How did I end up like this?

It happens. My first run at OTR got cut short on account of being called up from the Guard. First job I got when I returned was cut short on account of the fleet owner getting busted for cooking meth. Next couple jobs, I was there for a decent run, but when I got back from driving in South Africa, the job I got when I came back lasted only six months, on account of me getting this idea about moving to Colorado (there's more to that story, but the point is that I only worked my last job in NC for six months). Found a job driving a dump truck for a curb and gutter company within a week of getting here... only to find out it was going to last for just three weeks. They do seasonal layoffs around Christmas time, and I was called during this time to be told only half the crew was coming back on when they returned to work in January... the other CDL driver had been with the company some seven years, I'd been there for three weeks... you can figure out who got the axe. These things happen sometimes.

 

I thought it was just me in the past 2 years ive been with 3 companies and im thinking about looking for a 4th!!! I got fired from my first company went to my second company because I couldnt find anybody to hire me out of my area and the cpm was very good then I quit because I was only getting 1000 miles a week if even that and the company im with now gives me alot of miles but once or twice a week my truck breaks down and my cpm is low. Just cant win for losing!!!

 

yeah, i wouldnt worry about it, if you are doing local, it is sort of normal to move around a lot, as work comes and goes, it seems like. I have worked at 4 companies in the last 2 years, and some at the same time, as I keep getting better job offers, and as long as i am on part time/casual status, I'm not really losing much, and frequently, if work is slow at 1, i have the option of calling a couple of other places to get a day or 2 of work in.

 

Wow.... And in 11 years I've been with 4 OTR companies & one local.


I must be a boring individual!

 

If an employer is going to hold doing what I have to do to keep food on the table against me, then the heck with em. So what if I changed jobs a lot? In this day and age a person has to do what they have to do to keep a family fed and if that means moving a lot to go where the money goes then so what?

Sorry if I'm ranting, I'm just so sick of these companies dictating what a "perfect" employer should look like.

 

Dont feel too badly about it. There are very, very few decent companies out here now. Its like I told them at Butler Transport when i quit, Im not here for the hell of it, and I am CERTAINLY not here for my health. I am here for my livelyhood. If I am going to be poor and not make any money, I would rather sit at home, versus sitting in a crap truckstop spending money. I am loyal to a paycheck and decent treatment. When that goes away, so do I...

 

Are any of you job hopping people in a relationship or married? Cause speaking as a woman who is currently dating a trucker, who has had 4 jobs since Labor Day this mess is annoying and not really comprehensible. He works hard but it's always something.

I'm one of those boring squares that likes knowing exactly how much money I have coming in every week and if it's a union job all the better. What is the deal with these companies that can't or more likely won't maintain their trucks properly?? He's twice had companies hold his pay without explanation. WTH!?! How are you supposed to establish credit or buy a home if you change jobs so often??