Question to drivers who left and came back years later

No, just flexible. I am agreeing with BossOutlaw88's post.

 

Very well said MNDriver and really appreciate your honesty. After a long and hard look at the last 10 years of my life, I have decided to make the switch to trucking. I see good opportunity and the ability to make a pretty decent living.

 

I sure haven't found a more profitable way to make a living, and I enjoy what I do. Most of the time.

 

I was employed by Stevens Transport between 1998 and 2000. I left because I couldn't pass the pysical recertification. As it turned out, I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic. I also had kidney damage and my internal medicine specalist recommended I get off the road for a while and get treatment and see what I needed to do to stay healthy. But I always missed the road. That's why I joined this forum, so I could keep up with the industry and give advice to new guys who wee in the same position I was back in 1998 when I was a FOB just arriving at the Stevens Transport terminal in Dallas as a young 25 year old guy.

Well, that break from OTR lasted until June 2011 when I found that I was not going to find work that paid me the same hourly rate I made at the Wal-Mart job I was fired from after 7 years two weeks before Christmas 2010, nice huh?

Anyways, I went back to the CDL school I attended and got my CDL reinstated. I tried to get hired on at Swift but they didn't take me thanks to my blood pressure (was a little high but still within certification range) and my CPAP machine (it wasn't "DOT" certified, something I later found out doesn't even exist).

I came back and landed a job with MBR Transportation and worked for Melissa and Marcos who owned the truck I drove (they leased their truck to MBR) and worked with them until earlier this month when the transmission in their truck torpedoed. After having a bad time at another small carrier (who I might add, have yet to pay me for my two weeks in their dilapidated truck) I got the job I have now at Munoz Trucking.

I never really got driving out of my system, so when the opportunity came to come back, I did. The basics of driving are the same, just some of the rules have changed, some for the better, some for the worse.

 

I think once you start driving a truck you will never get it out of your system. It gets in your blood for sure.

 

I retired off the road after 41 yrs and 39 of it being an O/O and you know what i dont miss it one bit. Trucking has changed new rules, new regs, companies that run truck mills, and big brother looking over your shoulder now more than ever. Cb Rambos and Drivers who just dont care are what trucking is like these days. Maybe drivers will wake up and smell the coffee one day and do something about it.

 

I drove for 23 years in Europe and finished 13 years ago......can't quite get it out of my system.....I think
I will go back for a few more years simply because I haven't done it this side of the pond. By the time the novelty has
worn off I'll be ready to stop again.

 

Well my original career which I did for 10 years was stunts for the tv & movie industry
Truck driving was like a toss back job that I knew i could do if I ever got tired of the stunt work
So last 3 years have been just kick back years to enjoy in hawaii
Now I'm getting the bug to get back behind the big wheel again
I do miss the freedom of being your own boss when you are driving
So I'm looking for a good flatbed company to get with & put some years driving for
I have done dry box & I'm from a farm so I did my fair share of grain hauling,but I'm hooked on flatbed
I did a couple of over 12' wide back when I was driving before,but want to get some more experience with that type of loads
So leaving the driving wasn't bad cause it wasn't my main career
Now that I've decided to go back to doing it again I'm just hoping to get picked up by a good company that treats it's drivers right

 

Warrior, I feel the same way with all the new BS rules and regulations. I left the trucking industry in 91 and came to vegas to work in the casinos. I could not follow rules and regulations and I could see what was coming down the road for the trucking industry and knew it was time to hang it up. I sure do miss the trucks and have never stopped wishing it was like yesterday, over weight , over length, running scales and still deliver on time. I retired from the casino's in 2011 and will move to florida next year and do some bass fishing. Enjoy your time on Gilligans and have a great day. PS, on the CB rambos, just key your mike and there will be silence for about 5 miles. Kind of hard on the alternator but that is why you bought that high amp alternator to help with all the chicken lights and CB rambos.

 

I was an O/0 three payments left. Failed OSHA X Ray. No insurance. No lease. Sold my tractor at a $56,000.00 loss. By back was shot they said. All Endorsments, no work.