I quit before I finished training!

Here is my background. I worked as an application engineer helping to design analog TV's in Silicon Valley for the last 30 years. Since my job became obsolete with the introduction of Digital TV's, I have been trying to land a job as an engineer for the last two years, but with no luck, most likely due to my knowledge was obsolete and age discrimination. So when the unemployment ran out I went to truck driving school. I figured truck driving would pay for my health insurance, and provide a small salary until the Social Security can start in about 3 years.

Truck driving always seemed to me like it would be something kind of fun. So when I got my CDL I joined Werner Enterprises. I don't really have anything bad to say about them, in fact they give newbies a chance to get started, and if you don't have a relative/friend in trucking where else can you start? Truth be told, I would have payed Werner to get the experience, so I was quite happy with the $350 /week they paid. The hotels they put us in were actually very nice, except for the Dallas Terminal I felt like I was in a Prison. You need to walk like 2 miles to get to a restaurant that is only 100 yards away because of the razor wire fence. I always paid the extra $20 or so to get my own private room as I really don't like sharing with strangers!

I liked my trainers so I really don't have anything bad to say about them, other than my first trainer, never ate and with in 3 weeks I had lost like 15lbs (215 -> 200). Some of the problems I suppose would disappear if I had my own truck but here are the reasons I called it quits.

1. It seemed I would be on the road for 3 weeks before going home. I missed my family! Sometimes the trainers would seem to really only get 1.5 days off by the time they got to the terminal and made it back home!

2. Neither of my trainers would stop and eat a decent meal. It seemed they were always in a hurry to get the load there on time, and perhaps they were trying to save money. But I really would have liked to occasionally sit down and eat a meal, even if its just Burger King --- and way too many meals were just Fried greasy food. I went for almost an entire week without eating a Vegtable or piece of fruit. Really, these guys were in that much of a hurry.

3. I never got much training in backing into a loading dock. Again, the trainers were under pressure to complete their runs --- and so many of Werners yards (Lathrop, Fontana, Oakland Docks..) were just ridiculas --- good luck to a newbie parking in some of the spots I saw. Maybe I could have done it, but they never gave me much of a chance to even try.

4. Sometimes I loved driving, it really was fun! But there were times driving through Wyoming with 50 MPH winds, snow kicking up and zero visibility, that were just not fun! And to top it off, the trainer had put windshield wiper fluid in his truck that froze at 32 degrees! I will never understand that! So dirty windows and no visibility, driving over ice!

5. All too often, the trailer would break down, the truck would break down, or the load was rejected. There was a lot of sitting around not getting paid.

6. I could not figure anyway to get decent exercize. I thought while waiting for a load maybe you could do this, but really that is not practical.

7. I remember showing up at a warehouse at 4:00 AM, and the load not being taken till 12:00. No bathroom facilities. I was smart enought not to eat anything or I may have had a real problem on my hand as often I need to use the bathroom in the AM after eating breakfast. Just the way my body works.

8. For some stupid reason, I thought truckers would drive maybe 8 hours in a day, with 30 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks -- 9 hours total. It turns out, truckers run 11 hours --- actually more the way I count. Neither of my trainers ever went to line 4, fuel stop --- line 1, waiting for load -- line 1.... in my way of thinking, if you are stuck within 100 yards of that truck you are still working... So call me lazy.

9. I missed a turn off in SF and LA. I really hate pulling a 53 foot trailer around narrow streets not know how the hell I will be able to escape.

10. I felt I was losing my personality. Hard to explain, but I was not reading newspapers, watching TV, or reading books. I just felt my brain was not being used and I was becoming dull.

11. It seemed I seldom brushed my teeth or took a shower, the loads came first.

So when I was one week from finish training (not sure if Werner would have given me a truck anyway, some of my downshifts were not so great. Seemed my first trainer would just leave the truck in 10th gear and then when the light changed he would move to appropriate gear whatever that was.... I never could master that so I would go 10 9 8 ... 2, and well I wasted so much time trying to do what my first trainer did that, lets just say I was a really good freeway driver but not so good at city driving. I was getting there but I was not totaly happy with it. This is also partly because my Truck School used Trucks with syncronized transmissions.) When my wife got a job with medical benefits, I decided the negatives of truck driving out weighed the positives. In some ways I am really sad because I quit, but I think it was the right decision for me. I now appreciate the importance of trucks in our economy, and what truck drivers do, but I guess this was a lifestyle that I cannot do, so that makes me sad.

 

Yes I saw that coming, and did quite a few things to try to re-invent myself. For example, I created a number of Android Programs which I thought would surely get me a job. The Android applications, LAX Status, SFO Status, and Tourmaker were all created by me. So many times I would interview with a 30 year old in charge of a group of 25 year olds. Sometimes when you approach 60, it is just hard to get a job in engineering --- I decided I just wanted a job to carry me over till retirement and Trucking seemed like it might be the ticket.

 

Thanks, I think the job was not for me. I think if I had my own truck, I could have improved on the eating, but as it was with the trainers they both liked to drive and eat (I guess to save time), so it was easier for me to go with finger food like Chicken fingers instead of handling a fork, salad dressing, shifter and steering wheel.... Flying-J / Pilot have some really bad food options also and that is where we fueled up. One of the trainers avoided the truck stops with Subways, so that was out. And Breakfast foget that thought. I have not problem skipping meals, eating junk food, but the irony of living an unhealthy lifestyle in order to get health insurance did factor into my decision to give up the long distance trucking, but it was not just a single item that made up my mind.