So you Want to be a Trucker. Maybe. Or not......

Yes, I was originally going to address affiliate writing and related stuff in this second post, but I'm still glitched. I can't demonstrate much if I don't have functional links to work with.

So I'll talk about what I do now. First, here's a link that actually works: http://roadhawg.blogspot.com/. This is the first of my other blogs. It's sort of a personal log, and in it I talk a lot about my life as a gypsy trucker.

There's a lot to consider when looking at this line of work. You sure can make a good living at it if you want to run. How much are we talking about? In most cases, about 38k in your first year on the low end if you want to run. You make quite a bit more in your second year. This is because your first year per-mile rate starts out at about 60% of what you'll earn after you have your year in.

A team can make more, because they can run just about 24 hours, and pick up eachother's slack. For down the road apiece, and owner-operator makes half again as much as most company drivers--if you want to deal with the headaches.

You should get full benefits--you can opt for additional coverages, etc. Most intermediate and large companies offer company drivers 401k's. The company will take care of all repairs and maintenance on your truck, plus pay for the fuel. Most give you a fuel card (like a credit card) that you can swipe at the pump. The repair part requires a phone call, waiting on hold, getting a pre-approval for the work, then another phone call and wait on hold-maybe faxing a work-order...and getting the garage paid.

What does the training cost? Nothing. Many companies will hire you first, then put you through trucking school, then pay you maybe 300/week for 2-4 weeks with a company trainer, running actual loads. A good trainer will make you hit every dock, and park at all the truckstops where it's not crowded and you won't cause a traffic jam. Backing up is the toughest part.

But I digress: The company LENDS you some of your tuition money for the school (a separate entity), and grants you the bulk of it conditionally. They'll take out maybe 25-50 bucks a week for 6 months or so for the part that was a loan, and that's done. But you must stay with the company that hired you for a year before the grant part vests. If you leave the company before that, you will owe them the grant-money.

An aside on that: You really don't want to leave before that year is up anyway, and really should just make up your mind to give them two. Drivers who jump around are not popular with recruiters. Would you hire a person who probably won't stick around?

Trainers are paid for all the miles the truck runs--theirs and their students. They make a lot of money. That will be another option for you down the road, of you have the patience and personality.

Flatbed drivers make more. They get paid a lot for tarping and tying down their loads. It's harder than driving a van--a box trailer. Some companies pay you 150 bucks to tarp a load, and you can get it done in an hour. In the wintertime, though, the tarps harden, and you almost have to beat them with a hammer. And they're heavy. You're outside and you get wet, hot, and cold. If the extra 150, 300, or 450 bucks a week is worth it to you...something to think about.

Movers are paid a much higher rate, and can profit as they pay lumpers (contract loaders and unloaders), but I think their miles are less consistant. A mover needs to be pretty damn good, because he will often go off roads built for trucks, with tight corners and cars parked to allow no leeway for their trailers.

I don't know enough about movers to really give you a clear picture of it, so if you're interested in that, you should check around other sites for more detail on it.

That's the money part. Now, here's what I should have written about first. If you're married and/or own property, it's tough. The company will try to get you home when you want, but if they can't, they can't. They have to get that freight moved. If they don't, they lose customers, and YOU lose loads. Understand that. There are good and bad dispatchers, and some companies are better able to get you home than others.

In most cases, you only get one day of home-time for each week, and you save them up. Some companies will give you a weeks' vacation after your first year. Most, if not all, of the companies that will put you through school and get you started run all over. Many can't offer you regional or "steady" runs that will get you home consistantly, at least for several months, if not years (seniority matters).

The good news is that, after you have (at least) that year in, you can look around for another company that runs local or regional. If you have a good, safe record, you have a good chance of getting a gig that will get you home most weekends, if not every night. Going over the road is paying your dues for that.

Maverik (in Little Rock), is one example. They run flatbeds (and remember what I said about the difficulties and pay), but their drivers are usually home every weekend. This is regional. Or you might be a local guy delivering potato chips and stuff...or a bus driver. The money is there, but it's more like a 9-5 job.

There's nothing to disqualify women--except most should think extra-hard about that tarping, chaining, and strapping flatbed stuff. When you drop or hook a trailer, you lower and raise landing gear. These are the posts the trailer sits on when not hooked to a tractor. The cranks that lower/raise these have two gears. You can start in first, and crank it like 40 times sometimes until you get the weight onto your tractor, then switch to second to get the gear the rest of the way up.

I just do the second gear and get a good workout. Most women need to crank and crank and crank...rest up awhile...resume cranking and cranking...ya know? It's a pain in the butt, but hey, it's aerobics, aint it?

In most cases you're rarely, if ever, required to load or unload yourself. Most warehouses have their own people to do that. On the rare occasions where you need to do any of it yourself, you get paid for it. Maybe 15-25 bucks an hour, of you're lucky. My current deal pays by the pound after 20,000...in other words, nothing.

Sometimes you get hung up, waiting for hours and hours to load or unload. You should get detention pay for that, but in most cases it only kicks in two hours (for me today, FOUR), and you need to write it on your bill, get it signed (or write "refused to sign"), and notify your dispatcher. You should follow it up, also. If the company can't collect the detention charges, you will not be paid for it. Sometimes when they do, they'll sort of "forget" to pay you.

You will have mechanical problems. You are not paid when you don't run. Often, the place you stop at for repairs will not have the parts. They'll have to order them. It could take days. You will sometimes wait several hours before they can even look at your truck.

If you're smart, you're prepared to buy and replace headlamps, turn signals, etc. If you're less lazy than me, you're also ready to replace or tighten belts and stuff like that. (Most companies forbid this, for insurance and DOT regulation reasons. I mean, replacing lights on the trailer and usually on your tractor, you can usually get reimbursed for--but mechanical stuff you often need to do out-of-pocket and secretly.) Sometimes, it's worth 20 or even 30 bucks to avoid 4 hours of downtime, when you do the math. Only a fool blindly adheres to principle in this case. If you itemize, you keep the reciept and write off.

Your income will vary from week-to-week. For two weeks, you might get 3,000 miles, and then the next--500. You need to have a homosapiens brain here, and not spend every dime you've got from week-to-week. You need to stick to a budget below your average weekly pay, and save up that extra money.

I have little sympathy for drivers who had a tough week and are complaining about being in trouble. Your mortgage/rent, utilities, etc. are all monthly, and if you can't make sure you've got them covered, it's on you.

If you're down for days and can't sleep in your truck, most companies will put you up in a hotel.

A husband and wife can live in a truck, but you must take showers at truck stops. All chain truckstops offer free cards, and all offer free showers for a fifty gallon fuel purchase or mechanical work. With the bonus cards, you get a penny per gallon, and can use that to buy stuff from them. This adds up.

Some companies will dictate where you fuel. Others will just recommend. Most will have one or more chains, like Love's, Petro, Flying J, or Pilot that you're authorized to fuel at.

There's little room in a condo sleeper for two people, and if you start jamming big dogs and children in there, there is something wrong with you. You have a lower and (sometimes) an upper bunk. You can stand up. You don't have much storage space. You should buy an electric cooler and carry some food, because you'll easily spend seven or more bucks when you eat at a truckstop--and then, unless it's Subway--it's mosty stuff that wants to make you fat and then kill you.

For meals, the tax code allows you something like 45 bucks a day, and when you file, you take that off the top for every day you ran. You are not required to actually spend all that, do you understand?

In my next post...which could take awhile since I'm about fixed and going to resume running very, very hard...I'll bring you up-to-date with my own experiences as a trucker. That will be in story form, and you'll learn a lot more about what it's really like.

Until then, you have http://roadhawg.blogspot.com/

What This is About

I have been a cab driver, assembly line worker and foreman trainee, carpet installer, corrections officer, bowling alley mechanic/porter/deskman, welder, USAF airman, pool hustler, Manpower day-worker, alarm installer contactor, painter, maintenace contractor, professional starving artist and writer, bus boy, cleaning contactor, landlord, options/commodity trader, and at least 6 other things that I can't remember right now because I'm drunk.............

Oh yeah! An OTR trucker--owner-operator! That's what I do right now! Yeah--so I'm drunk--so what? Know what my CB handle is? Mr. Magoo! Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Nah! My truck is down for repairs and I'm in a hotel. I got lasik surgery, and I don't touch alchohol except in circumstances like this. And I'll let you merge (or cut me off), because I'm a real pro and an adult.

I have another site on blogspot which can give you a better picture of me, personally. I just started this one, because it dawned on me that I have some pretty good advice to give.

This will be my affiliate site. I want to make some extra money. This one, I can actively promote to a niche-audience to which it will be valuable. That will be lesson #1, in my next blog...whenever I get around to it.

For now, understand that I'm an idea-man. Some of this stuff, I have done successfully--but somehow got destroyed at after awhile. Other stuff is stuff that I tried, or just thought of trying, with mediocre or zero success.

You will find here not only ideas and plans, but also my failures, and the reasons for them.

The fact is, I'm disorganized and lazy. In my (somewhat protracted) adolescence, I failed to recognize these weaknesses, and they undid me. And, too, this failure to see myself clearly made me unhappy for much of my life.

This won't be just about making money, friend. It will be about success. It will be about being realistic, and being happy.

The way I'll be promoting this, many of you who read it will be better-suited to execute much of the stuff you learn here. You will be better organized and more disciplined. You will learn from my failures. You can take even what I've never attempted--but learned and refined--and make something of it.

Just to finish this first blog: Today I'm that owner-operator. I'm doing well, and have redeemed myself, pretty much. I love what I do, still have grandiose plans (which I CAN execute), but (most importantly) am fairly content and secure.

I'm starting this blog more to share what I've learned than to make money, and that's the truth. Only, this is the one that's targetted, and which I'll actively promote, and I hope to make a few bucks in affiliate deals, and/or possibly turn it into a book.

I'll make recommendations and provide links. Not exclusively to help you MAKE money, but also to save it. (A penny saved is a penny earned. Nobody thinks about that. Start thinking about it now.)

You will get the truth from me, though. That's the first thing I can teach you (if you don't already know it): If you want people to come back, or send their friends to you, and expand your clientele or audence, you'd better damn well shoot straight.

And I'll tell you something else: I'm SMART.

Stay tuned.