Why do most new drivers quit?

4) There's no one in the truck to hold their hand and tell them to keep the door closed, and their right foot down.

5) They don't realize there are 24 hours in the day, and they are all legal for driving.

 

I had two (2), yes two, days over 1000 miles last week. One had 3 drops. One had 2 drops and a reload.
Yes, I am ashamed.

 

50 years in truckin is equal to 183 years in normal life!

 

Which carrier are you at now?

 

It's like anything in life. You think you can do it but then it turns into challenge that is either not worth your time so you step away. Trucking is like any job some people will excel some are just here to get a paycheck and

 

it is funny because it's not a job it's a lifestyle, we drive trucks no more than 5 yrs old with all the creature comforts, the choice to be gone 5 days and be home for 48hrs, deal mainly with fortune 500 companies which is mostly drop n hook, yet we have drivers that quit before the on the road training is complete.

 

Small company based in Texas. Holy Rollers. Think like 50 or 60 O/O. It's all O/O's, but your dispatched. Very nice people, but disorganized as all get.
The company I use to work for has about the same amount of trucks, about half O/O, but runs like a Swiss watch.
He doesn't pay as well, but you roll, all you ever want. But you need to live in or near Phoenix to work there. And like I said I get almost the whole weekend at the house and half a day during the week.
I do enjoy pinballing all over though.

 

I disagree to a point. It is a job. It's conditions are unique, but it is a job. I'd run away screaming like a raped ape
from any carrier that tries to sell you on the lifestyle thing.

 

I started driving for Swift in late 2006 and didn't make it through the six week training period. One of the biggest reasons was that I was told, by the dispatcher and fleet manager, that I would be home for either Christmas or New Year's. At the time, I had been married for almost 3 years and had two young kids at home so I was really hoping that Swift wasn't lying to me about that. As it turned out, they did and I spent Christmas in Shreveport, LA and New Year's in Mesquite, NV. They also had my trainer and I sitting in Rio Rico, AZ for four days waiting on a load that was supposed to come across the US / Mexico border on a Tuesday and didn't show up until late Saturday afternoon.

There were other factors, and like some have already mentioned, it was the lifestyle change of having to live in a 12' box with another person. I was never able to get on a regular sleep schedule, waking up in strange places all the time, etc. I'm not afraid to admit that I couldn't handle all that. It just wasn't the type of job I wanted to do long term so then next time we were routed through the Albuquerque terminal, I made the decision to tell the trainer flat out that it wasn't what I was looking for and that I was quitting. I didn't make up some BS story about a family emergency or anything and he told me it was fine and that the job definitely isn't for everyone. My trainer was an older single guy (no family in-state) and he absolutely loved it.

I left Swift in early 2007 and with one short exception, I've been local / intrastate up until June 2015. I worked for Pepsi as a delivery driver for about a year, I did almost 2 years with a construction company as their "oiler", and I did 4 years as a transport driver for an equipment rental chain. In that time I've developed knee problems (meniscus injuries), lower back problems (herniated discs that have resulted in moderate Sciatica), and I've torn the rotator cuff and developed arthritis in my right shoulder. I'm only 35 and have some chronic health issues that have resulted from the types of jobs I've had in the past and once I was laid off from my last position as a transport driver, I made the decision that I didn't want to continue doing that type of work.

Now, I'm currently enrolled at the University of New Mexico in the Associate of Applied Science undergraduate program in Information Technology / Management Informations Systems. I have also already been accepted into a position with the UNM Health Sciences Center (UNM hospital basically) Radiology department as a "user support analyst". It's a student employment position so it doesn't pay quite as much as my trucking jobs did, but I have a regular schedule and it's not nearly as physically demanding as my previous jobs so the chances of hurting myself are basically non existent.

Overall, we all need to do what's best for us and that's up to each of us to decide what that is. One person might absolutely love the trucking lifestyle and couldn't imagine doing anything else. Others might not be able to handle the lifestyle for whatever reason. The fact remains that we're all individuals and we all have our own needs and desires and those may or may not be met by trucking. If they are, great! If not, it's not a big deal, find something else.

 

I don't know if I could run team again. It would need to be some awfully big money. Just because of the sleep, limited space issue.