Hi guys,

I'm thinking about going to driving school and getting into long haul truck driving. Right now I'm in my early 20s and it seems like a pretty appealing career to me (work hard like in most professions where you can make a liveable buck), see the country, meet some cool people and have road stories, make good money, and live my life.

Do people burn out after a few years on the road? What kind of options are there if you don't do long haul trucking forever? Seems to me like there would be a lot more stess in other jobs like sales or law where you are competing all the time and trying to always be the best worker. Contrary to public thought most lawyers don't make that much and its a miserable argumentative job. I know because I started on that road and have the debt to show for it. Its a rat race out there.

Also, what kind of people enjoy trucking for the long run, the kind that will do it day after day for years and years, decades of their life? It always helps me to have something to work towards and for me its a house someday with some land in the country. But first I want to pay off some of my debts and get trucking.

Well, looked on some other threads and see that it's not much long haul but distances like 400-700 miles. Do you still get out on the road and stay places overnight? What can I expect starting out in cents per mile?

As far as long haul so much the better, driving in the South is much more civil as far as I'm concerned! No driving in New York City thank God can handle Atlanta no prob.

Well as being the same age, this is my opinion so far...

i love it ive been doing 2000-2200 mile weeks for 2 months now , money for me is good .375/mile 14 bucks a drop some times 3 drops for me....
i still have white line fever , my butt gets sore sometimes but i just relax when i get behind the wheel , i dont feel stressed , bored yes tired sometimes

i dont consider what i do long haul im home couple times a week , i do regnioal which for me is just NE , you try and find something just SE or maybe just some local work , thats how i started with local runs , now i upgraded i think...lol probley in a year or 2 i dont know exactly i want to look into OTR

far as money im right around 45k if i stay at this pace which seams slow , this year for this company how many 21yo make that? now the OTR guys im sure make more money but ALOT less hometime, so its either way

let me ask you this , can you handle being in solitude for long periods of time , just about no contact other than CB or hands freecell phone, oh and your travel agent lol but who wants to talk to him/her

i hope i answered some of your questions

That sounds pretty cool. I'm going to talk to a driving school and see what they say about experience. Do a bit of research about lines as well. To be honest I don't know what I do with 45,000, that would be pretty dang good. I'm a bit of an introvert and one of the things that made me look at trucking to begin with. Good luck with your job and thanks for answering some of my questions.

This is the reason my husband and I are getting into it. No kids, no home, only debts to pay are those accrued on the road, cell phone / aircard, etc...

Are you planning on having a home? Or you gonna pretty much live out of the truck?

I'm planning live as cheaply as possible. Maybe rent a room or keep some of my possessions in the trunk of my car and stay at motel 6 when i'm home lol. Do you have to pay for your meals out on the road? That could add up.

Yes you do like anywhere else, however you can choose to make most of your own food as opposed to buying every meal at a truck stop. You can have a fridge, microwave, crockpot, small portable bbq, etc with you in/on the truck and cook your own meals which is much cheaper and better for you.