
Maybe you already know that you can do some different things with a commercial driver’s license than you can with a regular one. If you’ve got a regular driver’s license, you can operate several kinds of vehicles. However, you can’t get behind the wheel of something like a semi-trailer unless you pass a test and get the required license.
Ensuring compliance with CDL laws for commercial drivers becomes crucial for any company that hires them, but that’s not your concern, unless you decide you will start such a company. If you’re thinking about getting a commercial driver’s license, you may not know whether it’s worth it or not.
To find out the answer, let’s look at some ways that getting a commercial vehicle license can benefit you. It will take some time and effort to get one, but you may feel it’s the best move if you want to get into certain careers.
You Can Become a Commercial Truck Driver
For one thing, if you decide that you will get a CDL, you can use that to become a truck driver. If you have ever seen one of the massive 18-wheelers flying down the highway and thought you’d like to drive one, you can do that if you get a commercial driver’s license.
If you decide that you don’t want to go to college, this career might appeal. Though some commercial truck drivers do attend college and graduate, most trucking companies don’t care about that, unless you want a managerial position. If you want to join the fleet of truck drivers and drive one of the vehicles the company has for such a purpose, you can start studying and get your license right out of high school.
That means you might get your license and start your career by the age of 18 or 19. Having a career mapped out ahead of you at that age may appeal, especially when you think about fast-food jobs and similar positions that you could hold instead.
You Can Make More Money
If you get a commercial driver’s license, then you can also potentially make more money. You can start out in the trucking industry making $50K-$60K yearly in some instances. That’s much more than what you can make with a comparable job if you don’t have a college degree.
You will only make more money from year by year if you stick with it and demonstrate to your employer that you’re dependable and trustworthy. If you drive your rig and its cargo where it’s supposed to get to on time, every time, then you should see your salary quickly go up.
You Can Transport Dangerous Cargo
If you get a special kind of commercial driver’s license that lets you transport hazardous cargo, then you can make even more money. As you might imagine, you can make a much higher salary transporting toxic waste than mattresses.
You might not want this job if you feel it’s too risky. If you know the risks and have the requisite skill set, though, then you can make more money with a commercial driver’s license that lets you transport hazardous material than you’d ever get in similar transportation jobs.
You Can Travel as Well
You can travel cheaply if you get a commercial driver’s license. Maybe you would like to see many different parts of the country.
Like becoming an airline pilot, if you get a commercial driver’s license, you can see many different states that you never visited before. You will probably drive through them on a deadline, so you can’t always stop to explore little truck stops and roadside attractions that look interesting, but you can at least tell people you’ve been to many different states and parts of the country. Not many individuals can say the same thing.
You Will Have Job Security
If you get a CDL, you will also probably have better job security than many other individuals you know. In this era, many workers feel worried about automation. They might think that AI will take over their jobs any day.
That will probably happen with some professions, but it’s not likely in the commercial trucking industry anytime soon. It’s true that some trucking companies continue looking at automation and self-driving trucks, but they’re not close to getting that technology onto America’s streets and highways yet. You can probably enjoy job security for decades to come if you go into the job market with a CDL.
You Can Start a Family
Some people feel like they can’t start a family right now because they simply don’t have enough money. Maybe they marry someone, but they feel that they can’t realistically have kids because they can barely afford rent with their current salary.
If you get a CDL, then you will almost immediately start making money that you can save for the future. You can put that cash toward a house. If you live in a part of the country that’s not as expensive, you can also probably start thinking seriously about having kids with your spouse or partner if that’s something you both want.
You Have the Chance to Advance in Your Career
If you have a CDL, and you get plenty of experience driving cargo around, then you might begin to feel at some point like you can start your own company. Even if you don’t have the money at first to get the business off the ground, after a little time, you can probably approach a credit union or a bank and tell them about your experience.
You can tell the individual in charge of loans that you know every aspect of the industry because you’ve worked inside it for years. You can explain your vision and show them a business plan.
That is how you might become a company owner. At that point, you can get off the road and start making even better money if you are capable and ambitious.