How Easy Is Trucking, from a truckers view

Not everyone can be knowledgeable of our job..its no biggy...yeah its hard but so are a lot of the other jobs that look easy. Makes no difference if the public did know how hard our job is....the only thing they needs to know is how to drive when in our presence. Beneficial to us both especially them.

 

Man, what other forum allows you vote and laugh at the same time!!? Alaskan, thanks for the health!

 

I have a buddy who says this to me all the time. And the kicker is he does fiber optic work. He works about 18 hours a night but he spends more than half that time sleeping in his truck

 

Its definitely not a piece of cake, I could see where somebody would think so from a non truck driver point of view.

getting past the warehouse, getting loads dock time and all that.

Really what makes this job stressful is the long hours you have to put in.
A driver can easily work 100+ hours a week and that takes its toll on most.

Then you have to take into consideration traffic, trust me you have no ideal what it is like driving a big truck and have 4 wheelers just think you can stop on a dime, think you can see all around your truck at every moment, get over to let a 4 wheeler onto the Interstate because they don't know how to drive.

Hold on I wrote a post on driving the other day. let me go and find it brb.

Here is the post I wrote:

That may give you an Ideal in what we go threw out here. People just don't take into consideration many things about a truck.

 

it's so easy a caveman can do it.......i mean look at me, broken wrist and all and i still do it........

 

you gotten have ton of patences. There are billions #######es on the road that shouldn't have driver licenses in first place., I been on rig many times and you gotta be alert at all times. It not that easy but it depend on people. some people can deal with it, some cry, can't deal that stuff.

 

I don't think there is a simple answer for this. For some, the job is a hard job, for others, it is easy.

There are people out there that can do open heart surgery, that might not be able to back a 53' trailer and 379 Pete into some of the produce docks in Vernon, California.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

It's kind of like being a cop, firefighter or serviceman.

90% boring and easy...but 10% OMIGOD-WE'RE-ALL-GONNA-DIE!!! Ratios vary depending on how often you run mountains, winter or LA/NY traffic.

 

seems like i voted the "majority" here:"Has it's up and downs"

i think that in the very begining its hard as all heck. as a newbie, you try to do everything the company tells you to do, for fear of being fired or left out to dry at some truckstop waiting for a load, and not earning any money.

its sad, but just about every newbie feels threatend by the company, if he/she even sneezes in the wrong direction.

when you get your experience, you can then "gain an attitude" of no fear, at least no fear of what any company can do to you, as you'll know you can always find another job, usually with the snap of a finger.

as time wanes on, you can always find an "easier" trucking job, like drop & hooks only, or maybe 1 or 2 stops, instead of the multiple stops you used to do.

driving any truck, tractor-trailer, straight, tow truck, even a mini van delivering flowers for a flower shop, has its good and bad days.

its a "piece of cake" when you park the truck, turn off the engine, and go home in one piece. you made it home.

i once talked with a driver, via the c.b. radio. i told him to "have a good day" before we lost radio contact. he asked me, "what's so good about it"?

i said, "driver, anytime you make it home, you had a good day".........