It turns out that the $4k a week is possible but in order to make that, you have to do your trainee a bit wrong. You have to drive more, violate policies and cost your trainee extra days on your truck when they just want to get finished and get their own truck so they can make better money. Plus if you're driving that much, you are sleeping when they're driving and you aren't actually training. In hindsight, my trainer was doing that and not really teaching me anything after the first week.
BUT, the money is still stupid good. I finally got back to Dallas to get certified and left with not only my first trainee on June 18 but I also stepped up to a brand new 2023 Kenworth T680 straight from the factory! The kid will finish up his 240 hours up tomorrow and then he'll be off my truck on Saturday morning to fly home for a week before he goes back to Dallas for the classes to get his own truck. I'm going to miss the kid. While I haven't made $4k a week, I've averaged over $3k a week and the settlement I get tomorrow morning should be about $3500 or more. My previous one was $3165 with a little over 3900 miles and I scanned in 4565 miles. I can live with that especially since I'm getting my trainee finished up before the other guys in his orientation class and he has learned a lot more. He is in a group chat with half a dozen other guys and he says their experience hasn't been nearly the same. Their trainers are probably making more money than I have been but the trainee is going to be on the truck a week longer than mine and when my trainee tells them things I taught him or we experienced they say that their trainer hasn't taught them anything at all including how to work the tablet and you can't do ANYTHING without knowing how to do that. We've gotten along great, he's made great progress and is ready to handle a truck on his own and I've made a lot of money.
He actually has interviews lined up with local companies in Minnesota during his home time that would allow him to be home nightly and he might not even go back to Dallas to get his own truck with the company but it means a lot to me that he said he thought about not finishing his training right now because he could have gone home for a couple of days, seen how the interviews went and if he didn't or take one of the jobs then he could pick up where he left off with the company but he was learning so much and getting a lot of experience with me so he wanted to finish his training with me instead of taking the chance that he would end up back with a different trainer and have an experience like the other guys he talks to. I feel pretty good about what I've been doing.
