how do you know when your not a truck driver

I haven't had 20 jobs since I had a newspaper route, when I was in middle school and now I'm 57 years old. Holy moly!

 

What I don't get, why he kept going back to the same companies.

 

i worked for a company 5 years. did the profession 12 years. made no more at the end then when i started. and had absolutely no bennies. but the last company did offer 1 week vacation and insurance.

i worked for another company 7 years. towards the end. new drivers were getting paid less. and working more hours, therefore collecting bigger paychecks then me. they were only the second company to offer insurance, plus a 401k.

other then those 2. i'm no better off now then when i left high school. 25 years. and to make matters worse. the only company that can verify my employment, is the one i work for now. and the last one i left after 18 months. AND, i'll be leaving really soon for another gig.

legevity doesn't always work out. specially when the economy dictates wether your bills get paid or not.

but a job every 3 months. doesn't exactly look good either.

 

How's about three jobs in seven months? Because that's where I'm at and so far it hasn't hurt my employability (if that's even a word). Actually, I'm on my fourth job now. I've been lied to about pay, miles I could expect, hometime, etc., so I've kept on trucking and explained the why and wherefores of my previous departures to new employers. And I'd add that I spent twelve years at my job before I got into trucking after that gig had "force reductions", but I have never been lied to about my money or anything else like I have since I've been driving a truck, so whoever said that's common to all jobs... I can't agree with you on that. If I'm told I'll make $14 an hour as a customer service rep, I've made it, but if I'm told I'll make .38cpm, that's always questionable.

 

At less than a year you have not a clue as to what a good trucking job really is...but I'll let you in on a little secret....IF you by chance, get the opportunity to be interviewed at one of the better places to drive a truck...you'll see that once they see you're 3 jobs in seven months as you either won't do as your asked , you can't get along with your superiors or you just are un-willing to do anything that they require..you want it all now or you'll take your ball and go home......that is the way a good EMPLOYER WILL SEE IT. Good jobs are really picky about who they hire..they don't want to hear about why you quit , they want to know why didn't he just suck it up stay til he had a couple years experience, and show that he can be reliable.....but you do as you wish.....your career.

 

i thought we were talkinjg about truck driving jobs. cuz 90% SUCK.

the good ones. don't even advertise for hiring.

 

I think for me being a student I will know a good trucking job after I've been in the industry long enough to make a reasoned...and reasonable...comparison. How can I assess value without some standard of comparison? I'll do my research, listen to those who have gone before me, make a choice...and then do my best to stick with that specific company for at least 1-2 years. I've heard about "paying your dues." Maybe it's not so much paying dues but learning to do something well enough that you aren't thinking about it anymore...it's just who you are and what you do. Boot camp was really hard for me...but after a couple years I didn't even realize that the military life was any different than any other...it just grew on me and I became "used" to it. Trucking is what I make of it.

 

Exactly. Because the better companies are much smarter. They look at the drivers "Reasons" is really excuses...excuses. There are ALWAYS excuses.

 

The main reason I posted in this thread was because of the question the OP asked. I knew early on that I wasn't a trucker, and truth is I never wanted to be. I simply wanted to drive a garbage truck, and everywhere I looked they wanted me to get a year of OTR experience under my belt. In the meantime, call it an excuse if you like, I wasn't able to subsist on $230 a week, so if you can do that more power to you. To be out for two months and come home with $1,014.37? I'm sorry, but the hell with that. I'm a 37 year old man with responsibilities, not some 20 year old living in his mom's basement.

God bless the REAL truckers out there doing the job, but I know a lot of CDL holders like myself who have to drive big rigs for however long to have any chance of getting into a garbage truck or whatever the hell else they want to do. Now that I've managed to get into the job I wanted without doing that year OTR, I'm good to go, but good luck to everyone else trying to get their time in to move onto what they really want to do. Not all of us want to do the same things or can afford to do it for the same rates of pay.

 

truck driving jobs. cuz 90% SUCK.
Sad thing is that its not always the job but the person doing the job.

There are a LOT of people that SUCK at driving a truck just like they did with other jobs they had in the past and the ones they will have in the future.