How many people here have known they wanted to be truckers since they were kids?

not me..as a kid i was normal and wanted to fix things, so i became a mechanic and was so for many years till my late 20's early 30's, then i went to truck driving school...now i can't wait to get out when i turn 62, i ain't waiting to retire at 65 or 68........i've had enough of this business and now in my "later years" teaching has been a much better vocation then the driving aspect itself.....but i also always say, if a great dedicated run came up, i'll still jump on it if only to cushion my retirement. otherwise, trucking just doesn't cut it anymore, if not only for me, but for hundreds of others in this hap-hazard industry.

heck, i once used to envy you new guys and all the sights, and places you will go to for the first time, but now, with all the changes taking place and more to come, if a person ain't 1000% healthy, fit and trim, or educated, he ain't gonna have much of a chance. there will never be a high demand for drivers, and there will never be a wage increase that so many are brain-washed into thinking that there will be. the pay will not keep up with the demands or the economic state of the country. drivers will continue to work for sub-standard pay and nearly no benefits at all, or have to pay MORE just to get them....firings will be more pronounced in the future thanks in part to CSA 2010 and the insurance industry which actually RUNS the trucking companies.

drivers with hundreds of thousands of miles under thier belt will be tossed aside for the minimalist of all reasons to only take on the inexperienced at an even more reduced wage, to cushion the coffers of the corporate big shots that live in those mansions one can only dream of, while you sleep on the side of the road freezing to death because you cannot idle your truck...

ah yes, doom and gloom...?? you betcha....it ain't gonna be a bed of roses for the new generation of drivers, not that it ever was.....

one mishap, accident, ticket, service failure, whatever, and you will be walking the walk of the unemployed......

so much for your early childhood dreams...

best NOT to have been a dreamer, because reality reality bites..

 

Since I was 4 years old I wanted to drive a truck and not only drive but to haul gasoline. My Dad would come by and pick me up to make a delivery alot of times in the late 50's early 60's. Even some of the other drivers would take me. Then when I got older they started to teach me how to drive. The company was Richfield and I will never forget the bench seat and twin sticks and how those guys drove.

 

ever since i sat on my dad's lap pulling the air horn in the fifty's. he only drove from '47 to '55. I was born in 1950.

 

I was older when I did all that. The summer I was 13 I spent most of it with my dad. I could run everything at the loading racks then unload at the station. I have wanted to drive a truck since I can remember, and spent most of my summers with my dad riding all over the northeast. Ill never forget being about 6 or 7 in an R model Mack with their camelback suspension on I88 when it was still concrete and having to go to the bathroom. We were bobtailing, every expansion joint could rattle the teeth out of your head, ahh memories

 

By age ten, I wanted to be either a trucker or a race car driver. By age fourteen, I knew it was possible to own a truck and drive it yourself. I could identify the make and model of a truck the way other teenagers identified cars. I also preferred "tear in your beer" country music. Most girls shunned anyone who aspired to be a truck driver, and I don't blame them.

 

Good stories...... thanx for the trip down memory lane drivers. I was 17 again driving that one stack Mack with no shack on the back and the right window down so I could hear the dawg whistle and snarl.

The metal dash, the mechanical gauges, the clang clang of the rain hat on the stack..........

 

I can honestly say,as my uncle & older brother were and ARE still truckin,that I wanted to DRIVE a big truck since age 8..,but this bein a trucker??-Nah..

 

thats good! my plan was to be a trucker for a while then go back to school for english, mechanic class, and business degree. then keep cdl for back up

 

i hate to burst your bubble (but i will) but if you keep that CDL "for backup" and not use it when you actually get it...?? then you WILL have to go back to school all over again for re-training as no one will hire you.....

maybe best to go to school and learn english, business, and mechanics instead......you might just make more money fixing than driving.....

 

Since the early sixties watching trucks go by my uncles shop on Rt.151 in Afton,Va.Every one of the drivers would wave and blow their horn as they crept up or down the mountain.Remember the summertime when alot of them would be standing on the running board trying to cool off as they crawled up the mountain.