My Journey as a Truck Driver

This reply will find you years after, sorry for the delay . . . I'll explain later. But perhaps this will be useful for someone else.

1 - I didn't make the $37k gross figure the first year, but I've made over $50k each year after. I spent about $100/week for food and cell phone so rest was either saved or discretionary.

2 - Showers aren't hard to find, 5x week was probably average. Exercise time isn't hard to find either . . . but motivation, and then shower access is though. I got to where I never parked at truck stops at night. Typically I'd fuel middle of day, shower, then keep driving so unless I had time to exercise at the same time I wouldn't. I hate not being able to shower after sweating.

3 - I think common sense has to dictate here, hard to say entire specific towns to avoid. I never parked at truck stops anymore though. I either park at customers lot, or nearest Walmarts because they are everywhere. But more than Walmarts, I generally park at Lowe's, Sam's Club, or Home Depot. They don't have 24 hour restrooms, but they have free WiFi . . .

4 - Proper dieting is the hardest. I had a fridge that I carried sandwich and salad stuff, but I also made an effort to get 1 hot meal/day as well. One of the other benefits of parking at Walmart or Lowes whatever is that they normally have restaurants in the area. I tried to make myself walk to one at least a mile away, but again . . . motivation sometimes was tough.

5 - Generally I'd say lumping isn't a good idea. You're taking a job away from someone else, so they're not particularly friendly, and I saw a fight one time between a driver and lumpers. After that I just figured it wasn't worth it.

6 - Reset button . . . not really, I think I researched things fairly well. Things change a lot and sometimes quickly. When I first started driving pretty much everyone wanted 2 years OTR experience, but now most companies will hire you with 3-6 mos experience. The reset would involve knowing/understanding what a good company is I guess.

7 - Given everything I've seen, I'd avoid the "company" schools because then you're basically indentured servitude for a year. It used to be that you had to put in a good 1-2 years before you can find a decent paying job . . . now like I said before, you can get a good paying job with 3-6 mos. You're much better paying for your own CDL tuition. If you do some research, you'll probably have 3 different options within a 20 mile drive for less than $4k . . .

 

Yep, I agree with this 100%. It may suck, but you can either have $$ or you can have home time . . . it's really difficult to have both. I do know of a company that guarantee pays a minimum of $1000/week and you're home every weekend . . . which is about the best you can hope for.

 

Yep still here, trying to get caught up . . . I'll explain with a long winded message soon!

 

What's up! We need to catch up sometime . . . you still with ACT??

 

Well every company is hiring OTR, but every driver wants a local job . . . it's tough to find local that pays anything.

 

Basic math . . . your phone calculator should do everything you need.

 

I'M BACK! . . . kind've. I'll write more soon!

 

I don't, my aunt/uncle have lived in Ashland for 20+ years, but my bro just moved moved to Mansfield about 3 years ago.