How did you get here?

Spent 15 years working on docks loading or unloading trucks. I loved the work, great physical activity but it was really straining my body. 2014 and I started to get worse fast and in 2015 my body just couldn't take it anymore. 34 and often moved like I was a feeble old man when not working. I needed a sit down job but I'd rather die than work in an office building. I like travelling, I like seeing new places, I've always loved big trucks, and I'm single with no kids. Amazon warehouse I was working at started offering to pay employees to get their CDL than give them 2 months pay to quit afterwards so I decided to go for it.

Started out with Schneider as a company driver. It didn't go to well to say the least but was there for 6 months. I loved the work though, set a personal goal to own my own truck by the time I was 40.

After that I went to TransAm doing the lease thing. There's plenty of threads discussing that so no need to get into it here, all I'll say is that for me it worked out great overall. After leasing for a bit over a year and a half my trucks warrenty expired, I didn't want to pay the repairs on a leased truck out of pocket or start over the path to owning with a different truck but the company wouldn't sell me the truck for another year. Company also hardly went west of the central time zone and I wanted to see more of the country so I quit TransAm.

Went to JCT with another lease. Again, it worked out great for me. Was there for a bit over a year and loved seeing the rest of the country. Left JCT in 2019 and bought a 2016 t680 with the money I had made doing the leasing stuff providing a 20% down payment. Tried to return to JCT as an owner op but they said no.

Found a small company out of Chicago called Pure Freightlines to lease on to and worked with them for a few months, was nothing special and the company was nice. But to be honest I was tired of working for others.

Left Pure Freightlines at the start of 2020 to obtain my own authority and bought a 2001 Great Dane dry van for $2k. Did my first load as a fully independent driver in March of last year and last Feb I replaced that old trailer with a 2018 Wabash dry van (outright, not financed). Enjoying being independent and have no plans to ever go back to working under somebody else, including a dispatch service.

Side note, I turned 40 last January, so that goal of having my own truck by the time I turned 40 was a success.