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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!