Becoming a truck driver gentlemen any advise about trucking and cdl school?

Hey guys, I am going to trucker school on the fourth. Definitely looking forward to this. Any truckers on here or anybody that has ever driven a Peterbuilt, International or Volvo before?

my Dad trucked for over 30 years, and my Uncle owns his own. There is a big difference in the truckers of yesterday, and the one driving today. I deal with steel and freight haulers where I work. a good many of them either can't speak English, or their acent is so thick you can't understand them. Don't bashing foriegn drivers, but you need to speak the lauange, and be understood. and the quilaty of driver has really dropped. I've seen drivers back into our docks on the first try, and others take 45 minutes. really scarey when I see trucks out on the road.

It has greatly changed there wasnt much of a demand back in the early 2000s and the 1990s as today. My generation doesnt want to do that **** because of laziness, ignorance, bad record or the family issue but as for the foreign drivers havent seen tomany I dealt with steel haulers to.

I went through truck drivers training back in 2001 here in Oglesby at IVCC. Got hired through Werner Enterprises right after. It was an experience. I liked trucking, but my wife at the time thought I was out having a good time... Little did she know, your stuck in that damn cab most days or at some damn truck stop cause you have no hours left for the week.

I'm not sure whats changed since then. With Werner, you had to be with a trainer for 6 months before you took their test and then got your own rig. Back then they payed you $300 a week. But that gets used up pretty fast when ur eating out and buying showers. Once you get your own(issued) truck the $ gets better.

Hope you get a trainer who isn't a dick. Mine was. But thats a whole story right there.

If I didn't have custody of my daughter I would go back to trucking OTR for a couple years and the look for local work.

Good luck, be safe and enjoy this awesome country side the U.S. has to offer.

I worked at an IH dealershp back in the '90s. PGT is their biggest customer. they were so desperate for drivers they were bringing them up from Central America, and the first thing they had to do was teach them English.
Dad go out of driving because all of the BS.
and if you're married, take the wife along once in a while. Mom would forget just how hard it is to "just ride around all day" till she went with Dad.

It's real hard to do otr if you have family. It's also hard to get a driving job without going otr. My son has had delivery/driving jobs and at some point i know he wants to get his cdl. He's almost 20 so he has another year before he'd be able to get it and go interstate.

Dad drove OTR for several years untill I got into grade school, then he hauled local, home every night 90% of the time. My Uncle does the OTR, but he's single. He delivers oversized stuff, bridge girders, equipment. He's busy in the warm weather, dead in the winter. He loves it.

Problem with being 21 is most companys wont hire you because the insurance companies give them a break for having drivers over 25.

A quote to live by: "be a good trucker... always tarp yer load".

Basketcase: They were probably desperate for drivers cause they don't want to pay. All the OTR trucking companies lie about getting you home. If their truck isn't rolling they're not making $$ That's a big problem. Companys want you to drive a TT for $13/hr. or some stupid cents/mile Thats bs.

sublimegtx said:

Basketcase: They were probably desperate for drivers cause they don't want to pay. All the OTR trucking companies lie about getting you home.

Click to expand...

excatly. and you usually need three years experence, but how do you get the experence w/o the job? and watch who you drive for. JB Hunt,Swift, have had bad drivers since the '50s.

Oh YEA!!!!

I've been driving over the road since 02-07-89. Drove cabover peterbuilts, cabover international's, needle nose kenworths with a coffin sleeper, Volvo's, freightliner's,sterling's (made by ford). Expect your first year, you are not going to make much money until you get into the "groove" on how to manage your money on the road. Don't buy everything to see in the truckstop's. You'll find out just how expensive they are. When I started driving a cheeseburger was around $3.95, now it can cost up to $6.95 and that doesn't include drink or coffee.
I stay out for a month at a time and home for 3-4 days. That is my choice, and I've always done it that way. The longest I've ever been away from home was 6 months. 3 months for corn harvest in southern iowa and 3 months for peanut harvest in western texas. Truck companies will say anything they want you to hear and so will some drivers because they get a bonus for referring another driver. They will tell you they will get you home every weekend, but what they don't tell you is you might get home on Saturday and have to leave sunday afternoon or night to deliver the load Monday morning. Companies like Werner, Swift, Schneider, J.B, Hunt, PGT, and others all have a high turnover rate.
The new drivers nowadays are spoiled because of power steering, air brakes, computer's, and automatics in trucks now. They are nothing like when I started and I've heard drivers that drove in the 50's, 60's, and 70's say the same thing about the next generation of drivers that come into the industry.
For the most part, driver trainers are fairly good, they will tell you how the company wants you to do things there way, and that's fine till you get used to things and can get experience to go to another company or stay with them if you so choose. And if you stay with the company and they ask you if you want to become a trainer, I would think long and hard about that cause basically you are putting your life in someone else's hands. I personally know drivers that do make good money as a trainer.
Driving truck is hard on the family life and you need a real special woman to understand that. I divorced my 2nd wife when I was driving truck and had to pay child support for 5 kids (never tarped my load). September of this year my youngest turns 18 so I will no longer have to pay CS. Don't get me wrong, I've made good money, but there will be lean times and there will be good times. When you do graduate from the school and talk to the recruiters, don't be afraid to ask any question that comes to mind. Make a list of things you want to know: pay scale, hometime, bonus's, how often they service their trucks, just whatever comes to mind. IF you have any questions you need answered, you could pm me your number or have me pm you my number and talk on the phone if you need answer's quicker. Sorry I got long-winded, but just wanted to bring up some main parts.
I have been off work since October due to an injury but plan on getting back in the truck mid-march. Yes, trucking is in my blood. My dad and 2 older brothers were truck drivers with one of my older brother still driving(owner-operator). Good luck to you in you endeavor.

yeah, no cab overs with man-well steering these days. One of my instructors in school slept off the step of a cab over and fell. Broke his sternum. He had to retire cause he couldn't handle the manual steering.

Never drove a automatic. Super ten spd. Kinda would've liked to have an auto though. My truck was a freightliner classic. Those have a wide turning radius and the pete's are worse from what I here.

Freightliner classic is my favorite truck to drive. Put almost 1/2 million miles in 3 years with one. Too bad they don't make them anymore.

Been driving since 89 been to all 48 continental states Canada and Mexico been Otr whole time I enjoy it I too got hurt few years back but back out on road again but I worked for swift ats eagle van lines smith transport Lisa ffe will trans/prime and now great American lines
I'll tell you this dom go to prime or ffe for training get a year or two under your belt then you can go anywhere depending on were you live as to how often you get home the freight lanes very per company but be prepared for 3 to 4 weeks at a time and be happy to get home more often if you do every company has good and bad but are all the same now adays. budgets will help but don't waste money on crap you don't need I have 2.5 million miles accident free and can go any were but it took along time to find the right company.
I have driven all kinds of trucks peets kenworths volvos freightliners internationnals so on with every trans including autos its not difficult but if anybody says its not hard work they are lieing it takes a bit of skill to back a 60-85 foot long truck into a tight *** space some drivers make it look easy but its not far as trainers just listen pay attention do what they say you will be ok life on the road is taxing little sleep sometimesvevery tight delivery times

I know Big Dummy was a long haul driver. In his threads theres pics of him and his Yorkie Knucklehead in all sorts of places.

I started driving garbage trucks when i was 17 had a chaffeurs license till i was grandfathered somewhere in my 20s then drove rolloff trucks till i went into the shop. it always paid good and i was home every night something to think about . ive driven just about any brand of truck you can think of mostly macks i learned on a twin stick mack if you can shift one of those you can drive anything. ive seen a lot of otr drivers quit because of the bs they put you thru i got tired of it and went to working on them instead i had to let my cdl go 4 yrs ago it felt weird after all those years of having it ,

I remember riding with Dad when he drove an Autocar triaxle. he would have to loop one arm thru the steering wheel, and use both hands to work the two shifters. no air splitter,power steering,ac.

I dont know if they were the same trans are not i only had to split em if i was real heavy like 18 to 20 tons on the truck they weighed 28 to 35 thousand empty .and were only tandem axle at thatalways had p/s on them ,