Thinking about a career in OTR trucking, have a few questions

Most of your questions come into play with trip planning, which you will learn in cdl school.

 

You will figure all that out when you go out with your trainer. And when you go out on your own. You'll be fine. Best of Luck.

 

Yes to both questions, often but not all the time, if you plan your time correctly.

Making a meal and taking a shower, as opposed to "no choice but to eat fast food or wait for a shower to open up?" will depend on you and your timing, and what you have in the truck to actually make a meal. If you have things like a microwave, toaster oven, lunchbox oven, and a cooler of some sort you can make your meals. But it takes time to do so. Fast food is faster, though not healthy.
But you have to be able to plan for the time to do it.

Showers are another matter. Do you have a shower credit at the place you are stopping, or will you pay 15 bucks?
Is there a long line ahead of you when you get there? If there is you will wait in line, possibly taking all your time for cooking a good meal.
And don't forget about when you need to do laundry, because that takes about 1.5 hours as well.

If you are trying to run hard to make the most money, taking a bare 10 hour break for the night, then you will not have the time to do most of that if you want more than 4 hours of sleep.

 

In Trucking it's not a to z scheduled appendix . Everyday is different and even when you trip plan you can run into a interstate shutdown taking you off a truck route having to reroute you 40 minutes of a delayed time that a customer might close. So instead of being able to even make a truck stop you have to simply find somewhere safe to park and use wipes for your shower that night. Trucking becomes a part of life OTR. Some good days and some bad but you have to be a quick thinker in order of making your trips work for you so you can maximize your profit.
.

 

OTR trucking is not a job, it's a lifestyle. Good luck if you go that route. Personally I always arrived at my destination (if possible) the night before delivery and would sleep in the dock, or their yard.

 

Trucking is just a job, and everything you do produces a lifestyle.

 

Q: When you arrive at your spot for the night, do you typically have enough time to make a meal, take a shower and just unwind before being able to get some decent sleep? Or is trying to figure out the next day going to be occupying my mind?

A: You will have two to three hours during your ten hour break to do that. “Figuring out the next day” doesn’t really exist as you trip plan everything before accepting a load.

———

Q: Where are the majority of your nights spent sleeping?

A: Truck stops, rest areas, dirt lots, and on ramp shoulders.

———

Q: Highway truck or rest stops with no amenities nearby so you have no choice but to eat fast food or wait for a shower to open up?

A: Most rest areas and all truck stops will have bathrooms available. Dude wipes/baby wipes work as a shower replacement and leave you feeling fresh and clean: You don’t need a traditional shower to maintain hygiene. If you insist on showers, you will run into long lines, slow shower cleaning workers, dirty showers, no hot water, low water pressure. If you have an inverter at or above 2000 watts, you will be able to power cooking appliances. Air fryers, hot plates, and crock pots are a favorite of many drivers, as you can cook real meals with them. Keep in mind many mega carriers have skeleton trucks, with no inverters or APU’s so you will be eating fast food or canned food.

———

Q: Am I going to have to accept that a majority of my driving will need to be at night if I want to make my life easier and less stressful even though I prefer to drive during the day?

A: Night driving is easier traffic wise, but you will have to be ok with being blinded fifty times a drive shift by people’s high beams. Night driving is also more dangerous, as there’s less visibility, and some people drive with their lights off, or in blackout mode. An OTR carrier is not going to give you the option to drive days or nights exclusively: They will plan so that your sleep schedule constantly changes, based on driving 10 hours and shutting down for a 10 hour break. If you want a consistent sleep schedule, I’ve heard flat bedders get that.

———

Q: How difficult is it to drive down long steep grades or over narrow bridges especially at night or during bad weather?

A: In good weather it’s not that difficult in an automatic with descent control/jakes. Driving stick is more difficult, as you have to select the proper gear before entering the downgrade. Narrow bridges during bad weather can be very dangerous.

———

Q: Are trucks limited to certain speeds on some steep grades (like something like 35mph through the grapevine along I-5). Does this make it less stressful?

A: Yes. Yes, just turn your four ways on as you’re in descent so drivers speeding down the grade can avoid you.

———

Q: Is there a certain personality type that is more suited to perform this type of job? Like, how much will I need to worry about my driving dispatcher or people on the docks trying to take advantage of me? I imagine that someone coming from a corporate type background will require a different set of soft skills than driving a truck.

A: If being away from people is paradise to you, you will love the lifestyle. Dealing with people as a driver is the only low point of driving in my experience. You will work with people who are lazy, incompetent, dishonest, scheming, hateful, disrespectful, elitist, condescending, authoritarian, smart alecs, etc. The motor carrier office personnel will also tell you how to do your job when they’ve never been in the drivers seat. Dispatchers/“Driver Managers” will try to butt heads with you after you trip plan and tell them an appointment time will not work. The transportation industry and supporting industries in general are exploitative towards drivers: From truck stops price gouging, to repair shops price gouging, to fleet owners offering low pay to create a buffer for unexpected overhead costs/pocket driver money.

 

I'll argue all day long with you on that. OTR trucking is a lifestyle.