I worked for someone who does hot shot loads in a Sprinter Van. Being in Tx, there are lots of loads of car parts (that come across at Laredo), and oilfield equipment, but there are other things...candy bar wrappers, trade show brochures, artwork.
He goes to Canada with some small part needed in the oil fields, and in the US to a lot of the vehicle assembly plants.
He makes about $80K a year, and because of mileage,per diem, most of it cancels out for income tax. He is 68, BTW.
Don’t know where you’re located, but a lot of truck drivers are making big bucks driving for the oil company suppliers in Texas.
Even with the downturn, they looking for drivers who don’t have criminal records and can pass a drug test. They even have billboards looking for drivers.
Most drivers haul frack sand, crude, water, diesel, and other supplies, and are home every night.
I have never done real over the road trucking, but I do have a lot of experience. I also worked in transportation management for many years, but am no longer in that industry.
My best work was as a contract carrier for the Post Office. That option has likely diminished greatly as the USPS most certainly has been contracting in a different fashion due to EMail and on line transactions.
Supermarket companies are great places for drivers. The distribution centers are typically centrally located to the regions outlets and the nature of that business would require that perishables be not located too distant. Modern day ‘instant ordering’ means that warehouses must be able to replenish inventories in very short order. Therefore long haul trips are left to the OTR ‘gypsies’ or owner operators who are frequently away from home for extended periods.
Other industries are there, but personally, I would avoid the big carriers who pay per mile. That is always a gyp if you get caught in delays or situations which can slow you down.
Anyhow, I used to just love getting up in those rigs. You can see more than the 4 wheelers allow and outside of the cities, it is a beautiful country out there.
https://letstruck.com/
A good source
A lot of couples driving between major cities for FedEx go half way to the destination, then switch trucks with a couple going back the other way.
For example, a Chicago-based couple will head out about midnight with the second day air (most of which never flies, but rather goes by truck) going to New York. Another truck (one of many) leaves New York/Newark for Chicago. They meet at a truck stop in western PA on the PA turnpike, swap trucks, and are able to be home in Chicago by 9 that night.
Many are older, and glad to get out of the corporate BS.
I did it for a short while when I was between jobs. I thought it would be kinda fun for awhile— that I would get to see some nice places, stop and take a picture or two. Forget about that. There is no place interesting to stop that is going to have anyplace for you to park, not even to get a decent meal. I remember the bad food very well. If by chance you did find something interesting where you could park, your hours of service would always get in the way. If you were tired and wanted to take a break, same thing. The hours of service kept you going. By the time you did run out of hours, it was almost always somewhere desolate and boring. If the truck broke down, I was not getting paid for the day or two that it took to fix it. It paid the bills but it was not a very good job.
I did it for over 10 years.
Here’s the trick. Both you and your wife get the CDL. Start out as a company team, and learn the industry. As soon as you can, either lease (first choice for tax purposes) or buy your own rig, and find a good company to sign on with.
You are now a professional tourist. Enjoy. Truck Stops are the pits. They’re clean, not all truckers are. The trick is to stay out of them.
My wife and I would knock out the miles we wanted to do, and then go sightseeing (including hotel room) where ever we were.
You can net over $100k, but don’t try to be a homing pigeon. Set up with a fridge, microwave, and satellite dish in the truck. It is what you make of it, but if you want to travel, and not have to buy the motorhome, there’s nothing better.
If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask. If you want to talk PM me, and we’ll swap phone numbers, and I’ll answer any questions I can.
One last tidbit of advice, Stay on top of your health. I didn’t, and it’s why we’re not still out there.
Good Luck (Hammer Down!!!)
My cousins kid is a 18 wheeler truck driver. His hands are about twice my size and he stands about 6’5 and 230lbs
Meet those requirements and it should be easy.
petty complaints.... yep I hate those. My boss recently complained to me about not filling in updates in my tickets everyday even though the update would say no change and would continue to do so for several days. His boss wants to see a date change in the ticket even if the ticket itself has nothing in it of value.
In short I did not fill out my TPS Report “Office Space”
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e6/06/aa/e606aa3e27f52ae9a39abe4555545718.jpg
TPS Report
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-58UxQc1cLQg/UAXwFV1p5xI/AAAAAAAAFM4/uCqwAtw41RI/s640/TPS+Report.png
The biggest problems the two investors I know had were that most drivers seemed to be "self entitled drifters with no sense of accountability nor personal responsibility for timely performance." On one review of a drivers history, it was found he was making routine off route stops to visit his girlfriends in various cities. He complained when he got fired for it.
There was property damage to the truck on top of this. Truck owners have to comply with industry standards for the types of loads they haul. One incident damaged the integrity of the seal for a truck so that goods were exposed to the elements. The fool driver had backed it up and damaged the truck, then never reported it.
If you want to drive a truck the best paying jobs are either heavy haul or tankers. It takes a lot of experience to do heavy haul, so, you may want to look into hazardous material, tanker work.Tanker drivers are well respected as are heavy haul drivers. I drove big rigs for years but left the industry and went into construction, but I was still young and was a good choice at the time. But I’ll tell ya, driving gets old quick, driving the same roads over and over gets to be quite boring, but, it pays well if you get in with the right outfit.
