Is anyone married to a truck driver? :)

[MommaOfalotta]

Dh has his CDLs and has gone through the schooling for semi truck driving. We both agree we want him home, and not gone a lot on the road so we never pursued this as a form of employment. However, there is a couple job postings in another state & town we are wanting to relocate to. He has applied for them. One says he would be home daily :) I'm not sure about the other. Obviously we want the first one. He said either way, it may be what we have to do in order to relocate.

 

Basically curious if anyone is married to a semi truck driver and if so, does he do short runs where he is home daily, or longer runs where he is gone for weeks/months? What are the pros/cons? And if you dont mind me asking, how do you feel about the pay?

[AnonymousMom]

My husband is a truck driver and he is home daily. If I can make a suggestion, it would be to encourage your husband to get his haz-mat, tanker, and doubles and triples endorsements and then to seek employment with a company that handles compressed cylinder gases, such as Praxair or Airgas, or any of the smaller mom and pop places. If relocating is not a problem for you guys, and he has those endorsements, he can pretty much write his own ticket with one of these companies.

 

Praxair looks for more experienced drivers, but they'll take a new guy if they can't find anybody. Airgas is more likely to take a new driver on. My husband spent 13 years with a mom and pop cylinder place and then we relocated several states away for a position with a national cylinder company. His place is Union, too...so extra bonus.

 

He's home every day, he is near the top rate of pay for a home every day driver, and he has excellent retirement and job security. Doesn't get much better than that!

[MommaOfalotta]

Thank you very much for such an informative reply! I read it with my dh and we are going to look into it :)

[AnonymousMom]

Glad I could help!!! We'd hate it if DH had to go over the road. Luckily, he never has. He's had some late days, where he's at now, but he's home every day and the bennies are terrific. I know Airgas has tons of openings right now. And Praxair has new openings pretty much daily.

 

Good luck!!!!

[Dory]

I'm not married to a trucker, but my dad was one. When I was little, he drove a logging truck and would be gone for long stretches at a time. It was hard on mom which in turn made it hard on us because mom was always emotionally strained.

Then he drove a water truck and or a vacuum truck and basically went out and flooded rig roads or vacuumed at rig camps. They were shorter jobs, he was home plenty, and the pay was awesome. It was the best job a trucker could have. He has now been driving grain truck for numerous years. He's home for the weekends and once in awhile during the week. The pay is alright, but not amazing, but the routes are fairly predictable and it makes it easier for my mom cause she can plan around his schedule.

 

My brother is also a trucker and my dh drove fuel truck of our first couple years of marriage. I saw my dh more when he was doing that than I do now, but I prefer the pay from his current job.

[MommaOfalotta]

The pay is a big thing because dh just got a really good paying job (good paying for us anyway) and the only thing that worries me about relocating would be losing this job. I would love it if he was able to find a job in our new state making what he makes now (or more ;) ) We have been broke more of our marriage than we have been financially good.. and we waited for this job for a long time.

 

Taking a pay cut to move is what really worries me. Then again, housing, etc is more afforable in this area so we might not need as much.

 

If you can't tell my mind is a bit of a mess over this. ;)

[AnonymousMom]

I'll tell ya...we were REALLY concerned about leaving the 13 yr job DH had, to take the position with the national company. DH did take a slight pay cut per hour, but ultimately, I'm telling ya, the Lord really provided. He would have maybe 2-6 hours of overtime a week with his previous company, and now...he averages 10-15 hours of overtime. We're making a LOT more since we relocated. Plus, the area we relocated to has an overall lower cost of living. We slashed our mortgage in half, but purchased a house five times the space we had before, multiplied our land space, slashed our monthly bills, etc. Even our taxes are lower, which is saying a lot, because where we live now is known for HIGH taxes. But it's still lower than where we were.

 

There are some really good paying positions with the gas and oil drilling platforms, too. Driving positions. But DH won't touch them with a 10' pole because those gas and oil companies eat drivers up and spit them out. They'll often require drivers to do illegal stuff, and fire them if they won't. Not all of the companies, but good luck guessing which ones are good and which ones are bad...and unfortunately, a lot of the drivers that drive for them won't necessarily tell you the truth (because if it's bad, they don't want to get in trouble for having driven illegally).

 

DH and I talked about it late last year when a new guy started at his current place. This guy spent just a couple of years with the gas drilling company and was able to pay off his house...and we were thinking, "Gosh, how GREAT would that be?!?!" Just a couple of years of sacrifice but to not have a mortgage would be so awesome. But when we thought about what DH might end up sacrificing...and the impact it might have on his license. It wasn't worth it.

[MrsBasil]

My DH has a Class A with hazmat, doubles, triples, and tanker endorsements. He only was over the road for 6 months and then drove locally for companies that needed hazmat drivers(first oxygen, then propane, and now crude oil). His hours are really long right now, but the pay is great, the benefits are good, and he works for an amazing owner.

 

I think he'd like to go back to oxygen or something a little less dangerous in a few years though.

 

Another type of company to take a look at is companies that deliver food to restaurants. It's often overnights, but it's home daily and a lot of them run their guys on 4 on/3 off schedule. If he's OK with is unloading his own truck, it's a decent paying option.