Get your CDL ... Some companies will pay for it. Go run some ones truck.. Do a year or so... Make mistakes on someone else's dime...most companies start mid 40k... Alot cheaper to find out if you like it or not
Pretty sure as long as you are driving and hauling for a wage, you have to have at least a class C CDL...Tkes you to 26K gvw, B takes you to 56k IIRC and A get you 80k GCVW and I believe they all cover a trailer...you need a specific endorsement to haul doubles and triples, hazmat, people, etc...
As far as getting your license thru a long haul company, like US Express, Knight, PAC Ex, Snyder, or whatever big name outfit you can that pays for the CDL and offers you a job for a year under contract...its a rough start
First of all, your first 90 days are going to be as a team driver with a "teacher", and you're under an initiation/probation pay scale, of about 50% less per mile driven
Second, once you do get cleared for your own rig, your starting payscale is bottom of the barrel and they run you ragged and give you the multi stop routes in the middle of nowhere and tight timelines to get there
And I wouldn't necessarily say learning " the ropes" as an OTR/Long haul trucker is indicative of what hot shot pick up and deliveries is all about, either...the job and duties themselves are not a whole lot different, sure, but IMO the "life" and stress of driving a big rig and hot shot deliveries with a pickup, is not nearly the same
Edit:
And neither is learning the ropes as a company driver, and training or learning as a small business owner or with the goal of being a business owner...that's like straight up culture shock...company driver to business owner...
You have to get licensed as a transport company in your state and you can haul and do business "intra-state", if you want to haul out of your state you have to get licensed and insured and bonded to haul " inter-state", I do believe at a minimum you'll need a class C drivers liscense...and you're gonna need a medical card that states you pass the minimum health requirements
Your trailer and load are separate entities from themselves and from your truck, everything has to be insured and registered as such (at least in Washington) and your delivery can not exceede your bond...
Now days you have toll roads EVERYWHERE!
So, to keep records and make everything easier, you'd probably want to look into whatever prepaid toll system your main routes use, as well
There's lots of details, I've looked into it as well and its alot more entailed than having a truck, liscense and trailer...and I have a Class A CDL, experience and every endorsement on my liscense
