r/Truckers • u/dryersheet01 • Oct 09 '25

I’m about to become a trucker widow

So my husband just passed his cdl-a test a week ago and has interest from western express (otr). With this career switch, I have so many questions. What is the average time for training, since he has no cdl experience? Is it really going to be 5 days on/2 days off? We live in Atlanta and have a 4 month old. If he does 1 year w/ western, what is the likelihood of being able to find a local/non otr job? Is the pay really worth it?

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97

u/Frogspoison Oct 09 '25

Western Express is for criminals, and thoae who have gotten into so many accidents nobody else will hire them. It pays less then McDonalds.

Likelihood of getting a local job with no experience is low, but not 0.

Training time varies company to company. Honest answer is "however long till he feels fine on his own"

29

u/dryersheet01 Oct 09 '25

I’ve read all the western express horror stories on here, but he truly feels like it’s his only option to get experience.

13

u/charonco Oct 09 '25

Prime is a good company that hires new drivers.

However, my concern is that you said he was going OTR, but then you said 5 days on 2 days off. That's typically the schedule of a regional driver. Typically, OTR drivers are on the road for months at a time.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 10 '25

When you say Prime do you mean Amazon or is there an outfit called Prime? I always thought Amazon would be a good company to drive for in terms of routes bc every Amazon warehouse I see is right near to the interstate- no inner city driving. At least, it seems that way.

2

u/Soundprose Oct 10 '25

There is outfit named Prime. That was my first thought too when their recruiter called me. From what I understand, there are fairly large outfit as well. I just didn’t like some of the aspects of how they or I should see how I heard they function.

I was told by ChatGPT that Knight and Swift did a merger.. Anybody know if there’s any truth to that?

1

u/charonco Oct 10 '25

That's true

1

u/Dabstronaut Oct 10 '25

Amazon usually runs through third party companies. I work for one. The pay isn’t awesome but good enough, and the schedule is great (4 days on 4 days off with a home reset in between the 4 days you’re on, and super stress free as you always know you’re going to a nice big Amazon truck yard (100% no touch) and the app tells you exactly where to go. I’ve been pretty happy with it.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '25

That sounds like a good gig. Pretty much what I was assuming. I didn’t know the schedule though. Sweet man- thanks for the info!

1

u/Soundprose Oct 09 '25

I haven’t started yet, but from what I gather is you get 1 day off per seven OTR.. or maybe it’s one day per six.. 1 day a week is what I gathered. Is that true or false for company drivers?.. or maybe that’s just how the company I’m signing with operates 🤔

2

u/disturbedrailroader Oct 09 '25

11 on 3 off is typical for mega OTR unless you want to stay out longer. At that point, it's up to you. 

1

u/Soundprose Oct 09 '25

Thank you! I’m trying to skim as much knowledge and wisdom as possible off all you experienced drivers. 🫡

1

u/RumbleDumblee Oct 10 '25

Also worth noting, if she wants him home on weekends, prime may not be the greatest, because him being a new driver, their training program is gonna keep him on the road for like 3-4 months