What should I expect in my first 2 years as an OTR driver?

A bigger belt size

 

Well, there's only about 10 thousand threads on this forum that go into detail regarding your questions.

Start reading.

 

If you went into a truckstop restaurant and sat at the llunch counter, you would hear 2 kinds of stories about trucking...war stories and horror stories.

Which one is it that you want to hear?

 

Guarantee you'll be more frustrated than you've ever been in your life, you'll be disgusted by most "truck drivers", people will treat you like garbage-especially while they share the road with you in their cars, you'll get sick from truck stop food at least once, you'll be stuck for indefinite periods of time anywhere but where you want to be, when your truck breaks down and you call the shop they will send someone from 3 states away to come help you and after 8 hours you wonder why they're not there yet, there will be a big spunk stain on the back wall of the sleeper, a homeless guy will scream and berate you because he lost his last tooth or the man is holding him down, and another sort of looking homeless guy will try to sell you some miracle aluminum polish in a water bottle

 

Learning and discovering EVERYTHING school should have taught you.

You WILL scare yourself enough to quit. Don't. Shake it off.

Your first big wreck with screaming people, dead bodies etc will hurt you. Work through your ABC (Air way breathing and circulating.) EMT might take a while to get there.

Finally....

ENJOY these United States. ALL 48 states offer something for you. Food, Museums etc. Always something worth doing. Maybe some activity that has nothing to do with trucking for a good downtime. Have at it.

 

As a newbe you can expect louzy pay.

 

My advice I like to give is start off at a food service company. Most are home everyday or do regional where your home 4-5 nights a week. Plus it builds character humping that food and the pay is about 1/3rd more than otr, sometimes even higher. The training you get going food delivery is 2nd to none, no mega can match the training you get doing LTL type stuff

 

Good advice!

 

Say no to lot lizards.