simple question, do you like what you do? of course every job has its ups and downs, but overall how do you feel about your choice to drive the big rigs? do you regret anything? or are you happy with life on the road? im possibly looking to quit working at wal-mart and join you on the road after a little feedback. thanks for the responces!

I like driving and meeting new people. I hate missing my family.

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Everybody loves a moose. Some just don't know it.

I enjoy it now but there have been many times I didn't enjoy . It takes proven experience and reliability to end up with a good paying job with a decent company where you can make good pay running legally . Many drivers are convinced there is no way to run 100% legal and make a good pay and meet schedules . It can be done . I once swore I'd never work for a company with Qualcomm but I have been for the past 2 years . All my logs are audited by the safety department and I'm expected to run 100% legal . I take home more here averaging 55 hours a week than I used to gross working 70 (+ ) hours with a previous employer . Much of this is possible by having dedicated loads - no deadhead . Most trailers are preloaded with unloading that is by appointment and average loading time is 2 hours . When empty the trailers are brought back to the terminal which is 10 minutes from my house . I had to change jobs many times before finding something like this .

It is what you make of it. It either controls you or you control it. There is always cost involved in whatever you do to get ahead in this world. I think if a person does not get the feel for this job (takes awhile to adjust) then one should move on. No sense in being one of the bitter; hate my life, and everyone around me outlooks. Too many of them out here already. I will say this there is no other job like this one and once you get used to this lifestyle it is hard to get it out of your system. Why do you think so many (me included) end up back out here?

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My childhood dream of becoming a truck driver turned into a nightmare!

You mean you can get trucking out of your system? I didn't think it was possible.

It can be a very enjoyable career choice, and it is hard to get out of your system once you get into it. Attitude is probably the biggest factor to being able to deal with it. If you have a good attitude, and can brush annoying, aggravating or frustrating things off easily, then you can deal with the life. If you have a tendency to "go postal" over little things, then it is definitely not the career for you.

I enjoyed it a great deal, and wish I could go back to it. Since I can't get back in the seat (bad back - will need surgery in the future), I am in the process of getting into another aspect of the trucking industry.

the only thing I hate out there are all of the 4 wheelers that cutt me off just to gain mabey one car to one truck ahead of me.

I'm sure no one loves their job all the time. I'm still having fun with mine. I look forward to the next trip partly because I never know where I'll be going. I can take My girlfriend with me any time I like. I'm allowed to run legal, I have a ungoverned truck. Whats not to like?

I agree with Notarps in that its what you make of it. At the very worst...hey, you still get a paycheck of some sort. It has its goods and bads, ups and downs...etc. You end up learning lots more than you thought.

I got into it because I needed a job. I tried local gigs working for the oil fields, but didn't have any experience. So I tried a couple of companies and Schneider landed me a job that I never would have planned. Here is a big national trucking company that has one job open in my town. In WY...they have...lets just say you can count on one hands fingers how many employees the company has in WY...and still have extra fingers left over, lol. Im home daily, on a dedicated route and I serve customers. Its fun.

However, its not my first choice. Im a teacher by trade and before that, a radio broadcaster. So Im dying to use my skills I learned in college. I hate being out of the classroom as that is something I love to do. Now, Im driving year round for less pay than i made in 9 months of teaching. Wife was thinking tonight about going to DC next summer and I pointed out how I cant...lack of enough vacation time.

So deep down, I like what Im doing...but Im yearning for more. Id like to be a trainer of some sort...maybe even make videos for Schneider in some capacity. I want some more responsibility. I've even been thinking about making a trucking news and industry podcast. Heck, I've even thought about asking to be a new host on XMs trucking channel as they have about five hours of repeated shows each day.

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associate production coordinating directorial associate managing deparmental divisional office supervisor of the international network amalgamation distributors corporation management organizational association of men who drive trucks.

I wish you good luck in all of this. I too was thinking that it would be nice to get on as a trainer at a company. Take newbies on under your wing and teach them the right way to do things. Also, with your experience you'd be really effective as you can cater to multiple learning styles.

This is my goal: get on, get experience and then train newbies for most of the year. Plus, I understand that with most of the large carriers you can make some MAJOR coin doing this - though that's not why you'd do it.

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And it's official: I Start school in Lewiston, ID - 15 Oct 08

Exactly. I mean, I know im a fairly new driver...almost a year of experience. But there are tons of experienced drivers that have no idea how to teach a new student. Heck, I watched Ice Road Truckers last week and Hugh Rowland who has something like 30 years of driving under his belt, couldn't teach a new student anything, and then ripped on the kid when he bombed the test.

When I was in training in Fontana, it appeared to me that while the trainers did try to help out the students, they also seemed to give up after a while. I tried to help someone what to do for backing and was told to stop by a trainer. He just sat there and figured they would learn best if they did it on their own.
Then later on that day, this student who was bawling...I went into a classroom to swipe a toy schneider truck for some hands on visual illustration and got ripped on by one of the instructors...crimeny.

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associate production coordinating directorial associate managing deparmental divisional office supervisor of the international network amalgamation distributors corporation management organizational association of men who drive trucks.