A CDL is not a passport to a job.

Just my little bit to get the thread back on track. The right to give advice has to be earned, and you certainly have earned it. After eight years, I am feeling a little like I can give some, but am struck by how much I have yet to learn. So I am hesitant with advice... The guy I got help from the other day at the truck stop had been out here for about 50 years! I told him I was grateful there were still some truckers out who remember when it was a brotherhood and we all helped each other out. Now you are just as likely to get flipped off as flashed over, etc.
Thanks for this thread.

 

people have this idea that america is lazy. we arent, america has the hardest working people i've ever met. theres this i dont know, idea? that immigrants are the real hard workers in america. most immigrants i've met suck at work because they're stupider then a 5 year old and are lazy as hell. the most recent one was a 140 pound guy from africa. lets see, when he first started he went out on my route with me for 2 days and tried telling me how to do my job, didnt listen to a single thing i said. i told him "this is my truck, i'm running the show right now, nothing will go smooth if you are gonna play captain idea" he didnt get it. lets see well i weigh about 340 pounds and i was walking at least 3 times as fast as him, he got in my way, slowed me down, ugh. few weeks later he hit a bridge in a truck, 4 days after that let the tail end of his truck hit a coke truck in a parking lot scratched the living hell out of it, keep in mind doing this in a straight truck (we dont have tractor trailers here). hmm the last immigrant i had the pleasure of working with, great guy, really funny he was from scotland. very slow moving, #####ed and moaned all day long. this was during my carpentry days, he was pretty decent with his work but he wasnt some god. the hardest working people i've ever met are americans. people like my mother who raised me and my brother by herself and managed to buy a house and start a business. and now we got people unemployed for 99 f-n weeks and congress is talking about extending benefits. it pisses me off. gives us hard working americans a bad name. i'll do any job i dont care what it is, if its money in my pocket its more then i had when i showed up. granted i wont work for nothing but you get the idea.

 

I was kidding,you know when somebody says i walked 5 miles in the snow to school.
They are 80 years old and more than likely their story grows every year.

I am 41 and i had a bad attitude when i was 20 ,now i feel the total life experience has made me a better person.

My oldest son told me he wasn't going to waste his life not doing.
He went from nearly failing middle school with long hair playing his guitar and scateboarding,to a straight a student.
He runs track and right now is planning on helping out in the homeless shelter again.
He doesn't want to be a trucker ,he wants to go to west point and then to the army.

He made a great point if your smart you won't have to repeat mistakes that your parents have made,i know i didn't listen to my parents.

The past is the past i learned life is what you put into it.

 

Good and insightful post. Thank ya sir and keep feeding out that info!!!

 

i honestly apologize if i came across as cross or anything. like i said, you did not come off that way at all. but there ARE some on here who assume all newbies are steering wheel holders who don't have the right to call themselves a truck driver. i guess they forgot the days when it took them 15 minutes to back into a space. i will be the first person to "sit and listen" to the more experienced folks on here. you can't learn anything until you shut up and listen.

 

Pretty good thread.... heck, as a wannabe, all I expect is a chance to start a new career. Obviously that means starting at the bottom! One thing I've learned in the last 55 years of life is not to expect.... you won't be disappointed! I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth and figure the only way to get one is to work hard and earn enough to buy it on my own.

I've had a business fail and it wasn't easy to take after starting with nothing and building it from the ground up in six years only to have an economic downturn destroy it in less than a year. I don't blame anyone, but just want a honest chance to start over in a different career field.

I do expect to have to pay some dues to acquire the necessary skills and experience.... I'll get that anyway I have to, be it from a veteran trucker who's got diesel in his veins or a twenty something super-trucker who's got six months of OTR and is a trainer. Either way I'll pick your brain and learn and offer a thanks and some respect for offering your experiences. Maybe someday I'll get the chance to return the favor and pay it forward!

 

so it's not as rare as you think. i will take this oppurtunity to thank everyone on this forum who told me what it's truly gonna be like. i know the dues that will have to be paid before i can call myself a true truck driver. but i'm more than willing to do this.