How did you get started driving a truck?

I did what every person does when their dream job comes crashing down, I went to truck driving school.

 

How is the cool trucking movie inspiration working out for you now that you are in a truck?? lol I assume you have figured out that the real deal isn't anywhere near a popcorn and milk dud eating comfortable 2 hour night in your recliner scenario. I have been trucking 32 years. Year number one was actually fun plus I got paid for it. after the first year I have spent the past 31 years trying to figure out how to get out of it. lmao

 

Mid 70's CB radio craze, trucker movies, perception that we were "knights of the highway", seemed like a good idea at the time. Just retired after 39 years...yeah, it was a great run!

 

Needed to kill a few years before retirement and chose the easiest no brainer I could find that I thought would be fun short term. I enjoyed it.

 

Enjoyed all mechanical things, planes, cars, motorcycles, etc.... Very challenging and rewarding. Seeing the entire country on someone else's dime. Every day is different. I too spent time in the US Navy and got to travel all over the world. So traveling comes natural.

 

Got tired of being a cop.

 

One day I decided to drive to different cities since at the time I could work anywhere as long as I had my laptop. After spending hundreds of dollars at hotels and on gas, on the way home I was surrounded by a ton of semi trucks and I thought "man, these guys just got paid to visit the places I spent a ton of money on". I researched it and found none of the negatives about trucking weren't a big deal to me so I went to a college that taught trucking, and went to a great company with a good reputation. I don't know why so many people select companies that are the worst, I suppose they don't believe the thousands of bad reviews.

 

Family said deaf do not drive.

Was in school the following month. Got licensed a few months later, leading to a permanent split in family.

Back in the 60's the deaf did NOT drive. Society has changed greatly since then.

 

Got married and had to find a job?LOL Not really but that was part of it. Dad and both of his brothers were long time truckers so I got to ride in trucks a lot. They trained me and I stayed in it. Went in the Army to be a trucker and they decided to train me on computers instead. When I came out, went right back to driving!LOL Course Computers stayed with me as well. They are a lot different than they were in the 70s.

 

Part of my family exposed me to trucks at a early age. I had a step father who worked the Boston Railroad when he was a teen talking about how eventually he learned the straight trucks but not trailer so respected me for my ability to work a trailer. There was a uncle who went to war running Red Ball and was commended and recorded by the Generals on scene as being able to prove 300 jerrycans of gas instead of a usual 150 can load under fire on that road. Later in 50's another Uncle life lost his gasoline tanker on big savage west of Cumberland and quit that day via railroad and western union so goes the story. Big Savage became my first mountain to learn in school. Keep in mind there was no I-68 the best you could hope was the old national road, US 40/41 I think (Someone correct me Im thinking of the old shipway or shipley) and that was some trucking until 68 was finished.

One of the biggest things is no one tells me "I cannot..." so when family opined that deaf do not drive trucks I went ahead and made it happen. The words No or You cannot have no meaning and actually motivate.