Posted: 8/22/2024 1:59:55 PM EDT
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My background: retired firefighter. I got my class A CDL about 5 years and didn’t do anything with it aside from some local dump truck work with it as a side hustle. I swore I’d never go OTR but maybe I should try it. I need to update my medical card and I’ll need a refresher as it’s been a minute since I’ve been behind the wheel of anything bigger than a F150. I tried recently to get into the trades, plumbing specifically, but I can’t find a foot hold in the door. I’m trying to reinvent myself into a second career, basically learn a new skill set, apply it, and hopefully grow my own business out of it some day. What advice would you give to a guy thinking about starting out in the trade full time? |
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A friend of mine is a retired real estate inspector with a CDL. He works for a smaller city driving the garbage truck and other things because he has a CDL, only a few days a week. Since it is a small city, the trash route is fairly easy. He also gets free golf and golf carts at the city course. Anything with wheels needs moved from the city yard to a jobsite, he gets a call. Pretty sweet gig. |
Preferred pronoun: MARINE
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Originally Posted By wildearp: A friend of mine is a retired real estate inspector with a CDL. He works for a smaller city driving the garbage truck and other things because he has a CDL, only a few days a week. Since it is a small city, the trash route is fairly easy. He also gets free golf and golf carts at the city course. Anything with wheels needs moved from the city yard to a jobsite, he gets a call. Pretty sweet gig. Did he start out with that gig or did get experience with something like OTR and then land that job? |
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If you want lifetime job security, then yes. Specialize and never go OTR, doorswinger or not. Attached File |
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Originally Posted By PhuzzyGnu: If you want lifetime job security, then yes. Specialize and never go OTR, doorswinger or not. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/69748/PXL_20240715_162114347_MP_jpg-3301523.JPG Are there companies that will hire in this economy without OTR experience? I thought OTR was the gateway to anything and everything in trucking. The only reason I got the dump truck gig was a buddy of mine owned the dump truck. He was on the opposite shift at the fire department so when he worked I drove it and when I worked he drove it. He was a subcontractor for a paving and dirt contractor. |
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Originally Posted By jollyg83: Are there companies that will hire in this economy without OTR experience?. Yes, you just have to look. Also, get every endorsement you can. Don't limit yourself. I've never been OTR. I started out doing flatbed on a Houston Regional route. Then I hauled HazMat for 8-9 years, fuel and lubricants for a brief period, and now I've been a car hauler for about 12. |
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Originally Posted By PhuzzyGnu: Yes, you just have to look. Also, get every endorsement you can. Don't limit yourself. I've never been OTR. I started out doing flatbed on a Houston Regional route. Then I hauled HazMat for 8-9 years, fuel and lubricants for a brief period, and now I've been a car hauler for about 12. Question, who loads the cars? |
GD is like putting on crampons and walking through a room full of puppies.
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Originally Posted By FredMan: Question, who loads the cars? I do. Attached File 45 minutes to an hour for a load like this if the cars are close and I don't have to walk to far. And I'm slow. |
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Originally Posted By MattyMattel: Avoid OTR. Like PhuzzyGnu said, specialized is where it's at. Having all of your endorsements gives you more options. If you haven't held a recent CDL job you'll find a lot of doors closed for you but there's places that will still hire you, it just may not be exactly what you want to do long term. I got hired by a crane company with just my .mil experience, a fresh CDL mill license and about 3 months of commercial time pulling reefers (which I quickly figured out was a shitty, low paying gig) I've been tempted to move to one of the equipment rental places moving equipment, fairly good pay with good befits, M-F, home every night. weekends and holidays off, 50-60/week...The crane/heavy haul business pays me damn good and the Local 800 has a nice retirement plan, so the golden handcuffs thing applies but not having a predictable schedule is getting old. It can't be said enough: Avoid Over the Road door swinger trucking |
USN Retired: APR 1988 - MAY 2008
"My center is giving way, my right is falling back, situation excellent, I attack." —Ferdinand Foch
"My center is giving way, my right is falling back, situation excellent, I attack." —Ferdinand Foch
Joined:
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Posts:
467
EE: 100% (10)
USA
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@jollyg83 Unsure what you decided here, but you could do a lot worse than going in a truck. Specialize, whatever you do. Get into flats or tanks. Outside of LTL/local work, I wouldn’t recommend dry-van or reefer jobs. With a couple years experience in flats or tanks, you can step up into RGN/oversize or hauling fuels respectively. Depending where you are in VA, I might be able to point you in a good direction with work. PM if you want to follow up. I disagree with my esteemed colleagues earlier in the thread who said stay away from OTR. I did both local and OTR work, and my ‘place’ in the industry was OTR. Local/regional trucking is a miserable place to be, in my opinion - obviously, that opinion varies. Your time at home is unpredictable, and I was always on edge about a breakdown or delay making a long day for me or preventing me from getting home at all. Staying in random hotels sucks. Sleeping on the floor of a day cab sucks. If you have a family that demands you to be home every day, then that obviously would be a valid option to consider, but long haul, particularly specialized work, can be much more predictable and peaceful in my experience. |
