Former driver comments

I'm on the outside looking in, but the washout rate still surprises me. It would seem that people don't look before they leap, and thus have conflicting goals. Young guys want to drive truck, but also want friends, girlfriends, wives etc. No matter how great a young wife may be, it's going to be tough for her to be supportive at 8 months pregnant.

Some of you guys seem to have good solid marriages, which is great, but also surprises me. It would seem trucking would be best suited to confirmed bachelors.

Personally, I'm very much looking forward to the nomad lifestyle, and I 'm not going to have anyone pressuring me to get home. I think it will be great, but we shall see.

 

I've been reading your thread. I'm sure I/C's receive better respect from management.

OK, specifically. I sat at lubrizol in painsville for 19hrs, I got told "no pay for 10hrs of that",because they want to call that a 10hr brake.

I sat in the Houston terminal 70hrs, = 2 days layover.

I've waited in shippers up to 3 days, wile they cook-up product (without access to services or facilities).

I think management at my terminal have some odd passive-aggressive hostility for drivers.

I've wondered if I should have been less tolerant of this sort of abuse, but I'm not sure what I could have done.

So I quit.

Sometimes I think about buying a truck.

 

Did you ever take those items up with higher ups? Sorry, just seems off compared to my experience.

 

Sent you a pm.

 

Loved it, but hated it. I was recluted and graduated from sni-cdl school as a team driver a few years back. My respect for truckers went from negative 100 to plus one million, and felt like my weight did the same. I think truckers should go schools and colleges of all kinds and explain in detail what it is we do ask for more cooperation when on the streets. I loved the experience and would do it all over again, but only if you give me a mute-passive-educated-understanding-mature- and- intellectual co-driver, or a clean smelling - hard working, jolly 'ol, happy go lucky and outgoing overweight but otherwise healthy co-driver. Working for SNI helped me heal from burn injuries, pay over $40,000 in debt, and in just a few months I got to see and be in almost every state in the USA. The bad part is having let my weight and cholesterol go up, along with having that....so to speak: bad taste in my mouth after having had unresolved and heated arguments with some of my co-drivers. Other than that, I proudly wear my SNI jacket in winter. Am still trucking, making more as am hauling sand for the colorado oil fields. I do understand when a trucker advices anyone to think twice when deciding to on becoming a professional driver, for I have said the same to many. The reason being is that, I am now in my 40's and all I know to do for income is truck driving. I wish I knew I could gross the same amount doing something else, or had the support to earn less and still have time and resources to enjoy life, but the reality is that I am pretty convinced that I can't and further more, I know what it's like to rent a room, earn $10 hr, and not have money for the better things in life, like repairing the A/C in my 4 wheeler. I do wish i had more time to meet people and go do things I like, but for now am gonna try to keep saving money and hope I can still grab me a little peace of heaven somewhere in america sometime in the near future hopefully before I end up in a wheelchair sucking on an oxygen tank eating only gluten free / sugar free / fat free MRE meals along with a dozen prescription pills. Anyone wanting to become a trucker, i say think about it twice, think of alternate choices if it all still points towards trucking, I recommend Schneider as an excellent starting point. ps: i meant to post this on "former schneider drivers" thread, sorry..... i'll deleted as soon as I find that thread again.