What made you leave the trucking industry for good?

I just thought I would jump in here, I am a truckers wife. I think you have it all down right here. Darn good reasons. I think you deserve a pat on the back for realizing that you had enough and needed a change.
No one can afford to be a walking heart attack. Life is too short not to be treating yourself right and demand to be treated well.

 

Good post man..

I still drive but would never work for an irregular route OTR carrier again for a lot of the reasons you listed..

I suppose the main reasons I quit OTR would be the other drivers/truck-stops, time away, and most of all to me was the time spent for them with no compensation. Something that I did not give two thoughts at the time would now be another major reason I'd never do it again - cheating on my log. I'm fortunate to work somewhere that allows/forces me to run legal and I don't think I could allow myself to be faced with the potential consequences of not doing so now..

Again, great post. If nothing else, it should make everyone think a little..

 

Ask anyone who's been on here a while...
I use to be like the OP...I resented this trade, and the enviornment it created or that I had to exist in....

My attitude has since changed...after meeting some very succesful drivers over the last 2 months...some of which are millionares....

The plan that seperated them from most of us...is they had a plan, a vision, and stuck with it...

Also they realized they would never get anywhere working for others...
Another thing they all had in common...is they had their own authority...

These drivers I met, were streaming in more income than doctors...one will be retireing next year, comfortably, at the age of 51...cause he did it the right way...

As such..my attitude has really changed here recently about this trade...I realize now you can either let trucking ride you, or you can ride it...

But I can still understand why most get a foul taste...
But once I saw what you can really make and accomplish in trucking if you do it the right way...my attitude changed...

And now I have the support and advice of some of those guys I met...

Another key...listen to those who have made it...
(One of these guys who have made it, only works six months a year, cause he earns so much during produce season he can do that...)

And eventually that's what I want to be able to do...I want to make trucking work for me for a change...

 

No believe me, I do not like the enviornment....and yes...expecially how it is today....

But that's precisly why my attitude has changed....I now look at it as a 'business'...a 'reveniew' stream that will allow me to 'leave'....

Leave, but play a different role in....

Like I mentioned earlier...many drivers follow a poor career path that yields very little in return...recently here...I've met induvisuals who do it the right way...and they will be my support and model to follow...

These guys stream in more than doctors...work is an option to them...they still work only cause they really do happen to like it...

At this stage in my life...trucking is the only way I can work my way to finacial independance where I can sit back and have a revinew stream and be on the beach...

To do anything else at this stage would mean I would literaly have to work the rest of my life away...

If you do trucking right...and get with the right people...you don't have to work at all...and you'll still have income...

 

I'll garuntee you there are noooooo millionaire truckers, unless they hit the lotto

 

diesel wiesel you are the hammer that hit the nail on the head, when all of us have the same understanding, and the country stops in it's tracks, we may get some respect we deserve, but as long as the dumb*** desperate drivers excist, this will never happen, not like the days when we was one and stuck together, we can get what we deserve, plain an simple if we just think as one ..........and find mishaps for the ones who don't

 

2004 I sold my last truck and turned in my CDL.At the rip old age of 51 my back and knees couldn't take it any more.All my life I played and work physically hard my body was saying that's enough.My wife and I started a Real State Company.This is a very hard business(not physical) but demanding of one's time like trucking and rules & regulations to follow but I'm able to do this and not have problems with my health.I have found that life is like a river you need to go with the flow.Best of luck to you keep your eyes open and you will find something.

 

My body told me it was time to hang it up. I have always been a safe driver, but OUTSIDE the truck, I'm a klutz. I got hurt three times in the last year that I worked, including broken bones.

I stuck out "light duty" while my bones (supposedly) mended. But I was (and still am,) in pain most of the time. I'm not one to take a lot of meds, so that was not the answer.

What really brought it to a head, was the day I accidentally dropped a truck radiator out of the back of the truck at a consignee. The owner of the shop, a well known arse hole saw it, and came out yelling and cussing at me.

Under normal conditions, I would not have let it get to me. After all, it was ME who dropped his radiator. But it was just the last straw. I told him what he could do with his shop, threw the radiator back on the truck and completed my run.

Of course when I got in, my boss was waiting for me, ready to spank my pee-pee. I just told him I'd save him the trouble and quit. I gave two weeks notice, did not walk off the job.

But the fact is, that it was just plain time to retire. So I did, and while in some ways I miss it, and I'm not happy about HOW it happened, it was probably the only logical thing to do. Before I really screwed myself up.