When is it time to say, "ENOUGH!"?

I think you hit it directly on the head Don

The only problem I see is the person that is asking that question doesn't want to face the truth........I feel sorry for them to a certain extent but not completely.....if you are over your head you need to use your energy to redirect your life ........another thing I notice is the shift of blame from many of these folks..........it's never their fault....hell we all make mistakes.....man up to it or woman up to it......people will respect you more IF you admit the error and move on..............Just my 2 cents

 

I have always said if I can't be amongst the very best at what I do then I don't want to do it.. this profession really is different than any other. It takes effort and consistancy to do it well.

Blaming others for your own failures just doesn't work. If a trainer didn't train yo, why didn't you speak up. If a trainer is an butt why didn't you speak up.. a concerted effort..

It is what it is and what YOU make of it.

 

but Don, i think a lot of people want to be truckers because they have this misconception that it is an easy job, all they gotta do is drive, because they ALL LOVE to drive now, thier little putt-putt cars or SUV's, or whatever else....

they DO NOT see the darker side like time away from home, the constant inconveniences like no time to do the laundry or take a shower or find a bathroom, or no tv signal, or poor food quality....we all know that list can go on and on, right..??

yeah, sure they can spend thier money, or the state's money and go to trucking school, but what a waste that is, when they ALL have this misconception about driving...

some are just not into a job that requires more than sitting down, but trucking we are not always sitting down.....we are on the docks, we are in the trailers, we are driving when we should be sleeping, we are eating when we should be driving, we are sleeping when we should be awake....

no one wants to see or even hear there is a dark side to trucking, everyone one of these wannabe's only want to see the money, which will be better than unemployment, but not a get rich quick job either, and i believe they all think they are going to be rich in a year or two.....

 

Come to the dark side............we have cookies

 

You make an excellent point Rerun. The lack of research into this career or at least shrugging off how hard it will be before jumping into it is a recipe for failure. I was reading a thread by a new member who said he thought this might be a good career for him and was just starting his research. He said right now he's looking at schools. This really blew me away because it's clear that he has yet researched anything about trucking, really knows nothing about it at this point, and yet he's already considering schools. Looking for a school should be the step AFTER you've done a ton of research, thought long and hard about the pros and cons, and then come to a firm decision to do this. It just seems a lot of guys go into this without really thinking it through, and they're just setting themselves up for failure when their expectations about the career don't match the reality.

 

I got as far as getting my permit with all endorsements, starting to practice the PTI and driving a tractor a bit in the yard, learning how to double clutch and so forth. I did a lot of research beforehand, and had a good picture of how things worked, and decided it was worth a try. And then I realized it wasn't for me; there were just too many things about it I didn't care for.

Since I was at a community college and just starting the course, I was able to withdraw and get most of my money back. For the time and money I spent, I consider it to be a good investment - it saved me from going down the wrong road.

I've done a lot of different things in my time, and I have no problem moving on from a situation that doesn't work for me. I think it's kind of sad to hear so many people in the industry that hate it, and yet stay at it for years. There's a whole 'nother world out there; why stay stuck in the same old rut?

 

well you gotta realize as drivers we love/hate the industry..........we love doing what we do and we realize how important we are to America......what we hate are the lies, the slams we get from the public, and the treatment we get from the government and from some of the companies.......................but most importantly we love our families and our country and that is why we do what we do

 

I m just in it for the cookies...