Well drivers, it's time to start thinking about the next steps in your travel. You will now forever be know in the trucking world as a driver. Names are seldom used out there, so be ready for that. When someone yells out "Hey Driver" they may very well be talking to you. We will handle that topic another day. Lets talk about where you're headed after you get that license of yours. You have a lot of options out there for a starter company. We call it a starter company cause everyone has to start somewhere. Drivers frequently change companies, it's all part of the job. Now every company is going to promise you the world and then some. The truth is unless you can get it in writing don't believe it. The fact is when you contact these company's your dealing with recruiters and their job is to sell you on that company. They are excellent salesman I must admit and if you believe every word that they tell you then by all means please come talk to me I have ocean front property in Oklahoma that I would love to sell you. So let's be serious. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is and your going to want it in writing before you get on any bus.
Here are some realities about this profession:
- No one ever got rich driving a truck. Don't expect thousand dollar pay check average. First year driver is in the ball park of $30,000.
- Someone is always offering a bonus for this or that. Watch out for it. These are the types of things you want in writing because down the road someone might misplace that paper work.
- Buying your own equipment: flatbed work it means tarps, bungees, chains and chain binders. For vans it maybe straps and load bars.
These thing will come out after your training, which is the next step, so take these thing into consideration when choosing who you go with. Training time with all these company can also vary. Some claim 4 weeks, others 8-10 weeks. The honest truth is it really depends on what account your trainer works on. You do not get to choose your trainer or what he does anymore then he gets to choose you. Should there be an issue with your trainer there are ways to handle it, we will cover that in a later post. 48 state's trainers tend to train a student in anywhere from 5-10 weeks. Weather, time of year, and the amount of freight all effect this. A lot of times you end up being a paycheck to those trainers because you make mileage for them. Dedicated drivers take anywhere from 8-10 weeks because they tend to more of the same routes. So do not disillusion yourself into believing your training will take no time at all and you will be on your own in no time. That rarely ever happens. In all honesty the student that finishes early are students that train on line haul accounts. These are accounts that haul from terminal to terminal or distribution center to distribution center.
The next aspect of this is student pay. This turns a lot people off to being a student. Many companies only pay about $400 a week before taxes and health insurance, which works out to be about $250 take home. This can be a huge hit, especially if you have a family, so better to know right up front.
Your school should have a driver placement department to help you find your start company. If you are lucky they may even find you a local company work for that hires right out of school. It does happen. It is a good idea to stay at your starter company for at least a year to get the experience for your resume. Anything less than a year makes it extremely hard to find work elsewhere. I have seen enough decent drivers get upset about one thing or another and leave before their year is up and have to go through the whole training process again.
Schneider, Swift, Werner, J.B. Hunt, Western Express, Crete Trucking,
US Express, CR England are some of the starter companies out there. We have found that twitter is a great place to find job postings with many of the starter companies. You can find us at
https://twitter.com/Truckdriversfam. We follow a number of starter companies on there. You can follow us as well. As always be safe out there and safe travels.
Missed the other posts in this series? Find them Here:
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