I am so sick of rush hour traffic and sitting in a cubicle all day wishing I was driving my diesel truck instead of listening to a bunch of prima donnas that I'm seriously thinking of packing it all in, despite the relatively good money. I'd like to hear from long haul truckers, preferably from Alberta. If I went and got my class 1, what do you think my chances are of getting a job considering that I'm 53 and have no experience. I have a clean record, legal to enter US, etc. Also, would I have to buy my own truck? Thanks for any advice.

Jim

 

i think that there are people aways looking for long haul truckers. look up in a search site truck jobs or something of that nature. they have a lot of companies that come up. i was looking at the same thing the other day.

 

Most of the major carriers are always searching for people.

 

My neighbor across the street has his own truck but he says that fuel prices are taking all the profit out of it for him. If you were just driving it would probably be good. I've fantacized about the life myself. I love to drive and I really love driving my CTD.

Edwin

 

Its the movie Office Space "I dont like my job and I uh dont think I'm gonna go anymore"

 

You could even use your dodge if you wanted to.

www.horizontransport.com

 

There the was a segment on 20/20 or one of them shows the other night,and with fuel costs and insurance this owner operator was only making .18 a mile it came to $10.00 an hr. Nows not the time to do that kind of job change,if that is true.Just my .02

 

Most every truck driver I know here even owner operators say there struggling to make it here in Calif. Fuel prices,taxes, etc are killing them. Just a thought, there are a lot of local delivery companies that use pickups for deliveries. The topography here makes it so were long and streched out. these guys will run across 2 counties making deliveries to various companies, some have even subed with Fed express etc.
Nothin personal, but theres gotta be a better way than sittin in a office with a bunch of ***** screamin at ya 24/7.
Best of luck either way.

 

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, until you get there and find out why the grass is greener in one spot sprouting out of a cow pie!!!!
I have serviced many owner/operators and hear a lot of stories. The fuel prices are a problem but they get a fuel sur charge to compensate them. Then it's the DOT problems making life difficult for them. I believe the biggest problem for OTR drivers is catastrophic failures and exorbatant repair bills on the road from greedy repair shops with incopentant mechanics. BUT a good PM program will keep that to a minimum. If you are a mechanic you can do your own PM's and really keep your expenses under control.
Start out with a good low mileage truck and keep up on PM's and get max life out of the truck and dump it around 8-900,000 miles and start over. Make sure you are with a company that keeps you running loaded and pays you deadhead mileage. If you want your weekends for your main squeeze, get a local delivery job. OTR is not for you. If you like to be gone all the time then OTR is for you. What ever you choose, Good luck.

Howard

 

RFCOM: are you in the cubicle next to me??? Could be, I just moved from having an office all my career to the !! cubicle thing.

 

Don't think Jim is thinking about buying a truck, rather just driving. At 53 and a good driving record no problem landing a job, a lot of the fleets are looking for mature guys rather than kids. You might not make as much as you do now but the advantage is you won't have much time to spend it either.

 

I currently am the shopforemanpartsguypurchasingagenttireguygreaseguy technician in a 16 truck OTR shop. This is a small family owned company. I can see just about any side of this OTR deal you want to talk about. I've been interviewing with a large company to put in my "time" for a decent retirement. Anyhow, my opinion is, to buy a single truck to put OTR is a big mistake. If you could swing three, that would be better, for two reasons. First, is that you could go broke 3x faster. That way, you could get this out of your system and go back to making money LOL. Secondly, with 3 trucks, you still have some flow when one breaks down on you. You'll have the other two to help cover the payments, at least, while the third is down. If you just want to drive, I'm sure the possibilties are endless. Lots of driving slots out there for GOOD drivers. Now, for company owners, a good driver is somebody that gonna run the wheels off a truck, minimal personal/financial problems/needs, reliable, and that's gonna run the wheels off a truck We just went through a DOT audit not too long ago. Four drivers are getting fined, the company is getting fined, mostly from log book violations/out of services. Now, something I dont know all that much about is big/wide and hazmat. These are what I would look for, if I wanted to drive myself. BIG/WIDE, I believe, mostly just run at night. So, maybe a man could get some decent rest. Hazmat usually pays pretty good too. Of course both of these loads will have additional BS paperwork/regulations to deal with. I hope this helped you out some.

 

If you already made up your mind on getting a CDL, then get some experience at whatever company will have you, a year or so and you should have no problem getting a good job. One bit of advice, the best driving jobs are at private carriers not trucking companies. Good drivers are hard to find so with a clean record and a little experience you'll have no problem. The company I drive for needs a couple of drivers and we are having a hard time finding two drivers with five years experience and a clean driving record, and thats for a 50 to 60K a year job, full bennies and weekends off.
E

 

Now is not the time. Fuel costs, insurance costs, new regulations limiting hours and weights are just killing the trucking industry. The extra hours on the road needed to make a profit will wreak havoc on any type of a family life and health. Living in a bunk, eating diner chow can be fun at times but for the most parts is far from being greener on the other side. Been there---done that.......... don't wanna do it again.
The only way to do it is if that truck runs 24/7 non-stop. Unless you know someone that you can LIVE with for that many hours in a SMALL MIMI HOME, it's a REALLY HARD life by yourself.
If you can luck out with a local shipping company doing a lot of short runs who willing to pay for waiting time and you don't have dock window times, it may work out.
But be prepared financially if you lose a shipping contract until you land another one. Banks will not wait for you to find another carrier company to run for. Truck reposessions are high right now.

 

If you are so sick of rush hour traffic, WHY in the world would you want to get into driving trucks?
Nowadays, driving a truck is like being in rush hour ALL DAY LONG!

I left a 24 year career as an OO or company driver in the mid '90's. The pay wasn't the greatest, the long hours sucked, the road rage was growing, and most of all dealing with all of the idiots on the road who have no comprehension about what it takes to stop/handle a truck. Wait until you grow a few grey hairs standing on the brake pedal desperately trying NOT to run right over the top of some car that pulled out right in front of you and stopped to make a left turn...

Now, I LOVE crawling thru rush hour traffic and getting to my quiet little office for the rest of the day, thanking God I don't have to deal with all of that road stuff anymore... Plus I make more money, am home on weekends, get paid holidays off, and 3 weeks vacation to boot!

Truck driving?? DON'T DO IT!