Okay, my husband just got back from a deployment to Iraq in January, was making some decent money while over there. When he came home, he went into "I just want to relax for awhile" mode, which was fine. We used his re-enlistment bonus to float while he was making up for lost family time. Again, fine.

So he decides to get his CDL, passes with flying colors and has all his endorsements... and goes back to working for his parents company making $16/hr.. which for a family of 5 is just NOT cutting it here!

I told him he should be looking for a driving job, and he said that nobody is going to pay him "as much" as he's making now because he has no experience. He does oil deliveries for his parents right now, which he claims is both experience and good because of the Hazmat. I think he's just being a weenie and doesn't want to get a "real" job (but that's another can of worms)...

So I guess my question is.. in the "really real world" is he going to get more than $16/hr. with no experience except the driving school? Is there a plan we should follow to get him on the road? We're drowning here.

Thanks! I just don't know what to do anymore. Sorry for babbling - I just figured I'd ask the pros!

-Nicole

 

With no experience, he might do a little better, but not much. He could make good money if he got on with a flatbed company like Maverick or TMC. By all accounts their drivers are earning around $50k a year and then some. Depends on where you live too.

 

We're in the Lehigh Valley, PA - right between Philly and New York. This place is just bustling with trucking activity, sofar as I can see in my day-to-day driving around town.

 

why not let him get some experience first, then look for a job with a income that suits your needs?

 

If he JUST got back he's gonna need a little time to re-adjust

 

I'm sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way. It's hard to convey entire situations in one post, and I suppose I shouldn't have called him a "weenie" without a 45 page explanation why I felt that necessary. Suffice to say, my dissatisfaction is with the pay he's getting from his mother when she pays another guy who does the EXACT same job (HVAC) as my husband $28/hr - and hubby worked for his parents company since he was about 16 (except while he was deployed, obviously) She "forgets" to pay our insurance premiums, which is less than she pays for her employees because we take it through the Army. She "forgets" to add his overtime in. She "forgets" to reimburse him for his fuel when he drives his own car to work (because she won't give him a work van of his own) He's doing oil deliveries 1 day a week - to me, that doesn't seem to be "big experience" in a "rig"

I wouldn't take this sort of behavior from a regular employer, and it downright infuriates me to take it from a member of the family. I hate mixing money and family - it never works out.

As for my own employment, I'm a full-time student, a part-time seamstress and a full-time mother. I'm doing the best *I* can do right now, to be home with my children where my husband wants me.

Like I said, I tend to babble.. my intentions are good, and I apologize again if I came off the wrong way. Sometimes my tone can be taken wrong by people who don't know me very well.

Have a good one.
-Nicole

 

I think you're too far east for Maverick. But TMC hires there. If he's already got his CDL and schooling I think they could get him going at TMC pretty fast. Go to www.flatbedfred.com. He's got a lot of info on TMC there.

 

First, this responce was changed because it was too harsh for this situation. So you must have received it quickly. The new information was not in the last post, so now my thinking has to be re-adjusted. So let me take this one at a time.

Pay. Even though $16 perhour is good pay for a local driver, his pay should be the same as the other who works if they are truely getting $28 /hr.

1 day a week. Are you Kidding me? He only works one day a week? I find this hard to believe that he would only work so little. However, if that is the case, then you have a perfect right to call him a "weenie", plus a few other names that most other people would.

Glad to see that at least you are working and trying to go to school. Keep up the good work.

Over all, most of what is here was NOT on your first post. With a clearer understanding of what is going on, I'm changing my views on this subject. Along with my opionion.

If what you say is true, and he is NOT doing his best to support he's family, tell him to get off his lazy but, and get some work.

 

Like I said, it's sometimes hard to convey every little detail of a situation on a message board.

He works 5 days a week, doing heating & air conditioning - but he only does the oil deliveries on Fridays, and even that is spotty sometimes. He thinks that his big "experience" in the oil truck (since it's a tanker - is that the word I want to use? and Hazmat) will give him all this great experience that employers will just be SO excited over. I told him he's insane. He promised me he'd start working more overtime, but he's been home early every day this week (yesterday it was 3PM!)

I'm ready to start applying for jobs in his name, but that would probably be bad, right? :wink:

 

Hats off to all women who do this. YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!