Make sure wannabe truckers this is what you really want.

Coming from someone outside the industry looking in, all of those things are helpful, but even after reading the hell out of this forum for about 3 years, talking to other drivers (all of whom seem to have different opinions), and working different (non CDL A) local jobs, I still feel like I don't know what it would be like to go truck driving.

My plan is to head out this March, but until then, "what it will be like" is my best educated guess.

 

Just be realistic about your expectations (i.e. Salary, benefits, hours, time away from home, etc.) and what you want to get out of your new line of work. This is a good line of work for someone with thick skin that wants to learn.

Do plenty of research before settling on a company. My $.02...company morale/atmosphere is everything. It can make the difference between a bearable work day and a miserable work day (my last job). i.e. My new LTL gig (I'm a recent CDL grad)...I go in at 0130 M-F, but everyone is in a pretty good mood, jokes around (keeps things light), and is just a good bunch to deal with. Hardly a day goes by that I don't come home with some amusing story about something that someone did.

 

I dont know what any of these people are talking about, I love driving on ice, snow, freezing rain, Fog, the pigs in the truck next to me squirting on the side of my rig (and thats just the drivers not the actual pigs), waiting for other drivers to move off fuel islands while taking there 30 minute break at the pump, Truckstop Hotdogs, Cars in the truck routes, slime in the ts shower.
These are just some of my favorite things....

 

And regardless of what anyone says, you won't know what it is like until you do it.

Oh qwitcherbellyachin'! You LOVE it and you know you do. Besides, that squirting on the side of your truck means you don't have to wash it so often. And what is this slime in the shower bit? There is a simple answer for that, DON'T TAKE A SHOWER, take sink baths instead. (If at all.)

As for the statement made about stress level being 100 times worse on the road over local. . .I've done both, and I totally disagree with that statement.

 

I see a lot of sunrises and sunsets....







Course there are days like this too...