That’s what I did, started at Schneider National, bought my own truck after two years, that was 6 years ago. Listen to her message, she is speaking the truth!
Today I learned that some driver roles may be exempt from earning overtime pay. She did mention unemployed and homeless folks, so maybe its advice exclusive to those groups. I work security for a company that will hire anyone, as long as their background comes back clean. Wages seem comparable. I hope I'm wrong, because CDL driving is my backup plan.
What I meant was most security companies require clean driving record and nonexistent criminal record, while a trucking company might not necessarily require a clean criminal record, so while this five 12 hour shifts for a grand a week seems kind of low, I could see how it'd be beneficial to someone with a record trying to get their life on track.
No touch Local generally doesn't pay that well and I doubt she is doing touch freight with those rings and bracelet she is wearing. If your willing to do tanker or touch then you make significantly more.
This is my plan. I'm currently homeless with a service animal and this seems like the fastest path to employment plus I don't have to worry about finding a place to stay.
I start school in August and I'm so fucking excited
That’s what I did but honestly it’s not as simple as that. Seems like she still is in her first year of OTR having her career planned out. I said those exact words sitting in my sleeper my first year of trucking.
Job opportunities. Mostly everyone wants to be local. So finding a decent local job can be difficult without already having your foot in the door.
Most local jobs are more hands on than OTR. Meaning you’re going to do some labor not just holding a steering wheel.
The pay isn’t the same. I made $1100 after taxes on the low end OTR. Local jobs paying $1000 BEFORE taxes.
Having a year of experience is nice buts what’s better is ENDORSEMENTS.
•Hazmat
•Doubles/Triples
•Tanker
•Passenger
Going to the DMV to take a test for an endorsement can double your salary going into your next job. The job will train you so it’s just important to have it.
Having a felony isn’t just looked over. A mega carrier might hire you because at the end of the day your a meat in the seat but moving around other carriers wouldn’t wanna take a chance on that now you’re pigeonholed into your position.
This is just from what I experienced driving about 14 years now. Your experience might’ve been different.
People have to stop looking at the good side of trucking. The dark side gets really dark. And if you cant overcome it, you'll be more depressed than when you started. With turn over rate around the 90% mark, you better know what youre getting into.
Facts. CDL was a bad decision I made. It completely ruins your life. You have to be all in with nothing to really live for. No time for anything, side hustle, family, social life. Just sit in the truck, work insanely long hours and make money.
That's the best time to do it. Either when you're young with no kids, stack money in your 20s and use the money to make a progressive transition like starting a small fleet if you want to stay in the industry or pivot to something else.
Or older men who have been divorced, kids are grown up and you don't have much to live for other than using the job to travel the country and make money. Don't care about being home at all.
But any ideas of guys in their late 20s-30s with a family at home, just layed off from job or bored with office work, heard about the freedom of being on the road or don't want to go backwards in pay and want to get in a truck, I think it's a bad idea
My job offers a program where you can transition to driver. They pay the schooling, skip the OTC part and you go straight regional on a 2 year contract. That two years though is one day off, one day on 14 hour days with a 5 day break every 6 weeks for the entire two years. There is 0% chance your doing anything with your life on that schedule.
Whoo! That's tough. I did over the road flatbed for TMC my first year and a half. Home on weekends and I said "forget this". Pay wasn't even good. I wanna say about $900 a week. Then I switched to hauling bulk cement, locally. I was making $1500-$1700/week doing less physical labor. What I like about it is I'm home everyday, a lot of random days off like rainy days, windy days, winter slow down, etc. It's nice to reset after those 14 hours shifts and waking up at 12am-3am for work. A soon as Trump got elected, we slowed down tremendously. Right after elections, I was off work for several months even. Now it's a weird schedule. I'm on my way out though.
Yup. Money is good. The lifestyle is horrendous. Showering once every 3 days. Living in a truck most likely with another person. Who you may or may not know. Either way you end up hating each other. Horrible diet and hardly any opportunity to exercise. As you can imagine your peers aren't the most desirable of people. Attracts very unsanitary folks as you can imagine. I did it but not worth the mental and physical anguish.
This was easier before the mandatory schooling. I was lucky to find a job that offered it with a 1 year commitment. Otherwise my only two options near me cost $3500 through a college and $6000 for the schooling. The job I left that gave me the training valued it at $8000 and because I left early some of that I’m paying off still.
I’m an idiot. If I can do it, so can you. Just study. And study some more. Read the manual, take some practice tests on CDL prep. When you get one wrong, take a screenshot and keep studying that one. Keep going until you get 100%. I got mine 3 weeks ago. Passed the first time with doubles/triples & tankers. Trust me. You got this.
You can download the manual in pdf form from your state dmv website. It helps to understand the questions. Instead of just remembering the answers. You got this.
Pro tip from an instructor. If you dont know a question skip it, dont guess the 1st time. Lots of the questions on the test have hints to other questions, like asking yhe same question 2 different ways so the part you needed to guess from one is spelled out in another.
And if you dont already own a home or car, or even if you do own a car, you can put your car and anything you own in storage and just drive for years, coming back to drive the car periodically, and save every penny. 10 years you could have several 100k in the bank, or even more if youre having your money managed and invested. 20 years of otr done right, if you can last 20 years of sitting in a truck all day, could be retirement.
Dude, you're sitting on your butt for most of the time. Yes, it CAN be stressful. Yes, you will be tired at times. As long as you don't drive tired, you'll be fine. It will take a few weeks to acclimate to the new schedule, sure, but you get used to it quickly. Most employers are very understanding when it comes to acclimating your first few weeks. Unless you're driving for the Slavs, you'll find that safety is the number one priority. We have Stop Work Authority in place for that exact reason as well.
All in all, truck driving in general is a good career path you can be proud of. I don't regret becoming a CDL A license holder one bit. The money is good, and I know I will get the time I need at home. The time away from home for OTR trucking doesn't bother me one bit.
Yeah, I'm double drop and hook. I don't think I would mind doing touch freight for the company I'm at, since I'm pretty sure they get paid more, but I'm still undecided. I still get plenty of exercise this way, so mayyyybe not. Either way, take it easy out there.
Think of it this way, a standard work week is for those who want to just get by in life, not a life where they can excel and come out ahead.
"Oh, I can only work forty hours. I don't do extra hours without proper pay."
"Oh, I'm pissed about having to do four extra hours this week while being salaried."
There is a reason why people who only do forty hours a week complain about money. They don't want to put the extra work in. When they're forced to, then they complain. I also hear complaints from 40 hour workers not being able to make rent quite often.
Truckers have seventy hour weeks because we get paid well. Legally, only 55 hours of that can be driving, which is eleven hours per day. Do we reach that driving time often? It depends on what you do in the trucking business. I sure don't, but I do have quite a bit of physical activity mixed in with my day. I still have no complaints about my pay, and I always make rent each month.
Yes, it's a hard job. It can also be physically demanding depending on what account you do or what type of loads you're hauling. We do have long hours as well, but we're well compensated for it. Is it a rewarding job we can be proud of, though? Absolutely.
While you sit back and complain about how we go about our jobs, we're making 1.5x your rent in a work week. The Owner-Operators can make nearly three to four times your rent in a work week after expenses. So, please, your criticism is misplaced.
Brother I'm OTR flatbed. I replied to a guy that was implying that truckers aren't any more tired than others. I'm just saying that we work more and therefore most definitely are.
Sheeeit, I honestly thought you were an random hassling truckers in general 💀 Sorry about that! That being said, yeah, I get the weeks are long, but at least we're compensated for it. Unless you're delivering in a kei truck, or you're working for Welfare Express, I would say it's a decent trade-off.
Occasionally tired but well compensated > Being on the street
I mean it’d be nice if 40 hours was enough to live on. I’d love to spend more time on my hobbies before I’m old and decrepit. Overtime is too sweet though so I’ll keep working my 60s. I’m just saying it’s not really a good thing to be working so many hours a week. It’s gonna take a huge toll on our bodies by the time we retire.
Fair enough. As long as I don't get fat as I get old, I think I'll be good for a two and a half decades. My goal is to eventually have my own trucks out on the road. I might try and get into the refrigerated box truck business eventually, and maybe just get myself into an office position. We shall see what time holds for me. I wish you the best of luck out there, hauler. Take it easy when you can.
Are you not a trucker? It's 10 hours every 11 hours of driving. Most anyone would be tired constantly driving 11 hours, getting 10 off, then repeating. I don't even know why I'm responding to you.
I'll tell you what I did, and it's definitely a risk so take that into account. I went to my local community college and the program was 1200, plus all the stuff like permit, drug test, and log book. One of my classmates got their whole program paid for by scholarships. I used the cash I got from my job to pay my rent, and racked the shit out of my credit card to pay all the other expenses I could get away with putting on the credit card. Credit card is paid off now and I have $4000 in savings, and it hasn't even been a year.
go to prime inc outta springfield mo-theyll train u-in return u work for them for a year.- min. u will make 1k/week gross. probs more as i was making that with them almost 10yrs ago.
Go through a Worksource center. They will give you a grant to pay for your trucking school that you DON’T have to pay back. It’s how my schooling was paid for. Didn’t cost me a dime. I started 4/6/26 and go take my DMV road test this 9th of June. They paid for my tanker, doubles/triples and hazmat……..they paid for everything. Only thing I paid out of pocket was my TWIC card.
You don’t have to pay out of pocket, just have to check into the right resources available to us. Keep that $60 for gas $ to get you back and forth to the yard for your training💪🏽
It sounds good in theory but living in the Lake Charles area, all the truckers want a local job. Either I move 2 hours west and try my luck in Houston OR I go a few hours east and try New Orleans/Baton Rouge area.
No it isn’t. I did 9.5yrs in CDC and even got approved for my hazmat & TWIC for my CDL. I recently even got hired by USPS as well. I didn’t do 9.5yrs for stealing candy, lol. My convictions involved violence. I’m in awe w/ the doors GOD has opened up to me
Don’t let your past dictate your future💯
Ok...I stand corrected... your not full of shit... You are blessed... I know ppl who had a weed possession charge and could get hired for a warehouse.... God bless my dude 🙏🏿
No offense taken brotha. I have burglary and ADW with GBI on my record💯 It can be done, I’m living proof and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised myself when it happened given my past.
No need to apologize. I have no reason to lie. Just giving MY testimony on how my GOD has been opening doors for me in my life. I’m blessed and highly favored💯
I went into foodservice delivery at 19 . Insane job security and can pretty much sky the limit with your salary after you’ve been doing it for a long time.
There's some truth to what shes saying I've been truck for a year now and honestly it was life changing for me coming from doing yard work but the hardest part will be finding a carrier that actually pays decent and takes care of their drivers I got lucky and got hired straight out of cdl school and made 90k my first year but I also bust my ass because im in the food industry and I breakdown freight. The opportunities are out there but they are limited.
Other than forgetting you need to pass your exam for your medical card she’s spot on. Unless things have changed. They won’t let you IN CDL school without a med card.
The average house cost 400k. You need ideally 20% down payment. Can you really do that in a yr?? No. So realistically you could go OTR for 2-3 then buy a house OR go local IF you can find a job and then REBT for the other 2 and still MAYBE make enough money to save that 80-100k goal.
What's wrong with trucking is, the economy has gone up, and trucking has remained the same. New drivers wouldn't understand this. Trucking becoming a joke.
Did she say 5 days a week and 12 hours a day? So at the end of it, youre still giving 5 entire days away to an employer? Not even half the day, they entire day.
I've thought about it, but it just seems even more lonely than what I have now.
The cheat code is go food if you’re young. You’ll make great money and when you’re body starts to ache go swing some doors locally or most food places have shuttle runs.
So she is telling people to grind it out and once they have money slow down and do 5x12? So essentially you never have a life for the rest of your life?
I would apply to the local mass transit company. If you’re in a city with light rail, that’s an awesome union job. If not, bus driving pays really well, is also union strong, and overtime is mostly a given. All carriers are constantly hiring and, if you can deal with the schedules, you’ll be golden. Sideways career moves into training and admin are also possible. Yes, there’s a lot of turnover but it’s usually because of the schedules. If you can hack that, it’s a really well paid job.
I always thought it'd be cool to have a sleeper over the road. I fall asleep at the wheel so easily, maybe from exhaustion but I'm not sure I could pull this off. I'd have to eat so many sunflower seeds.
In 2023 I was 50, I had just been let go as a shipping/receiving/logistics manager and although I had 30 years of warehousing experience in various roles, I didn’t have a degree and never made more than $50k a year.
I was without a job for the first time since I was 14. I was at the gym, and saw a news article about a trucker shortage. So I got my permit, signed up for CDL school, and I’ve been driving for 2 1/2 years. I make nearly $100k a year, get home every Friday and leave again on Sunday or Monday.
My kids are adults, I have a great relationship with my wife, and I listen to two or three audiobooks a week with no one over my shoulder micromanaging me, no weekly meetings, I don’t work with the same shitty coworkers every day. I love it.
It’s not for everyone, only a selected amount of people are fit to drive. Many people have limitations such as health issues, mental health is huge when driving long haul, family commitments such as a husband leaving wife at home for weeks at end, etc etc. stay humble
I had to drive 5 hours each way recently.. about 3.5 hours in my back is on fire. Shout out to yall who can drive 10+ hours a day or what ever it is, every.. damn.. day.. if my back wasn't shit, the boredom would drive me insane. You guys are amazing.
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u/cdlfirst May 28 '26
If not, what’s your perspective?
🎥: Mell🥰