My dad drives a truck and he gets pairly well to do it. if you do what you want to do, who cares. You will be making more than your aunt who is a teacher I am willing to bet and possibly more than your uncle who owns a clothing store.
I don't think this is about money in your case however. it sounds like whatever you would choose that is not in your families standards would not be good enough no matter what it is.

 

Wow thank you guys for all the responses! I really feel better about all this after reading most of the responses! If all this works out, im planning on going to a driving school down here for a month, then getting my own rig and finding an owner-operator deal. I looked on the internet and it looks like I have a lot of options so hopefully something will work out!! I just gotta break the news to my mom now..

 

It's tough finding a local driving position when you have less that one year exp. Back in July of '04 the USDOT FMCSA required that all CDL drivers in interstate commerce with less than one year of experience must have training covering Driver qualification rules, Hours of service, Heath Maintenance and Whistleblower protection programs. All of this in addition to drivers recieving their CDL's from any state. Which means the company that hires you must provide all of it. So what happens is that small outfitts like the one I work for are not set up to do the extra training and documentation. So we and others are always looking for drivers with NO- LESS than one year. OTR outfits on the other hand have had there own school that all new drivers go through. So their system fit into what the feds now require. Schnieder, CR England, JB Hunt, to name a few. are all excellent companies to work for. The thing is though, you'll put a LOT of miles under you belt and home will always be a recent memory. Not that that's always a bad thing......

 

Yeah one thing that's gonna be hard for me is being away from home so much, but that's understandable..my ex girlfriends dad drives truck and owns his own rig and he gets preferred treatment on what runs he wants to take since he owns his own rig so I thought I might get into that eventually...he and I are still really good friends so that will be helpful when I need some input.

 

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/

They may be able to give you some good industry info.

 

Thanks for the info. I did find one local company that is looking for local night driving home every day but their only concern was I don't have the HazMat endorsement, they were interested in me and I made the statement that if they would offer me a job I would get the HazMat. They are suppose to get back to me. So I'm thinking I may just go ahead and use my in laws truck to get my Class A and take the HazMat test.

 

If you gonna go the owner/operator route, yeah, get all the help and advise you can get from a vetran. He'll know all the in's and out's to keep you truck loaded. Just remember, dead-head miles are no good!!!!

 

Do what makes YOU happy. If they can't understand that, then they need to evaluate themselves.

 

yeah he will be a big help! That website is a big help also Hillbilly. Looks like there are a lot of people in the same shoes I am in so that help's me feel good about this!

 

Take full advantage of you in-laws truck. If not for that you'd have to pay a school to up grade you lic. Since you're doing it, get ALL of your endorsements. If you don't and in the future you decide to get an extra endorsement, you'll just have to take ALL of the test all over again. It wont cost any more, and how does the statement go, "better to have and not need, than to need and not have." Just MHO....... I do a big part of the hirering around here and i see more app's that are no good 'cause a guy doesn't have either the right endorsements or enough exp. Oh and keep your nose clean. If you have a CDL, the Feds now say a driver can't go to traffic school to "hide" traffic violations.

 

You know did miss-speak. The HAZ Mat does cost more. Homeland Security does require that all CDL drivers wanting to get their HAZ Mat must be finger printed and they do a background check on you. I believe it cost around $75 or was it $90. Anyways it's just a one time fee and when you renew it all in about 5 years you wont have to pay that to them again. Just the normal state fees.

 

I knew there was a charge for the Haz Mat but I'm in the proess of reading over Missouri's website trying to get an idea of what all it is going to take. Thanks for all the tips.

 

in california, whether you take just the basic test or all of the tests it's $50. But then you have the addititional charge to the Feds for the Haz Mat.

 

Heck man, its your life. One day they will pass and you will be on your own...might as well set yourself up to be happy doing what you enjoy. I was supposed to be an engineer, now im doing art...I doubt I will be rich, but I will sure be happy!

 

I drove a truck for a little while. Im only 23 and I can tell you right now, its not what people like to make it out to be. I hated every minute of it. Now if you owned your own rig, that would be different.