Is the industry that bad as people make it out to be?

Avoid the complainers. If they were worthy of listening to they probably wouldn’t be complaining.

If you’re having doubts as to whether you want to stay in this industry, it’s best not to become an owner operator. Purchasing a truck is sort of a commitment to the industry. (At least until you get your invested capital returned).

The fly by night operators are operating like crooks. Ripping off everyone they can; for as long as they can.

Believe it or not there still is some very good paying jobs in trucking. Not necessarily union outfits or specialty segments either. There’s good paying companies struggling to get drivers who will work nights or weekends or even do a bit of labour.

 

It depends on your definition of bad, honestly.
This is kind a loaded question on this forum, because if I say "Oh yeah, it's terrible for reason x" there will be people that agree and people that vocally disagree.
If I say "Oh yea, it's great for this reason x" There will be twenty separate responses on how much smarter/harder working/fortunate/skilled is than the other.

I've been doing this a hot minute. It's an okay job if you wanna make a living for a family. Don't expect much outside of that. It's also very lonely.
In fairness, I'm working hard to get out of trucking (again.) It's hard out there man. Live your best life.

 

The only group of people that even come close to complaining as much as truckers do ,is welders .

There’s good jobs out there
You just have to find them .

it’s the same with you’re relationships

I’m sure you know people who can’t ever seem to find a good man or woman to date etc .

and others who consistently manage to find quality people to get involved with .

That’s the same as trucking .
There’s companies you can live with and there’s companies that you gotta kick to the curb.

and you gotta get good at telling them apart .

 

I have been all three - company driver / O/O and business owner - for any position you need to rate the pros and cons and some of them will vary depending on your situation in life - some things to think about:

Home Time
Family Life
Love to be on the road
work / life balance - eg. being an O/O or company owner - you will be working on time off for truck maintenance / accounting / licensing etc.. can never be away from your phone (we go camping only where there is wifii and take our laptoops and printers with us)
Physical health
Life goals - (will work for 10 years save money and then get a city job)

Honestly at this point in time - O/O are not making money due to cheap freight rates

As in any change in life - until you do it you will never know what works for you ... we started our company when we were in our late 40s ... with kids ... and the reason was needed the stability as kids were teens - hope that helps

 

I would love to get out trucking to be honest and go into a trades . My biggest problem is i have a learning disability and I don’t think I would be able to do the schooling for the trades with out having special ed . In my opinion if you’re not happy as a company man what makes you think you would be better off as a O/0 . I can tell you right now it’s not for the money we have one indian O/0 that has a old green Western Start that was a midland truck that he spent $60k on most of it being from when his motor blew up in the states . He was very close to selling his truck because he said He hardly made anything for last year and this is his 3rd truck as O/O

 

Yes the industry is bad. I’m getting out. But they keep pulling me back in.

 

Yes….. is the correct answer

 

With the way this industry is going in Canada and the big push for self driving vehicles if i was in my 20s-30s and thinking of getting into trucking I would be thinking again . I’m 36 going on 37 and really would like to get out of this industry which is unfortunately because it’s all I really ever want to do since I was a small boy . I just dont see any real future in this industry for the younger generations especially with all these new Canadians coming into to trucking and ruining everything. my big problem is with my learning disability I have a hard time with schooling so I think the trades are out for me and factory work doesn’t pay crap in most cases . so we’re does a young person like my self who barely made it through high school go with no college or university education


I would not be looking at buying a truck right now with the uncertainty of both the Usa and Canadian economies for this year,truck prices still high, fuel prices and the crappy rates . If it were me I would wait and try finding a better company gig like tim hortons or Mb

 

Trucking has many ways to test you. But the truth is life is what one makes of it. You just get a bigger helping in trucking.