000 or less you may have a problem finding a local driving job.

If on the other hand you live in or near a fairly large urban area your chances are a lot better.

Now on to the family issue. OTR driving is hard on the family life, there is no denying that, but it does not have to be a death sentence to your marriage. If your marriage is strong and healthy and you have the support of your spouse you can make it work. In order to do that you must learn to really communicate with each other and you must also learn to make the most of the time you do have together. It can work but it will take work.

I have been married 8 1/2 years and I drove OTR for the majority of that time. My marriage did not suffer from it, and I do know drivers who have been married 20+ years who have managed to make it work.

Before jumping though, you need to have a long talk with your spouse and make sure she is behind you 110%. Anything less and you may have some problems.

When I started working at Crete another new hire and I drove a rental car from Columbus to Lincoln. It took us about 14 hrs. He was on the phone with his new wife for about 2/3 of the trip. He kept telling me about how exicited she was that he was going OTR since she was going to ride with him quite a bit of the time. Two days later when orientation started she was starting to have second thoughts. By the end of the first day she was hysterical. Morning of the last day he was on a bus back to Akron. Point is: Don't sugar coat to your spouse what it is you are about to do. Make sure she knows fully how completely her life is going to change while you are out on the road. Personally, I would have her spending some time on this forum asking questions and reading other posts.

:shock: : Methinks this is Red Flag City; Problems looking for a place to grow!! :shock:

I agree.

bransontripper... Stay at home. Banking may have gone sour for you, but lets face it, you have other options. There are other jobs in the financial world that you are probably qualified for. Spend some time looking for one of them.

Your marriage may survive....but then it may not. Being gone 14 to 30 or more nights in a row causes a great deal of loneliness. You are not in a position to have your wife ride with you. And your children....they are going to be miserable. They are going to miss you terribly. They are going to grow up without you to a great extent. You may well end up as the "man who comes and stays a couple of days" and leaves. You will have dumped everything on the homefront on your wife, and at some point....yes, she may decide that since you're gone all that much, why bother being married anymore. At that point you will be working for food and money to pay alimony and childsupport.

I am one who entered this realm long after the nest was empty. I had no constraints. None at all. My wife was supportive, because she was free to travel with me whenever she wanted and did so. Thats a big difference.

What I suggest that you do is this: Keep your present job, and make the sacrifices that are necessary to keep you home where your wife and children need you, or...get with a professional resume writer and start floating it to eveyone and anyone that you could work for. Find something that will satisfy you...but keeps you much closer to home. You will be happier for it, and your children will love you for it. Certainly your wife will too.

Best of Luck to you!! Now go and write your resume draft.

WHAT TO DO?
 

I first of all want to think everyone that has taken the time to give advice.

Here is my deal more in dept, 3 years ago we moved to branson,mo because the real esate was more afordable and we wanted to get away from the city and raise our children in a small town, the school system here is great.

When we first moved here fron the eastcoast (NJ) I thought to myself we will moved there and i will just get a job doing what i always done but little did i know when moved and got all settled in there is no jobs in my profession only 8.00 hour jobs you see branson is a tourest town and it shuts down 3 mons out of the year.


My choices are to move again somewhere like saint louis and get a job in my profession which im totally burn out from get a otr road so i can support my family or go to school for 4 years to learn something new... the bottom line is that i have 2 children that will be going to get higher education one day and i want to be able to give the money for that staying here and makeing 8.00 hour is really not going to make that happen and moving to go do something that i am already burned out from really makes no-sense.

I know that going over the road could be a death sentence to my family but i really don't know what else to do. hopefully my family will resepect what im doing and know im doing so they can have a better life i don't maybe im crazy.

Move to Saint Louis.

Do it after you have secured a new position in your financial field.

Frankly, I think your move from NJ to MO.....without a job secured that would pay you on a commensurate level to what you were making was a very, well, foolish thing to do. Don't do it again.

In order to enter this field, you are going to have to go to school. You either pay for it, or you get company sponsored training....either way, you get ZERO paychecks for the duration of the schooling, and you are paying food and housing costs unless there is a school in Branson or close enough to commute to....unless you go the route of night/weekend schooling while you keep your present job. Then you go to work for a company....and then you are a "trainee" at wages that will probably make your present pay look fairly good...especially after you pay your food, etc expenses on the road.

If you take the company schooling route, you will be an indentured servant....with the bulk of the companies. Its gonna be tough.

One company that I know of that does not require a contract is Contract Freighters, Inc. You have to pay part of the schooling, they pay the rest, but the advantage is: NO CONTRACT aka "indentured servitude.

If you are hellbent to do this, I might suggest that you contact "Christine" at CFI Recruiting, 1-800-641-4748....and get the particulars. Last I heard she was the Student Coordinator. There is nothing in it for me. I don't work for CFI, am not a recruiter.... But I did drive for them for 7 years. You can also come over to http://www.cfidrivers.com and log on and ask questions of drivers and I believe Christine has a forum in there regarding recruiting. The site is NOT company owned. It is owned by "Croc" an Owner Operator at CFI. BTW, do tell Christine I sent you...she knows me.
Tell her I said "HI!". CFI is homebased down the road from you in Joplin.

Whatever you do....do not approach it lightly!!

I think you may want to rethink getting into this business. You can make a good living, but as several have mentioned, you will be away from home a lot. I traveled when my wife and I met. We have been together for 31 years. For the most part, she has stayed at home, but does travel with me on occasion. I have known of some who seem to make their marriage stronger, others don't stay together. It can be harder on the children than the parents. Regardless of whom you go with, you will be away from home, especially in the beginning. I would expect 2-3 weeks out with 2 days or so home. That can be difficult. My wife and I have made it work, as have many others. Your wages will probably be low for the first several months. It usually takes about 1 year or so before you will get to the point of making a good living. You can make it work, but from your posting, I am not sure that this is really what you really want. Driving a truck is much different than working in a bank. You need to get as much information as possible and sit down with your wife and family to have a frank discussion about what you are planning.