How many started truck driving at the age of 50+?

I know, I was there, above you in the helicopter.

 

40. Never wanted to drive a truck nor interested in it too much. No jobs after about every job we grew up with left town for China or Mexico. The only thing left was ConAgra chicken nuggets and other chicken stuff. At that time if I went to work there I would only clear 20 bucks more a week than what I was collecting unemployment. Spent a year on unemployment fishing every day or so. Happy hour at the bar. Closing the bar on Fri, Sat, Sunday... From 18 to 40 it was nothing but drinking, parties, and womanizing. The jobs that come in to fill in for all the lost jobs to China only paid a buck or so above minimum wage. A friend pulled me aside one night.
" Ya know your much to smart and talented to be doing this. Don't be like me. Get out and do something before its to late."
I took his advice. Told the woman I was living with and partying with I was going to make a change, move to Texas, learn to drive a truck, change my life before I got too old to do so.
She said no she was staying.
I left everything I owned, took only a few mementos, and about 4 changes of clothes. Threw it in the back of a 70 Chevy pu I had bought with income refund tax money. Drove to Texas. Burned a quart of oil every hundred miles or so.Move in with the parents. Worked at a Conagra flour mill as a janitor for about 6 months until I figure out how to become a driver. Sold the truck for 400 bucks. Took that to trucking school in SC. Almost starved to death before I started to make money in trucking. The rest is trucking legend about my fame and fortune whispered in hushed tones when ever I walk past other truck drivers.
The woman I left behind? Haven't seen her or spoke to her in 14 years. I heard she is still a bar fly.

 

Yeah, and it was a team operation.

 

Hi TNMT, great story. I always enjoy "rags to riches" stories. (BTW, maybe you could PM me on the whereabouts of this gal,,,, just kidding, not interested) It's great to hear you had the gumption to pull yourself out of that scene. It's so sad to hear what happens to alcoholic's and drug addicts. Some of those people are really intelligent people, that for whatever reason, choose those lifestyles. I have a friend who was an engineer for a large company, but his case of beer a day habit, got him fired, (and rightly so) which led to a downward spiral, that left him a blithering idiot now. Such a waste of a life. Keep on truckin'.:smt023

 

Here's another rags to riches story:

I grew up in a broken household. Emancipated at 15. At 15, I was practically homeless. The only thing I had were the clothes on my back and my drivers license.

I started driving for a farmer and a rancher at 15. Driving kept me in school, it kept a roof over my head and food in my stomach. It wasn't the greatest paying work out there, but it suited my needs.

I had enough of cattle and grain hauling at 21, but I still wanted to drive. I went to Roadmaster for my class A, then started driving for Airborne Express. Stayed with DHL after the '04 merger.

I got tired of living check to check and spending everything on rent, so in '06 I quit DHL to go OTR doing heavy haul. I lived in the truck for 6 years, saving almost every penny I made.

When I came off the road, I had saved enough to buy a house, fill it full of furniture, and buy 3 cars.

Now I'm living easy streak, but the last 18 years are starting to catch up to me.

 

Well I tried to drink and drive a truck. I vowed to never drink and drive because of all the pain involved getting a CDL. The points that I could drink got further and further apart. One day I noticed I haven't drank a beer in years. Never missed it. Not that I wouldn't drink but it just doesn't do anything for me anymore. NO kidding I was a heavy drinker. Get paid Friday and be broke on Monday. Kind of drinking. No help in quiting, no programs, or anything I just quit. Strange how that works from individual to individual isn't it.

 

I am 57 years old and will be going back out on the road after being out of trucking for 12 years. I will probably run until I am 62-63 and then retire. I have met quite a few husband/wife teams that started in their late 50's. I have a offer to run a regional straight truck and might take them up on it. At least parking will be a little easier to find.

 

well, it looks like you have....

 

54, Will be starting OTR training soon. Always wanted to be a truck driver. I imagine that there is a lot more bureacracy attached to getting on the road now than when I would have preferred to have started 30 years ago. Again, age discrimination in other jobs big factor in my looking at becoming driver. IMO older drivers probably have more road experience than younger ones, can read other drivers intentions better, especially since theres all kinds of driver distractions now, cell phones, texting, DVD players, Laptops, (even Cops can be seen operating these while driving.) My driving school made me cut my teeth in Albuquerque traffic around the Balloon fiesta area when the reconstruction of Paseo Del Norte closed down I-25 North. Had to go up Central Avenue during the rush hour with a 53 ft trailer past the University, so Im ready for anything now.

 

I'm 52 and starting CDL training in March!!!😃