About to graduate CDL school and trying not to stress out about finding a job that’s not OTR
I’m probably 2 weeks away from testing out here at my CDL school, and so far I’m really stressing out because I have a wife and two kids and so far the only companies I’ve talked to that are interested in me are OTR mega carriers.
I’ve talked to the wife about this and she’s very supportive of me, and willing to sacrifice a year so I can get my safe driving experience in, but for me personally I’m already getting really anxious and stressed out about being away from my wife and kids for so long and for such extended periods of time
The local options I have that take new drivers are pretty much just water bottle trucks for the oil fields (they haul water for oil, not sure what the exact term for them are but everyone just calls em water bottle trucks around here)
The thing that scares me about hauling the water bottle trucks is everybody says they are dangerous AFFF to haul and the #1 thing I’m shooting for is safe driving experience because ideally in a perfect world I get my time in and then just become a local fuel hauler guy and I’m home every night making 100k+ a year
I’m only 25 and previously was making about 50k a year, so I’m also not excited to go work for a mega OTR because from my math it seems like I’ll probably make about 55k to 60k my first year, but lose out on 80-90% of a year being at home with my family.
Am I stressing like a b**** right now? I’m trying not to get into my head too much about it but I really am kinda spiraling right now.
Not in like a super bad way but I am feeling kinda crappy about all this. I paid for CDL school out of pocket and it’s been a huge gamble and investment for me. I’ve loved every second of driving a truck so far and working on backing maneuvers and practicing double clutching on the road and stuff.
My goal is to be making a 100k a year by the time I’m 30, but now I’m worried I’m just gonna become a failed trucker statistic and this will all be an early mid life crisis that blows up in my face
Any advice? Should I just shut up and drive and see what happens?
And to be fair I do love to explore and adventure and probably will love being OTR, but will be really crappy to be away from my family for long periods of time.
What should I do? Go drive some dangerous water trucks? I know people that did it and they never crashed. It can’t be that bad right?