Trucking schools booming amid nationwide driver shortage 

Absolutely. $1,000.00 a week isn't even $50,000 a year. Not a lot.

That's starting out. You get paid for experience.

You can easily make 100k just starting out on otr

You can always see the country for $325.00 unlimited travel for 30 days on greyhound.

Yes sir, probably the same reasons why drivers have been hanging it up for years. Nothing's changed all that much in the last few decades except pay has not kept up with inflation.

FACTZ

The sad part is...you have to be logged "on duty, not driving" when fueling and doing pre and post trip inspections.............you dont get paid a dime for all that.................

@@numbaoneUFCfan even when you are off duty, you are still working by taking care of the truck.

get a local driving job

Do yourself a favor don’t do it. I’ve driven everything from dump trucks to gasoline tankers for 25 years now. Way too much unpaid time especially with OTR. Your average wait time in a dock is usually close to 2 hrs on average and guess what that’s 2 hours you don’t get paid for as well as the time you spend fueling your truck and inspecting it for defects every day. If your broke down guess what you are broke down and making no money 1000 miles from your house. Like to be watched by the boss by camera 24/7 and work 340 out of 365 days a year and work 70 hrs a week to make a living wage that most people with a good job make in 40-50 hours. The 1000 dollars a week they are probably “guaranteeing” you isn’t worth the sweatshop conditions you are about to experience. Locally you are going to be dealing with 6-7 day weeks and up to 70 hours a week still and relatively low hourly wage where I live the going rate I’d around 20-25/hr. Coupled with the disruption to your life cause by working 14 hours a day at night it’s not worth the money. In some areas in trucking it’s getting hard to get decent retirement or insurance even now. In short if you are considering changing careers consider being an electrician or another trade with a strong union that gets things done for its members. I made the career change from trucking in 2018 and haven’t looked back since and would advise anyone wanting to get in that godforsaken profession to run as far away as possible.

Dont do it not worth it! Go into another trade. Try IT, get a certificate on Comptia. As a truck driver, I get paid $28,000 annually after taxes. Working 14 hours a day 70 hours a week. Always on the road 24/7. Rarely see home time. Barely any benefits. Last but not least, you have no life. If you're a loner with no family and dont mind a low salary with a 70 hours a week of working . Than I'll recommend this for you.

​@smokysarchive9675 it hasn't changed. It's put me in the hospital a couple times. Non crash related.

If you can drive a manual transmission, you can drive an automatic transmission. Not the other way around. Some trucks are still manual.

At my job 40% of our fleet is still manual

most will teach you the 10 speeds manual, NOT 18 speeds with two splitters because they just train them to pass the test, not to be a trucker.

I work for a company, that keeps us moving. Sure, trucks can break down, but that's not that often. And it usually takes an hour for roadside to show up and another hour to get you going again. If you're talking about major repairs, they tow you and get you into a different truck asap, because they need to keep their drivers moving.

And that is a common thing. Not a once a month thing. I drove for 10 years. Got tired of sitting at docks not making money. What other kind of job requires you to go to work but not make money.

@@thomasbrown7728 You should be getting detention pay. If not, I'd work for a different company

I always wondered why they don't help load or unload their trucks Not their job?

I quit in 2007, started doing electrical work, hit a time clock now, paid every minute I’m at work, plus overtime.

& mozt people get taken ADVANTAGE of .

Give up home time. X-mas , birthdays, anything special that you would like to be home for isn't gonna happen

Let’s see AI back down ally’s and get out and hook up hoses to deliver gas. I’m waiting on a self driving truck to wreck havoc in NY, LA or I45 coming through Houston in stop and go traffic. Just a bunch of nerds trying to bring to life some crap they saw in a terminator movie.

@@dknight5249 your underestimating technology but i do agree with your point

I don’t doubt they can drive in a straight line but if your a truck driver like me then you’ve been to places that are almost impossible to back into. I pull a tank and I constantly go off road in some crazy places. No way a self driving truck is going to navigate through the places we go to without doing some serious damage. I predict it will hurt freight drivers the most.

@@letstalkaboutit6043 they are underestimating what the job requires. They are still in the stages of automating the steering holder part.

@@dknight5249 Facts!!

Don't even think about touching or adjusting brakes. If you're not a certified brake technician, leave the adjusting stuff alone. Crawling around the mechanics of a commercial vehicle's brake system/components is NOT for a novice. You'll end up at the nasty end of a lawsuit if and when, something goes wrong. Another piece of advice, some companies will actually take out of you pay, any road call involving any out of service because your brakes fail a DOT inspection.

@@johnsonbar5022 So a driver should stop at a brake check and continue on . or fly right by because he is not allowed to readjust brakes or call for raod service to check them?

God Bless these truckers

Class are small because they need to be for this type of instruction and the time and practice it takes

@@BiggTruckHer Spec Ed trucking schools?

Well it was just 5 students before

I wish you luck. I drove OTR for 10 years. I quit in 2007.. Back when I was driving there were company’s that had their own training so you didn’t have to pay a driving school. Also, there was company’s that would hire you and reimburse you for school cost. Try to find job that pays by hour, not by mile.

DONT DO IT .

I wouldn’t do it

Where I live at everything that you listed points is applied

I believe the insurance companies have a lot to do with it. You don't even have to get in an accident to be let go on account of the strict guidelines the companies have to abide by to keep insurance low.

Drive local.

I live in Houston and almost every local company has cameras. They say it’s the insurance companies but I know that’s a lie because even the self insured companies have cameras. Plus they all pay the same 1k a week. The cost of living is going up so making 65k a year is like making 35k a year.

Yes no privacy is insane. Glad we don't have that in Europe.

Boy you got that right !

Wow so its the same issue as all the other industries that are striking out?..the pay and the treatment of the employees?? I havnt seen many people talk about this so im genuinely grateful for the info but also upset cz not too long ago i remember people touting drivers as heroes for delivering the goods we needed during the pandemic but then come to find out i guess not heroes enough to want to treat them better and properly compensate them for what they do smh.

@@cortezyvonne The drivers are indeed the heroes. There are companies out there that still treat them like crap and forget that without the driver they'd be out of business.

just go toany trucking company, they will help or they will send you some where else

Whoa!

Because there plenty of place to park the bus than trucks, and you don't sleep in the bus.

and get divorced in a year

amen. Trucking > woke lib art degrees

1/2 the story some double clutching bs, the other half , the old drivers are retiring. What a joke.

double clutch while DMV person is in truck with you.

You can get your CDL at 18. You just can’t leave the state until your 21. But they are talking about changing that law.

@@Idahoprepper71 thanks for the head up. But there's another problem I'm in California which I heard it's the hardest place to get a CDL

@@spjulyer3124 not true, they are all the same. Do not take any easy option.

@@omikredarhcs8221 I plan for the. I plan for the challenge, the challenge prepares me for more

Heres a link to the school takes like week

Yup

No, dont drive stick

I miss driving a standard shifter, it was fun but they put all of us in the automatic transmission trucks.

@@3bydacreekside sticks are easier to drive when bumping the dock and hooking up the trailer.

@@Perich29 How? If I had to worry about what gear I was in(because my mind doesn't trust itself to remember) I wouldn't be focusing on what is going on around me as much.

Yea i was never taught to double clutch in school we floated gears since the first drive

If you can buy your own truck thats where you can really make the big money ,,, they are like 70k then you just work for yourself