Question:
I have been in contact with a recruiter from a local trucking school in Tucson AZ. But I want to get a perspective from the drivers and not from someone who is motivated by a need to fill a quota of new students.
1.) I am a insulin dependant diabetic, I was informed that I could get a wavier from DOT to allow me to drive. A am in control and have been for over 3 years. I have been a diabetic since my early teens. Is there anyone out there that is in my shoes and what challenges do you face?
2.) I need to have some exercise, to keep my diabetes under control. I am looking into driving for Werner. What drivers out there know the kind of physical activity I would get running for Werner?
3.) My wife would want to ride along, but not drive? What are some things that she would face doing so? She understands it is not for everybody.
4.) Is it true that I will make $30,000 to $35,000 in my first year? I currently work in the fragile IT field making $28,000. if I make any less then that I’m screwed.
5.) What are the benefits like? Medical, Dental, Vision Are the premiums expensive or Prescriptions working for Werner?
6.) Other then your Perdiem, and watching expenses, how much do you spend on a daily basis on food, showers, necessities with a ride along?
7.) Does Werner have a habit of letting you sit in a motel waiting on a load? Or are they pretty good about keeping you moving?
I know this is a lot of questions to ask, and thank you for your input.
Thanx! And be save out there
Robert

Answer:
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/391.43.htm

Answer:
1.) I am a insulin dependant diabetic, I was informed that I could get a wavier from DOT to allow me to drive. A am in control and have been for over 3 years. I have been a diabetic since my early teens. Is there anyone out there that is in my shoes and what challenges do you face? If your diabetes is controlled with pills and exercise, you may be able to pass a physical to drive.
2.) I need to have some exercise, to keep my diabetes under control. I am looking into driving for Werner. What drivers out there know the kind of physical activity I would get running for Werner? If you go with Werner's flatbed division,you'll get more exercise.
3.) My wife would want to ride along, but not drive? What are some things that she would face doing so? She understands it is not for everybody. She may be bored to death, may not be allowed to go into a plant to load, will have to take care of hygeine factors the same way you do, truckstop showers.
4.) Is it true that I will make $30,000 to $35,000 in my first year? I currently work in the fragile IT field making $28,000. if I make any less then that I’m screwed. You can make at least that amount annually, but expect to be gone from home at least 26 days per month.
5.) What are the benefits like? Medical, Dental, Vision. Are the premiums expensive or Prescriptions working for Werner? Ask a Werner recruiter or check their website.
6.) Other then your per diem, and watching expenses, how much do you spend on a daily basis on food, showers, necessities with a ride along? I budget $125/week, not including tolls the company doesn't immediately pay but I will be reimbursed for. I have a "bank" of $400 with me above the weekly " allowance". I "collect" my per diem at the end of the year when I file taxes. A company that considers per diem as part of driver pay is screwing the driver.
7.) Does Werner have a habit of letting you sit in a motel waiting on a load? Or are they pretty good about keeping you moving? Most companies expect the driver to "wait" in the truck, usually the wait will be short, less than 3 - 4 hours. The companies don't make money if their assets aren't under load. BOL

Answer:
I might recommend going for their flatbed division that way you will get plenty of exercise (tarping, netting, and tying down) and always stay busy, plus its all the othet little things you can do to get exercise as well I park far from most truck stops even if there is parking right up front, I walk, I bring weights with me and if I am lucky enough to find a gym with a big parking lot I go there (if they don't require a membership). I can't imagine you getting that much exercise doing Vans. It sounds like a lot of your questions need to be asked to the company or a current Werner driver. One thing I will say though is that I doubt you won't be sitting in too many hotels why do you think you drag that fiberglass coffin behind you for? As for marriages in the truck I hear it doesn't work out to well, for about 97% of couples.
Answer:


Work on getting the waiver, first. Until you have the waiver, you cannot operate a CMV.

Answer:

Forget the Waiver,look for another line of work. The OTR 'Lifestyle' is not
the regimented life you require to sustain a 'healthy' future.
Visit your local Truckstop for a "vision" of how healthy Truck Drivers are.
Most of them are Type 2 candidates due to inactivity,diet and lack of anything physical. I doubt anyone worth working for would hire you even with the Waiver due to the "risk" of you being Insulin dependent.
Answer:
I would agree with Phil. Get that waiver in your hand before you worry about anything else. I've never even heard of such a thing (not that that means it doesn't exist), but I think it would have to be a very rare circumstance to aquire one. If your pancreas has stopped working, I don't see how you wouldn't need to be insulin dependant, and if you are on insulin, you aren't allowed to drive. Sounds like someone is pumping some sunshine up your skirt.

Answer:
Waivers...
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/admi...p;section_toc=750
Answer:

Virtually none even in flatbed (where it's not really "exercise" as much as climbing around outside every couple days) Werner's Dollar General dedicated is the opposite -- a paid workout that exhausts and discourages even the most fit young men and women. No motels while waiting for a load -- they want you in the truck and ready to roll with a QualComm message, not calling you in a motel and making you gather your things and leave the comfy room to go back to work (you know how this turns out simetimes).
I agree with some of the others above. Even if you qualified medically, this is a poor match for your condition. Sleep, eating schedules.....it's all bad and a already tough job for the perfectly healthy, let alone someone dealing with these kinds of medical accomodations.

Answer:

I drove OTR for Roehl a little over a year and now work a local non-trucking job. My advice would be to stay away from OTR. Way too many freebies involved:
1) Because most OTR companies pay HHMG, expect to drive about 7-10% of all your miles for free. So, on a 1000 mile dispatched load, figure 70 unpaid miles (or about 1.5 hours of your time). Additionally, if you veer off the route for any reason (construction detours, accidents, fuel, road that you need a permit for), you will not get paid.
2) Everytime you back into a dock or check into a shipper/receiver, you will give them 2 hours of your time before you collect detention. At Roehl, if you sit for 2.5 hours, you will receive about $5.00 ($5.00/2.5 = $2.00 per hour).
3) You will fuel the truck for free, scale the load for free, adjust tandems for free, work the truck into a tricky dock for free, verify the freight count on the dock for free, check into and out of shippers for free, sit in big city traffic for free, secure the load with van straps/load locks for free, perform pre-trips and post-trips for free, sweep out the trailer for free. There's more, but hopefully you're getting the idea...
4) Need to bring your truck in for service or preventaive maintenance at the terminal? You'll be stuck sitting for no money unless you're detained at least 24 hours. Same goes for road service if, say, a trailer tire blows out. Every 50,000 miles I had to bring my truck in for service at Roehl, and it was at least 4 hours everytime that I waited unpaid.

I would say first year wages would be around $28,000 - $30,000. It can vary depending on several factors, but that's a decent first year average. Remember, about one month out of the year will be spent at truckin' school. Figure another 2 months out with a trainer making very little money. That leaves you 9 months to make money and starting out will be slow.

How many hours do you put in on the job per week? With OTR, expect to put in about 80-100 hours . So that $29,000 first year average comes out to about $6.56 per hour assuming an 85 hour average workweek. Every smart businessman knows that TIME=MONEY. But, for some reason, truckdrivers put no premium on their time.

Benefits aren't usually very good at OTR companies.

I spent about $75.00 a week for food, or about $10.00 a day. I treated myself to a buffet once a week at the Petro (best NY strip steak buffett out of the big chains hands down!)

You will almost never rate a motel room in OTR. You will be sitting in your truck waiting on loads for free unless that period of time exceeds 24 hours. Dispatchers make an art of having you sit right up until the moment you can collect layover.
Oh yeah...
The public sees you (with good reason) as having the intelligence of a common household plant, no manners, hillbilly, foul-mouthed, foul-smelling, obese, broke, no front teeth, owe back child-support, potential rapist/child molester, etc. Most 4-wheelers view you as a nuisance and have no qualms about cutting you off at 65 MPH getting their kids to the soccer game on time.
Say goodbye to your social life, as well. Say hello to sleeping in nasty truckstops next to noisey reefers, pickle parks, and deserted offramps with traffic whizzing by at 70 mph. Weekends are made for Michelob to everybody else - but not you. Absolutely no beer or other alchoholic beverages allowed...(that's rightt....beer...ice cold...nectar of the Gods....mmmmmm!). Don't forget that OTR is one of the 10 ten most dangerous professions in the US.
Answer:
If you're having trouble getting laid often when you're home daily, you should do fine OTR.

Answer:
If I were you, I would strongly look at furthering your education in the IT field. Or possibly relocating to a higher paying area of the country. Trucking is not the place for a diabetic, trust me. Diet, excercise and goofy hours are not going to help your physical condition, it will only make things worse.
Another thing to consider, you live in Arizona, not much freight moving in or out of there. It is not a good place for a newby just starting out and wanting home time.
Then there is the stress associated with just starting this new trucking carreer you are thinking of. Financially, it can be very difficult, plus the days and weeks away from home. It may take you 2 years to see 28,000.00 a year income from trucking. Can you live on less then $200 a week take home for at least 2-4 months? By the 5th month, and maybe a weekend or two visiting with your wife, you may be up to $5-600 a week take home, if you live frugally on the road. Then there is your marriage, you did not say how old you are or how long you have been married. It takes a special women to hang in there in this industry. That part of the vows, for better or worse, usually is our downfall. Then there is your locationTry bettering yourself in the IT field.
Mike

Answer:
If you can not earn 35k a year in 48 weeks as a new driver in your first year. You are doing something very wrong.
That is only 2k miles a week and then you have safty pay out and the fuel pay out.
48 WEEKS A YEAR ONLY GIVES YOU 4 weeks off at home, not counting pass home time. Those are the loads that you can crash at the house on the way to delivery.
Arizona has some freight. It is taken by the large carriers. I never have taken home only 35k. My first year was close to 50k and I have not made under that since. Even with my extended time off.
You will find many drivers take advances and do not realize that deduction at pay time when they get a small 400-500 check. They may have easily taken 200-400 in advances. Some drivers do it every week. Many always have.
That is one thing I liked about JB Hunt. The realy did not like giving you advances. They figure if you need a advance you need money managment skills. They pay for the classes. Yet, Most driver learn the hard way. They are only allowed 50 bucks advance twice a week at a 10 dollar charge. Dosn't take them long to start setting money back. Some don't get it and still keep paying the 10 bucks for 50.
You will find many IT types in trucking now. The feild is so over staffed it is not even funny. They had to go to work some were. I guess trucking was it.
Your health issues are the thing that concern me. If you have them in check. You should be ok.
Look for a newbie company that will pay you .34-.38 a mile with safty bounuses ans fuel pay back. You will have very little problem grossing 36-38k a year with 48 weeks a year on the road. Thats only 2200 miles a week. That leaves you 3 days a week to earn extra in the IT feild from your truck.202 N Main Street
Summerfield Il 62289
TRUCK PARKING AVAILABLE!

Answer:

First year, no way....no friggin' way. You're convieniently leaving out the 3-4 weeks spent at school and 1-1.5 months out with a trainer. That only leaves you about 10 months to make money minus first year hometime.
A realistic figure to shoot for your first year will be $28,000-30,000. At an average of 90 newbie hours per week, you're looking at less than seven bucks an hour.

You made 50k your first year in a 63 mph JB Hunt company truck running a legal logbook? Bullspit.

Yeah, what a great bunch of folks.

What newbie company will start a new van driver fresh out of school at .34-.38?

Here we go again with the recruiter math. Sure, SECOND year you can and should expect to gross about 36-38k a year. Only problem is that you'll be working 85-100 hour workweeks which works out to a whopping $8.25 per hour.
2 free hours at every dock
7-10% of all miles unpaid
lots and lots of previously-mentioned freebies...even the high-school dropout pumping gas at the cornerTexaco station is smart enough to get compensated for fueling vehicles.
Answer:

My first year of driving was not with JB Hunt. When I started with JB they wanted 2 years OTR experiance. I had many years before I went with them.
There are a few companies that start you out .34 and up. Most is work orientated. Like tanker, glass or flat bed. I do not know how many others there are, but I know of two that start drivers with 3 months experiance over .37 and raise them to .40+ in 3 months. That over .40 a mile after just 6 months experiance.
By first year out. I mean once you are in your truck on your own. Not school or training time.
Alos, one large problem we have with many OTR drivers is the "easy" advance. Many drivers live off these. Then pay day rools around and they get a 400 dollar check. They forget about the 3, 100 dollar advances they got.
I talked to a Werner driver that got a $28.00 check for one week out and 2300 miles. He showed his 493.64 cents in advances, yet still complained about how Werner only paid him $28.00 for a whole week.202 N Main Street
Summerfield Il 62289
TRUCK PARKING AVAILABLE!