Anyone a Truck Driver for a living?

In reply to mtn:

I've been seeing nothing but doom and gloom predictions for the future of Illinois.

The Industry that was the main driving force behind my profession still hasn't fully recovered from '09. There's been a bit of a rebound but it's shaky. The company I work for now is mainly a steel rod and billet supplier. According to the higher ups we've had to borrow quite a bit from the owners (which necessitated a 3 year wage freeze) to retool and hopefully take advantage of an under-utilized market segment. I'm more than a little worried about the outcome as it's definitely not a sure thing.

I wonder if Tesla needs a machinist...

mtn wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

HiTempguy wrote: I thought the USofA's economy was picking up like gangbusters?

Apple has a standing $250k sign on bonus for anyone who leaves tesla for Apple. The economy is going crazy, just in Concentrated areas.

Yeah and 8 major companies are dumping about 800 people by the end of March in Illinois.

Don't forget Hospira was just bought out by Pfizer, so there goes probably 1,300 employees from Lake Forest by mid 2016. Most of those folks aren't your truck driving competition, but still an influx of employees.

Maybe there's money to be made in the moving business.

The_Jed wrote: In reply to mtn: I've been seeing nothing but doom and gloom predictions for the future of Illinois. The Industry that was the main driving force behind my profession still hasn't fully recovered from '09. There's been a bit of a rebound but it's shaky. The company I work for now is mainly a steel rod and billet supplier. According to the higher ups we've had to borrow quite a bit from the owners (which necessitated a 3 year wage freeze) to retool and hopefully take advantage of an under-utilized market segment. I'm more than a little worried about the outcome as it's definitely not a sure thing. I wonder if Tesla needs a machinist...

Eh... I believe it is mixed. I am optimistic with Rauner in, I think that he really understands what needs to be done for business and think that he has the guts to do it. I worry with him that he'll overlook the necessary social programs. I think in the long run (4-10 years) there is a positive outlook, but am aprehensive about the interim--not necessarily for me, mostly due to the company I'm with and the profession that my fiance is in.

While central Illinois may suffer, the good news for Illinois on the whole is that Chicago is still among the strongest and most important economies in the world, and not one that is centered around one industry (a la Detroit).

For those unable or unwilling to relocate though, I could agree with the prospect of it being grim. If we didn't decide that we needed to move back to Chicago for family purposes, my job prospects were essentially limited to about 3 companies, and 2 of those in the same industry. Now that I'm in Chicago, it is a much different feel for the job market.

EDIT: On the Hospira deal, I would not say that it is any indication of the Illinois economy at all. Company had the largest marketshare of a key market, and the big dog (Pfizer) wanted in. The best way to do that was to buy out the company. Crossing our fingers that they're giving out a good severance package, because it could either be a slight setback (slight decrease of retirement lifestyle, and earlier retirement) or a huge boon (huge exit bonus and working to near the end of when he was going to retire anyways) for my dad.

The_Jed wrote: I wonder if Tesla needs a machinist...

You never know.

mtn wrote:

The_Jed wrote: In reply to mtn: I've been seeing nothing but doom and gloom predictions for the future of Illinois. The Industry that was the main driving force behind my profession still hasn't fully recovered from '09. There's been a bit of a rebound but it's shaky. The company I work for now is mainly a steel rod and billet supplier. According to the higher ups we've had to borrow quite a bit from the owners (which necessitated a 3 year wage freeze) to retool and hopefully take advantage of an under-utilized market segment. I'm more than a little worried about the outcome as it's definitely not a sure thing. I wonder if Tesla needs a machinist...

Eh... I believe it is mixed. I am optimistic with Rauner in, I think that he really understands what needs to be done for business and think that he has the guts to do it. I worry with him that he'll overlook the necessary social programs. I think in the long run (4-10 years) there is a positive outlook, but am aprehensive about the interim--not necessarily for me, mostly due to the company I'm with and the profession that my fiance is in. While central Illinois may suffer, the good news for Illinois on the whole is that Chicago is still among the strongest and most important economies in the world, and not one that is centered around one industry (a la Detroit). For those unable or unwilling to relocate though, I could agree with the prospect of it being grim. If we didn't decide that we needed to move back to Chicago for family purposes, my job prospects were essentially limited to about 3 companies, and 2 of those in the same industry. Now that I'm in Chicago, it is a much different feel for the job market. EDIT: On the Hospira deal, I would not say that it is *any* indication of the Illinois economy at all. Company had the largest marketshare of a key market, and the big dog (Pfizer) wanted in. The best way to do that was to buy out the company. Crossing our fingers that they're giving out a good severance package, because it could either be a slight setback (slight decrease of retirement lifestyle, and earlier retirement) or a huge boon (huge exit bonus and working to near the end of when he was going to retire anyways) for my dad.

Good to hear, my wife is really pushing for me to move to Chicago near family.

Getting back to local driving jobs. When I drove I worked for a company that moved cars around. We did not deliver new cars except to take new cars from one dealer to another. What we mainly did was move used cars from dealers to car auction houses and then from the auctions to dealers used car lots. We also moved cars for CarMax. Some days I only moved CarMax cars from one store to another. The job paid well, some drivers pulling 6-7 car trailers could make up to 1.5K per week (This was 7-9 years ago!) But again you had to be willing to put in the hours. The one thing was that you never worked Sundays as the dealers were closed and you didn't have to start early as the dealers didn't open until 9 AM. (We didn't deal with service dept.)

The only down side to the job was winter! There were times that you had to search a huge auction lot for the cars you were assigned to pick up. You were given a spot where their supposed to be but that spot is a 1/4-1/3 of a mile from your truck and you have to walk there through the snow, find the car covered with snow, (You know they all look alike when their covered with 6 inches of snow!) then clean them off, get them started, and then drive them to the check out gate. Now you have to load it up with your deck covered with snow/ice and then climb out and then chain it down.

In good weather it was a nice job, in winter it just sucked!

I enjoyed it while I did it but I don't miss it. Got to drive a lot of different cars, from total pieces of crap that belonged in a scrap yard to nearly new 911's!

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Good to hear, my wife is really pushing for me to move to Chicago near family.

That was all my opinion, and from a relatively sheltered viewpoint. While I did minor in Economics, I am not an expert on the situation at all and encourage you to do your own research. But the fact is that with some of the biggest players in the biggest industries headquartered here (1), we're not doing too bad. Always the chance they pick up and move, but I don't see it happening in the near future, at least with Rauner in.

(1) Baxter, Abbott, Abbvie, Walgreens, Allstate, Kraft, McDonalds, Motorolla, Boeing, Grainger, Fortune, Beam... Those are off the top of my head.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

mtn wrote:

The_Jed wrote: In reply to mtn: I've been seeing nothing but doom and gloom predictions for the future of Illinois. The Industry that was the main driving force behind my profession still hasn't fully recovered from '09. There's been a bit of a rebound but it's shaky. The company I work for now is mainly a steel rod and billet supplier. According to the higher ups we've had to borrow quite a bit from the owners (which necessitated a 3 year wage freeze) to retool and hopefully take advantage of an under-utilized market segment. I'm more than a little worried about the outcome as it's definitely not a sure thing. I wonder if Tesla needs a machinist...

Eh... I believe it is mixed. I am optimistic with Rauner in, I think that he really understands what needs to be done for business and think that he has the guts to do it. I worry with him that he'll overlook the necessary social programs. I think in the long run (4-10 years) there is a positive outlook, but am aprehensive about the interim--not necessarily for me, mostly due to the company I'm with and the profession that my fiance is in. While central Illinois may suffer, the good news for Illinois on the whole is that Chicago is still among the strongest and most important economies in the world, and not one that is centered around one industry (a la Detroit). For those unable or unwilling to relocate though, I could agree with the prospect of it being grim. If we didn't decide that we needed to move back to Chicago for family purposes, my job prospects were essentially limited to about 3 companies, and 2 of those in the same industry. Now that I'm in Chicago, it is a much different feel for the job market. EDIT: On the Hospira deal, I would not say that it is *any* indication of the Illinois economy at all. Company had the largest marketshare of a key market, and the big dog (Pfizer) wanted in. The best way to do that was to buy out the company. Crossing our fingers that they're giving out a good severance package, because it could either be a slight setback (slight decrease of retirement lifestyle, and earlier retirement) or a huge boon (huge exit bonus and working to near the end of when he was going to retire anyways) for my dad.

Good to hear, my wife is really pushing for me to move to Chicago near family.

Hey, let's swap houses! You'd only be 120 or so miles south of Chicago!

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

The_Jed wrote: I wonder if Tesla needs a machinist...

You never know.

Holy E36 M3! They have an opening for a Machinist/programmer in Fremont, Ca!

The_Jed wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

The_Jed wrote: I wonder if Tesla needs a machinist...

You never know.

Holy E36 M3! They have an opening for a Machinist/programmer in Fremont, Ca!

I have a friend who is an engineer there. He was just purchasing new equipment in Japan. Crazy stuff. Lots of machining.

The description sounds like short run/job shop machinist candy land.

Now to break out the crayolas and polish up the old resume...

Ok, to the original question at hand:

I have to believe that the way to make a real living out of this is is to not be a truck driver, but be a business owner. Maybe start with a compnay to pay your training. Be with them a year or so to learn the ropes, then buy a truck on your own, start a company, and make the money. Roll the profits into another truck, hire another driver. Rinse and repeat. Otherwise, I don't think that you'd be making enough money for the time invested.

mtn wrote: Ok, to the original question at hand: I have to believe that the way to make a real living out of this is is to not be a truck driver, but be a business owner. Maybe start with a compnay to pay your training. Be with them a year or so to learn the ropes, then buy a truck on your own, start a company, and make the money. Roll the profits into another truck, hire another driver. Rinse and repeat. Otherwise, I don't think that you'd be making enough money for the time invested.

Yep. This is exactly how you do it. Make no mistake, you will be babysitting some of the most awful employees you could ever imagine.

My uncle does this. He is quite well off, but it is hell on him and his family.

Unless you can search out customers to haul for, you're going to have to go through brokers (Who always get their cut.) or lease your trucks to a company that uses "owner operators". The last few years I worked for 3 trucking companies that did the latter. I was in "Safety/Driver Recruiting" and enjoyed the job for a while. The first company I did this for was a "good" company. They paid well and only hired experienced drivers. They did bulk liquid hazardous chemicals & fuels. The next two companies I worked "safety" for did general dry freight. They were not so picky and it showed in their safety record, driver turn over, etc. I joined one of them just in time to go through a DOT inspection. We got lucky as the driver records the inspector choose to look at (At random) were of our "good" drivers. Whew!

These kind of companies have turn over rates exceeding 100% annually. The best way to check out a company is to look at that number. The higher it is, it's either low pay, bad scheduling, etc. so just look elsewhere if you can.

mad_machine wrote: If you are going to drive.. one of the best gigs is hooking up with some of the companies that -only- drive for theatrical/entertainment gigs. We are talking driving overnight to a gig, unloading, sit around for 12 hours, load the truck, drive to the next gig.. lather, rinse, repeat. You won't be home for months at a time, but you will get one of the easiest OTR gigs around.. and usually you travel as a "fleet" so you are never alone if something goes wrong

Upstaging is the big dog, I have never heard one of their drivers complain....and I've heard lots of drivers complain.

I am in the industry, I don't drive truck (have a cdl) or work for a company so everything I will say is based on an insider view "from The outside" lol.

Owning a truck is a nightmare when you start out. You about have to be hooked up to a company starting out or else you will fail. The big companies will use you up and throw you away. Hazmat and specialized endorsements will net you extra work and better pay (you won't find a starting point who will pay for them though). Car hauling has ability to make big money, the trucks start out far more expensive since the truck/trailer are matched. Getting in with a auto hauler is tough.

You are in the wheelhouse for trucking companies, south Chicago from Joliet over to Gary Indiana is where a huge amount of 10-100 truck fleets are out of. Take the course and start hitting the street before you get the endorsements.

I want to know how those that gotten old pass their DOT physical. I know of a truck driver who is 64 years old that is now 100% deaf. He still drives. I'm not allowed to pass the DOT physical even with the aid of hearing aids and I am 24 years younger than him.

Cash makes all sorts of problems go away

ThunderCougarFalconGoat wrote: Cash makes all sorts of problems go away

I would love to know who so I can get a berkeleying job.

I have customers who do not speak English, who share drivers licenses and one who can't use half his body due to a stroke. Imagine an 18speed with no use of the right side of you body...

Sine_Qua_Non wrote:

ThunderCougarFalconGoat wrote: Cash makes all sorts of problems go away

I would love to know who so I can get a berkeleying job.

The DOT itself does not administer the physical rather, a doctor of your choice, signs the proper DOT form. This can be any doctor of your choosing.

Off I-75 near the KY/TN boarder, I once saw a truckstop that had an Airstream trailer permanently parked in the lot and on it was a sign that said DOT Physicals. It looked shaddy as hell and I am sure for extra you could get a prostate exam or a sperms sample drawn.

jimbbski wrote: We got lucky as the driver records the inspector choose to look at (At random) were of our "good" drivers. Whew!

Almost as if the inspector had a list of who to inspect "at random"... ?

you need to be able to hear a forced whisper from a set distance, I think it's 4 feet, I have tinnitus and worry that one year I'm going to get the whisperer that's on the same frequency of my "ringing" and won't hear them. Plus alot of those DOT physical mills have been shut down now that the new National Registry of qualified MDs has been instituted. What's more, if your over 50, over 200lbs and have a neck size larger than 16 1/2", that want you tested for sleep apnea.