40-something corporate guy ready to quit the rat-race

Well, brother, like you and a few others on this board, been there and done that. I worked for 20 years hating my life almost every day. The day I resigned and walked away, was the happiest of my life. Now, I pretty much have the life I want.......mostly because of the particular job I have and the particular company I work for. Were it not for those 2 things, I'd probably hate life again. But I feel like I need to clear up a couple of things for you.

First, you may think you know what it's like to be gone from your wife and kids for a week or two at a time, but you don't. Yes, in the corporate world we all took our week long out of towners and worked more weekends than we wanted to, but it wasn't every week. Also, when we went out of town or work over a weekend, we knew when we were going home. Driving a truck, you never know when you're gonna get home. You might know when you're planned to be home, but you never really know for sure........and that's a hell you never get used to.

Second, "interesting locations".........I've been to a lot of interesting locations, 99.9% of them I saw at 60 mph as I went by. It's not tourism.....it's a job.

I just had an awesome idea.......check it out........

Take 4 plain white envelopes. In each envelope put in a slip of paper. One slip says "go home now". Another says "go home Saturday at noon". The next says, "go home Saturday at 8:00 PM". And the last says, "Stay out another week and go home next Friday at 6:00 PM".
Now, shuffle 'em up a bit and have one of your kids or a neighbor randomly select an envelope.
Next, pack up a weeks worth of clothing and go to a cheap motel.......not a totally nasty place, but along the lines of a Motel 6.
Then, Friday afternoon at 3:00, open the envelope and do what it says.

The rules are you simply have to do what the envelope says........you can't go home until it tells you you can. And if you draw the "stay out another week", you'll need to hunt down a wash-o-rama or buy new skivies and socks. Also, regardless of when you go home, you have to check back into the motel on Monday.

If you're really committed to truck driving and you really want to know if you're cut out for this, do yourself a favor and try what I suggested. Hey, if it's like you say, it won't be no big deal. If it's like I say, you'll know it after the first week or two. Do it for a month.......it'll be real interesting when that last week rolls around, because you'll know what the envelope says.

Good luck, brother. There ain't a man on this planet that wouldn't want the satisfaction of telling his boss "bye" and being the captain of his own ship. But in real life, it just don't work out that way......some times you just gotta suck it up and drive on.

 

For those of us who did our time in the corporate world and made wise use of our time and invested those earnings wisely, driving can be a rewarding 2nd career.

that office job and six figure salary isn't always all it's cracked up to be. I invested my earnings wisely into real estate and have a very good rental income each month but 3 years in I'm still driving and don't see quitting anytime soon. It suits me much better than managing a bunch of morons lol .and having the luxury of time to research and doing my due dilligence and not going with a mega or a bottom feeder it hasn't been that bad of an experience as most who jump in blind and don't do their homework. My driving job pays the bills and we even save some from it and the substantial rental income is a much better retirement plan than gambling on the stock market and/or a 401k

there are some of us oddballs that enjoy being on the road and driving. If you get the right company it's not as much doom and gloom as some would over dramatize and have you think. Having said that it DOES take a particular kind of personality and mindset to excel at it. Who knows. Maybe I am just one of those one in a million walking contradictions but it works for me

 

Seems pretty easy,

to post a BS thread,

and get folks worked-up !!

 

My wife and I used to be in corporate America.

Dont quit your job and spend two months going to a CDL school at a community school. We found a CDL school here in Chicago that charged us $2,000. Flexible school hours. Keep bringing that paycheck in from your job. Do what I did. The remaining time at your employer.....goof off. Take longer lunches, make up stuff why you need to leave early & come in late. Be that dad in the movie American Beauty.

Wait to use that $150k after you started trucking. The first year you MIGHT not make much. You WILL be gone from your wife and middle school kids a lot. Once you put in a year, you can get a good paying job locally that gets you home daily or a job that gets you home on the weekends.

Is your wife interested to join you when the kids are in college ? I love that I do this with mine.

Where do you live ? It helps a lot if you live in a city where it's easy to get in & out loads.

Your not getting any younger. Die with no regrets. Take the chance.

 

Hi Joseph1135,

How are you?

RESPECTFULLY ASKING, have you perhaps considered changing careers or occupations altogether, totally getting out of the trucking industry? It sounds as though you are burnt out from it, needing to go into a whole different line of work.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

keep in mind most days you will have to leave long before the wife and kids get up and get home when they are in bed and "weekends at home" generally (but not always) consist of home around 7 to 10 pm on fri night and leaving out around 3 or so sunday to do it all over again. I also recently left "corporate yes men America. although the money isn't quite as good and the amount of time to make that money is atleast double, im still enjoying driving. I have more self pride if nothing else. it sounds like you have your finances in place to weather the storm for awhile, your bonus alone is 3 years worth of trucking pay!! if you find that you hate it you will have plenty of money to live on while you find another job.. GO FOR IT!!

 

So you wanna try something different huh.You live in the Northeast so finding a dedicated or regional position might work for you,that depends on the company.Otherwise you may have to take an OTR position which means you'll be out a month.Trk driving is everything but consistant so don't plan too much for that 4 k a week goal.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I think the OP is a "Troll Artist". Let's see, he wants to quit a high paying job, not see his kids while they are in High School, he thinks he can see the sites while hauling a 53 foot trailer around, and can average 4000 miles per week driving 5 days a week and be home every weekend. OK, there are a ton of jobs like that and most of them pay .50/mile to start and you get to stay in a Hotel Room everynight night, and they will fly you home for the weekend when the truck is crossing the USA on your site seeing trip.

 

Firstly, I'd like to say I'm not really trying to discourage you in trucking. However, I want you to think... really think about what I'm posting:

20 years kissing up to senior management?

In trucking you will have to kiss up to dispatchers and dock workers and even 8 buck and hour security people... Most of which, will fall seriously short of your intelligence level. (ie Every few days you WILL have to say things like this to a dispatcher, You do know there are only 24hrs in a day... or I do have to stop from time to time for bodily functions).

Think trucking is easy and stress free?

Try to imagine a position in which a mess up by you, would result in your death or the death of others. This, is how I define stress... Make a mistake and you or others die. Stress is Not project deadlines... account losses, paper cuts... or power point crashes in a board meeting! Aside from combat, trucking can and is one of the most stressful things one can decide to do for a living. Adding to the stress is the fact that EVEN when trying to do everything right, people with badges WILL harass, and nitpick everything you do. I imagine, people that are actual known criminals get about the same treatment.

Travel and trucking?

Forget about that right now. While you will see some country trucking, 99.999% will be from the highway. And when you do get a break, it will be in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to see other than a truck stop parking lot.

2,000 miles to start? Then up to 4,000?

Yeah right, it is almost impossible to log 4,000 miles in a week. Everything has to go perfect. Truth be told, in a given week... Most of us sit and wait, many times unpaid... for loads or our turn to get unloaded. Wait to fuel, wait to shower, wait to eat. Wait wait wait.

Home weekends?

While there are jobs out there like this, they are almost all full with a waiting line to get into it from guys with 5-20 years experience. It may take years to get something like this, your kids would likely be in college by then, that IS... if you even got home to see them graduate high school, much less their school events.

So, still want to truck? Go for it and good luck!

 

who said anything about 2 months? Try 3 weeks. You want to be a trucker? Get a company to sponsor your CDL training and all you owe them after that is a year. Keep your nose and driving record clean and you can go anywhere you want after that. SIMPLE AS THAT. There you can close this forum and go for it!!!!!