Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Especially the LTL gig. I honestly thought OTR was the way to go, as far as more money. I know Werner have the Dollar General and Family Dollar accounts so I may take a look there once I'm through my training stint. Dont mind the handballing for FD or the rolltainers for DG, gives me a bit of a workout.
I'll post my progress as my new trucker life begins.
Ya, i got ya....700 a week will be ok for a while....then your gonna want/need 800...then 9, then guess what, you now need 1300 a week...and will soon look at LTL and fuel delivery, oilfield....etc etc
My point is, skip your middle companies, FD or DG....If you wanna stay in shape, call shamrock, or sysco, or coremark or one of the other food delivery companies...them boys are 1k a week plus also
If your asked, you want manual transmission school/work...when you leave the mega carrier, you'll likely find yourself in older trucks..most manual, try to avoid the automatics
In my journey, ive hopped in end dumps and transfers locally in between jobs, you can always grab a local end dump job for 18+ an hour....theses will be your scary trucks with every kind of manual transmision there is...If you can shift, you can grab any of these jobs...
Hopefully you get a trainer you can survive with...If you dont see ziploc pee bags everywhere and smell hot garbage and open a-hole, your in decent shape...
Dont just hop in and go...give er a look first...If you get a pig, you may be able to get a manager to come take a look...Make sure he's doing all the stuff your supposed to do!!!....If he;s not checking his truck and the tires all the time etc etc then you got a crap head...dont be afraid to insist on a higher standard or different trainer...We cant have guys poppin steers and comin at us head on across medians and stuff...We need you to be a top gun driver, we are in short supply and recruit you!!!
Look at the insides of the dam tires, make sure all your steering and suspension is all together...Im in a new 2016 and I got bolts loosening, broken shocks, etc etc....Dont trust er, always check your stuff!!! Guys die daily on this job, trucks not designed for crashing!!
Stay in touch for sure....there are people like me that will go on and on bout somethin if you let em!! LOL