The usual newbie post
 

So heres another newbie who's going to present a slew of information, and summerize it with the standard age old question, "Am i doing the right thing?"

Anyway, how i started looking into this is my girlfriend brought up Team driving to me a few months ago, (she was talking to some twice removed relatives who team drives), and told her she was nuts.

Several months later after doing my homework, i find myself making this post. :roll:

Im 33, shes 32, i know my driving record is spotless, and amazingly enough i dont have any spee..... ahhh, ill stop that sentence there less i jinx myself.

I suppose the biggest decider is what your leaving behind vs what you'd be gaining by the career change. I've been working at my current employer for the last 7 years, and am making, and will probably never make anymore then about 13 bucks an hour, theres no where to promote updward, and i guess you could say im "stuck in the truck" in terms with my job, in other words Ive grown very specialized. A lot of my job has been automated. What used to take me 8 hours + OT, now takes me 1 hour, with the rest of it busy working trying to justify my existence.

My girlfriend has been working at the local hospital for the last 6 years as a CNA (or certified ass wiper as she calls it), and she makes a little bit less then i do.

We live in californa, We own no house, we have no kids. Both of us are kind of burnt out on our current line of work. Ultimatly, thats whats driven me to do ALOT of research on trucking. Currently the plan is to put all our stuff into storage, move out of the apartment, into a truck, and bobtail it to a relatives house for those 3-4 days of at home time.

At any rate I feel with my background i could probably make the grade. Before i was a office space cubicle dweller, i was an engineer in the military for 5 years active and 2 reserve, I spent alot of time being deployed or on TDY, and lived my life around, in, and operating all sorts of equipment. Although that was 10 years ago, im thinking it was an experience (and lifestyle) that would help me adapt to trucking.

My chief worry is my girlfriend. Im not sure how she's going to handle the grind in the long term. She thinks shes going to travel and see alot (and for the most part thats true), but theres this little voice in the back of my head saying, "yeah you travelled alot too and it wasn't no tourist site seeing trip either".

Anyway, after alot of reading up, ive come to the conclusion that i probably want to look into Schneider. I've looked at CR england, swift, covenant, and one or two other starter companies, but Schenider looks like the one that will bend us over the least. As for as im concerned they'll all bend us over and stick it to us, but schneider looks like lesser evil of the bunch. Although, i have to admit, this mexican truck BS has me worried. Particuarlly since schnider has an operation south of the border? I understand this is a topic for another forum, so thats all ill say on this, - it greatly worries me.


So, now that ive written our lifes story :roll: i guess id better just flat out ask some damn straight questions.

Pay, can i expect to at least make the same as i do now starting out? If im taking a loss in pay, how much will it be? how much will i be making after a years experience OTR?

Schneider as a stepping block into the industry, good or bad idea?

Getting into trucking given our current situation, good or bad idea?

Our plan of putting our crap in storage and bobtailing to a relatives house once a month, good or bad idea?

Will we really be gone that long? I just saw in another post here that schenider is hauling more over train (so does this mean less mileage on interstate?)


I could ask questions all day i suppose, so ill just end this 10 page lifes essay here and hope for some good advice or thoughts on our situation.

Thanks.

One comment, although it has nothing to do with your directed questions! I do not know of any company that will hire you two as a team, without being married! Most of the large companies, the Schnieders, JB's, Steven's, TMC, etc. will not allow a significant other type pairing, without the exchange of vows and a license. There are too many legal and moral hurdles to clear on that!

Too many times, years past, did one get mad at the other and take off and leave one at a rest area, truck stop, or just flat in the middle of no-where land. And when there is a male/female pairing - the female is assigned seat 1, meaning she has the fuel cards.

As for time OTR, many companies require 14 - 21 days out, with 2 days home, some more, very few less. Although, in a good team pairing, where duties are truly split evenly, the income potential can be very good. My opinion of one of the best Team fleets would be CRST, although I have no personal experience with them, I have not heard many negative comments on them.

Good Luck

I've been doing a lot of research on teaming companies and CFI seems to be one of the best. They pay teams 0.43 per mile to the truck with a 0.05 cents per mile premiem when you have to drive in the 12 NE states. They pay practical miles unlike Schneider and no 18 month contract. They do sponsor training but there is some cost out of your pocket. If you would like more information you can go to www.cfidrivers.com The people on the board are awesome and will help you out. Good Luck!

RE: Marriage thing,

I was wondering if that was going to be an issue. We've been together for 6 years. Only reason why were not married is because shes has trouble managing her money and has creditors coming after her ass every once in awhile. As long as were not married they can't touch my money. :roll:

Probably too much info but right now she's got some "financial catchup" to do (hopefully she's wised up this time :roll: ), and needs to get an ovary removed thats prown to polycystic outbreaks (causes her alot of pain), so i dont think she'll be ready to hit the road for a few months.

I however am, a little more with each passing day. Sort of puts a wrinkle in our plans of putting our crap in storage and getting rid of the apartment, but im considering starting without her, and have her come in after me and team up then. But i have to wonder if its best to start at the same time, or have one of us "in the door" before hand.


Any info would be helpful in regards to this post or my previous one. Thanks.

If you are intent on teaming together, I would wait and start together. You going first is going to put you ahead of her on the learning curve. She'll go through training herself and be on another trainer's truck while you are already solo. That's bound to cause some headaches.

Additionally, who's to say that you don't get out there and running and she gets cold feet before she takes the plunge. At that point, you are driving, she is home, you have all the costs associated with a home, and you're as far apart as you can get. Better to get out there and sink or swim together.

As far as the marriage thing goes, ask around. There are actually a number of companies that have no problems with a male/female team that are not married. But you'll have to ask around.

If you guys end up teaming and dump the apartment and all those costs associated with renting or owning, you stand to make some good money if you spend and save wisely. Even that first year out when the money is low, $60K+ between the two of you without any bills is going to be a nice little nest egg start.

Good luck to you.

Ive heard good things about CFI before, but i was under the impression that their NOT a starter carrier.

They are indeed a starting company. They just don't run their own schools. But they will send you to training and you will pay for some of thet training. They also take student drivers.

Ive done alot of research on starter trucking companies. seems like CFI seems to have a good rep for being a great starter.
if i cant find a local job, Im going with CFI 8)

starter companies...
 

So, I'm in Wisconsin and trying to find all the starter companies and narrow it from there. Here's the list so far:

Werner
Schneider
CFI
Swift(?)

Any others that you all know of?

I don't have my CDL yet, though I have had one speeding ticket in 5 years, no accidents, no drugs, and ok credit, and I'm over 23.

Re: The usual newbie post
 

About $13.00/hr is what you will top-out at driving truck OTR. First year will be $7-8/hour and the next year will be $10-$12/hr. The only reason you can make $40 to +$50k is that you're working almost double the hours of other working folks with no overtime after the 8th and 40th hour. Plus you're living in an 10X12 rolling cage. The massive 120% turnover rates should be your first clue as to what a burn-job it is.

Tell your girlfriend to go to back to school and become a registered nurse. Forget OTR trucking. It's a job of last resort.

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.