My dad is a truck driver who is an independent driver. Which company does your brother in law driver for? usually you need a least 1 year OTR experience to drive anyone's truck for a company to make money. Even for shitty company's. Even if your brother is an independent driver and owns his own truck, you have to be approved to drive for the company to be on the payroll ( You have to be hired pass all the requirements). You can't just get your CDL and hop behind the wheel and spit the money, does not work like that. I worked for him for a few years and 900 a week is shitty depending on what he pulls, they make around that a day. IF he is doing military stuff like my dad one way to the west coast depending on time of year, they can make around 10-13k after fuel for 3- 4 days of driving . Now that the economy is f-ed up is more hard to find good LTL's and or full load's
Here are the min requirements for my dads company most are very similar.
* 23 years of age
* Class A CDL with HazMat (H) or combination (X) endorsement.
* No more than two at-fault accidents and two motor vehicle violations within the previous 36 months, or no more than one at-fault accident and three motor vehicle violations during the previous 36 months. No involvement in a preventable DOT recordable accident in the past 12 months.
* Operators must have one year of verifiable over-the-road driving (including snow and ice) within the past three years or three years verifiable experience in the last 10 years, of which six months must be within the previous 48 months, with a Class A CDL using the type of equipment similar to what you will be operating at XXXXX.
* No felony convictions within the past seven years, and not more than one in your lifetime. Misdemeanors are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
* No positive drug or alcohol test including refusals and pre-employment results.
* No suspensions of more than 30 days for moving violations in the last 36 months.
* Proficient enough in English to understand highway traffic signs and signals, respond to official inquiries, make entries on reports and records, and converse with the public.
* Provide and maintain proper levels and types of approved insurance during your lease with XXXX including:
The best bet is to get your CDL first its going to cost you around 3,000 bucks and that's on the small side. Call the company he works for and find out what requirements do you need to be a Team driver. Some company require more OTR time to be a team driver. It all is different.