Consider yourself Warned about trucking!

I see these types of things all over the net, bithching and complaining about a job you choose to do. When you make a decision like this its like getting married, I would hope you checked her out first but all you did was go after the looks and believed her lies without really getting to know her. Did you check things out first? NO! Did you find a real trucker and ask questions? NO! This is your fault and no one elses. Although I do feel for you but trucking is a real profession and like Professional jobs, it's not for everyone. I'm a newbie but drove 25 years ago, now that I'M older and happly married, my wife and I are hitting the road.

 

Uh...........I got no questions and there is no need to continue at a later date. We've all read it before and we will again so save your ink for a resume.

 

It sounds strange but I love the road. I have a BA in Health Education, am a certified Aerospace Mechanic. Have built houses, Bank Towers, Ski Lodges, yachts, 737's, taught HS and raised four great kids. Now it's my time to get back on the road. I love it!
If you are not happy out here, you're not safe out here. Park the truck and try to find your passion.

 

I've heard sooo much whining about the whole trucking thing, and my response is,
"I'd rather drive truck than have a pimply faced 17 year old as my manager, telling me to SMILE while wearing a paper hat, and asking 'you want fries with that'?"
Honey, if it's not for you, you're always free to bail. To a certain extent it IS a "lifestyle". It means you're going to have to be a nomad most of the time. It means you get flipped off because you're in a truck and some dude in a 4 wheeler doesn't LIKE trucks...it means weird hours, LONG hours, time spent alone, listening to the voices in your head all ###### day long, and hoping they will QUIT telling you to take out that little red car that just went by, because she cut ya off and hit her brakes.
This is also a "job", because you get PAID to drive someone else's equipment. You get PAID to be hassled by the little dork in the guard shack who's eyeballing your tattoos and debating if you're going to get in. You get PAID to try to catch sleep in the back of your truck while LLs are bangin' on the door, DEMANDING you give them $20 or their pimp's gonna rearrange your headlights. You get PAID to get sneered at by all the other company drivers out on the road, because you picked some bottom of the barrel company to start with, because, as we all know, "ya can't work HERE til ya get experience!"...now, that's not to say you get paid WELL to do it all...but for some of us, we'd rather get screwed by the trucking industry and have our little mobile office/home so we can see the sights than being screwed by an employer that gives us a little cubicle with NO windows and the only sights to see being on the way TO or FROM work.
I CHOSE to drive truck. I didn't want t/t originally, so getting my feet wet meant driving dump truck locally. Do I regret it? Nope. Am I going to drive t/t OTR? Looks that way. Hours suck, but my son's grown up now, the bf is okay with it, it's year-round work and I bring home better wages driving than I could working at the local grocery store.

Just my $.02...plus taxes, fees and transportational rates.

 

it's the nature of the beast no doubt.it does'nt have to be as hard as it is but the companies that we run for don't give 2 ##### about the driver plain and simple.1 thing i laugh at tho is these people that say oh you are a truck driver..wow you have a gravy job huh.must be nice just being able to do nothing all day....how little they know.then they go and do it and find out real quick what a "gravy job"is really about.

i do think alot of it falls on the tv,newpaper ads about hey come to school and learn a new great career and make 40 to 50k the first year out...yeah a select few do that but when you add up all the cost of living,hours worked,time from home,it's not as great as people think.on top of that if people have bills at home/family it's even harder on them.but if they can stick with it for atleast a year more doors open up in the biz and it can become a very rewarding career.

this is 1 of those jobs where "paying your dues"is more than words..

 

As a current teacher I owe a whole lot more than 3,000 grand for a job which probably pays less than trucking. I dont see how soo many complain about their situation. I think my 50,000 loan was a SERIOUOS leap of faith to simply try a job. Maybe I view trying a new profession such as trucking as not much of crazy leap.

 

Well you've been in the business less than a year. This forum was here a year ago. Everything you complained about was written here before you even thought about trucking.

 

Do what u have to do .No one told u to get into trucking .Its a lifestyle Not a job .I must be doing something right cause i only drive 7 months out of 12 .Its treated me good .The months im off i go turkey hunting around the globe .

 

Well, my experience as a trucker has been pretty good. If I ever needed to get more sleep, all I did was tell my dispatcher. No problem, no hassle. If I didn't get the miles, all I did was tell my dispatcher, no problem no hassle, they'd run me harder.

Not saying you are a liar, just that there are some trucking companies that are better than others.

Plus, I never drive as a company driver. I always lease a truck from a company, meaning I'm NOT an employee of the company, I am an independent operator and I decide how I run my business. I decide WHEN and WHERE I will run - not the company. Of course, this also has its downside - I'm responsible for all maintenance, repairs, fuel, oil, tires, taxes, etc etc for the truck, but I'm free and independent - and I love it. I decide when I will come home, and with my present company partner, there is no lease payment, so I can stay home as long as I want within reason, mind you. I can go out for two weeks and come home for 3 days off, with no lease payment to catch up on because my present lease is not based on a monthly payment. I can decide how hard I want to run. If during the Spring, Summer, and Fall I want to burn rubber before old man Winter comes and screws the pooch, I stay out as long as I want. On the other hand, if I want to take a week off during any of those months, I can do that too, without having to worry about going in the hole because I don't have a lease based on a monthly payment.

 

I somehow missed this one...
WHY does EVERYTHING need a warning label these days??? We can't just get off our butts and check things out? Truck driving is not a space shuttle mission...you're pretty much free to wander into any truckstop in the country, and ask drivers questions. Heck, if they have time and you buy 'em a coffee or a donut, you might not get RID of 'em. But they'll talk...and talk...and talk...and...need I say more?
I needed to buy a car last summer. Nothing expensive, but I RESEARCHED the options, and found one that I love, even with it's issues...because I did my research and I knew what I was getting into. Same when I got into trucking...I can NOT be the only one out there that does this...of course, I DO impulse buy/act sometimes, but not when it's going to cost thousands of dollars or a major change of lifestyle.

"TRUCKING IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. LONG HOURS, LOTS OF TIME ALONE, BREAKDOWNS ON THE ROAD, LOW PAY FOR HOURS INVESTED. DRIVE AT YOUR OWN RISK."

I should get that made into a bumpersticker...