Looking to get into trucking. Research so far says STEER CLEAR

I stopped reading at old dominion dude if you can get in there... get there and stay there .. great place

 

1st thing, trucking isn't a job it's a lifestyle. I trained new drivers for 10 years and here's the real deal...

Married? Independent wife you might make it but if you run your house she will guilt you into quitting long before your "year" is over.
That is the biggest reason new drivers quit. The second biggest reason is the stress. Nobody is out here to hold your hand and help you out. Most warehouses are lousy with info but quick to get mad if you don't know where to go. I had the highest success rate in my company for keeping drivers because every time they'd ask me what to do at a shippers my answer was "Get used to not getting that question answered" Its not always like that but the 1st year is because you don't have the sense of how shippers work yet. I always told newbies that if you want help you need to go where you shouldn't be in a warehouse, suddenly your not invisible and everyone's telling you where to go.
GPS has made the getting lost stress a thing of the past but if you do go the OTR way, please get in the habit of looking at signs, no mistake in the trucking world is free, they all come with a fine.

Other than those things I'm sure you wouldn't find doing research if you stick it out this job is great. I had to take a year off for surgery and was surprised at how much I missed the open road. One day you will be somewhere and you will think this job sucks it's to hard, why bother. We all are there and most quit but if your like me you'll get past it and every spot from there on out will be easier.

Btw... mine was a low overpass, has to back up 1/2 mile during rush hour in Seattle and the make a U-turn by slowly blocking 2 lanes on my side the 2 lanes on the other side. Took 1 hour but after that nothing seemed that hard anymore.

Good luck.

 

I once closed a large 4 lanes 4 way intersection, a major one downtown in Baltimore doing a U turn across the massive pavement and crosswalks too making people move aside. Why? Two of the streets had no trucks. One street had no hazmat allowed and there was a light pole in the cement divider in the dead center where the trailer wants to run over to finish the turn.

I managed to get out of that by leaning on that pole between both trailer axles and sort of very very gently pulling on it watching the shaking top and the bolts on the bottom of that thing. And you know what? No body complained. They all stood there, I say about 100 of them talking among themselves wondering if that stupid kid trucker will actually break that lamp pole or not.

I didnt break it thankfully. But Im also grateful this was way before there was cell phones and internet. Get away with it without being a laughingstock of the industry now and then.

That was living in those days. (What I should have done was slide the tandems all the way up.... which created several more problems already added to a overloaded me on the spot...)

 

No sir...

 

OD would be great. From what I’ve heard. They take a long time to hire you. Months..,

 

No wife, soon no girlfriend. You will fit right in around here.

 

But ya’s gots ta love cats.