Let me preface this post by first saying if I offend anyone, my apologies, that is not my intention. I will be completely blunt and honest with my opinions/questions, and I'm sure I will get the same in return. My questions would best be answered by recruiters/managers/people in the hiring process as well as tenured drivers, but all responses are welcome. I searched for the answers first but didn't find answers to everything and some answers were old and maybe outdated.
A little background... I live in Indianapolis, IN, I'm male, 29 yrs old with NO experience driving a truck. As everyone knows employment opportunities aren't their best right now and while I've usually skipped over ANY job posting saying anything about a CDL I decided to take a look.
When it comes to finding a job at this point I'm just trying to find something where I can make decent money in a position that will be stable all in an attempt to go back to school. That being said I don't intend (right now anyway) to be driving a truck for years and years and years as a long time career, even though I'm sure it would be great money.
What I'm looking for whent it comes to a job driving a truck... something local... or at least something that would have me home every night. A dedicated route... or deliveries that would take 8-10 hours to drive there and back and still go home at night. I don't think I'd enjoy having to sleep in the cab or shower at truck stops and things like that. I don't need a brand new fancy truck... let it be beat up a bit or whatever. As long as it drives and runs properly then who cares as long as I'm not on the road for days on end.
When I see listings for trucking companies who are willing to send you somewhere and pay for your training in exchange for committing to work for them for a year... it makes me think about joining the military. (no offense) I always thought of the military to be one of those fall back plans after high school for some people... if they can't get a job, oh well, the military will take them. And that's kind of how I always saw listings like this. Seems that all these types of opportunities will pretty much leave you to being one of the companies b!tches. By that I mean... there are no opportunities like this where they will pay for your training and then let you work for them on local routes/deliveries... only OTR. It would make sense I suppose. You're new so you have to put your time in and pay your dues. Where as somebody with a CDL and experience can go get a job driving locally or somewhat locally.
Or.... I can try to get a small loan to pay for training to get a CDL and then try to find a job. Then therein lies the problem... everybody wants 2 years experience or 50,000 miles of experience, etc. Well that's understandable, but the age old question is what do you do and where do you go to get that experience?
What are the ins and outs of getting started in this industry? I've heard alot of horror stories especially with a company you hired on to sending you to a school to "pay" for your training. Which really means they will pay up front but take money out of your pay check each week til its paid back.
Is this an industry that would be good to get into right now? I would assume that with the "economy" (typical issues) being the way it is right now... people are out of work or not making as much which means they are buying less which I would think to an extent would have an effect on truck driving. Companies moving their work overseas to save money... etc.
What can and should I expect as a newbie?
Is there any way that I can get hired on with a local driving position right after training or do I pretty much just have too high of hopes and I would be almost guaranteed to have to start with OTR and alot of time away from home?
I would think OTR wouldn't bring much profit to a company because of gas prices and that local deliveries would be more profitable on average.
I dunno... thoughts?
Of course I'd much rather work in an office but sometimes you have to do things you don't wanna do. Since the average starting salary is aroune $35,000 a year I thought it would pretty good money to do the job for awhile to be able to further my education.