Starting a career?
Posted by Low-Investigator8448@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 8 comments
Hello! I've been really interested in getting into trucking. Im a little late to the game im 26 but trucking looks like it could be fun easy-ish work.
My question, im not sure i want to do OTR, I would love to be able to do something where I'm home daily. I also live by mountains so mountain driving is OK too. But I am the bread winner. I make roughly 83k a year without taxes. Would it be easy to get a job right out of school at those requirements?
Kkalemauser@reddit
Yes. You could drive a mixer or a trash truck and double your money.
Go LTL or Fuel and in a few years, triple your pay.
I started at 26. Perfect time to start.
Some people start at 60 after they retire from another job.
jmzstl@reddit
Even with a willingness to run the mountains, you most likely won’t be able to beat that pay while staying home daily until 1-2 years in.
PlsCheckThisBush@reddit
Home daily, new driver, good wages. You can have 2 of those.
And just a forewarning almost nothing out here is fun or easy. Your time isn’t valuable as a trucker - you’re considered unskilled labor by the government and aren’t protected from them. They want you to sit 1000 miles away from home for 3 days and not pay you while you wait for your truck to be fixed or waiting on a load? Totally legal. You’ll set your money on fire trying to survive like that.
Ok_Bug_6470@reddit
It’s not easy ish work. If you get a an easy ish run then you’re not making any money. On the level it seems great but then all of the stuff happens like breakdowns, 8 hour loading or unloading w no detention, not being able to use the restrooms at shoppers or receivers, a dot cop giving you warnings w no recourse(rarer these days but does happen) theft of cargo, damaged cargo, missing your kid’s soccer game…again, missing your hometime and date night w your spouse or sig other… again, other drivers not knowing how to drive the mountains, not being able to find parking and when you do someone slaps a boot on your truck for several thousand dollars. Being an hour from home for your time off but traffic made you run out of hours on you have to sit. No showering for a few days sometimes, no groceries, having to share toilets w people that haven’t ever had a single vaccine and done understand western hygeine(sorry but it’s a thing) women getting groped and catcalled by dudes and other women calling their company and saying they’re prostituting bc they don’t like them. Murderers rapists and kid touchers sleeping in a truck two feet from your pillow, not judging people that did their time but it’s a reality. This all being said, 90% of the people out here are fantastic humans. So if you can put gone all the worst car stuff I mentioned then give it a shot. Just don’t get ripped off by lying recruiters and predatory CDL schools. You won’t make any more than that if anywhere close to that your first year or six months btw but might get lucky.
chocolate_asshole@reddit
26 is not late at all, but trucking is not easy work and 83k home daily right out of school is hard. most new drivers start otr or crappy schedules to get experience. after a year or two you can chase better local gigs. everything’s tighter now, hiring slowed a lot
Ok-Combination7287@reddit
83k at age 26.... sounds like you have a lot of up side I'm you're current career. Are you unhappy there? Most 40 yeast old will kill for 83k a year.
Read comments from people here posting about there frustrations. I'm only getting into trucking because i have too.
Personal-Damage-7051@reddit
26 ain't that old. (Don't break my bubble I'm the same age) Starting out anywhere. Learning curve is gonna put you at 60k year one. Once you pick up all the tricks and learn to pace yourself. You'll go to 80-90k. Trucking can go up to 115-130k easy enough with accumulated experience, endorsements, and building the right connections. I.E. hazmat and tanker experience at a general carrier and then moving to a specialized field.
I'm sure others will jump in here and give more specialized opinions so I'll just leave this comment vague. Also should say what state you're in if you want local, others might know starter companies near your state or in it.
NectarineAny4897@reddit
Get rid of the notion that anything in trucking is easy-ish.
Depending on location, experience and luck you can do better than what you are making now, but probably not to start. You also have to factor in the down time for training, cost of school,