Please help...I don't see how this is a good career

it's not so bad after you get used to it, they don't usually don't send people to unfamiliar territory unless someone is off sick or taking time off. you get a regular part of town as your "peddle", and you stick to it, with a lot of constant customers. and it usually goes the other way around, first you make the deliveries from the frieght that came in overnight from linehaul, then you make pickups later in the day as orders come in, then back to the yard for the trailer to be broken down and loaded into different linehaul trailers going to different area's.

 

Gotta do what you gotta do. Times are indeed tough, I'm 45 years old, ten years away from the senior menu at Denny's. What job choices do I have, educated or not......basically it's either Mickey D's or Trucking?

Flipping burgers at 45 years of age is not my idea of career advancement. Posters on these boards can complain about trucking all they want, but hey whatever pays the bills and keeps angry anal parents away from me, you know the ones, they complain that you didn't make little Johnny's ice cream cone large enough or that there's no ice in the machine for their Coke......YUK!

I'll take trucking instead.

 

A lot of people that have no idea what they are talking about have posted. With the little information we have I say let him go for it. You can PM me details if you wish and I will publicly or privatly change my opinion. The only two questions I have are

1). Did they underbid another company to get this account and they are churning drivers because it pays too low

2.) Is this a guaranteed deal or a "verbal promise" then when he gets through training it disappears (a common recruiting practice) but OTR is available.

If this is a real deal and he is home for a few nights during the week and off most of the weekend it would be fine to let him try it. With his background it may be a good job or at least a good way to get focused when he finds out what real work is like.

Ok....I just went back and reread the post. He is finishing training as in already indebted to the company? If so, done deal. Count your blessings that he got the dedicated and not OTR. Good Luck!

ps. Driving is not a true career. More of a job. A few drivers with college or office smarts can make the jump to make it a career path but just like driving its a special few.

 

I heard one time that if you have a baby to spare (preferably firstborn) that you can get an excellent job in trucking. If you don't have kids, you can sell your soul and drive very carefully for about seven years and get no tickets or accidents then someone like Walmart will look at you.

I think the biggest factor is motivation. Ex-wife, district attorney and current wife getting a masters degree were what kept me motivated the first few years. After you spend a few years driving you end up with brain damage then it's all you can do. (Yes, real brain damage. Constant jarring , noise and dealing with people so stupid sometimes you wonder how they find their way from their car to the job. This would be right after you dealt with someone that was the salt of the earth and you think you could work with them everyday and be happy. It's just too much shock to the system)

 

If that's what you truly believe than I all I can tell you is your experience with the options available to educated people have been much different from my experience.

My wife is fairly well educated and the fortune 100 company she worked for was bought out by a much larger fortune 100 company last year. She was one of the lucky ones in that she got to keep her job/seniority/pension. We had to move 700 miles away but she got a promotion and a nice raise out of the deal so it was worth it for us. But most of the 85 or so people that worked at her old campus ended up on the street. I would estimate that two thirds of those folks were educated and around your age. At this point (about a year since the merger/nine months since layoffs started), most of them have found new jobs which were comparable to their old jobs both in scope and in salary. Some had to move but many did not. So you can claim that trucking or McDonalds are the only options available to educated people if you like. But you'll have to excuse me if I don't really agree with you on that.

 

Managers at mcdonalds and in n out burger make over 50k a year and in n out is great company. Some people start there part time and end up making a career. They also have their own truck fleet. One mans trash is another mans treasure. Fast food is not my thing but it pays better than construction these days, cause I cant stay busy enough.

 

Jobs are jobs, no matter what you do; each has plus and minus and none will satisfy everyone.

I have to smile when I see the so-called "educated folks" come on here talking about their "career paths" and "wealth" and denigrating we poor sods who stumble around on life's lower rungs by driving a truck. Woe is me, I am consigned to a life less worthy than they.... my superiors.

Well chuck you Farley.... and the horse you rode in on. I've been pretty much steadily employed for going on 38 years now. When a company goes south or "management" gets to "rearranging things" to cover their own mistakes I toss em my keys and go work someplace else. I note that a whole lot of these "professionals" are on the "call in" shows moaning how their "career" abandoned them after x number of years and they've been unemployed forever cause they can't find another "position" (eduspeak for JOB) like the one that was found superfluous. How's that eddication workin' for ya now??? Thot so.

BTW, our terminal in the last 2 months has divested itself of half it's "office staff" (including the terminal manager) and we're busier than ever and hiring new drivers.

 

Didn't the two of you sit down and thoroughly discuss the ups and downs of trucking prior to your husband deciding to make this his carrer? You should had been prepared and realized that he would not be home much and not be working a regular 8-5 M-F job. It's not good that you are depressed and can hardly eat or sleep. You either have to accept those facts and be strong...there are many support groups out there...including here...for truckers wifes, or he needs to stop now and find another career that will allow him to be home for you and the kids. Good luck.

 

there are many ways that you can make trucking a very good thing all it takes is a few brain cells but many times one must look at the system and figure out how to do an end run around it
I have never gone to truck driving school or worked for any of the bottom feeders nor did I have to
and trucking for me went from a way to feed the kids to a business that employs most of my family and put others through school and allows me to write a check for about anything I ever wanted
So considering the fact that I have an 8th grade education I can think of few other avenues that would have provided the opportunity that this field has it is what you make it , it isn't easy but its not rocket science either

 

Hello Mam, First let me say its a new career path. Everyone pays there dues, a lot of driver are not fortunate enough to get home every night. I know I did 6 wks at a time on the road with a baby at home the age of yours, and worked for a horrible company and probably made less than your husband. One thing I always said was remember that he misses the time too. I made 55k last years and worked maybe 50 -60 hours a week and I was happy. As his exp builds up his pay will do the same, you really need to be making 150 plus as a company driver to get out the house. But be thankful he is working, and hopefully building good clean work history and mvr history to get him with a better company. Also you said he was a newer driver there are some bad companies out there be thankful you didnt get into one of them.. Chin up it gets better, all depends how you wanna look at it.,