One Part Of Trucking I Dont Understand ....

sheez, how negative? Time to retire?

I'd say you made a choice to stay in 28 years, no one made you stay, there are always alternatives, if you aren't happy with that choice it is not the industries fault, it's yours.

 

You think things are any different in any other industry? Bank tellers get replaced by ATM's, Auto Workers by robots, that is the way of the world man.

Fact of life for me is I started making a living with a truck when I was 15 and in high school moving equipment around the state for my old man. He was an electrical contractor, I was constantly shuffling materials and machinery out to job sites, then I did a tour in the Navy, got out, got a CDL, bought a truck and got busy with it. Since that time I have been driving truck with the exception of the last year and a half because I was in a car accident in a POV and got busted up pretty bad, but I am fixing to get back into it again.

I also managed to knock out 14 semesters of college in there.

I make a living with a truck because I love doing it, because I can't stand being in one place for too long. It isn't because I can't get a job anywhere else. In life I have nothing but options right now, what am I doing? Working on getting my own authority and my own company put together where it is all me.

Some people get into this business and do get trapped, that is true, but they were going to get trapped in what ever job they were in, that is not the industry's fault, it is their own fault for not having the initiative to improve their station in life.

 

Very well put, not every career requires a formal 2 or 4 year degree with a cap and gown ceremony at graduation. I think it just depends on what you want to do in life, if you are looking for a white color job (office worker, engineer, doctor, lawyer, etc) then you will likely need to attend college. However if you are the kind of person who would rather get his hands dirty rather than crunch numbers all day then college probably isn't going to do you much good and just waste a bunch of your hard earned money repaying student loans. Society is teaching us that unless you go to college you will be a failure in life and will wind up in some meaningless job for the rest of your working life. There are plenty of jobs out there including trucking where a simple few months of training can provide a profitable and rewarding career that you choose. We need to do what is going to make us satisfied, not what everyone says we have to do.

 

Fact is, not every one has the option to work elsewhere. Trucking has been a route to a better income for many without much in the way of Readin', Ritin' & Rithmatic. Out of the barrio. Out of the woods. Out of the country. Out of many other options.

Due to the Great Recession of 2008, trucking received an enormous influx of displaced, better-educated drivers who bumped up against the popular, romantic notion of trucking, against the rude facts of the 100% driver turnover of the megas and health issues related to extended whole-body vibration, noise, confinement, isolation, truck stops, stress and lack of exercise, especially at the megas.

This large group is still feeling its way. The deniers blame them and call them whiners and claim they 'failed'. In truth, trucking failed them with poor pay, lousy working conditions.

But even before this 'bulge' there was a better way to spell 'trucker': P-r-i-m-a-d-o-n-n-a. Truckers are guys/gals happy to drive away from the yard/terminal and be out on the road on his/her own and away from the ####-chat, office politics and monotony of 'regular' jobs. Sailing away on their own wheeled ship, shipmates no closer than a wave across the highway or a brief 'hello' at a fuel pump.

And happy about it.

 

To the OP,

As an outsider looking in it's easy to see to conjure up all the cliche positive aspects of trucking. "You get to see the country", "The freedom of being on the open road", "waking up in a different town", and so forth. It's very much similar to those who enlist in the military with the thoughts of a new life, adventure and travel only to hate it once they are immersed in the military life.

Thousands of students, including myself, enter the industry each year with the same ideas in mind only to receive a hard dose or reality when they realize the industry is not quite the way they envisioned. "The enjoyment of different food and cultures" is often confined to the various meals and people that you encounter at truck stops and rest areas. You're often left with little time to go to interesting sites and locations because of critical on time deliveries, and the difficulties of parking a rig at some of these interesting places. When you do get to see something cool, like the Saint Louis Arch, it's often through the windshield as you're traveling down the interstate. The long hours can often leave you too tired and exhausted to do anything but sleep. And the open road can be boring if you're confined in a certain area all the time. Of course some drivers mileage may vary, but you have to be prepared for that reality, especially as a new driver.

Whether it's buying a car or deciding whether trucking is the career for you, it's critical to focus on both the positives and the negatives so that you can make an informed decision. Failure to do so can leave you bitter and posting on the bad trucking company section of this forum.

 

Let's further answer JP's question: why the negativity in trucking.

Long haul drivers get less nooky than pimply-faced teenagers behind the counter at McDonalds.

Don't know about you, but going without makes me downright cranky.

 

Could have gone all day without that one Victor....lol

 

Thats true unless they pay lot lizards which will cost them a heck of a medical bill

 

There's always "Rosie Palm and her 5 sisters!"