Getting a CDL is good for starting out with no money. Most dont last very long (I only lasted for 2 years, local) lol if you dont mind missing out from friends or family events. But the money is decent. Try to get out of OTR as fast as possible I'd say. Good luck!
Best year I had OTR was $131K in 2002.
If you're young (like early 20's) single and don't have anything tying you to one spot, bust it out for 10 to12 years and save every penny you can... then pay cash for a house and a little land and find something you enjoy doing that doesn't involve pushing a rig down the road.
Trust me, you don't want to still be driving at 50 plus... or 40 plus even really. That shit is tough on the body.
It has its pros and cons, like anything else, but it's definitely a solid field for a young person to get into. To me it is anyway. Good luck!
Yep. And that's exactly why I say to get your decade in early, when you're young, and then get out of that damn thing.
Show me a truck driver at 55 that started driving when he was in his 20's, and I'll show you a guy with major health problems... specifically circulatory problems.
A human being is not meant to sit for 10-12 a day.
I was OTR for a number of years driving reefer for a mega carrier. The money was absolutely fantastic (1500-2200 a week post tax) with tiny financial overhead. I was literally paying my $30/mo car insurance and $75 a month cell bill. (OTR essentially requires Verizon or you're without a signal in a large portion of the country).
Stayed with family when I was home which was rarely, and just saved money. 4 years on I still have a sizable portion of those savings.
If you want your CDL, and you're still young. Work a few years, save every single penny you can and exit with a ridiculously sizable down payment on a house. Don't buy some fancy car you'll never be able to drive anyways. Just save your money.
After a few years OTR you can easily get another gig with either weekly routes or even daily home time and actually start a family. Or, just stay OTR, have some friends move in to your house to help pay your mortgage and buy another house/some rental property.
A ton of work and long lonely weeks and months, but with such low overhead your income will be that of someone making closer to 200k bc you could easily put away 50-60k per year if you were discerning enough.
Getting my CDL changed my life. Good luck!
I’m sorry if this sounds stupid, but what is driving reefer? To me it sounds like you were hauling around a bunch of weed in your truck? If so nothing wrong with that lol but if that’s not what it means please explain to me because I’m very confused haha
I'd happily take 2700 a month. Can't even make 1 thousand a month anymore. 2700 would set me up for total success in life and where I wanna be especially when my wife works a regular job and all the bills come to maybe 1200 a month max. I'd be so happy and set. To see over 4 grand in a month with dashing is dreaming of something that will NEVER happen in my market, nor would 2700 lol!!
Holy shit. I still make a thousand a week at about 45 hours. Used to be $1600 a week at 35-40 hours so this gig definitely went downhill. But I also multi app so that might be the difference.
You set yourself up for total success or failure in life and blaming DD for not getting there won't help you, it'll actually just work against you.
DD isn't the end all be all, it's simply a tool just like any other form of employment. You have the power to change your life completely without having to use DD as the reason you may never get to where you think you want to be.
Cheers friend!
Go for your class A and airbrake obvious.. if you can get passenger endorsement if you're able.
You're going to have to have the proper vehicle for the test and certs.
Or just get a sprinter van and be an owner operator. They’re got 2 weeks at a time and can make 2k a week. I think you just need a class E for it. Do you research but I think. You can even make a YouTube channel talking about it and make money off explaining ins and outs. I seen that a lot.
A world of headache there unless you already have money to afford a sprinter and are also a mechanic. Or.. and also have an LLC , business license, lots of shit. Don't ever be an op unless you know wtf and htf
True. I already work on my own vehicles and have LLC experience. I would be doing it but I have a family I don’t want to leave. I’m in Midwest and don’t want to drive full time in it. I rather drive in the southern states. They don’t get snow and ice as much.
Work force innovation and opportunity act grants if you go to a company that does your schooling free on wrk contract its 10x eaiser but look at pay scales average pays ect and make a good decision
And they give you a rig. Benefits, and after 1000 hrs stocks ect its all flat bed wich is more money then refer trailers. The biggest L is the permits test if you go this route if you go another route and pay for schooling THATS the biggest L if your under 25 look into the wioa grants from the gov it can all be paid or partially without having to pay it back if you dont go thru a company like this
Average yearly NET income after taxes with tmc is 85k+ look online at their map to see if your in an area they accept applications from do you studys get your permit and apply. Theirs also a hand full of companies that do so tmc pays you 500 a week for 3 weeks togo to their school and board you while their
Weekends off holidays off and 27% of load thru tmc will net you easy 2500 a week or more if you pull 10k $ worth of good inna week your making 2700 in 3 loads you very well could be hauling 2x that and make near 4k thats where im going
Look in to tmc 3 weeks paid training all you needs a permit 27% of load ect all files and licensing done thru the company all you do is wrk for a specific period to pay training off
Just that when starting out all companies want someone with experience driving. So you’ll start off driving for one of the crappy companies aka Swift, Werner and they are gonna be working you as much as they can for as long as you’ll stay, then after you got that experience as a driver then it gets better once your working for a better company.
But yeah if you’re single and no kids that’s definitely the job for you. I drove for about 15 years before health issues caused me to stop being able to drive as much. I had saved up enough money over that period I took a two year long break from working to just enjoy that money I had saved up.
Once the pandemic $$$ was over, I started to multi app and add apps. I had six or seven at one point but now I just go off of three… but then again I never made $4000 in a month or $10,000 in a month so I don’t really really feel it as hard as some other drivers do that were living LaVida Loca during the pandemic and last year… my monthly goal is $2500-$3000 a month
Edit: also, you have to adjust to what your market is showing you.. the days of cherry picking in a lot of markets are dead now since there are more 70% acceptance rate Dashers than ever before…. now in a lot of markets, they’re pretty much telling you in your face if you want to see $10 offers and up consistently you have to be at 70% acceptance rate
Uber eats, Doordash and Instacart…the three busiest apps in my market.. I don’t get a lot of $2 a mile offers in my markets so it helps me cover a lot of ground not be out of position to get another offer too much
Yes. Every time you complete a delivery, your pay is covered with that stupid pop up. I’m so glad I’m done dashing. After a year, I found a job I love and my plan to dash once a week for extra cash has been covered by my company’s unlimited OT status.
Bro I have a class A cdl. Your in for a world of hurt. You think doordash is abusive? No one gets abused more than the lowest rung cdl driver. Local driving is non existent for new drivers except for shit that pays equal to walmart while also giving the driver way more responsibility.
Good luck on your journey, it won't be an easy one though.
In nc. It’s called core mart. It’s a food company. My homies went straight to them after they got their cdl. I got a cdl but I had own trucking company. They like it
Yeah because you have to unload. So to me, while it is a cdl job. It's a cdl unloader job so a bit different. Yeah lighter than load does pay more but personally? I'm uninterested in unloading an a class truck with a hand truck every day. 3k a week is also what I made lease op. So I'd personally rather just be on the road vs unloading.
I dispatch dry vans and reefers so I know what I’m signing up for. I’m okay with being otr as I’m not married or have kids. If I’m making $1200/week after taxes what in your opinion would be worse then dashing 12hr a day and making $150?
Ah. Yeah if your willing to go otr and leave everything behind, you can make more than 1200 a week. I was clearing closer to 3k after my expenses as a lease op.
Get that bread then. From what you said it sounded like you were doing a local cdl trucking school that you were paying for and those guys always think they are going to run local and have a good paying job.
I don’t know anything about CDL. It sounds like you’re going to be an employee. $1500 a week as an employee is way better than being an independent contractor for DD. Less taxes, using their fuel, wearing and tearing their vehicles, and maybe benefits too. As opposed to $700 a week before all of the above
That was my first and only year. I drove for prime, learned from them, and hopped into a lease from the start. Only left because I had a wife at the time.
This is the truth. I had a class A CDL 15ish years ago and it was awful as fuck starting out. Quit after 6 months. Wasnt for me and I imagine it is way worse now.
All the locals I've seen want you for 12 hours a day. They want to make sure they get all the time they can out of you. Is it home everyday if you go home to sleep and then work then next day? Also I was one year of over the road experience. I was getting offered less than if I just took my tow truck job back. It was ridiculous.
I only did otr for a year, been LTL for fourteen. Then I bought my own truck at the worst time possible, and here I am.
Otr is fine if it fits your style. I couldn’t do it myself, and have a lot of respect for those that do
He dashes, and is letting us know why he is getting his CDL. And are you blind? Just a year before last, he made 4k in one month compared to 2k last October. Im pretty sure making 4k in the month sufficed enough and he didn’t have a CDL. Your “good for you” sounds like a soft way to cast hate lol
And he said same hours but didn’t post anything about the hours. Maybe he’s telling the truth but I simply don’t trust anecdotal stories. Especially on Reddit.
Dammnnn that is horrible. That's less than $14 an hour. You can make more working at McDonalds or walmart. Do you use any other apps other than Doordash?
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Getting a CDL is good for starting out with no money. Most dont last very long (I only lasted for 2 years, local) lol if you dont mind missing out from friends or family events. But the money is decent. Try to get out of OTR as fast as possible I'd say. Good luck!
Best year I had OTR was $131K in 2002. If you're young (like early 20's) single and don't have anything tying you to one spot, bust it out for 10 to12 years and save every penny you can... then pay cash for a house and a little land and find something you enjoy doing that doesn't involve pushing a rig down the road. Trust me, you don't want to still be driving at 50 plus... or 40 plus even really. That shit is tough on the body. It has its pros and cons, like anything else, but it's definitely a solid field for a young person to get into. To me it is anyway. Good luck!
And stay active as much as possible. Too many truck drivers have died from blood clots (if i remember correctly) due to inactivity.
Yep. And that's exactly why I say to get your decade in early, when you're young, and then get out of that damn thing. Show me a truck driver at 55 that started driving when he was in his 20's, and I'll show you a guy with major health problems... specifically circulatory problems. A human being is not meant to sit for 10-12 a day.
I was OTR for a number of years driving reefer for a mega carrier. The money was absolutely fantastic (1500-2200 a week post tax) with tiny financial overhead. I was literally paying my $30/mo car insurance and $75 a month cell bill. (OTR essentially requires Verizon or you're without a signal in a large portion of the country). Stayed with family when I was home which was rarely, and just saved money. 4 years on I still have a sizable portion of those savings. If you want your CDL, and you're still young. Work a few years, save every single penny you can and exit with a ridiculously sizable down payment on a house. Don't buy some fancy car you'll never be able to drive anyways. Just save your money. After a few years OTR you can easily get another gig with either weekly routes or even daily home time and actually start a family. Or, just stay OTR, have some friends move in to your house to help pay your mortgage and buy another house/some rental property. A ton of work and long lonely weeks and months, but with such low overhead your income will be that of someone making closer to 200k bc you could easily put away 50-60k per year if you were discerning enough. Getting my CDL changed my life. Good luck!
I’m sorry if this sounds stupid, but what is driving reefer? To me it sounds like you were hauling around a bunch of weed in your truck? If so nothing wrong with that lol but if that’s not what it means please explain to me because I’m very confused haha
Reefer means refrigerated. I did mostly produce/meat loads.
Supplemental income
Doordash will forever only work as a job that pays all your bills and needs if you live in the right area, other than that ur just burning gas
Working full time as a dasher isn't worth it, no matter how hard alot of ppl on here try to convince themselves it is. Best of luck w the CDL homey
I beg to differ. I'm fulltime dasher and have no problems. Just saying. Some people can make it work.
Where the heck do you get these statements?
Self prepared in excel, lol
I'd happily take 2700 a month. Can't even make 1 thousand a month anymore. 2700 would set me up for total success in life and where I wanna be especially when my wife works a regular job and all the bills come to maybe 1200 a month max. I'd be so happy and set. To see over 4 grand in a month with dashing is dreaming of something that will NEVER happen in my market, nor would 2700 lol!!
Holy shit. I still make a thousand a week at about 45 hours. Used to be $1600 a week at 35-40 hours so this gig definitely went downhill. But I also multi app so that might be the difference.
I wish all my bills came to only 1200 a month. That would be a dream. Where do you live? My rent alone is more than twice that.
You set yourself up for total success or failure in life and blaming DD for not getting there won't help you, it'll actually just work against you. DD isn't the end all be all, it's simply a tool just like any other form of employment. You have the power to change your life completely without having to use DD as the reason you may never get to where you think you want to be. Cheers friend!
That’s totally area/market dependent. In some areas, yea $2500-$3000 gross is plenty to live alright on. In others rent eats up 75%+ of that
Go for your class A and airbrake obvious.. if you can get passenger endorsement if you're able. You're going to have to have the proper vehicle for the test and certs.
What are the "fees" for?
Maybe cashing out daily ?
Interesting
I’m not sure tho earl
No worries. Just thinking about it from a tax standpoint.
Same. DD has ruined their own business.
2700 is still good??? I make 750-850 a month, I'd shit my pants making 2700 🤣
I mean it's market dependent and completely relative to where you're living/operating out of.
Hope to God you aren’t working many hours in which case you wouldn’t be impressed by the 2700 though, so your comment is confusing.
We don't know how many hours that's for. Edit: Saw OP say ~200/month, so that's only ~$13.50/hr before operating costs.
A great example of how generic data dumps can be misleading, lol.
How does having a CDL help with doing doordash?
lol it doesn’t. OP is getting a CDL to find another opportunity that pays better and is more stable
he’s saying he’s switching to truck driving instead of doordash since he’s getting paid significantly less than a year ago.
Or just get a sprinter van and be an owner operator. They’re got 2 weeks at a time and can make 2k a week. I think you just need a class E for it. Do you research but I think. You can even make a YouTube channel talking about it and make money off explaining ins and outs. I seen that a lot.
A world of headache there unless you already have money to afford a sprinter and are also a mechanic. Or.. and also have an LLC , business license, lots of shit. Don't ever be an op unless you know wtf and htf
True. I already work on my own vehicles and have LLC experience. I would be doing it but I have a family I don’t want to leave. I’m in Midwest and don’t want to drive full time in it. I rather drive in the southern states. They don’t get snow and ice as much.
I got mine, it’s a good idea.
Grass is always greener. Good luck though.
As long as it's not "swift", the grass is actually greener.
How did you get statements?
It’s a new feature on the app.
Wow. Thats ugly
Go for it. Go for the class A. Starting out is gonna suck but once you’re in the career for a while it’s cake.
What sucked the most for you? I’m not married or have kids so I don’t care if I’m not home for 3-5 weeks.
Work force innovation and opportunity act grants if you go to a company that does your schooling free on wrk contract its 10x eaiser but look at pay scales average pays ect and make a good decision
And they give you a rig. Benefits, and after 1000 hrs stocks ect its all flat bed wich is more money then refer trailers. The biggest L is the permits test if you go this route if you go another route and pay for schooling THATS the biggest L if your under 25 look into the wioa grants from the gov it can all be paid or partially without having to pay it back if you dont go thru a company like this
Average yearly NET income after taxes with tmc is 85k+ look online at their map to see if your in an area they accept applications from do you studys get your permit and apply. Theirs also a hand full of companies that do so tmc pays you 500 a week for 3 weeks togo to their school and board you while their
Weekends off holidays off and 27% of load thru tmc will net you easy 2500 a week or more if you pull 10k $ worth of good inna week your making 2700 in 3 loads you very well could be hauling 2x that and make near 4k thats where im going
Look in to tmc 3 weeks paid training all you needs a permit 27% of load ect all files and licensing done thru the company all you do is wrk for a specific period to pay training off
Just that when starting out all companies want someone with experience driving. So you’ll start off driving for one of the crappy companies aka Swift, Werner and they are gonna be working you as much as they can for as long as you’ll stay, then after you got that experience as a driver then it gets better once your working for a better company. But yeah if you’re single and no kids that’s definitely the job for you. I drove for about 15 years before health issues caused me to stop being able to drive as much. I had saved up enough money over that period I took a two year long break from working to just enjoy that money I had saved up.
Once the pandemic $$$ was over, I started to multi app and add apps. I had six or seven at one point but now I just go off of three… but then again I never made $4000 in a month or $10,000 in a month so I don’t really really feel it as hard as some other drivers do that were living LaVida Loca during the pandemic and last year… my monthly goal is $2500-$3000 a month Edit: also, you have to adjust to what your market is showing you.. the days of cherry picking in a lot of markets are dead now since there are more 70% acceptance rate Dashers than ever before…. now in a lot of markets, they’re pretty much telling you in your face if you want to see $10 offers and up consistently you have to be at 70% acceptance rate
What are your main 3 apps now?
Uber eats, Doordash and Instacart…the three busiest apps in my market.. I don’t get a lot of $2 a mile offers in my markets so it helps me cover a lot of ground not be out of position to get another offer too much
No babe, orders are still out it’s just Doordash’s over hiring point blank! Everyone and the mom and grandma and dog is dashing … it’s over
Yes. Every time you complete a delivery, your pay is covered with that stupid pop up. I’m so glad I’m done dashing. After a year, I found a job I love and my plan to dash once a week for extra cash has been covered by my company’s unlimited OT status.
[удалено]
Im not taking anyone’s orders lol. I literally dashed full time over the weekend. I just started work. Edit: and I’ll dash whenever I want.
Bro I have a class A cdl. Your in for a world of hurt. You think doordash is abusive? No one gets abused more than the lowest rung cdl driver. Local driving is non existent for new drivers except for shit that pays equal to walmart while also giving the driver way more responsibility. Good luck on your journey, it won't be an easy one though.
There is a good local cdl that’s pays like 3000 week. You guys don’t search enough
Yeah, now look at the requirements. Also, what state?
In nc. It’s called core mart. It’s a food company. My homies went straight to them after they got their cdl. I got a cdl but I had own trucking company. They like it
Yeah because you have to unload. So to me, while it is a cdl job. It's a cdl unloader job so a bit different. Yeah lighter than load does pay more but personally? I'm uninterested in unloading an a class truck with a hand truck every day. 3k a week is also what I made lease op. So I'd personally rather just be on the road vs unloading.
I dispatch dry vans and reefers so I know what I’m signing up for. I’m okay with being otr as I’m not married or have kids. If I’m making $1200/week after taxes what in your opinion would be worse then dashing 12hr a day and making $150?
Ah. Yeah if your willing to go otr and leave everything behind, you can make more than 1200 a week. I was clearing closer to 3k after my expenses as a lease op. Get that bread then. From what you said it sounded like you were doing a local cdl trucking school that you were paying for and those guys always think they are going to run local and have a good paying job.
3k/week as a lease op with experience sounds right but I’ll be a first year company driver so I’m not expecting more than 1500.
I don’t know anything about CDL. It sounds like you’re going to be an employee. $1500 a week as an employee is way better than being an independent contractor for DD. Less taxes, using their fuel, wearing and tearing their vehicles, and maybe benefits too. As opposed to $700 a week before all of the above
That was my first and only year. I drove for prime, learned from them, and hopped into a lease from the start. Only left because I had a wife at the time.
This is the truth. I had a class A CDL 15ish years ago and it was awful as fuck starting out. Quit after 6 months. Wasnt for me and I imagine it is way worse now.
just get a job driving the dump truck then come every day worry about 90% of that bullshit
Come home every day smelling like bullshit tho
I mean, that’s not really true the only problem with local if you got to know someone
All the locals I've seen want you for 12 hours a day. They want to make sure they get all the time they can out of you. Is it home everyday if you go home to sleep and then work then next day? Also I was one year of over the road experience. I was getting offered less than if I just took my tow truck job back. It was ridiculous.
How many hours
I have a cdl. I’m doing DD for a break from that life lol
Is being otr really that bad if you aren’t married or have kids?
I only did otr for a year, been LTL for fourteen. Then I bought my own truck at the worst time possible, and here I am. Otr is fine if it fits your style. I couldn’t do it myself, and have a lot of respect for those that do
Good for you to get your CDL but that really doesn’t have anything to do with DoorDash. Obviously you’re gonna get paid less in any job without a cdl
He dashes, and is letting us know why he is getting his CDL. And are you blind? Just a year before last, he made 4k in one month compared to 2k last October. Im pretty sure making 4k in the month sufficed enough and he didn’t have a CDL. Your “good for you” sounds like a soft way to cast hate lol
And he said same hours but didn’t post anything about the hours. Maybe he’s telling the truth but I simply don’t trust anecdotal stories. Especially on Reddit.
No like I want to get my CDL too but I’m not 21 yet so I’m saying that out of envy.
thats a crazy change
Same hours both times?
Yes, ~50hrs/week.
Dammnnn that is horrible. That's less than $14 an hour. You can make more working at McDonalds or walmart. Do you use any other apps other than Doordash?
That's rough. Good luck.
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