Truck Driver's, advice needed.

[OLDNEWBIE]

IITR Creswell. Best way to quickly get into a Truck Driving career?

Is this a bad Idea for a 51 year old guy who's closest experience would be driving a "Deuce and a half" through narrow German towns a lifetime ago in the Army and a short stint driving the biggest Ryder box trucks on a weekly 3 hour route each way in the early 90s?

I enjoyed that back then but....

If I still lived in Sunny FL with straight flat driving I probably would have done this by now but must admit snowy, icy, curvy steep roads and Crazy Directions getting lost/stuck etc. worries me a bit.
GPS probably helps a lot these days though.

Any of you Truckers got into it later in life? Is a decent paying Job almost guaranteed if you finish the School with a CDL?

I always said if all else fails, I'd get in to driving trucks. Things are failing on a few fronts at the moment and I gotta make some quick decisions.

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[CoastRange57]

I have a friend who is long hauling at 59, and has been for a while and knew guys who went to 70. If you want to test yourself, take your pickup out and drive it into a snowbank. They lay down in the snow / slush/mud/gravel and put the fing chains on. If you can do that and do it a couple times a / day / week, then have at. Learn how to piss in a bottle, eat sh*tty food and shower every 4 days or so.

Glacier NW is constantly advertising for concrete truck drivers, local hauls. Starting pay the say is about $ 16.88 DOE. Most local freights are Teamsters. Hazmat stuff goes 24/7 despite the weather. Containers do not pay sh*t.

I had two Freightliners we used in our construction business, and then we gypoed out when the economy when shi*tbag in 09. We ran containers for a while, then anything we could get for hauls, but gave it up and parked the trucks when we could only make about $ 16 and hours and were just tearing the trucks up. Sold the trucks and found another line of work.

 

[RicInOR]

IITR Creswell. Best way to quickly get into a Truck Driving career? .

Do you have a CDL? with Endorsements - like HazMat?

If not

Go get a job as a bus driver at your local school district.

After they train you and you get your CDL - if you can drive for 6 months -then you have a good package to offer - CDL + Experience.

If you can't drive the kiddies, quit after you get your CDL.

 

[etrain16]

My BIL had to change jobs after the company he worked for for years went out of business. At about 45 YO, he hooked up with IITR in Clackamas and got his CDL. He ended up working for a glass delivery company. I don't think it pays particularly well, and he's also got to load/unload the truck which has been taking a physical toll on him for the last 10 years or so. Looking back on it, he basically took the first job that came to him, he would rather have waited for a better offer, but now seems to think he's kind of stuck where he is. I think he could move to something better as a driver, but he doesn't really want to pursue it.

Just make sure you get the right job for you, and that you are aware of everything that goes along with it.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Learn how to piss in a bottle, eat sh*tty food and shower every 4 days or so.

That part I could handle all right. Although pissing while driving sounds challenging!
Had some chain experience and that sucks but sounds better than getting back into Welding at my age. And with my being out of it for so long if I was lucky enough to score a welding job the pay would be a lot less than $16.

Yeah, tomorrow I'm starting a minimum wage entry level job that a pimply faced Teen should be doing. Not that I'm too proud, work is work but my "circumstances" have just changed and I will no longer be working around my wife's and kid's schedule.

I took this job solely because the hours fit within the tight perimeters of that.
Now it seems I will be free to chose my own hours but will be needing a real Job as well.

 

[CoastRange57]

Do you have a CDL? with Endorsements - like HazMat?

If not

Go get a job as a bus driver at your local school district.

After they train you and you get your CDL - if you can drive for 6 months -then you have a good package to offer - CDL + Experience.

If you can't drive the kiddies, quit after you get your CDL.

Our local contract bus service pays about $ 11 per hour for school bus drivers who drive the disrespectful little brat bastards around. They have well over 100% turn over annually. They practically beg for drivers. Put some poor sap in a short bus in parking lots on busy corners waving a sign and barking for the Yak woman. They jump you to $ 12 if you stay a year.

My buddy makes about 50-60 a year gross and is gone from home 11 months a year. The rag heads, dots and sikhs have taken over the trucking industry, they will work for less per mile and will drive the hunks of sh*t those freight companies give them. Make one mistake and they fire your azz and hire another one.

Best you can really hop to make on local hauls is $ 20 an hour, and that after a year or two. Over the road just depends on how many miles you can hammer out in 11 hours, and they expect you to go 11 hours a day, and hopefully you only get one ticket a year.

 

[jbett98]

Any need for an Uber driver in Springfield?

 

[rick49]

Ever think of a class 'B' Cdl? A bunch of the above drawbacks are negated with one of these. You can also do the written test without any special schooling. Only hitch is finding a truck to do your road test. You said you drove a box truck not too much difference there. Money isn't quite as good but local routes make that a draw. This is primarily a delivery type job so if your comfortable with that...

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Any need for an Uber driver in Springfield?

We're still working out the details but she's getting the nice car anyway.

Do you have a CDL? with Endorsements - like HazMat?

If not

Go get a job as a bus driver at your local school district.

After they train you and you get your CDL - if you can drive for 6 months -then you have a good package to offer - CDL + Experience.

If you can't drive the kiddies, quit after you get your CDL.

Yeah, things are moving fast. I need to be making a living wage real soon or deplete my savings.


6 months PT Driving a School bus seems to be the slow route.
Some of these Trucking Companies offer Paid training if you commit to a year or two. Maybe that's the way to go?

 

[edslhead]

There are only a handful of companies left worth working for. The full Master Freight contact Teamster companies are down to around 4 now . I wouldn't recommend any of the others at your age as the retirement is nill with them. When I retired in 2003 even the full Teamster companies were lowering their contributions to your pension ( one reason I retired at 51 ) by a fair amount per hr. As if that isn't enough, driving truck is NOT fun. Traffic was hell when I retired I'd hate to be doing it now.

 

[41Slinger]

No help, but thoughts are with you OLDNEWBIE, wish you the best.

 

[mjbskwim]

I drove 5 yrd dumps and pulled a backhoe around for about 20 years. And as i have said in other threads I quit because the companies seem to care more about saving money than fixing the brakes on the trucks.
By the time I quit it seemed that everyone on the road wanted to F with you by cutting you off and hitting the brakes.And I started to want to run over them.
So I let my CDL expire. Driving trucks isn't something I would wish on anyone at 50 some years old.
To drive most bigger trucks or pull trailers you have to take classes ,no? That could be time without pay or costing more money
Has to be other jobs that pay the same without being on the hiway all the time.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Trucking seems my last best hope. I just left a Job working with the Developmentally Disabled and now I've taken a Job in yeach!, retail.
Money wasn't an issue before but now it is.

This is what I see every day after I Quit my last Job 2 months ago. Jobs are easy enough to get but unless you're a Nurse, Medical Tech, Teacher or in a Trade with loads of Experience you're left with not much. Even some of the Skilled Jobs with Qualifications pay surprisingly little. Not worth getting started in at my age.
Hell, back when the Twin Towers fell as a Mig Welder Lead I made $16. Gas was a little over a buck and our house cost 55.000! That was in FL.
This Economy really sucks and I blame unchecked Immigration and the 9.25 minimum wage.

 

[mjbskwim]

I have talked to loggers that are nurses now.
You can talk about how hard it is to find something or make something happen. You may need to get a couple jobs to make ends meet. But if you have good work discipline you can find something.
And if trucking is all there is then don't ask us to tell you what it's like,cause you may not like what we say. Just go do it

 

[Certaindeaf]

Some people really find driving a truck satisfying.

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[jbett98]

My brother managed heavy haul truck drivers for awhile, until he got an ulcer.
Some of the stories he told me about them were quite unbelievable.
Here's his take on the what goes through a drivers mind as his day rolls along.

Driver starts his day playing all his country music cd's. (about 2 hrs)
Driver then gets tired of hearing the same old songs and starts to fantasize about some hot nympho hitchhiker chick making all his sexual dreams come true. (about 1 hr)
Driver then spends the rest of his shift thinking about how much the trucking company is screwing him over.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Of course talk radio, cell phones, books on tape etc.
I guess Trucking appeals to me cause it seems to be a Career you can take with you.
I mean maybe the pay isn't what it was but it's enough and seems like work is there wherever you end up living.
IITR seems pricey but what the heck. I'm gonna see what they have to say.
I was hoping for some first hand knowledge from a Grad but it seems you all got into it some other way.

 

[scrandall01215]

I went through IITR 9 yes ago best decision I could have made you're only a little older than I am. Personally I think a lot of of people are talking out there bubblegum on this subject but that just my opinion. I'm making 25.00hr + good benefits and almost all the over time I want.
If you want to talk about what to really expect pm me and I'll give you my phone # and we can talk!

Stacy

 

[Scott F]

I was off work with a work injury for 5 1/2 years and because of Oregon workers comp laws went without and income for 4 1/2 of those years. I got a faked work release from a doctor friend, moved to Washington and started driving truck. It was the only job I could find that needed workers so bad they didn't care about my injury. I went to the Swift academy and spent two years with Swift. Then switched to Haney for three more until a service connected disability made me retire at 62.

With swift I spent six months OTR then switched to heavy haul and got a dedicated run from Port Townsend where I lived to Kelowna BC. It was a great run and when Haney got the contract I switched to stay with the load. I made a living but worked long and hard weeks. I am glad I did it but now am glad I retired.

I will say this, with a CDL and some experience under your belt you will always have work. I had every endorsement including Haz-Mat and combined over weight and length for heavy haul doubles. BTW, hanging Iron four times a day gets real old just before the first time! Swift sucks but it will get you started and earning in three weeks.

 

[edslhead]

I had 29 yrs in as a Teamster with the last 9 at ABF , so no gum here Stacy.
Oldnewb a dock worker at UPS makes $27 an hour , you might try ( your a little old though ) getting your foot in the door there, no cdl needed.