The Calling

Yes, I understand that. What got me into trucking was Murphy's Law. A few years ago, I had a friend who drove. I told him one day, "I don't know how you do it. I could never be a truck driver.

 

patty you already have that white collar job
hanging around watching you tube
u ex driver u

 

To the OP;

Gotta do what ya gotta do. If you can make the money work it don't matter if you're diggin' a ditch or swinging a sledge or taking it in on Wall Street. Gotta do what ya gotta do to make you happy. As long as the bills get paid and you don't have to hide your face when someone asks what you do (drug dealer, thief etc) . . .

Don't matter what the IT is. Honest work is honest work. Driving a truck is honest (now that E-Logs have taken over LOL) work.

Best of luck and be safe hand. The highway is mighty unforgiving and she don't do take backs. Good life if you like it and can swing the money, though. Been good to me so far.

 

Is your name Abe?

 

To "Stampeder" , you're just musing. You feel unfulfilled but trucking ain't the answer. With all the time on your hands find a passion OR find some volunteer work! Be a mentor! Give your kids time to finish growing up and then see how you feel. Married? Maybe you and your wife could get your CDL and hit the road together. Trucking companies love good teams and there are a lot of happy couples out there.

 

Sounds like mid-life counseling from here, and you're suffering stinking thinking. Your kids need you. Maybe another gig, but not trucking, at least not until those kids are out on their own.

You've hit the age where many find it difficult finding the value in their lives and missing the fun of youth and spend a lot of time "what if'ing" themselves. It's SSDD, day after day.

Buy a Corvette, take flying lessons, you might want to get your CFI and teach, that doesn't pay enough, either.

It's not how much you work, it's the value your work produces. You only live once, you probably don't want to spend so much of it crammed in a truck dodging 4-wheelers hell-bent on committing suicide by semi.

Doesn't sound like you're likely to kill anyone at your current gig.

 

Great answer.

 

Nobody knows the answer to this but you OP. It will be a drastic life altering decision if you go through with it. So don't make the choice without deeply meditating on and pondering the move.

.

 

It doesn't hurt to explore new career options, but I think one needs to explore why they want a change before they actually commit to that. Frankly, it sounds to me as if the OP is in fact having some sort of mid-life reckoning (I hate the use of the word "crisis") and as another poster put it...he is looking at the "what ifs" as opposed to the to the real question which is, "Is this a good change for me?"

When I got back into trucking it was because it was always something I wanted to do and frankly...I took a big pay cut to do it. But, I waited until I was somewhat debt free and my daughter was grown and gone so I wouldn't have a lot of the regrets that many drivers have when they miss their kids recitals, plays, first dances/proms and graduations because they are 10 states away hauling a load of toilet paper to a Wal-Mart DC.

I stashed some money away in a retirement account and I was vested in my company so I have that to fall back on when I retire. I worked for a little over 2.5 decades in a job that I didn't like and now I am doing a job that I love most of the time. Believe me it has it's ups and downs and there are times that I get frustrated. I think that's normal for any job though.

This job ain't all that glamorous. Yes you travel and see a lot of the country, but most of that "sightseeing" is done through a windshield. In fact, a lot of that view is sitting around behind a warehouse waiting for someone that speaks English as a second language to tell you when you can get back on the road.

So...to the OP, if you think truck driving is going to cure your life of "what ifs" and "shoulda dones" then there's a good chance that it won't. More than likely, you'll do it for a year or less and you'll become one of the "what have I done" people.

 

You only live one time and everyone ends up the same....dead.
I have relatives, including first cousins, that are millionaires and some multi-millionaires. I'm not envious of any of them. I've been to more places on planet earth than all of them combined; we all just took different paths in our short lives.

I always loved driving at night running cross country and tried to plan my trips for night driving. Harder to do now with 14 hr. work windows and forced 30 minute naps. I loved the late night when traffic has died down, running the interstate with a hot thermos of coffee and listening to XM radio. Turn the CB radio down real low and listen to some interesting conversations and sometimes join in. Took good care of my family and they turned out just fine. Trucking is a good career and rewarding so I can't discourage others from it. Look at many who post on here and how many years they've been trucking; if it's so bad, why are they still doing it? They tell others to stay away, so why don't they also stay away?