Dallas noob looking for a local gig

I'm originally from Seattle. Hadn't been there in years. A couple months ago I flew up there to clean out a storage unit and consolidate my life. I landed at SeaTac, then got an Uber to a local hotel. The tourist brochure rack had the ubiquitous whale watching, salmon fishing, etc. What caught my attention was that about 25% of the rack was brochures for "marijuana tours"! I think one of them was "Get Baked LLC".

If you are serious about this career path, back away from the bong. It's not worth it.

That being said, are you planning to get your Hazmat and tanker endorsements? If yes, then that will open up some possibilities to earn decent money.

Are you willing to do some physical work, like tarping and securing a load? If yes, that opens more possibilities.

@Chinatown you have a new "customer"... (he's THE forum resource for good trucking company recommendations).

Reply to my questions and Chinatown can help you.

 

Okay, get your Hazmat. As @Chinatown has mentioned many times, you can make $65K a year out of the gate hauling fuel. There's some physical work involved, pulling heavy hoses and such, but on fuel routes you are home every day.

For "open deck" there's construction and oil field in the Dallas area. Denton would be a brutal commute. Let Chinatown come up with some options for you.

 

Gabe, don't let anyone piss on your parade...aka Lepton1! LOL.

While he is funny, and speaks a bit of truth, local work is VERY hard to find for a rookie driver, not impossible, but, very very hard. And, if you find the job, it is NOT going to be fun.

The biggest issue is, you haven't got any experience yet. Most companies that would hire you are looking for at least a minimum of 2 years verifiable driving experience. The reason is, that is how they keep their insurance costs DOWN.

Frankly, just because you have had your CDL for an entire 2 weeks, you have no real world experience yet. You need to get hired into a "new driver" program with one of the mega carriers. Word of warning, they all SUCK. You will be lucky to earn $20-$30K a year, you will be on the road constantly and, basically have no life. BUT....only for a period of time. It used to be 2 years...but, I hear with some companies, it is down to 1 year.

In your first 2 years driving, you will make a TON of mistakes. It is how we all learn. Unless you grew up on a farm, driving trucks since you were 8, chances are, you know just enough to pass the CDL exam.

That much is practically nothing in the real world.

You need to get on the road with a Driver Trainer who is going to be your mentor. You will be "team" driving with him, although, if it were me with you, you wouldn't drive alone until I was extremely comfortable with your ability. Going to truck driving school qualified you to pass an entrance exam. Actually knowing what to do while behind the wheel in every possible driving condition, well, that takes time and patience...TONS of patience, not only for you, but even more for your instructor as well.

You may not like him, you may even despise him, but, you do need to respect that he is where you want to be.

I am not sure if WalMart will hire you, but, if I had to direct someone where to go for a company driver job, it would be there.

It isn't "impossible" to land that local job, but, you might not be in the best of markets for it. NY, LA, Chicago...major markets like that tend to have a plethora of available "home daily" type work.

If you do find it in Dallas, you probably won't LIKE the work very much, but, work is work, experience is experience.

If you do manage to land it...you need to be #### careful what you are doing. You WILL make mistakes...the important thing is to not make DEADLY mistakes or ones that cause property damage. Now you know why most guys don't go right from getting their CDL to driving locally, by themselves.

Another thought is to be an owner/op. Own your own truck. With that said, be VERY careful of any outfit offering to "lease" you a truck AND provide the work for it, or at least, tell you who you can and can't work for...in fact, don't be weary, RUN away from anything like that as fast as you can!

I started out 23 years ago in Chicago, no CDL. I bought an old semi truck for $10K. The previous owner used it primarily for dump work, which is what I also planned to do. I didn't have a trailer but, the broker he had leased on to was willing to let me use one of his for 10% of the gross, he took another 10% as his "broker" fee. It was expensive, but, how I learned. I stuck around for a year, saved some money, bought my own trailers (and more trucks) and by the next year, I was running 5 dumps. I was financed up to my eyeballs and, the work load was monstrous, between driving, keeping trucks running, paying bills!

Today, it is just me...one guy with one truck and I have my own authority.

My plan is to expand a bit before I retire from driving, but only with owner ops. Company drivers are too much to manage.

Your biggest hurdle, if you do decide to go this route, is your cost of trucking insurance. It will be staggering...between $12K-$25K. You don't have to pay it up front, but, you will be required to have 20% down.

There is a good post here called "between the yellow lines", it chronicles a driver who decided to become an owner op...I just started to read it, it is long! But, I WISH there was that kind of "step by step" laid out back when I was first starting.

Alternatively, if you don't want to be an O/O, and you can't find a local driving job, you will have to suffer through a few years of OTR or regional runs to "earn your stripes" before you can qualify for the majority of local work available.

If driving trucks is what you REALLY want to do, that 2 years or less is going to fly by.

Oh, and one more thing...even when that time is up, you STILL have a lot more to learn!

Good luck to you!

 

Hauling fuel would be the LAST place I'd advise you to look for work. Not only do you need to already know how to drive, you need to know how to deal with a liquid load...and, how to unload a tank.

And, you are driving a rolling bomb. Some real bad things can happen to you.

The reason you don't hear about fuel tankers blowing up all that often is, they usually only hire very experienced and seasoned tank drivers to haul fuel.

Any company that would stick a rookie behind the wheel of a fuel tanker is asking for trouble.

And, liquid loads are moving ALL the time, have a much higher center of gravity.

Same thing goes for flatbed work. Again, not only do you need to know something about driving, you need to know, and FOLLOW the FMCSA rules for securing your load. The loads are not always going to be perfect, and, it is up to YOU to know when a shipper is trying to push something off on you that you really shouldn't haul, or at least the way THEY want you to haul it.

Take it from the guy who has had to spend hours re-stacking improper loads in parking lots.

It is not something your are born knowing how to do. The only way you learn is through experience.

 

Aw shucks @'07 KW w/53' Conestoga ...

...we might be brothers from another mother.

What you say in your posts is absolutely true. Tanker, Hazmat, and open deck do require another level of skill, attention, and risk.

For the OP, he's looking for a local gig that pays well out of SE Dallas. The best opportunities are in what I mentioned. There's many a tanker driver or open deck driver that started in that field. The trick is to get on with a company that will train you. Chinatown might be able to come up with some choices.

Tanker WILL teach you how to become butter smooth with your shifts and lay way off the traffic ahead of you. Open deck makes you respect the load. Both those options can be done with a newbie. Both options will put a turbocharger on career options in the future.

When I become a fleet owner I'm going to look for experience with smooth bore tanker and open deck. That's to pull a 48' flat. I want my driver to be absolutely smooth with shifting, capable of driving off road, and really comfortable with load securement.

Yes, I did go through the mega carrier training and pulled a dry van for a couple years OTR. It doesn't have to be that way. A new driver can get into local work right off the bat. The trick is to know which companies will hire and train a new CDL holder.

Oil companies, for example, are desperate for drivers. There are oil field companies based in Dallas. Many will pay for your schooling and have some really good benefits.

 

• Dallas, Texas
  Due to growth and expansion Waste Connections is looking to hire an Entry Level Truck Driver at our site in West Dallas, TX. The position will be responsible for driving garbage a container delivery truck. You will be delivering commercial garbage containers to our customers. This position requires strong customer service skills.
  Monday-Friday 5:30 am start time working 50-55 hours a week. On top of competitive pay we offer family benefits, 401k, vacation, and year round work with year round OT. Typical 1st year wage is over $50,000. This site only does Roll Off and Front Load routes so 2nd year potential is over $65,000.
  This position does require a Class A or Class B CDL but does not require driving experience.
  Do not stop by or call our local office. Please apply online at www.wasteconnections.com o
  

 

Aw come on...you can do better than that!

 

Labatt Food Service is now hiring for Student Drivers at the Dallas location.

**Job Fair at our Dallas Office**
Saturday, Nov. 10th

9am - 2pm

Candidates are welcome to fill out an application online or in-house. For an in-house application, please visit us at the Dallas Labatt Office located at 650 Regal Row, Dallas, TX, 75247. Monday-Friday from 8:45 am - 3:00 pm. Must bring a valid TX Class A CDL or Class A Permit, and proof of eligibility to work in the United States.

Applicable candidates must pass pre-employment background check, drug test, and physical.

To apply now, please click the Apply Online link.
Here is the link to our online application: Login