How hard is it to get on with dump trucks?

Apply with food service companies; you will be home almost every day.
Check the yellow pages and Careerbuilder website for food service trucking jobs or household goods movers jobs doing local or within the state.

 

How is your mother doing? Lord willing that she fully recovers.

God bless you and your family! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Perhaps you can look into local delivery with a dairy or bread company. They use both semi tractor trailers and straight trucks.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Virtually all semi-dump job positions want previous experience driving dumps, so it's very hard to find one who will hire a new CDL grad.
I held a class B CDL since after high school (ahem, 40 yrs ago) and have drove straight 6-wheeler dumps and redi-mix concrete trucks, but even that gives me "0" experience if I wanted to be hired for a semi-dump position. Semi-dumps take very special skills, on top of "regular" tractor-trailer skills, and therefore most owners require verifiable past dump experience.

However, if you can handle repeated rejection, if you see or know of a semi-dump opening, explain your situ and your strong drive to become a dump driver, and maybe you will run across that ~2% who will give you a chance. I did know one brand new grad who lucked out into a good paying dump job, but that is rarely heard of.

Along with the other poster's suggestions, also check with LTL companies with terminals in your area. They are harder to get into for a new grad, but they do stay local with both line haul runs and also P&D (pickup/delivery) with tractor-trailer, as well as straight trucks.
In any case, trying to get a T/T job staying local isn't easy when newer, so it does take additional time & much more effort to find a company that will accept you. Positions that require more "labor" than just driving, such as food service and most moving co's, are more "willing" to take on newer grads.

I hope your mom recuperates as fast as can be expected, & wish you and here well. God bless.

 

When my mom caught cancer, I came off the bigroad. I applied with a demolition company to drive dump truck. I ended up in a 7 axle day cab hauling around the 74000 lb escavator. The owner of the company and I warred, because I was the only class a driver he had and his trucks were bottom end, wouldn't pass inspection in my lifetime POS and he needed me to drive. The pay checks were okay (better than the beer truck gig but much worse than the food service).

I drove dump truck hauling asphalt. It's much harder than you think and it doesn't pay well. Dangerous too. Carried a sprayer that I would use to wet down the bed with diesel fuel after each load so the next load would slide right out. The dangerous part is when you haul gravel. Some of the hills they'd want gravel spread on was so steep that your drive axles would bounce all over when you tried to control the truck downhill. S C A R Y stuff there.

In the food service gig, it's extremely hard work (not as tough as the beer truck...and paid 3x the money for less hours) the dry goods are the heaviest part of the load. You have to be very strong, not muscleman strong, triathlete strong, because you're running and lifting and pulling all day. Never seen a woman do food service or beer...not saying they couldn't, but they are probably the most physically demanding class a jobs there is. We did have a girl shuttle trailers at night, pulling two 24 ft pup trailers. Pulling doubles requires some muscle, but it's worlds easier than running groceries out of a trailer. The people that do it make it look easy, but it's not as easy as you would think.

 

Do what it takes to be with your Mom. You will live with exhausting guilt someday if you don't. Everyplace needs drivers. Be patient. Tell God you know he will provide what is best for you and you are willing to wait for him to make it happen and it will. It will happen when and only when you truly believe it and let the stress of it go. Every time you get a similar situation do this as that is how faith is grown.

 

TripleSix is right on all accounts here....I did the dump thing for a while at first before doing OTR. It requires a steady hand and an ability to "read " dump sites....that only come with experience. I wound up doing the food service thing for over 30 years though...hard work to say the least...I saw 1 woman do for just a little while...she just couldn't physically handle it long term though..not to say it can't be done, but It's WORK. I'm praying your Mom does much better.

 

There are plenty of local opportunities that you don't necessarily need hard experience for. Beverage trucks (straight or tractor-trailer) if you can work hard and long. Box trucks for produce companies, food service companies (straight or tractor-trailer) if you can stand being in freezers all day, and some LTL freight companies will hire.

Couldn't give any info on dumps, I've heard it pays horrible with no benefits, 6 day weeks, long hours and its extremely dangerous if you don't know what your doing. Also expect lay offs.

Good luck, and best wishes for your mom.

 

Here in Houston, the Mexicans took over dump trucks years ago.