Originally Posted by for4roses

You may want to look at CFI if your in their hiring area ....

Originally Posted by Justruckin

A good friend of mine, a machinist, went to work one day and found out they shut the doors for good, no warning.

He called me up wondering about trucking. I have my own authority and owned a few trucks at that time. I could not hire him at the time, or I would have. I told him it would not be easy, and don't even think of making $60 thousand or more a year as he was used to. He was 60 years old, and looking to pull vans, flatbeds were out of the picture for him. And I am assuming the same regarding Tom. I pull flats, and its lots of hard work that most guys will not do.

Schneider gave him the same song and dance that you got, running local. He started the process, and found out that he would be obligated to work for 2 years, and that if he quit, he would have to pay some silly amount of money for his training. And there was no guarantee regarding local, he would most likely wind up over the road for a year or more.

My friend did not go with Schnieder, he went to a smaller company, and paid for his own schooling. But, he found that he loved the driving part, but he could not justify the work for the pay. He is now back in the shop, and is slowly buying his own tool and die machines to start his own business in his garage, while working for another guy that is also working out of his garage, and he is home every night.

And I know, having hired a driver from Schneider, that their pay is not all that good. The one guy that came to work for me, with 3 years driving, was making .29 a mile on a dedicated run. Detroit to St Louis and back to Detroit, 2 and 3 times a week, on a rotating basis. I was running the same freight and I know what it paid. I offered him $500 a turn on the same run, plus detention of $20 an hour after 2 hours waiting from his appointment time. I usually got 2 to 3 calls a week for that run.

Pay for your own schooling, and if you go with the big carriers, don't expect much for pay. Your first training period of 4-6, or more weeks. Normal training pay, after you take out your expenses, will run around $183 a week take home. I know this for a fact, my step son did the same thing you are thinking of doing, he went with Swift, these are his numbers I am using, and mine two. In 17 years of driving, not much has changed in regards to rookie pay pulling vans.

And then when you go solo, expect roughly $500.00 net, and then subtract out of that your expenses. I would say you will net 350 to 400 a week, depending on how you feed yourself and get showers. You will probably be gone for 2 weeks at a time, with a day or two off in between. I said probably, but not always. You are at the companies mercy for the first few years. Once you have 2-3 years under your belt, at poverty wages for actual hours worked, you can start calling your own shots. But until then, it ain't easy. I know, I have been there and done that.

Again, just be ready for a huge income hit. And if you are married, you might not be for very long. My first full year, I grossed roughly $22,000. I was wiped out in a really ugly divorce, and trucking offered me a roof and three squares a day. Hell, I would have worked for free at that point just for the food and shelter! And I had a nursing degree, surgical nurse. Long story, let's just say that the local sheriff liked to visit me at work on a regular basis. The ex wife was good at making things up. I lost my job due to this, and eventually wound up in a truck. She could not accuse me of this and that if I was no where near the state, and had logs and a dispatcher to back me up. Like I said, long long story. I knew nothing about trucking back then. I just saw it as a way to escape a very vindictive, gold digging, accusing (insert your own word here). It was so bad, that even my parents said "LEAVE", as they were getting drug into this mess that lasted almost 10 years! Yep, 10 long terrible, unbelievable YEARS.

I am not saying this to burst your bubble, just telling you the truth. It sucks just starting out, its called paying your dues, and it is not right in my book. That is the main reason this industry has a 100%+ turnover rate.

You might be better off staying where you are at, like one of the other guys said. Or, if you have to drive, see if you can get a job delivering office supplies with a straight truck, Staples comes to mind. You will get paid a heck of allot more then the lower then minimum wage a rookie gets driving a $100,000.00+ piece of equipment. Sad, but true.