jivens
New Member
I have a family. What should I expect? Pay good? Any good or bad companies?
Thinking of getting CDL and becoming an otr driver.
- Thread starter jivens
- Start date
Grumpa
Elite Member
Expect to be away from your family most of the time. I've heard the money is ok but owner/drivers tend to do a lot better. Like anything else there are good and bad people to work for.
ohiochris
Elite Member
You can make decent money driving truck but you will be away from home a LOT in order to do it. Especially for the first 2-3 years. Thats why I dont drive a truck any more , I just cant be away from home 2 to 4 weeks at a time. There are more local driving jobs where you get home a little more often but you usually have to put in 2 or 3 years over the road before you will be considered.
GabbityGabby
Elite Member
My dad used to drive truck, it pays good but you will be away from home a good share of the time. Our neighbor does it now, he will be away for like a week, then be home for a couple of days before leaving again. You have to be the right kind of person for a job like that. Someone who enjoys travelling, and doesn't mind driving for HOURS at a time.
BBsGal
Forum Supporter
Forgive my long-winded-ness up front as I'm pretty passionate about this topic. I'm going to be very blunt about this and very detailed.. since you asked, and I think you deserve to get the truth.
I hate to see people get sucked in to trucking these days as it's nothing like what they tell recruits it will be. Trucking is nothing like it used to be, at least at the entry level, and it can be one of the costliest career mistakes a person can make if you do it wrong... and how the trucking companies tell you to do it is wrong! It's designed for their profit, not yours.
The main thing you need to understand up front is this... trucking outfits are experts at pawning off as much as possible of their operating costs on others in the business. This means both newbie drivers and lease owner operators, and trust me, they have it down to a fine art. Trucking companies have figured out how to get their freight moved at near to no cost out of their company pocket. You really have to study them a while to understand how they do it, but trust me, they do.
Most trucking recruiters will lie their tails off just to get you in the herd because a newbie driver is basically cheap to free labor. They even lie to get you into schools just to get you to sign the contract for the school tuition, then if you don't make it through the schooling for any reason they still hold you to paying the debt. And I'm not joking.
Trucking is a hard industry. A very, very hard industry. As a beginning driver you won't be home more than 1 or 2 days every 4-6 weeks, you'll live in the truck, and the starting pay is abysmal, so you won't be living high on the hog or paying the bills at home.... If you are fortunate you'll be eating at least twice a day and getting a shower once a week. Not exaggerating...
Unless you already have a CDL and three years current commercial driving experience you'll have to go through driver training first, and if you aren't careful, you'll get into debt to do it.
I'm talking $5,000-$12K in debt for a course at trucking company and for-profit trucking schools.... A good 23 day state run vo-tech program with far better instructors, more truck time, and generally far better training runs around $2500 so you can see that the company and for profit outfits are pretty much a rip off right from the get-go.
If you feel you must pursue trucking, do your homework and find a good state run class! This will save you much pain and misery. Unless you think slavery is cool, don't go through the trucking companies to get your training, no matter what they promise you.
Just to get into school you have to do a complete work history, be drug tested, have a trucking physical, get your CDL learner's permit, and be subjected to a detailed background check. If a person has any felony convictions, any DUI convictions, one too many speeding tickets, or other issues that may come up later they can turn you away from the school door at the last minute, or even boot you out and send you home before it's over. Your physical, permit, and driving history will set you back around $250 just to submit them to the school and is non refundable even if you're rejected.
Many physical conditions can prevent you being accepted for trucking, among those are certain heart conditions, seizure conditions, and insulin dependent diabetes. There are other things also, hearing loss, vision problems, etc. So not everyone can even pass the DOT physical.
If you do get through the schooling, you'll have to get hired by a "starter" company. The better paying trucking outfits do not hire anyone until they have a few years with a perfect record under their belt. The reason is that trucking outfits get fined for driver screw-ups, and better companies don't want their safety records compromised by inexperienced or untested drivers.
*The only exception to this is little "mom & pop" outfits, and you really have to be careful when dealing with some of these, they're as bad or worse than the worst of the starter outfits when they're bad. Some are exceptionally good also but are few and far between. *
The first truck the starter company puts you on will be a team truck with a trainer. This means you live in the truck with a complete stranger who is supposed to be awake and available for instruction while you the newbie are driving your shift. This truck stops only for fuel, while moving the drivers switch off, one sleeping while the other drives. You eat and sleep on the road, and do laundry or catch a shower on the days you're required to stop driving due to time regulations.
Although there are some good trainers many are just another driver with no special training skills who drives his shift then you drive yours. If you are lucky you'll get a good trainer who isn't too smelly or obnoxious, and be able to put up with living with a complete stranger in a 6 x 6 foot box for the duration of the training period. If you're unlucky you'll get a psycho trainer and end up escaping any way possible... In other words, you're on a team truck getting starter pay. Not good for you, very good for the company.
Team trucks are more expensive than solo, and they've figured out how to maximize their profits while making you be trained even though you just got out of school. This will last as long as the company deems fit. The average is probably about 4-6 weeks, or one turn around for that truck between days off.
If you last through the training, and many don't, the company will/may assign you to a solo truck or another team truck depending on your and their preferences. That's where you'll stay if you can stick with it. A couple years of that and you can start thinking about getting in with a company that pays better.
If you quit before one year, you most likely won't get another trucking job.
If you decided to go ahead and indenture yourself to the company by using their for profit or company school, and quit before your schooling is paid back you'll have to find a way home on your own nickel from wherever it is you quit, and spend the next few years paying off your schooling debt as the company will sue you, and you won't get another trucking job as they'll say on your record that you "abandoned their truck" which in effect ends your short trucking career.
If you can stick out 2-3 years with your starter company you might be lucky enough to get in with a really good company and get an actual acceptable living wage....
That is, if you can resist the temptation to buy your own truck from the starter company and pay the tab to move their freight. This is usually what happens somewhere around the beginning of year 2 with the starter outfit, and almost everyone falls for it since company pay at starter companies is so horrible.
The trucking outfits that hire newbies also make a boatload of money leasing trucks to them once they figure out how little money a company driver makes per mile after costs. Everyone figures if they have their own truck they can make a bundle, and they can. The trouble is the bundle goes right through the owner's hands into the insurance, fuel, and repair costs and costs to run a truck are high!
An average low end semi and trailer will run the new O/O (owner operator aka: the guys who fall for the buy your truck from the company trick) somewhere around $600 a week for the truck, another $300 per week for insurance that is paid to the starter company since most guys are running under their operating authority, and upwards of $1000 a week or thereabouts for diesel. This is in addition to any and all repairs, new tires (semi tires are notorious for having to be replaced often!) and all other operating costs.
You also have to stop and be inspected at the whim of every DOT officer every time you cross a state line or go through a weigh station, and every highway patrolman who wants to check you or your truck over. Because it's commercial driving they don't need a reason to stop or inspect you, you are subject to inspections as part of the deal. If you get a ticket you get points against you, two tickets, you're in real trouble, and 3 tickets and you can hang up your driver hat and go home because you won't have a job any longer.
You don't have to speed or forget to signal to get a ticket, you can be cited if your company (or if you fall for leasing and can't afford it) is too cheap to make repairs to your equipment. Bad tires? Brakes not quite right? Cracked windshield? Got a tail light out? Guess who gets the ticket... yup, you. And heaven help you if you fail any random drug/alcohol testing.
Truck stops are dangerous and nasty places, driving through all kinds of weather night and day while always being in a hurry is dangerous, and you'll maybe get to go home for 2 days every 4-6 weeks. For all this you'll be started between 24 and 30 cents per mile you drive, and if you fell for the company schooling they'll deduct your trucking school costs off the top of that until your debt is paid.
And that per mile rate, by the way, is not actual miles driven. It's short miles or zip to zip miles, so by the time it's actually figured you probably lose about 5-10% of your per mile pay before you ever see it...
If you're in a company truck they'll give you a fuel card to use, and pay the expenses on the truck, but you have to feed yourself, pay for showers, laundry, and anything else you need to survive, and truck stops are also expensive. And every time you use your expenses card at a truck stop to feed yourself or buy a shower (that is a cash card that many companies use to pay drivers instead of a paycheck) you'll be charged an additional couple to a few bucks just for the privilege of using the card. No lie.
Whatever is left over is what your family will have to live on. And many times there is no left-over. The hidden costs involved are ridiculous and a lot of new drivers basically work for free once they pay their basic living costs on the truck. Most new truckers just live on the trucks and don't bother trying to keep an apartment or home. There's just not enough money to cover both.
How do I know this? I went through a state run trucking school several years ago after I retired from police work, and worked as an independent owner/operator until I retired from trucking last year.
Most of the 15 or so guys in my class bailed out of trucking before 6 months. Only one is still driving, and he was a lifetime trucker who had to go re-up his schooling after taking a break for a couple of years. One is now doing new trucker testing for the state, everyone else was out of the business by the end of the first year.
This might be an ok risk for a single guy with no kids who is just starting out and can afford to go a couple years on a real thin shoestring until the money gets better, but I would discourage any man with a family from getting into trucking nowadays.
If it's just something you always dreamed of doing, it's smarter to wait until the kids are grown and you have a retirement income to actually pay the bills on while you indulge your dream. It's just too risky, too expensive, and not enough return for the time spent far away from home.
I warned you I'd be long winded, think I'm finished now though. I truly hope this helps!
I hate to see people get sucked in to trucking these days as it's nothing like what they tell recruits it will be. Trucking is nothing like it used to be, at least at the entry level, and it can be one of the costliest career mistakes a person can make if you do it wrong... and how the trucking companies tell you to do it is wrong! It's designed for their profit, not yours.
The main thing you need to understand up front is this... trucking outfits are experts at pawning off as much as possible of their operating costs on others in the business. This means both newbie drivers and lease owner operators, and trust me, they have it down to a fine art. Trucking companies have figured out how to get their freight moved at near to no cost out of their company pocket. You really have to study them a while to understand how they do it, but trust me, they do.
Most trucking recruiters will lie their tails off just to get you in the herd because a newbie driver is basically cheap to free labor. They even lie to get you into schools just to get you to sign the contract for the school tuition, then if you don't make it through the schooling for any reason they still hold you to paying the debt. And I'm not joking.
Trucking is a hard industry. A very, very hard industry. As a beginning driver you won't be home more than 1 or 2 days every 4-6 weeks, you'll live in the truck, and the starting pay is abysmal, so you won't be living high on the hog or paying the bills at home.... If you are fortunate you'll be eating at least twice a day and getting a shower once a week. Not exaggerating...
Unless you already have a CDL and three years current commercial driving experience you'll have to go through driver training first, and if you aren't careful, you'll get into debt to do it.
I'm talking $5,000-$12K in debt for a course at trucking company and for-profit trucking schools.... A good 23 day state run vo-tech program with far better instructors, more truck time, and generally far better training runs around $2500 so you can see that the company and for profit outfits are pretty much a rip off right from the get-go.
If you feel you must pursue trucking, do your homework and find a good state run class! This will save you much pain and misery. Unless you think slavery is cool, don't go through the trucking companies to get your training, no matter what they promise you.
Just to get into school you have to do a complete work history, be drug tested, have a trucking physical, get your CDL learner's permit, and be subjected to a detailed background check. If a person has any felony convictions, any DUI convictions, one too many speeding tickets, or other issues that may come up later they can turn you away from the school door at the last minute, or even boot you out and send you home before it's over. Your physical, permit, and driving history will set you back around $250 just to submit them to the school and is non refundable even if you're rejected.
Many physical conditions can prevent you being accepted for trucking, among those are certain heart conditions, seizure conditions, and insulin dependent diabetes. There are other things also, hearing loss, vision problems, etc. So not everyone can even pass the DOT physical.
If you do get through the schooling, you'll have to get hired by a "starter" company. The better paying trucking outfits do not hire anyone until they have a few years with a perfect record under their belt. The reason is that trucking outfits get fined for driver screw-ups, and better companies don't want their safety records compromised by inexperienced or untested drivers.
*The only exception to this is little "mom & pop" outfits, and you really have to be careful when dealing with some of these, they're as bad or worse than the worst of the starter outfits when they're bad. Some are exceptionally good also but are few and far between. *
The first truck the starter company puts you on will be a team truck with a trainer. This means you live in the truck with a complete stranger who is supposed to be awake and available for instruction while you the newbie are driving your shift. This truck stops only for fuel, while moving the drivers switch off, one sleeping while the other drives. You eat and sleep on the road, and do laundry or catch a shower on the days you're required to stop driving due to time regulations.
Although there are some good trainers many are just another driver with no special training skills who drives his shift then you drive yours. If you are lucky you'll get a good trainer who isn't too smelly or obnoxious, and be able to put up with living with a complete stranger in a 6 x 6 foot box for the duration of the training period. If you're unlucky you'll get a psycho trainer and end up escaping any way possible... In other words, you're on a team truck getting starter pay. Not good for you, very good for the company.
Team trucks are more expensive than solo, and they've figured out how to maximize their profits while making you be trained even though you just got out of school. This will last as long as the company deems fit. The average is probably about 4-6 weeks, or one turn around for that truck between days off.
If you last through the training, and many don't, the company will/may assign you to a solo truck or another team truck depending on your and their preferences. That's where you'll stay if you can stick with it. A couple years of that and you can start thinking about getting in with a company that pays better.
If you quit before one year, you most likely won't get another trucking job.
If you decided to go ahead and indenture yourself to the company by using their for profit or company school, and quit before your schooling is paid back you'll have to find a way home on your own nickel from wherever it is you quit, and spend the next few years paying off your schooling debt as the company will sue you, and you won't get another trucking job as they'll say on your record that you "abandoned their truck" which in effect ends your short trucking career.
If you can stick out 2-3 years with your starter company you might be lucky enough to get in with a really good company and get an actual acceptable living wage....
That is, if you can resist the temptation to buy your own truck from the starter company and pay the tab to move their freight. This is usually what happens somewhere around the beginning of year 2 with the starter outfit, and almost everyone falls for it since company pay at starter companies is so horrible.
The trucking outfits that hire newbies also make a boatload of money leasing trucks to them once they figure out how little money a company driver makes per mile after costs. Everyone figures if they have their own truck they can make a bundle, and they can. The trouble is the bundle goes right through the owner's hands into the insurance, fuel, and repair costs and costs to run a truck are high!
An average low end semi and trailer will run the new O/O (owner operator aka: the guys who fall for the buy your truck from the company trick) somewhere around $600 a week for the truck, another $300 per week for insurance that is paid to the starter company since most guys are running under their operating authority, and upwards of $1000 a week or thereabouts for diesel. This is in addition to any and all repairs, new tires (semi tires are notorious for having to be replaced often!) and all other operating costs.
You also have to stop and be inspected at the whim of every DOT officer every time you cross a state line or go through a weigh station, and every highway patrolman who wants to check you or your truck over. Because it's commercial driving they don't need a reason to stop or inspect you, you are subject to inspections as part of the deal. If you get a ticket you get points against you, two tickets, you're in real trouble, and 3 tickets and you can hang up your driver hat and go home because you won't have a job any longer.
You don't have to speed or forget to signal to get a ticket, you can be cited if your company (or if you fall for leasing and can't afford it) is too cheap to make repairs to your equipment. Bad tires? Brakes not quite right? Cracked windshield? Got a tail light out? Guess who gets the ticket... yup, you. And heaven help you if you fail any random drug/alcohol testing.
Truck stops are dangerous and nasty places, driving through all kinds of weather night and day while always being in a hurry is dangerous, and you'll maybe get to go home for 2 days every 4-6 weeks. For all this you'll be started between 24 and 30 cents per mile you drive, and if you fell for the company schooling they'll deduct your trucking school costs off the top of that until your debt is paid.
And that per mile rate, by the way, is not actual miles driven. It's short miles or zip to zip miles, so by the time it's actually figured you probably lose about 5-10% of your per mile pay before you ever see it...
If you're in a company truck they'll give you a fuel card to use, and pay the expenses on the truck, but you have to feed yourself, pay for showers, laundry, and anything else you need to survive, and truck stops are also expensive. And every time you use your expenses card at a truck stop to feed yourself or buy a shower (that is a cash card that many companies use to pay drivers instead of a paycheck) you'll be charged an additional couple to a few bucks just for the privilege of using the card. No lie.
Whatever is left over is what your family will have to live on. And many times there is no left-over. The hidden costs involved are ridiculous and a lot of new drivers basically work for free once they pay their basic living costs on the truck. Most new truckers just live on the trucks and don't bother trying to keep an apartment or home. There's just not enough money to cover both.
How do I know this? I went through a state run trucking school several years ago after I retired from police work, and worked as an independent owner/operator until I retired from trucking last year.
Most of the 15 or so guys in my class bailed out of trucking before 6 months. Only one is still driving, and he was a lifetime trucker who had to go re-up his schooling after taking a break for a couple of years. One is now doing new trucker testing for the state, everyone else was out of the business by the end of the first year.
This might be an ok risk for a single guy with no kids who is just starting out and can afford to go a couple years on a real thin shoestring until the money gets better, but I would discourage any man with a family from getting into trucking nowadays.
If it's just something you always dreamed of doing, it's smarter to wait until the kids are grown and you have a retirement income to actually pay the bills on while you indulge your dream. It's just too risky, too expensive, and not enough return for the time spent far away from home.
I warned you I'd be long winded, think I'm finished now though. I truly hope this helps!
Awendaw
Forum Supporter
Above post is spot on. I have a CDL and work for a local utility. Considered OTR and not really for me. Luckily I had a truck I could just stay late at work and practice on my own time.
hawgdawg
Forum Supporter
BBs right . I drove for a while , and wouldn't want to do it again . I would leave out Sunday evenings , drive all night , and all day . Normally from Sunday to Thursday , I wouldn't get any sleep , literally none , never even made to the sleeper . Running 2 log books to keep running , now there mostly digital . If you're single , it can be ok , married with kids , no . It's a good way to see other parts of the country tho . Good luck on your decision .
007tallguy
Elite Member
wow, BBsGal couldn't have said it any better! agree with that post 100%! 
i went through all of that, the training, the coach, team driving for a short spell, then on my own.
yes, i got to see a LOT of North America that i wouldn't have seen any other way, met a lot of great people along the way, saw some great scenery (usually whizzing by at 60 mph, lol), but there's no doubt that it's a different kind of life living in a truck. and yes, it's very expensive living on the road.
i do courier work now, been with the same company for 15 years and even though i still work 10+ hours/day, i'm home in my own bed every night and not wondering when i'm going to get a load that will bring me somewhere close to home again.
when the weekends come, i'm not sitting in the middle of no where staring at the side of a truck stop and a hundred other trucks, i can simply grab my detector and head on out to familiar turf and enjoy my hobby rather than sit here and wonder when i'm going to be home again. btw, some of my best detecting places belong to some of my customers, lol. when your work keeps you in a local area and you get to know people, they can be really great resources for our detecting hobby!
Pete
i went through all of that, the training, the coach, team driving for a short spell, then on my own.
yes, i got to see a LOT of North America that i wouldn't have seen any other way, met a lot of great people along the way, saw some great scenery (usually whizzing by at 60 mph, lol), but there's no doubt that it's a different kind of life living in a truck. and yes, it's very expensive living on the road.
i do courier work now, been with the same company for 15 years and even though i still work 10+ hours/day, i'm home in my own bed every night and not wondering when i'm going to get a load that will bring me somewhere close to home again.
when the weekends come, i'm not sitting in the middle of no where staring at the side of a truck stop and a hundred other trucks, i can simply grab my detector and head on out to familiar turf and enjoy my hobby rather than sit here and wonder when i'm going to be home again. btw, some of my best detecting places belong to some of my customers, lol. when your work keeps you in a local area and you get to know people, they can be really great resources for our detecting hobby!
Pete
banshee89
Elite Member
I grew up on a dairy farm and got my CDL in my late teens. That was so long ago that when I got mine a state instructor came out to the local firehouse, we did a group pre trip, drove around the block one time without even a trailer..... and got our licenses. We were all farm boys so we could all drive anyway... and that's pretty much what the inspector said. I was driving a twin stick Auto Car when I was 13.
These days I work for the local town Water Dept and been have for years. With all the snow we have had this year I hope to be close to 6 figures by the end of the year. I will be able to retire with a full pension at the age of 54.... but the pension is no longer offered for new employees. The CDL is only the frosting on my experience cake. I have a few other licenses like a class 4 water treatment license, class 3 distribution license, and years of experience maintaining large water distribution systems.
Now.... with that said... I think I have done quite good for myself and you can do the same without OTR experience. The starting jobs for most municipalities just require a CDL, a clean criminal record and driving record. I forgot to add I was also in the Air Force which gave me a few points over other people when I applied for a town job years ago. The town would not care which large company you worked for or if you "abandon" a truck somewhere.... you would only be required to "GASP" demonstrate that you can actually drive a truck. A concept that seems to be lost on these big companies these days.
My advise is to get the CDL yourself out of your own pocket then go work for a local construction or delivery company. Get some experience and some heavy equipment experience would help as well. Then start applying to local or state governments.
Again I have never done OTR and I don't know your age or experience so I can only tell you what I have done. I can tell you that I have seen many so called OTR guys who cant back a dump truck around a building with an equipment trailer on the back and that most of the guys we hire come from the military or construction trades, so I would not be to concerned about what stigma these big OTR companies think they have.
Good luck and keep in mind the most important thing is to be able to drive a truck (its not rocket science but does require some experience) and that you don't bury yourself in debt.
WildDigger
Elite Member
BbsGal has some great truth in her post. I was a driver for 23 years and made good money and not so good. Lol. I wouldn't do it this day and age. There is no money like there use to be unless you specialize in something. I specialized in heavy haul over dimensional loads. It pays great if you're a owner operator. It does mean a ton of down time at truck stops and terminals.
GeneralQuarters
Elite Member
The most important issues is how to keep MDing while you are driving! Iwas OTR driver for four years. Went to Swifts trucking school. Did five weeks with an instructor who was very good. Yes, I had to pay them back. My experience was great but I paid my dues, got experience. Then I got a local job. Home every night and good pay. You do have to sacrifice for a few years. Also, I would never be an owner operator.
CoiltoSoil
Elite Member
My grandfather was a Teamster from the early 50's to the 90's doing mostly local work in PA and the surrounding states, he did well and it was basically a 9-5 job. I don't think I'd enjoy doing cross country stuff.
