Does anyone still enjoy being a trucker?

The pay is what's keeping me out of the driver seat. Love trucks, loved driving them the very short time I did but bills need to be paid and new driver pay won't cut it.

 

I started trucking in 1987 and over all its provided me a decent living and the last few years I've done better than I ever have .
However for about the last 15 years or so the industry has become flooded with drivers who don't give a flip about safe courteous driving and hold it on the floor morons .
I can't wait to partialy retire next year ! And fully retire soon after .
No way id recommend trucking to anybody these days .

 

I do. Been driving for 20 years. Love driving and being alone. I’m not OTR, home daily, company driver, on track to do 120k this year. The key has been not taking all the stupidity in this industry personally. Let it go, it’s not worth it. That said, would i get into the industry now? Not a chance.

 

Long story short just about everything about it makes me want to suck start a shotgun.

I wish I was exaggerating.

 

Rarely a day goes by that I don't both love it and hate it. lol. Mostly love it.

 

As much as I love much about OTR, I don't see myself in the industry longer than a couple of years. I've been driving 8 months now and making middle of the road money. Even with top dollars, I'm starting to ask myself if the risk versus reward is sufficient. The physical danger and unhealthy lifestyle need to be compensated better, IMO. If the money was there, I'd feel that the tradeoff was worth it, but the money is not there. Who knows, maybe I'll keep doing it. It does get in the blood.

 

So does infection. Doesn't make it right.

 

I love it but I also hate it. It's kinda a love hate relationship, about 60% love. I'm also 23 years old with nothing to worry about so it's working out for me. Not a good line of work I'm guessing if you have a wife/kids. Took some time off to go to college last year, felt that itch to hit the road everyday I was in class.

It's tough but something you get used to. There are many opportunities in the GTA area. Should expect to work OTR for a year to build experience before you can find something better, that's at least what I did. You could probably start off local if you find the right opportunity but it's gonna be tough.

 

If you can find a local/regional job, without doing 2-5 years of OTR, I will be shocked. I haven’t seen it happen yet, unless it was dump/roll off.

Local Food Service imho isn’t a trucking job, it’s literally slave labour IMHO; so that doesn’t count.

The jobs to get, are with the LTL companies, FedEx, UPS, XPO, Estes, ABF etc etc. That must be COMPANY! Not working for a contractor who has trucks on with them.

XTL, Walmart and Costco fleets are good also I’m told.