My pursuit of happiness as a company truck driver

This is the story of my pursuit of happiness and inadvertently becoming one of the highest paid company truck drivers. I apologize for it being so long and I hope those who read it enjoy my story.


When I turned 21 years old I was hit with the news that my wife was pregnant with twins. At the time I worked for a large corporation in an office but instantly i knew that my salary there could never cut it. I had to make a plan for the future so I could provide the best life possible for my new family. I had never, even for a moment, thought about pursuing truck driving but in that moment of panic and desperation I made the decision to go to truck driving school. I quit my job, left home, and traveled about 2 hours away and spent the next 2 weeks training to get my CDL.


I made it through the training pretty easily, obtained my CDL, and got recruited on to a major OTR company with my pay starting at .33cpm. I progressed through the company training honing my big rig driving skills with the help of a great trainer and a little of my own determination. The company took care of me, they got me home most weekends and to me, the pay was decent. On the day my wife went into labor I was two states away and my dispatcher at the time went out of his way to make sure I was there to see my kids born. I gained a lot of experience in that short amount of time driving a semi truck with a 53' van across country. I navigated into the heart of some very big east coast cities often times getting lost following bogus directions from brokers. I became proficient at backing my trailer into very tight spaces sometimes getting out to look 5-6 times to make sure I stayed incident free. I had become a pretty good truck driver, but I hated the life. I beat myself up many times for the dreadful situation I was in. I should of tried harder and went to college to get a REAL career or I should have been more careful and planned the pregnancy. I was stuck on the road by myself away from my wife and kids doing a job that made me miserable and feeling like a 21 year old screw up. I smoked 2 packs a day and ate every kind of greasy truck stop food there was slowly becoming obese and unhealthy.


Then one day I decided it was time to make a major change... I made plans to quit my job and move my family out west to Colorado and temporarily live with my dad until I found something better. In Colorado I quickly got a job driving a boom crane truck locally delivering drywall, the job started at $17/hr. I worked a lot of overtime and made enough to support my family and be home every night with them... life had made a turn for the better. After working for the company for around 2 years the housing crash started to severely affect us and I was laid off due to the decline in new home construction. Eventually they rehired me as things picked up but it never was the same and I struggled to get by as overtime had all but vanished. Living in a small mountain town the recession was easily felt and the town slowly became less populated. We were living paycheck to paycheck and I knew that soon we would need to make another major change.


Through word of mouth and a little research I learned of the growing demand for truck drivers in the oil fields of North Dakota with promises of high wages and tons of work. I secured a job hauling water with a guy I met off craigslist who owned a few trucks and he offered me $25 an hour to come work for him. So i bought a cheap slide in camper for my old ford pickup, served my two week notice and headed north leaving my family behind not knowing what to expect. I arrived in Williston, ND, ground zero of the oil boom, to a environment opposite of where I had come. Now hiring signs were everywhere jobs were abundant and housing was nonexistent. I spent the first week camped out in the Wal-Mart parking lot and went to work for my new boss driving truck in the oil field. I hauled salt-water off of oil well locations and took it to disposals. I was trained to bill oil companies by the hour and sometimes I would sit 11 hours waiting to dispose of my load. On paper I was making so much money I was ecstatic however my boss who owned the truck was leased on with a company who continually shafted him out of money that was owed to him. My boss couldn't pay me what he owed me and was only able to cough up a fraction of it hitting me hard. I had worked continually in his truck for a month straight and he was only able to give me 1/5th of what I had worked. I got into an argument with him over the phone and told him I was done that I quit. He kept trying to call me back but I ignored the calls, my wife was on the phone with me pleading for me to come home and beg for my old job back that this whole thing was a mistake. A restricted number kept calling my phone, thinking it was my boss again I finally answered in sort of a rude tone, "Hello?". On the other line was a manager with a major trucking company I forgot I had applied for, he wanted me to come in for an interview. I got the job the next day with this major company and 4 years later I am still currently working for them.


I have moved up within this company and I am currently in a position that you cannot apply for, you have to be selected for it. Every year I have earned over $100k with this company and this year I am on track to earn $140k+. I work 5 - 12 hour days and then I have two days off. I have excellent health, dental, and vision insurance for my family and my company gives me great benefits like paid holidays and vacations. I have watched many drivers come and go over the years. I have seen so many guys walk away from this great paying job because of either the harsh conditions or they want to be with their families who are in another state. Some of the guys i work with want to move their families here but their wives refuse to relocate and sometimes even threaten divorce. I was lucky enough to convince my wife to relocate here, it was a very hard transition and it definitely tested our marriage but as time went on we know now it was the right choice. I am truly and utterly blessed to be home with my family every night and work a job I enjoy doing for a company that appreciates my hard work. I #### you not sometimes its hard to believe its even real, like its too good to be true. You would find it hard to believe but there are guys in my same position making the same wage who feel that it is never enough. We had two guys quit this sought after position in the past two months to go chasing rainbows, looking for whatever it is their seeking. To some people the money isn't enough and there are days where this job can be a living hell. Some days this job is cake and the weather is perfect. Other days you find yourself in a full blown semi tanker truck hauling chemicals off road out in the middle of nowhere at midnight and your chaining up your tires in -30 degrees cause there is a couple feet of snow thats been blown onto the roads by 40mph winds and you gotta haul your trailer out of that nasty location up a steep hill all the while hoping you don't slide backwards and roll over off a ravine. I have witnessed drivers with 15+ years of OTR experience and 2 million mile safe driving awards roll brand new Kenworth trucks and total them on their first night on their own. Offroad tanker trucking isn't OTR and sometimes driving the truck is 10% of your job. The opportunity is real for those we can meet the sometimes demanding conditions of this job, entry level drivers at my company average $75k-$100k their first year and we are always hiring.

Life is amazing now for me and my family. We get to spend time with eachother and occasionally take fancy vacations to places that we never thought we'd get to see. I quit smoking cigarettes, lost a lot of the weight I had gained OTR, and we have started a habit of eating healthier. We have 0 financial worries and enjoy living life within our means. A lot of people, including myself, that relocate here will initially find this state to be ugly and desolate. Over the years my family has actually come to grow fond of our new home in North Dakota and have come to appreciate the previously unseen beauty that this place holds from the rolling plains under the big blue sky to the glowing dance of the northern lights in the night sky. I know this oil boom isn't going to last forever and that eventually production will ramp down. Wages won't always be this high and one day I probably will be making a lot less doing the same job. For now I'll let the future stay unwritten and continue to enjoy the present, where life is good and business is booming.

I am not here to recruit drivers or sell anyone a pipe dream. I simply wanted to tell my story, sorry if it was long I hope you enjoyed it.

 

Thanks for the kind words. There were a lot of moments of doubt and uncertainty. I had a few moments where I thought for sure my marriage was ending. Looking back I almost think all the struggle and perseverance helped me become the man I am today.
One part of the story I left out was on my way up to ND in pickup I ran into a very bad snow storm in WY. I was tired from driving and misjudged the road thinking it looked pretty dry. The road was actually slick and I went sideways at 55mph off into the ditch. The cabover camper is so tall I thought for sure I was gonna roll over but I didnt. I just sat there for a second in disbelief then got out and shoveled my tires free and was able to get out. Literally not one soul on that road or cell service anywhere. I had many moments that challenged me emotionally and I had to face them alone... when I finally made it to ND having drove 15 hours straight I felt more like an American than ever almost like a pilgrim haha it was a unique feeling.