The truth about trucking....

I think so too.
Mack and I and several others here do LTL, we spend almost as much time going backwards as we do forwards.
Sometimes on dead end gravel roads. Other times, we have to back around other trucks and construction equipment.
Or we have to back into a driveway, to turnaround or make a delivery.
I think LTL should be a requirement for OTR. It would improve the skills of the OTR drivers. LTLers still have to climb mountains, and go under or around low bridges, navigate tight turns.
Pass drug tests and enter and exit sensitive delivery installations.

 

Some janitors make over 100k, so? I'll give my personal anecdote. One certain big company I worked for advertised my old almost local job offering greeaat wages of 40-45k (ad says great wages), in 2011 they advertised the very same job for 50k+. How can they do that at the time of great driver shortages it is beyond me. As for local jobs, wanna be big bucks drivers be aware than many local jobs are worse than OTR, they still expect you to work 14 hrs+ days, variable shifts, most do not pay much, and some outfits have extremely nasty and old equipment. You must tolerate all of that for the privilege of driving yourself home to sleep, which could leave you with whopping 8-10 hours to enjoy life to its fullest. Keep in mind though that competition for jobs is stiff and your stellar 15 years OTR record may well disqualify you as too old, damaged or untrainable.

 

As my CDL classroom instructor once said:”You only get out of life what you put into it!”
Regardless whether I was working at auto dealerships or an airport or driving a truck I’ve always believed that there’s a constant learning experience in what you do. In the almost 3 years that I’ve been driving (all of it OTR) I’ve covered 46 states(Montana and North Dakota are the only states left on my bucket list) in which I consider myself truly privileged to see almost the entire country and get paid doing it. Some days are good, some aren’t so good but that just encourages me to do better the next day. In the 40 years of my life I’ve had far worse jobs that paid far less than what I’m making now. Not many people get that opportunity.

 

I worked on a dedicated account. The amount of backstabbing and behind back action was about the same as elsewhere, which is quite amazing considering that folks did it essentially for fun. Scoring points with the bosses could not result in extra income, bonuses or promotions. And then the bosses installed driver facing cameras (without advance warning) to supplement the snitches. And that is what I call stressful. I did not have any "coachable" events, as they say, in two months I was driving with it, but every time that red light blinked it was like a needle under my fingernails, a gentle reminder that I am just wheel holding dirt. I couldnt have any good winshield time with that.

 

OTR job is OK only if doesn't last too long, otherwise, you'll have mighty hard time making the best of it. And then, of course, there are anti social types with no/little life who are most suited for long haul OTR careers.

 

And yet somehow I manage to make it work. I actually prefer OTR because it’s a change of pace from running a specific region time and time again (like sitting in a cubicle at a 9 to 5 job). Sometimes you gotta “get out there” and see the world because you only have a limited time on this Earth.

 

I'm starting to think that Mr.PPS is a troll.
All of the posts I have read are negative. And argumentative. If they HAVE been a driver, it has to have been with CRE or Swift, or another of the BFI (Bottom Feeder Inc.) group.

I can see thinking this is a dead end job after working for one of them.

 

I am sory if you need to stick a label on reality to feel better. Positive psychology is a rage in the corporate world. A positive peon puts up with more for less, that's why positivity is emphasized so much these days. I think I described rather average experience, no labels. Some people may actually enjoy it, it is up to them. As for my work experience I worked for two bottom feeders in my career, Arrow and PTL, but I lived out of truck back then to care. A poster truck driver with no life I made decent otr income with them, meaning I worked twice as many hours as an average worker to earn average salary. As for swift, it actually rejected my application back in 2007. In all I worked for 5 companies since 2005.

 

I did reefers most of my career and it was ok, but when I switched to tankers it was much better. Pulling tankers coast to coast was really good in my opinion; the shippers and receivers are a world apart from refrigerated shippers & receivers. Tanker trucking was the most relaxed trucking I ever did. Give it a try; some of those tanker outfits running OTR have some really nice equipment, such as Indian River Transport and a dozen or so more.

 

Swift rejected his application. That tells us all at need to know about this guy.