To student drivers

Try prime they have a tanker division. Smooth bore food grade...

 

You have a very narrow view of OTR drivers if you think it is not a lifestyle. It is much like the military, where you don't get to be home for all the kids soccer games, or being at the local pub with all your buddies every Friday. OTR drivers give up a lot to make it work. To base your view on truck drivers by looking at the shenanigans going on at truck stops is near sighted at best.

 

It's not a lifestyle, it's a job. Part of your job involves sleeping on the road a lot. No different from a lot of corporate managers who spend months at a time living in hotels while they have to travel around the country. And no, you don't get to be home every friday night, but it's possible to be home most friday nights. Your kid has a bday or graduation? Is there REALLY not a single load out of the area you're in that'll be going close enough to home that you can get the day home? A guy I used to work with is working OTR, he's home weekends and usually 1 night during the week. The reason this is a lifestyle is because you choose to live like that. If you don't like your company's policy on getting you home when you want to, and for those soccer games, get a new company, or grow a backbone. Sitting in a truck stop watching CSI all night (how do you still have any you haven't seen before?) isn't going to solve anything.

Be valuable to your company, and they'll keep you happy. I did it at one of the worst, an old friend is doing it at companies he worsk at. And while he's not home every night, he's still sleeping in his own bed 3-4 nights a week, that's not bad. And then the nights he has to be gone, his girlfriend can go with him. A few other friends and old coworkers are doing the same. But they hated the reality of what a lot of OTR jobs were, and they made it happen. Little things like volunteering to go into the boroughs of NYC gives you so much power at your company.

Or maybe a regional route isn't your thing, you want to go across the country... There's tons of people who basically alternate their resets, or days off, between home and a second home. Or they park at a truck stop, and get their motorcycle out of the storage place across the street.

Take responsibility for your experience. Truck driving doesn't have to be this unpredictable job where you're barely home and rarely get to see your family. You can fix it. It doesn't take very long to realize that.

 

Yep...... The Admiral should always have some say in the matter. She is the one that keeps the home fires burning.

 

Many occupations are considered a "lifestyle" in their own right. Trucking is right in the there with them. A lifestyle isn't just about how much your home costs, what clothes you wear, or what recreation you pursue. It is how you go about your life period. Do what you love every day.............and you will never have a JOB. A lot of drivers love their work.

 

Trucking is a great way of life with a whole lot of different opportunities that can be seized upon IF you have what it takes to do this sort of work. If you are self motivated, meaning that you can work without direct supervision and get a job done on time on your own, have strong work ethics and can stand the long hours and days of living by yourself. Sleeping in trucks is not easy to adjust to, truck stops are noisy places with a lot going on 24 hours a day, you have to be able to tune it out and get your rest, get yourself up and do a full days work, all without anyone else telling you to do it. The latest stupidity we face is the sleep apnea testing that is being foisted upon drivers, obviously those people have never lived in a truck, otherwise they would know that drivers have trouble sleeping for a whole lot of reasons that have nothing to do with sleep apnea. That said, don't listen to nay sayers...find the opportunity that suits you and pursue it with everything that is in you, it's the only way to truly enjoy this lifestyle. Oh yeah...if you come in to this job and quit in six months, understand, the failure is not with anyone else, it's just that you are not cut out for this life...go do something that suits you.