I agree with everything said except what BlackW900 said. I'm a bit offened by it but I guess I'll live. 24 year's old almost 2 year's in with a CDL, born and raised around trucks I have to say after quitting OTR, I miss it yes but it's not worth the chump change companies are paying now. Every time I thought I had a good week's work in, running my ### off, staying away from the advances and trying to sqeeze every penny to save even eating one small cheap meal a day, by the time my check is loaded on comdata, I call to see how much and it's only $200-300 expecting to have brought in at least $800 after taxes so I could pull my allotment for the week and stash the rest in the safe. Not worth being out there for. Like I said, i love it and I miss it but it's not enough to be worth my time. I'm hoping the railroad can put me an my CDL to good use. In this day and age though, I really could give a damn less about what I do as long as I'm working outside of a building or plant and making enough to provide for my oter half and kid's an be able to take them out and spend time with them then I'm happy.

If I could own my own truck fo personal use I would. My stepson is really disappointed right now that I gave up driving. He wasn't expecting me to be home when he got home from school and asked where my truck was. Had to tell him I had to give it up. He draw's me pictures of me in my truck all the time but he's not old enough to understand why I let it go. Sometime's you gotta do what ya gotta do in order to provide regardless of the love of the job and it being in veins.

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"I'm not a truck driver. I'm a non refrigerated load relocation engineer".

I've been out of it for a year. I miss it a little. but in that year, I've gotten back into weight training, dropped 10 pounds, and now I can do simple tasks without being out of breath. I miss being on the road and seeing the sights, but if I never do it again, I won't cry about it. it was a neat job, but it occasionally could be really boring - there's just no challenge to it.

some life long drivers don't understand that some people started driving a truck to make a living, not because they love it so much. they also understand that some folks have capabilities besides driving. some folks were downsized/outsourced/displaced from work in their chosen field and took up trucking because that was the only thing hiring at the time. not being able to do anything besides driving for 30 year does NOT make
you special. some are not "cut out" to do anything EXCEPT drive a truck!

Driving a truck, like any other job, is primarily a means to an end. When you start thinking that it is more than that, you open yourself up to abuse by your company, your bank, your brokers or (worst of all) yourself.

Primarily, driving a truck is not a 'dream' or a 'lifestyle', or 'in your blood,' or 'your identity,' or 'freedom' or an 'experience of the open road' or anything else. Those things may be secondary, but it is primarily a means to an end. Those secondary things are all marketing ploys used by companies to keep drivers behind the wheel for less money than what they should be making. If you love what you are doing, that's great, but it is still a means to an end and needs to be viewed through that lens.

I could put my cones 20 feet away and people will still come and hit them or close to your drops. Sometimes you don't even have room to put them 3 feet out, let alone get the truck in the station and do the drop in the fist place. But I work nights (for now) and a lot of my stations are closed.

But then there was the idiot woman on the phone that came flying in last night and turned right into the pillar of the canopy at the Kroger I was dropping at. She told the cop she couldn't make the turn around my truck to get in the pump because I was "blocking" her. He asked what I saw and I told him she came flying in with her phone held up to her ear. She got a couple tickets.

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They call me Biscuit

The best thing about being a pessimist is very rarely do you let yourself down.

8800? Not only are you hauling fuel, but you're hauling sample cans around too!!!

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With the wonderful social skills I see sometimes, you are right. All they can do is be alone in a truck all day and night.

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Glad you are enjoying your new job Biscuit, I am looking into doing something like what you are doing, I talked to a local company near where I live. If I sell my 2 trucks I might consider doing it, It will be hard mind you, I have not really driven someone elses truck before, But if it means that I get paid hourly and for everything that I do and I can make a decent paycheque every week and someone else pays for the maintenance then I won't mind one bit.

I am fed up with trying to keep these 2 trucks on the road and fed up with making peanuts. I am fed up with the industry, fed up with being ripped off every day, fed up with low rates, I keep getting my rates cut because of all the undercutting going on. My finance company won't cut my truck payment for me, my mechanic won't cut his rate for me, the fuel station won't cut the price of fuel for me, the tire man won't drop his price on tires, why should I be expected to take a rate cut?!! When does it end?

Good for you Biscuit, you are one of the smart ones, I just love how these people say that truck driving is a "dream job", or that it is a lifestyle. What is the point if you can't make a decent living, I don't care how much you love driving a truck, I don't see the point if there is no money. I always liked the driving part of the job, but just because I like driving is not enough, I got into this to make money and lately there just is not enough money justify owing trucks. I have been in this all my life and now I just don't see this industry getting better anytime soon.

Well said. The only headache I run into with fuel hauling is dispatch. Go figure. But even then, I get paid ALL DAY, even if I am sitting in a diner eating while I wait for dispatch to check gallons. Really not a bad gig.

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Yeah, that is the most important thing to me, getting paid for everything you do, not sitting around for hours every week for free, I had a job like that when I first started driving, I don't know why I ever gave it up to buy my own truck, If I had stayed I would be at the top of senority by now, with paid vacation and everything.

Sometimes I kick my self in the ### for giving up that job, but what can you do, you live and learn, I had a pretty good go as an O/O for many years but I have been watching this industry go down hill for the last few years and I think I have just had enough

I hear ya. I grew up around trucking, but ended up running auto parts stores before I was 21 and the money was too good to think of changing jobs like I had planned. I just recently decided to give it up for driving and it is nothing like it was when I was younger.

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