Question:
After lurking for years and years here, I’m almost ready to step up to the plate and make the leap…
I’ve got a somewhat unique story, but a fairly standard question. I want to be a truck driver (have for a long time), but what I really want to do is be a filmmaker. I’m just finishing up my bachelor’s degree (in the equally-useless fields of sociology and film studies), and I really would like to apply to one of the big film schools for post-graduate study. I’m particularly interested in NYU (where Scorsese went) but it costs a mint and my family is by no means rich. Not only is the tuition expensive, but the costs to make a film while you are there is even more…not to mention just living in a city like New York. Overall, I’ve heard figures from former students ranging from 70,000 to 150,000 (and sometimes more).
So here’s hopefully where I get to kill two birds with one stone. I’ve come up with the idea of applying to a training program immediately after graduation and working for the next year or two in the trucking industry. Trust me, it’s more than I could make as a paper-pusher and would be far more fulfilling. I’d die in an office. Trucking would allow me to get out, see the country, meet interesting people that I would probably not cross paths with otherwise, accumulate some interesting life experience, and I could even use the downtime to read books on film or write a script or something.
I would not maintain a separate residence and would just crash at my parents in Milwaukee, WI., or my brother in Portland, OR., or my step-brother in CA, or wherever else I have friends and an open couch. I would live as absolutely cheaply as possible – not eating out, not smoking, etc. etc. and save every penny for film school. I know I would not make the full amount in that sort of time, but I think I could make a very significant dent in it and together with financial aid and loans I could make it through.
So what do you think of this plan? Feasable? Correct my misconceptions, etc.
Also: I would need to find out the training company in which I could (if devoted enough) make the absolute most amount of money possible in the shortest amount of time possible. Every other priority is secondary to that, whether those factors include health care, home time, new trucks, whatever – all that matters is that my take-home pay is the highest it could be. So that probably means a place with good mile rates or a place that has lots of miles up for grabs (or both). Any suggestions
And how much realistically do you think I could set aside after taxes with this plan after a year or two?
Thanks for your help
-ToM

Answer:
Well let me give you this info.
The real average for a 1st year truck driver is around $30,000 per year right now. After 3 to 4 years you can possibly make $40,000. (talking basic OTR trucking).These figures are before taxes.
Even living as cheaply as possible on the road you can easily figure $100 per week in personal expenses.
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xx

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Ditto, what House said.
Student Loans? If you can't afford to pay for it, you can't afford to pursue it.Government Ain't YO' Friend. Nor your Servant.
A Tax Reduces Incentive & Capacity. A Regulation is also a TAX.


Answer:
Tom,
Do NOT do this.
You want to make films? Work as close to the film industry as you can. Clean toilets, bus tables, write scripts, audit classes as a non-matriculating student, make little hi-8 art "films" on borrowed equipment, apply for grants and scholarships......maintain a complete commitment and proximity to the work you want to do. By submerging yourself in every conceivable angle, you will make contacts and meet people...and eventually get a low wage job as a production editor or radio broadcast board operator....and from there you'll meet others and new opportunities....that's how this works anyway (you know this). There are good union jobs in the film industry as grips and such, and they mostly hire friends of friends, and pay a lot more than trucking if you want to save money for school...... Do not get sidetracked. Martin did not become a film maker by going trucking to save 10k-20k a year for film school and that's the best you're going to do money wise.
Don't let us down Tom. We don't need more truckers who really want to do something else with their life. We DO need some talent that brings a diverse background to the art of film making. Film school isn't just about what you learn in class and the diploma. It's about surrounding yourself with like-minded folks who want to make films. Stay connected -- broadcast, theatre, recording, writing.....or cleaning your heroe's toilets if necessary. Whatever keeps you connected -- that's where you should spend your time and make money for film school.
Sory about the soapbox....but when you're old enough to start looking at things like this from the other side, you'll better appreciate what an asset your youth really is. Don't lose it sitting in a truck, even for just a year or two.

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Troll meter getting some contact. They always seem to think being a hobo is better than working in an office. ______
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l---L –OlllllO-
()_) ()_)-(-)_)
I'd rather die on my feet like a man than live on my azz hiding in a truck.........Sir James Brown

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good stuff

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Then be a filmmaker.

Baloney. There are many jobs you could get that would earn you more money than trucking (and let you keep more of what you earn). They would be more fulfilling too.
What do you think a truck cab is? A VERY TINY office.

And instead be locked in a truck for 21 hours a day...

One highway looks much like another highway, one loading dock looks much like another loading dock, one truckstop looks much like another truckstop...

You wouldn't be missing much by never crossing paths with the likes of many of those associated with and in the trucking biz...

Useless, but indeed "interesting".

He thinks he's goning to have downtime where he isn't going to want to sleep! BWahahahahaaaa....

Gets very old after awhile - and you risk wearing out your welcome at these places - assuming you can even get there, what with all the restrictions regarding truck parking in urban areas.

Um....EVERY meal is "eating out" when you are a homeless truckdriver!!!!

Methinks differently.
Answer:
highwayman, I don't know the regulars here, so you could very well just be one fo those bitter guys who are always talking trash about trucking no matter what, but I know what trucking is, and all the crap you threw out doesn't scare me in the least. Thoguh my ultimate goal is to be a filmmaker, I've wanted to be a trucker for a long time too, and it's not like I have no clue what the job is like.
..and no, there's no way in hell I could make the kind of money I could make in trucking in an office job in my first year out of college.

Answer:
If you've lurked at trucknet "for years and years", you already know you're going to get some off-subject opinion and advice. Highwayman's disection of your statement is mild compared to what you would have got a couple months ago before the tn admins kicked-out some of the more "disagreable" posters. Highwayman may have a real attitude, but EVERY experienced driver here would agree there's some truth in everything he's saying. By virtue of challenging what you think you know about trucking, it's excellent, informative advice, albeit a little rough around the edges.
What you think you know about trucking is very common. "It will be very hard work but I'll be successful in my mission if I play all the angles as intelligently as possible to earn as much money as possible......," as if you're not competing with thousands of similiarly clever hopefuls trying to put themself in the best situation. The industry insures you won't make more than 40k a year the first few years -- that's the top-end going rate for newer drivers. There are no exceptions.
The reality is, you'll be lucky to save $20,000 a year (after 6 months of school, training and newbie probation) if you pinch every penny, eat only baloney sandwiches and use your parents to their fullest contribution. Cell phone? Internet access? Tv or video in your truck? Not if you're going to save anything close to 20k a year. The cheaper you live on the road, the more the lifestyle degrades. You'll find yourself buying your way out of this relative misery by spending money you're not currently anticipating.
And for that, you'll be working over 80 hours per week for around $10hr average (at best, if you're lucky enough to make $800wk) for all the actual time you're engaged in some form of work (besides driving). Your "down-time" will be spent in the truck, usually somewhere you don't want to be. The only redeeming factor in your plan is the opportunity to use this time to write -- if you're still inspired after a long day (or night) of endless stress and difficult problem solving.
If you do this, you will be disappointed with how it turns out. And in the meantime, you've lost momentum with your education -- be it formal or work related.
This kind of scenario is universal. We've heard it before, talk to drivers out here trying to do it, and talk to many more who throw in the towel once they realize they didn't really know what truckings' intangible characteristics were all about after all.
You will come to realize this is a good assessment and worthy advice. When you realize this -- now or later -- is up to you.
.

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Yes, I have been around and about for years - which is exactly why I know about people like him and even stated as much. I've been here (and other trucking message boards) since I took my first cross-country road trip about as soon as I was old enough to drive...and the themes are pretty much the same everywhere. And as I responded to him so shall I respond to you: I am completely aware of the realities of the trucking biz...which is why I responded to his to his "wakeup, the trucking business is hard" message with: "a-duh." His advice may be helpful for some, but he didn't say a single thing I didn't already know...he didn't "challenge" anything.
The people that WERE helpful were the people who answered the questions that I was asking - which is how much can I expect to make/save if I worked my (edited) to the bone. I didn't make any claims about "knowing" whether I could get this number or that...I was asking a question and SOME people decided to answer it. And thank you to those people (can't see yer names now cuz I'm in reply mode). I didn't ask for some yahoo to go on about how all highways look the same like I'm 12 years old. For those who did help, I will take that information and use it to base my decission off of - as you notice I never said that I had my mind made up that this was the definite path that I was going to take. It is just an OPTION that I've been exploring. I appreciatethe information you've given me and that others have given me, I just wish some of them din't choose to wrap it in a sermon.

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You should be comparing an over-the-road "random dispatch" job (where newbies make the most money) with TWO full time office jobs, not one. You're "working" (and unavailable to rest or do something else) upwards of 80+ hours a week, seven days a week. This has been mentioned a couple times but you're still comparing it to "an office job". It's the equivalent of two regular full time jobs.
Please just consider that those who've gone out and done this have a universal experience that always contrasts with our own most informed notion of what we thought we were getting into. We were you once. And now we see first-hand the difference between what we thought it would be, and the many intangibles that make trucking what it actually is. The "road trip" appeal disappears very quickly. You need to undrstand that after the first tens-of-thousands-of miles, you won't give a rat's azz about the "road trip" desirables you now think would be cool.
I'd say about $15,000 net in savings a year -- a figure that leaves a couple thousand headroom if you get lucky.
The "Catch-22" (my favorite film) is the more you actually enjoy your life on the road, the harder it will be to pull yourself away and get back on track. Or....the more you dislike it, the harder it will be to save money as you start spending money on the comforts that make it more tolerable. You're damned either way.
The industry turnover os over 100% a year. It takes several new drivers to eventually fill a truck seat for a couple years. Everyone thought they knew what they were getting into. That's fact, not opinion.
Trucking is an ugly, brutal business, and most folks get into it when their youthful hopes and dreams eventually fail them. Make sure this plan doesn't include an element of self-doubt about your film making goals. The whole thing just sounds a little too convenient as a diversion -- perhaps a natural desire to escape the struggling artist syndrome you know you'll face for some time as you pursue film making. Given how you might as well go live on the space station, as trucking removes you from normal life here on earth, there's obviously something besides just the ability to save money that's drawing you to this plan. And we suspect it's a vision of the desirable characterictics you think trucking involves, that we know from our own experience are the universal misconceptions of what the lifestyle is really like.
You asked for advice. You got it. Good luck and best of success on whatver course you decide to take.

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Sir, "shuffler" has made a number of extremely honest and salient points, and so did "highwayman". While what they have said may not have been what you want to hear.....it is truthful.
Frankly, despite your desire to "go truckin'", you should quite frankly subordinate that desire to a greater desire to find a job that uses your degrees, or puts you to work at the starting salary of a college graduate, which is higher than a beginning truck driver....if you get a decent job.
DO NOT go trucking until you have exhausted every other possible employment venue.
Just so you know....I am not a spring chicken, and were I in your shoes, I would definitely do things differently. What prevents me from doing it now is that I am too old to do so, and have settled in and am content....but I generally do not advocate this industry to anyone with aspirations to amount to alot.
Believe me when I say this: I keep my eyes open for other opportunities, and if I ever find one that will make me happy.....I'm outta here.So I like what I do, you don't, too bad, get over it. Get on with your life, I am.

Answer:
A bachelors degree -- any bachelors, it doesn't matter which one -- can get you an entry-level management job as a fleet manager (dispatcher) with one of the large carriers. It pays about the same as a new driver. They'll hire you because you're smart and industrious enough to finish college, then they'll train you, and then let you help manage millions of dollars worth of daily fright movement. Your job will be to assign loads to drivers and "make it happen". You'' talk to truck drivers (who could be doing something better with their life and don't forget it) as they scream and complain in agony over a phone that never stops ringing...
Try that for a while and then decide if you want to be on the other end. Seriously. It pays around $40k+.

Answer:
Shuffler is right. If you have a bachelors degree, and want to get into trucking, do it through the front office. I know a couple of guys that began trucking this way, they now own quite a few trucks, and now just drive for the fun of it. And yes, it can be fun. I am slowly working in that direction, only 8 more trucks left to buy.
Mike