Describe the OTR lifestyle

Its like having your own traveling road show circus where the scenery always changes but the BS stays the same.

Truckin is the best job you will ever hate.

Some days are great and some days are hell, some days you are cooking across the Texas badlands making good time ahead of schedule, some days you are stuck in traffic at 3am in Chicago.

Some days are smooth sailing, the next it snows in Dallas and the locals get on the road in a hurried state of frenzied panic and you just have to get off the road to keep from winding up a statistic.

Truckin is long hours, mechanical breakdowns, air leaks and flat tires and that podunk small town cop who has nothing better to do at 3am than harass you.

That being said, being in the trucking business gives a guy (or gal) the kind of unparalleled freedom and experience few will ever hope to understand. One day you can be in L.A. picking up a load and the weather is nice, sunny and beautiful, 4 days later you can be in Jersey and it is snowing sideways.

The road is addicting and once you get diesel in your blood, you will never get it out. The whine of the turbo and the sound of that exhaust and the feeling you get when you float a gear and hit the air splitter are feelings that you will get homesick for long after you are out of the truck.

One thing is for sure, in the truckin business, you will never be short of adventure, and with it comes the opportunity to meet new and exciting people, and some you would rather club like a baby seal.

 

Agreed. Nice writing, MrBeast.

 

Brought a tear to my eye!

Well you are definitely in a perfect position to be a driver! Sounds like you have nothing to lose. The adventure is definitely there and will be sometimes when you don't want to be! Patience is a major factor. Otherwise you will die of stress. You will have your good days and bad days you just can't go home on the bad ones and show up to work the next day refreshened. You will have to find comfort and home in your little truck and realize when you shutdown that you are at home.

It's going to take you a good three months or so after your training before you get used to and comfortable with things going on out there. Getting lost and wrong turns will be a big stress factor for you at first. Especially when you realize you can whip around or just get off at the next exit and turn around. Hopefully you will never have to back up for more than a mile! Sometimes that can happen. If it does you just have to take a breath, put your flashers on and do it. Try to get the most you can out of your trainer while you are with him. This will help you immensely for when you are solo. There is really nothing to it you just have to practice.

 

Also if you all have questions about anything specifically in the business feel free to throw em at me, I enjoy talking truckin, and as of the 28th of September I will have been doing it for 8 years now.

 

You might see if you can pitch in on this one. It's supposed to be tips for lease/purchase drivers (new or otherwise) to help make their experience more successful and profitable.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/truckingindustryforum/questions-from-new-drivers/153061-lease-purchase-tips.html

 

Dave, are you talking about a student driver leasing? Or is this a different driver all together?

 

Chompi, I was thinking a student driver leasing but it can be for anyone that could be benefited by it.

You know how some of us (against all advice to the contrary - raising my hand here) go to school, go through a short and often incomplete training and then go into a lease. I happen to see nothing wrong with doing it, although I certainly wouldn't advise it to those who easily overcome by hardship - but I know it can be done successfully if done right.

And a huge part of doing it right is having knowledge that a driver will typically not have when they first start in this industry. Add to that that the first few months of being solo will still be spent largely on getting comfortable and still learning the ins-and-outs of driving that everyone (lease, company, o/o - everyone) has to learn. Meanwhile, you have expenses building, a truck payment and all this other stuff that affects your bottom line and therefor your success or failure as a leasee.

So the idea was to compile a thread of experienced knowledge that will shorten the learning curve of making a lease profitable. Could be anything that may change the numbers from a negative to a positive. Fuel efficiency, things for the truck that will make you more productive, whatever an experienced driver has learned that may help to increase the bottom line of someone new to the industry and in a lease.

That being said - it really could be for anybody who needs to operate their truck as a business rather than just a... truck.

 

Driver! You wrote that well! Should be on a recruiting brochure bro! But you are absolutely right about once you get diesel in your blood, it's there forever! A true driver doesn't walk through the Wal-Mart aisle like four wheeler people, he's/she's courteous and is shifting gears in his mind as he is pushing the cart full of the crap that he just hauled to that DC 3 days ago!

I just love the irony in our lifestyle (not job), don't you? I gave up being a cop making $88k to get into this business and I've no regrets. Crazy as it may sound to people who have no clue what the life of a Southern California cop is like; but being a trucker is an honorable and rewarding profession, unlike being a cop where you're constantly wondering who wants to kill you, who's filing a citizen's complaint, someone accusing you of some bull$hit, and wondering which sergeant wants to screw you on your next ER report, or screw your wife.

Thank You! I'll take trucking 10 times over and twice on Sunday! Being a driver I'm showering off the b.o. and axle grease. Being a cop your showering off the blood from some poor ba$tard who's life ended, or puke from an ####### drunk Mexican, or the tears from a mother who went to check on her sleeping new born daughter, only to find the new born was in the arms of the Lord (SIDS). No thanks folks! I'll put up with four wheelers cutting me off and then flying the bird in my direction, I'll deal with ####### shippers/receivers, cold nights, hot days, arrogant cops, constipation, and basic bull$hit in general. Newbies, don't complain, just endure then adapt. Be courteous to other drivers (especially in truck stops) and four wheelers too. One driver's attitude represents us all.

Love trucking cuz one day it'll love you back...I hope?