Am I crazy??!!

Truck drivers love to complain. If trucking is so horrible, they wouldn't be doing it or be posting on a truckers forum. Sure, the money plays a big part. Where else can a high school dropout make more than a college grad? You would also be shocked at the number of highly degreed drivers out there that chose job satisfaction over pay, then found out the pay in trucking, in many cases, is better than they made before. With all the endorsements, especially tanker/hazmat, the pay is very good.

 

Well I got in a truck at age 54 about 3 years ago, my job dried up and blew away with the sinking economy so I didn't have a lot of choices.
It's been hard, harder than I ever thought it would be.
Many times in the first year I wanted to quit but failure was not an option, things are a lot better now that I got a home daily driving job but it was a tough row to hoe getting there and it's still long hours.
Crazy?......well all I can say is it's not what you think it's going to be and you better really hate what you're doing now otherwise you may live to regret it lol.

 

5 or 6 days?......good luck with that, more like 3 weeks out with one day off earned for every 7 worked when you get back.
Oh and expect to likely be working 14 hours a day 7 days a week.

 

Well I'm a heck of a lot better off than just a few months ago but I'm tired.
Today was the start of 5 days off, that's the most time off I've had off in almost 3 years.
I also have a full week of vacation time coming I'll use soon, I job hopped a couple times to get to a better place but that left me working non stop for almost 3 years because I didn't stay long enough to get vacation time.
I've been with my company now close to two years but just got on dayshift last Oct. after a year of 6pm-6am (or later),I hated nights.
Life is pretty good now despite the fact that I work 60-70 hrs a week to make what I did on 40 hrs before the recession.
I work days, usually 5 a week and go home to my own bed every night and that's where I want to be.
No more sleeping in dark alleys with homeless people wandering around or next to airport runways with jets taking off all night or by railroad tracks with train horns blowing me out of bed 20 feet from my sleeper.
No more filthy public restrooms or walking a mile at night in a strange city just to use a restroom.
No more going hungry and dirty because I didn't have enough hours to make it to a truck stop and sleeping on an off ramp along the freeway.
No more waiting in line for a shower knowing the pimple faced kid making minimum wage who rushed through the cleaning job because a bunch of tired truckers are waiting probably didn't do a very good job and the hair on the shower walls confirm it.
No more eating crappy c-store food because I ran out of good stuff in the truck's fridge and I haven't made it to a Walmart yet.
That's just the short list lol......so be not prepared to dip your hands in crap, be prepared to try and keep your head above the surface and not drown in it.
If you make it past the first year you beat the odds and can start looking for a better gig,then once you land something of course you'll be the guy at the bottom and have to work your way up.