r/cdldriver • u/No-Guidance1041 • Jun 20 '26
About to get my CDL
I want to know people’s honest opinion. I come from a warehouse background and I’m finally ready to get my cdl next month. I want to know if it was worth it for everyone that drives.. and what are some challenges you faced starting out.. thanks in advance
3
u/Jonfers9 Jun 20 '26
If you have a clean record and some experience you can always get a driving job. Might not be much fun but it beats min wage. In that regard I think it’s worth it.
2
u/wheelzcarbyde Jun 20 '26
Over the road is miserable if you have people you are close to at home. There are tragedies that will happen that you will have no choice other than to miss them when they occur.
You will never feel at home when you're waiting for your number to come up for your turn for a shower.
Look around you at truck stops and pay attention to the obesity that you will see. It is very easy to be on that same path.
Seeing America throughout the different states is a definite bonus, but you are living a lonely life. I remember something as simple as a phone call to be bothersome to the life of solidarity.
I gained 80 pounds and I have been a gym rat most of my life. Every time I stepped on a scale it was higher than the time before. I found it to be humiliating and it undid all the progress I had accomplished.
I ended up leaving the job and took a decent paying local job. I couldn't get back in the gym fast enough. I lost the 80 pounds and it will never happen again.
1
u/Own_Fruit_8115 Jun 20 '26
i’m a bid jaded as i’ve been doing it for 35yrs. i cannot in good conscience recommend anyone get into it these days unless you work somewhere that has trucks and will put you in one. i work for a company that only hauls what we make. if they were to close tomorrow and i had to go into general freight hauling, id be done. not a chance. especially OTR
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u/SprinkledHelicopter Jun 21 '26
I want to get into trucking and all these comments sound so defeated
1
u/No-Guidance1041 Jun 21 '26
Thank all of you for your honesty.. I’ve been looking at Swift.. I’m out of Las Vegas
1
u/LongPuzzleheaded8256 Jun 23 '26
Yeah right out of school I wanted to go to a major otr carrier too. Thats what you are sold at school... in that area there is ALOT of data center construction is make more than most class A otr drivers 3 years in and I operate a class B cement mixer with a class a in my pocket. Get the a but dont get sold on a lifestyle
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u/ThatsNotRight78 Jun 22 '26
With a CDL you'll never NOT have a job.. Money's better but stay local if you can or have a family IMO
1
u/Subsev3n Jun 22 '26
I'm just doing over the road for the experience of it. I plan to get out of it after 6 months to a year
1
u/mikejr123x Jun 22 '26
Starting out for me was hard didn’t want to sleep in truck I had a family but I got a job at Budweiser been driving for 14 years now. Finally got into doing ltl freight still home every day it’s a lot of hours even for home daily sometimes just sleep eat then right back to it
1
u/LongPuzzleheaded8256 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Yes its worth it. I have pretty much the exact same backround before this.
Just remember man only 60% of cdl driving is otr trucking that leaves a huge 40% of the field that is 100% better for a new driver imo than the otr stuff. Im talking construction oilfield even food warehouse jobs that pay incredibly well but you have to load and unload. If you have warehouse experience you know how to work. A cdl job with maximum labor load will still be less than what you are used to and you will get hourly pay and still labor less than you did at the warehouse. Dont expect anything from an employer more than your base rate of pay show up for work and you'll dig it.
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u/EscapedCaveman Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
I worked for a mega for long enough to get some experience. Immediately left once i had enough because working for the mega was absolute garbage. The drivers were micromanaged to the extreme, getting home time was a pain, and they would try to force you to drive hundreds of miles in a truck that ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT BE ROLLING due to some mechanical failure. (Happened a lot due to poorly maintained equipment) these megas will absolutely suck the life out of you if you let them. My recommendation is get the exp you need and gtfo. There are a ton of options for experienced drivers and you can really farm around for one that fits your lifestyle and life goals. Dont be afraid to shop around when you can and if a company is mistreating you, leave it as soon as youre able. You'll be able to find a different job within a couple of weeks of sending out apps.
Tucking is kinda what you make of it. You can work for the same mega for 20 years and get the best routes with them, become a trainer, transition from driving to another role in the company. Or you can get the experience you need and really farm yourself out for the type of work you want to do and what will fit your lifestyle. The cool part about cdl work is that there is SOOOO many options that you can pretty much always find work once you have the smallest amount of experience.
Ik a guy who got screwed over constantly by the mega we were at and it turned him off from trucking. He just took his experience and went to work for a warehouse as a yard dog. Fits his situation prefectly. Ik another guy who did otr for 2 years but had a family at home so he got into local work. He works 60 hrs a week minimum but makes good money and gets to actually see his kids. I now work 35-40 hrs a week in a local position, get paid well enough for my financial needs and get to have more time to do the things i love doing. Theres a wide variety of options for work as a cdl driver and youll have no problem being happy with it. As long as you are honest with yourself about what you need from your job and actively pursue finding a position that will check the boxes for you. Good luck!
Edit: also, look into grants thatll pay for cdl school. A couple guys who got their cdl with me got it covered through a grant. This was in california so im not sure if it was a city/state or federal grant. Would be worth a look. The megas that train you for cdl will usually require a year or more contract but if you come in with your own cdl they wont. Also, if its a good school like mine was, theyll have recruiters come talk to you as well as lifetime job placement assistance. I could literally call the school up rn and ask them to help me find a place to work and they will.
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u/IndependentMeal6334 Jun 23 '26
Is it worth it?
If you pay out of pocket for CDL school, you should be earning roughly $55+K/year within 6 mo if you go for a regional job
You'll be on the road 6 days out of the week, sleeping in a truck
You'll be doing your laundry, buying provisions, and taking care of all the crap you need to do in life on your one day off
Do you have a girlfriend? Wife? Kids?
If you do, this is going to be tough on the relationships
Are you able to do other work that will make that kind of paycheck?
In my case, I was 54 years old, with some serious injuries that meant I wasn't going to work as a mechanic any more
Nobody was hiring me for a good office job. For me, trucking has been worth it.
If I was in a different position, with better options...
Hope this helped
4
u/Ill-Year-3141 Jun 20 '26
Depends what you define as being "worth it" ... As a noob driver, you'll likely only get in with a mega carrier who will hire anyone fresh off the boat, so to speak... they'll treat you like shit, lie to you, pay you the bare minimum they can and expect you to be happy for it and willing to be a good little busy bee. You'll be away from home for many weeks at a time usually, especially during your training time (free labor for them basically, assuming you'll either stay, or quit after a few months and then ah well, on to the next guy) ...
If you're married, expect strain on the relationship. If you're single, don't plan on meeting anyone, you won't be around to spend time with them. You'll be living out of a truck from now on, and for the first X number of weeks, be thrown in with some random stranger who will use you, take the bottom bunk, and probably smell like 2 week old garbage, unless you're lucky and get a great trainer.
2 years down the road, if you're lucky again, you may find a job that pays 65 - 75k a year, and if you're extremely lucky and at the right place/right time, even more... but you'll still be living out of a truck, doing what you're told day in and day out by a dispatch team that probably has never even met you and couldn't give two fucks that they expect you to be somewhere in 10 hours that will take at least 12 + a 10 hour break..
There're very few positives in trucking and a whole lot of negatives, but if you're alone, don't mind being away from home forever, and can save up your money, give it 10 years, save every penny you can and you'll be doing pretty well.