If I Could Start My Trucking Career Over (The One Thing I'd Do Differently)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- If I Could Start My Trucking Career Over (The One Thing I'd Do Differently).
If I had the chance to start my truck driving career over, I'd change one thing.
I'd pursue a great paying truck driving job in work that was closer to home, rather than over the road trucking. Having a pension when retiring would be a great thing.
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PLEASE NOTE: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS PAID SPONSORSHIP ADVERTISING FOR GP TRANSCO."
Here's a link to check out their site and find out if they're a good fit for you. Definitely take the time to investigate this carrier. www.gptransco....
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That’s why megacarriers can’t even afford to pay their drivers a decent wage. And with my company for four years now and I’m barely making $.54 a mile. I spoke to a 4 1/2 million mile driver the other day who has been with the company for 28 years. He makes two cents more than I do. That absolutely stinks
I started with us xpress not too long ago and I started at .75 cents a mile and got a 12k sign on bonus, (paid out 1k a month) and I’m home three days a week, with a guaranteed 1100 a week if the load is cancelled, with only a year of experience. Not sure if you’re in the states or not but there are always better options
I drive for Dot Foods. Been driving a little over 3 years and I'm at .63 cpm.
what company do you work for?
full disclosure I'm just finishing my 1st year with werner and am at .60 cpm. I doubt I will stay with them forever but it's insane when I hear I'm making more then others. we all need to be talking about our pay rates and be on the same page as drivers.
I retired seven years ago, after driving over forty years, and looking back, I feel I was one lucky SOB to have had a driving career from the 1970's until the 2010's ... paper logs, reasonable regulations, respect and comradery on the road, what I consider to be the best times in trucking. Nowadays, you couldn't pay me enough to put up with all the idiots throughout the industry and on the road ... both in management, warehouse workers, and brain-dead four wheelers. Love my Petercar, but it's for show days only !!
I want to thank this channel for helping me learn about the oppurtunites of becoming a professionial driver, I never have driven a truck but i was always interested in them. Now i am scheduled for air brake training, This channel has helping me a lot in seeing oppurtunities that many others would have overlooked.
I never had the desire to go over the road. I worked for a beverage company that was teamsters. I started out as a delivery driver and eventually worked myself up into short haul. We did three loads a day, drop and hook up to the brewery. Now this is in Southern California, Orange County to be exact. The traffic was terrible. You never got used to it but just tolerated it. I just said to myself it's better than delivery. I put in 37 years with that company. Now I'm enjoying my pension and my free time. For me, doing local work was the way to go. Keep up the good content Dave.
It actually surprises me that more long haul drivers are not teamsters. Or at least unionized somehow. Of all the jobs in the country, long haul truck driving is one that could benefit the most from a union. It would cut down on a lot of the B.S. that drivers have to put up with to keep a job.
Long Haul Trucking has always been very hard to unionize. As a group the drivers really don't know each other all that well and don't have much social interaction. It's also very hard for the union organizers to keep their eyes on what's going on when the trucks and the drivers are spread out all over the country
I started driving in 1994 and did 11-western out of So-Cal. I really enjoyed that and almost wish I could go back and do it again. Now I drive a tanker around So-Cal and it's eating me alive. Another year or two and I'm done. Back then getting lost was just part of the job. All you had was a bag of change for the payphone and that big laminated Rand-McNally road atlas, I still have mine.
Local hazmat is the best work you can do in trucking period. 28+ an hour decent overtime home everynight.
What’s your hours, I’m looking to get into hazmat any advice? I have my CDL no experience yet. What’s a good first trucking job.
Worried about getting lost... LOL, thats funny. I remember one time when my buddy and I were 16/17 years old (1987), we were bored one summer thinking about "whatta you wanna do?" and decided to go to one of our friends house that moved to Georgia and packed a bag and started hitching rides from north west Pennsylvania. Holy hell what a trip that was. We didnt carry a map but knew we had to go south. Never got picked up by a truck until we were in North Carolina and fortunately he was going roughly to the same place. We got close and called for directions to her house. Stayed under a overpass a few times, cleaned up a truck stops and ate at gas stations. I think we had $120 between us. What a trip!
I'm probably gonna be the odd man out here. I wouldn't change a thing. I run tanker in the Alberta oil fields. Started in the patch at 16, that was in 86. Started on the rigs, hurt my back a number of years later and got into tanker work in the patch. Been doing this a good long while now, work for one of the biggest players in the industry. The pay is great and benefits are fantastic. Nope, wouldn't change a thing. If I could change anything, maybe should of been home more, my eldest daughter is a stranger to me. But that's the choice I made, and I stand by it.
I still call ahead for local directions. Many places have recorded messages that give turn by turn directions. If they don't though, it's always best to talk directly to someone in the shipping/receiving dept, not the receptionist answering the phone.
I like being regional. 500-750 mile radius, never much more than a day from home but still long enough runs to set the cruise and clear my mind.
As a first year driver I am very fortunate to have a local driving job. Local can be more labor intensive, I haul concrete pipe that I unload myself. You can't beat pay by the hour and home every night.
Another Great video! Our son started out OTR a few years ago. Did the math: was making $7 something an hour!! He has a local job now, $21/hr home every night, great benefits. All driving jobs should be payed by the hour.
Local fuel hauler here, best decision I've ever made.
This was another great video!! I tell all of my trucker friends, both new and veteran drivers about your TH-cam channel. I have learned alot and many of them have learned from you as well!!
Been trucking 39 yrs.totally agree!👍
I have a short linehaul job out of Louisiana into the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and back. Home daily, off weekends, decent mileage rate (you’re not going to get anything less than 2800 miles here, average 2950), stop pay, fuel bonus, holiday pay if you do run the holiday, full benefits. You really can’t beat it. It’s a better work/life balance than OTR driving.
i agree. thankfully i got my 3a and with all the talk in trucking, im lucky to be home everynight at 58k a year salary and work 30hours a week hauling water. next best move would like to be oilfield but someday i want to try moving superloads
Turned 31 years old yesterday, but I'm always rocking with the old school.
Everything you say is rarely a lie. Some think local is the worse, but you dont realize all the unpaid otr time you loose.
Finally got to a company after being 4 years 10 months otr.
The pay I was missing
*detention $13 hour
* if load cancels or I'm denied at shipper or cosignee
They still pay me for arriving there
*hometime miles from a cosignee/ to a terminal
Those 3 things add up, and you could be short $200-$300 or even more
Volume transportation is the company that pays 4 all of your time, no games or gimmicks, if your on time as you should your paid.
Also ask for the bulk carbon lack division, 48 ft trailer.
No tandem slide, rarely have to scale, so many miles empty an loaded all paid, great hometime when you desire, no inward facing camera.
Most carbon black trucks are 70mph, new trucks with invertors, and frig
If you come please dont mess up, meaning care about what you do
Driver code GLEEUG sent you
25 years here. I wish I would have went to UPS or another union company early on but, I didn't know any better...
Dave I been a big fan of the channel and your advice is great personally I have made the decision to go into a local city job with the teamsters union paid by the hour full benefits now the money is not the same as running by the mile but im home every day I only drive days and weekends off
That to me in the long run is better than having more money in the bank and living in a bunk
I would like to thank you very much for all the great advice you and your team are doing a great job sincerely Oscar
The industry makes it sound like you have to go OTR when you graduate, but if you actually research, you’ll find local and regional dedicated routes that pay more even for new drivers.
Granted, some of those positions will be 100% touch and can work you into the ground like food service BUT if you’re willing to work hard for a few years you can save up hundreds of thousands in a short time.
Amen brother those were the days I miss them I enjoyed them shifting that old 18-wheeler reading the road map I miss the old days
I wish I could have experienced trucking in the good ole days like you Dave. I’ve been driving since 2015 and I’m just making the best of it..
Listen man.....that's all you can do in the current environment. There is huge speculation that next year sometime a recession could set in......so look, hunker down, commit to making as much as you can......and Godspeed my fellow driver! 👍
Working on my class a license at the moment but not sure where I should start this helped a lot thank you 🙏
After 46 years and retired what I would do again is have a Teamster job where there is benefits and pension. I would jump in the cab of a daycab such as yellow freight used to do and drive 2 days west , room every night then jump in the next truck going east and be home on the 4th
night. They did not have to fuel the truck just grab your bag go to the motel every night. Too late now.
At 60 now, I just started in this field with a carrier (Yellow) as far as pension goes I’m too late for that.
The bright side is that I am looking to reverse my debt.
In 6 months I’ve already quadrupled my net income in some weeks, others have been not quite as good but all have been at least double or triple which is allowing me to get out from under so that I won’t leave my children the burden.
I would love to be on my own but your right, before making my decision I investigated that avenue only to find that there was no possible way forward with that, I will say this though, I have seen almost half of this country through this company which has been an eye opening experience, some good, some bad so it’s not exactly what I would call local, there are options in which one can move around, go help where help is needed and they will pay expenses, if you really want to see the country it’s still plausible.
I think the only way one can be independent today is if they have a source or sources handed down from parent to child or friend to friend maybe, something of that nature with good equipment already or nearly paid for.
Thanks this helps me consider staying at my local teamsters career. I miss OTR but it’s not worth it for a family man
I bet your one hell of driver you’ve done it all .
Great straight shooter ,Dave
Thank you Dave for all the knowledge you have given us. May God bless you and your family thank you very much Dave.
Good point! Maybe my choice of the way to get into this business wasn’t all that awful as I could’ve thought (National LTL carrier, paid training, dock-to-drive program, two year agreement. As a result: Teamsters, local driving job, home daily, overtime after 8 hours, double pay on weekends and holidays, company pays the insurance premiums in full and has a pension program through the union). All I’ve got to do is keep it up for another 35 years))))
Not a perfect job by any means, and not for everyone. But still…
Now you can say that. You retired like I did, and it doesn't appear to be health related, so my take is you did the right thing. Coming from someone on the same page as you.
I appreciate you being honest and straight up and giving us true facts about the experience you went through in life to help others.
I know Dave would still buy a Peterbilt if Dave did trucking all over again, maybe in all black and chrome accents though, or......a Red and chrome Peterbilt.
appreciates your 20/20 hindsight truth. i 2 enjoy the wanderlust
I hadnt driven a truck since 2008. I started in the industry unprepared financially and physically. I'm hoping to go back this fall and hopefully with a good company. And yes, I would want to drive for a company that offer good regional and dedicated routes not just over the road and be close to🚛🇺🇸 home.
I’ve got a local trucking job with a pension at AIM recycling
I’m local with swift get 60k a year but I only haul one load a day or sometimes 3 it’s overnight but I like it just hate how they are giving the good loads to other drivers who are new but I’ve been here longer and still get the bad loads oh well 🤷♂️
100% agree with you. Some of the best money I've ever made was being home every night driving local. A lot of those gigs were $72,000 to $78,000 in the first year. However I can't stand authority and working for some of these morons who are in charge of companies. So I'm out on my own. I don't make nearly as much take home but my freedom is more important to me. Comes with a lot of stress though.
@Chris McCaughey. You're right. Some of the people that run the companies can be absolutely difficult to work for. I never get angry at them, and accept them for who they are. We all are human, and make mistakes. And we can live a life full of mistakes. But it's best if we can help each other out.
I have contacted them. And put your smart trucking when asking how I heard about them 🤞
Concur with all of this and I'll add my own two cents as well......
What I recommend to new drivers is to drive for specialty carriers of some sort and avoid the general freight mega carriers.
Develop your skills, get good at what you do and work yourself into a job where you specialize at something. An example - hauling heavy equipment.
Look around today at all the really shitty trucking jobs and all the really shitty drivers and you'll find nearly all of them at the big carriers doing general freight. The reason is because there is no real skill required beyond the basics which means they can hire anything with a pulse and 10 days training.
The freight rates have been cut to the bone so the pay and treatment is horrible which means the turnover is very high but they don't care because there's always fresh meat to be had.
Specialty carriers can't operate like that. They can't afford to put dummies behind the wheel. They have to hire skilled drivers so in the end, it makes for a better work environment. The pay is a lot better too.
Good point.
Thank you brother
You and me both. I agree sir.
I had a chance in mid 80s at ups to start part time, it was going to be 4 hours morning go home come back later and work 4 hours. Wish I had perused it. They pay drivers well.
I became a owner operator this year and I regret it I over paid for my 2016 cascadia what is hurting me the most is the high price for diesel
When I have time to do so, I still pull out a map just for kicks and run my load completely off of maps.
We all have things that we wished we had done differently. Or sometimes I just wonder how things would have turned out if I had made a different choice. Here's a few of mine:
1.)I was invited to fill out an application for a city police force but turned it down.
2.) After getting fired for not selling enough used cars I was invited to move across the street and sell new Toyotas but turned it down.
3.) When buying my second home I could have bought a house on acreage but instead bought in a subdivision. Now that acreage is zoned for condos and townhouses.
Anyone out there driving; if your company doesn’t have pension or 401k go to your bank get Ira or invest in a index etf or mutual 15% minimum and never use it. No point in not putting up for when you can’t or don’t want to work.
Never heard of central states , nothings certain anymore
Hey Dave I started at 16 too
Hahaha.... If I could start my trucking career over, knowing what I know now, I would have chosen real estate investing and stayed out of trucking!!! Trucker since 1980.
Having said that, as a non-union car hauler I make a minimum of $1 per mile. If the mileage is 330 or less, I make $1.35 per mile. Short runs will pay a minimum of $150. I usually gross between $1700 and $2200 per week, I stay in a hotel (not cheap either) every night and am home 2 or sometimes 3 nights a week. I've been here over 6 yrs. and get 4 wks. paid vacation.
This is still better wages than most of the industry, but it used to be significantly better. Deregulation killed the trucking industry. Lately the trucking companies have been raising their wage packages to attract more drivers. People found out how much money you could make hauling cars and competition drove the pay scale down. Sooner or later the manufacturers are going to understand that if you want more drivers to haul cars, they will have to raise the rates.
Car hauling is a lot of work compared to other divisions. You have to walk a decent distance to find your cars, inspect and load them. You have to load the efficiently without damaging. This takes training and time to develop. Most drivers find it a challenge to park their trucks in a designated parking space b4 going into a truck stop to get food much less walk and load their trailers with cars. Another positive to my job is that at most places I can drop my cars after hours. Lock them up and drop the keys in a drop box.
This is called STI. Subject to inspection. Company offers a damage incentive. But if you have any damage, it kills your incentive for the entire quarter.
I don't regret going local
I spent a lot of time doing stuff for free when I was getting paid by the mile. I'll never go back
I say, we need to take back the trucking industry - away from the mega carriers- and get back in a properly run “Trucking Union!!” Then, trucking would definitely make a comeback, and, that would also have the absolute bonus of getting rid of the dirty Brokers!!
Hi.
I need help in finding a used truck for me…… Please suggest some doz and don’ts to be taken care of
I work for a local cooperative great place to get started hourly home every night and retirement + benefits
If I could start my trucking career over i
Would just join up with our Devil Dogs..
Missed out on that because I am diabetic...trucking is just so messed up now I wish I could retire.
you nailed it does come back to government here is thing was our ancestor nuts in the head
we left corrupt Europe for better start and with that what did we invited the corruption over grrr I'm anti-government and anti corporation
Are there jobs that even offer pensions anymore? Love the content!!!!
He lives in Canada - they have pensions there. In the USA you will probably have a 401k retirement plan. But pensions still exist mainly in government and some union jobs.
Yes I have a pension with the teamsters
Can you make a video of the best work boots for truck drivers ?
Well so much for wonder lust, besides I think that would've won out anyway.
You could create your own pension, if you're diligent about saving.
Best trucking job is driving a fire engine for a municipal fire department. Two days two nights all four days make about 90 grand 20 year pension
I have been driving trucks for 47 years and I don't know where the hell I am !!!
Most new drivers can't read a map.
Pension??? Union company maybe..: most local driving sucks and underpays… I drove 24 years local and my best week paid almost $400 less than my worst week driving a Midwest regional reefer does today…
LOL! .....If I could turn the clock back 20 years......what I would have done differently......is, I would have never started!!! I would have preserved my sanity and not have fried my nerves..... and not have shaved a few years off my life expectancy! 🙃 😀
I would have sold the 2 personal vehicles i had and went and got the diésel tech degree lol shit has changed so much its not even worth driving anymore
If i could start over,i would of never go into trucking although it was alot better in the 90's
What about Oil or Propane delivery and feedback. Thinking bout getting my CDL.
Here's the thing folks... odd numbers on the interstates go north and south.. even numbers go east and west. Thank me later
Is gp transc in Ontario?
I don’t even think your GP Transco offers a pension plan.
If I could start my trucking career over? I started in 2014 I would’ve started buying bitcoin Back then. wouldn’t have to be driving a truck right now lol
So I’m a noob. What does “keep the rubber side down” mean?
Dont flip the truck over
MAPS.......????????????????
I'd not start with Swift.
Nice story. Pension is a Joke . No Pension ! I'm Sorry Fools ! No Pension . Enjoy your life. That's all that you have.
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