Should I get my CDL?

Should I get my CDL? That is the question I found myself asking. I had family who drove trucks, I thought to myself, what would it hurt?

I want to kinda go into my past a bit to explain why I wanted to pursue my CDL-A.

My first job was doing maintenance at a crack motel/trailer park. I was more of a groundskeeper and helped with fixing the units up after the previous tenants destroyed the place on their way out.

The last week I worked there, a few of us were sent to clean up a room that burned. I was only 15 or 16 at the time, I didn’t understand anything about meth at the time. So none of us thought anything of it. We were told it was an electrical fire.

Well sure enough all of us involved with the clean up ended up getting sick shortly after, some having lasting affects.

We went to the manager about it, the next day him and his wife took off in the owner’s truck and took all the money. Turns out they were already on the run and were fleeing felons. Oh and it was their lab that had burned the unit down.

What was my last job before driving?

I had worked in a CNC Machine shop for about a year or so. I milled parts for John Deere and other big names. The last part I was doing for the last 8 months was actually bendix disk brakes.

I really enjoyed working in the shop, I got to meet some of the OTR drivers that would come in for a pickup from time to time. I talked with a few on how they liked trucking.

I knew I didn’t want to work in a shop all my life, they kept speeding up the milling process and expecting us to keep up with 3 machines at a time with only 2 minutes before the next set came out.

It just wasn’t enough time for me to keep up with it all. You had to un-mount them, load the next set up, clean off the burrs, test every hole front and back to make sure they were in spec, also had to check the radius. The fun part was having to keep up with the tooling on all the machines.

I finally had enough.

I already had family that drove trucks. My Uncle and my Dad. My dad only drove for about 6 months or so for a company he worked at where he was a forklift driver. They wanted him to drive for them for a short time.

What can I expect to make my first year driving?

I’ll be honest with you, the first year isn’t the best. You are still learning everything for the most part. Routes, customers, dispatch and so on.

My first year I made right at $45k bring home. With 5+ years of experience I can bring home around $65k-$80k a year.

That is just with one company though. There are other jobs out there that pay more, and some that pay less.

I do know that for a lot of companies they have recently upgraded their pay scale so drivers are getting paid more than when I started out.

What is the training like?

Well this does vary company to company, but for the most part it can last 21 days to 3 months.

It all depends on how well you do. When I first started it was a minimum of 6 weeks with a trainer before being brought back in to test out. Even if you were doing everything right.

They have since shortened the time frame I do believe because of the driver shortage and covid.

Before you get to orientation, they talk with you and go over a few things like if you use tobacco, what kind of music and just your overall personality.

That way when you finish orientation, you’ll be matched up with a trainer that has similar interests.

It wouldn’t be good for you or the trainer if you can’t get along.

You should always listen to what your trainer is teaching you. I will be honest, some trainers really suck at their job and are only doing it for the extra pay, but that isn’t all of them. Most companies are cracking down on that.

If you feel your trainer is doing something wrong talk with them about it or your driver relations team.

It can be very intimidating at first. You will be sleeping in a truck at a truck stop. You’ll hear TCU’s squealing all the time. It takes some getting used to sleeping.

You will be required to drive different shifts, night and day. This is trucking. You will have to drive at whatever time it is to get the load there on time.

If you think local is any better for having short days. That is rarely the case. I was doing 14-18 hours a day, one day I did 20 hours. It was rough. Not all drivers are required to follow HoS like if you’re in the Agriculture side of things.

You will have a lot of awesome experiences while training. This is when you will most likely be going coast to coast. It is a lot to take in at first but eventually the road becomes home.

How do truck drivers deal with family time?

There are a lot of drivers who are single and don’t really need to be home with family. But there are more and more drivers with family. A wife and kids at home.

It can be hard at times when you’re across the country and you don’t get to hold your wife or kids.

On the plus side though, if you don’t have kids, your spouse could come on the road with you.

That is a challenge itself hahaha it will test your relationship!

Most companies have dedicated routes, sometimes they are full and it’s hard to get on them, but in my experience it wasn’t that hard to change accounts.

Dedicated accounts often have better home time than OTR, some even have the option to be home daily or a few times a week.

In this day and age when we can have video calls and see people face to face in the sense, it kinda makes being away from them a bit easier.

Even then it still gets hard from time to time. You and your kids need that touch. My relationship with my oldest isn’t the best because I was always gone making that money.

Keep in mind, money can’t buy happiness so make sure you get enough time with your family.

On average you can expect to get 1 day of hometime every 6 or 7 days. In some cases the hometime can build up and you can take a few weeks off at a time. But for the most part, you just have to take a few days of hometime every couple of weeks.

Can I get a CDL with a medical condition?

It depends on what the condition is. In most cases, the answer is yes. Some things are a hard no. It is best to contact your Dr, or a certified DOT Medical Examiner. They are the ones who make the final decision on if you’re good to drive or not.

If you’re on certain medications, this will prevent you from being approved. In most cases you can request to change up your medications and give it some time to make sure everything is going good with the change, then you can try again.

If you have medical marijuana you can not smoke or ingest any. It is still an illegal drug according to the US Government.

If you fail a drug test, you will really screw your chances up with jobs. You have to go through a drug course and deal with all that. Even after that, finding another job will not be easy.

Conclusion

Yes getting my CDL-A was a good idea. It has helped me out of financial hardship and has provided me with a lot of nice things in life.

I will always have it as a backup plan when I choose to do something else with my life. Like right now, I’m a stay at home dad. I have kept my CDL-A and Medical card up to date. If need be I can go back to driving within a week tops.

Don’t ever let your CDL expire or your medical card!!!

In most states, you will be automatically forced to downgrade your license back to a Class D and will have to retake the permit test and driving test over again.

Has driving made it harder on my family? At times yes. But for the most part it has done wonders for my family.

If you’re in a rocky relationship, then odds are you’ll be single once you hit the road. But in some cases it can actually help your relationship.

When I started my training, I was able to get sponsored by a company, I went to work with them after I graduated. I had to pay it back, but in some cases, you don’t have to pay for any of the schooling, just the costs for getting your license at the DMV.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment down below. I love to talk to new drivers or potential drivers. It isn’t for everyone but it can be managed. Keep it shiny side up!