I doubt if you could even get hired as a driver. Do you have any class 8 driving expierience? If so, do you have a valid CDL (Commercial Drivers License)? Any driving school certificates? Then there is the ever popular log book proficency.
If you were to get hired as a company driver, you would more then likely wind up at an outfit like Swift. You would start out teaming with another driver. You would be paid salary, about $350. 00 a week gross. Normal training period of 4-8 weeks. You will drive your but off for around $200. 00 a week net pay.
If you were to go out and buy a rig. You should get as new as possible, say 1997 or newer. Pay cash if you can, if you can't, get as low as a payment as you possibly can, and I mean LOW. The place I am leased to requiers 96 or newer. To lease on to a company, they usually require 2+ years OTR expierience. This varies though, you may only need as little as a year, but I would say that is rare.
Now, you can get your own authority, but you will more then likely have trouble affording the insurance. If you can even find anyone to insure you at all. I say this assuming you have little or no truck driving expierience in the states. If you drive in the military you might get some leway, but I doubt it. Then there is your permits and plates, this varies by state and where you plan to run. I looked at getting my own authority, I was looking at around $10-15,000 a year in insurance and fees. That is before I even got into the truck. Figure $1000. 00 a month right off the top, before you even buy a drop of fuel or make a truck payment. And remember, we buy fuel in the HUNDREDS of gallons on a weekly basis.
If you do get your own authority, you will have to find your own freight. Not as easy as it sounds. You will more then likely have to use a Broker, and we don't call them Brokers for nothing. The wrong one can ruin you in a heartbeat, and you will be lucky to have any kind of recourse.
It will cost an average of . 75 cents a mile to run a truck before you get paid. This could be higher or lower, depending on which part of the country you will be operating in. You need to figure for: Taxes, Truck Payment, Fuel Costs, Tolls, Insurance, Permits, Plates, Maintainence, food, toiletries, laundry, coffee, smokes (if you do), etc... .
All of this stuff adds up quick. But, we do have allot of write offs, you just have to make enough money to afford to keep the wheels turning to take advantage of this. If your broke down on the side of the road with $25 to your name, you have just been written off. This is a tough racket, and it is a racket. Everyone will try to screw you, or make you do something your not up to. This is not a profession for the weak of heart.
Your biggest obstacle will be the insurance industry. They have pretty much slammed the door for a new driver to make a living wage. Trust me on that, been there done that. Been doing this for 15 years, and it ain't getting any easier out there.
You would probably be much better off as a mechanics helper in a shop you think you might want to work at near the house. Some shops will even help pay your tuition and you get some real world heads up training. I would not recommend trucking to anyone. I was forced into it. I used to be a nurse, but went through an ugly divorce. Long story, but I wound up having to leave the state, I needed a job and a place to live. Trucking gave me that to the point that is all I know anymore, backwards and forwards. But it paid off in the end. I drive 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, and make more then I would in the medical racket, and yes it is a racket.
Mike
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