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Well, don't mind if I do, then!

 

Ba-bye! One less whiney voice on the radio, in the restaraunt, waiting for the showers or giving a poor fuel desk clerk grief....

By all means if your chosen profession doesn't suit you then QUIT! But to discourage new drivers wholesale is unacceptable. MY only regret about trucking right now is that I didn't start sooner!

May your find your calling. I did.

 

No, sorry. Fail: you've confused me with most of you.

I don't get on the radio unless it's for legit reasons, and the whining I hear everytime/all the time almost from the minute I cross over into USA from Canada--it's much quieter up here, which is another reason I'd do Canada-only if I got back into long-distance--is...

A) Not what I consider even remotely legit.

B) Why I have my radio shut off for at least a few hours out of the day, every day.

And I never have and never will give the fuel desk clerk "grief," either. Unlike some, I've tried maintaining a level of class that is pandemically lacking in this #### industry.

Discouraging new victims of the scam wholesale is perfectly acceptable, mate. If enough get discouraged, then maybe, just maybe, this openly crooked, second-rate industry might start changing for the better, and be a job worth doing again.

I hope you pitifully eager dupes enjoy paying more for Diesel than premium petrol...I also hope the ride they're taking you for is a nice one, I won't stick around to watch you choke.

And I have found my calling, thank you. It's Mechanical Engineering if it matters.....Maybe I'll be the guy who invents/designs the replacement for the Diesel piston-engine !

Whatever happens/doesn't happen, I can be reasonably certain that it will be so with my pride, dignity, self-respect, physical and emotional health, and future prospects more or less intact, which would never have been the case if I'd stayed in the big truck.

"Peanutbutter" is right, and that's all there is to it. And more to the point, you all bloody well know it....

 

That sounded like me a few years ago a year later I was inching to go back to OTR. Would go local the next year then again the draw to go OTR hits me. I admit I am addicted to OTR driving.

 

I think a fair bit has to do with what you expect from a job. Both personally and economically. Me? I don't care if I never see $40,000 a year from driving. If I'm making enough to pay the bills, feed the kids, and set a little aside for the future, I'm fine. That works out to about $2000/month. From what I see, it's hard to not make that much.

Personally? I spent months digging into the industry. I talked to drivers. I talked to companies. I read more articles than I can count. I researched companies. When I decided to pick this as my third career, I worked hard to learn what to expect. I worked hard to determine what companies I'd be most satisfied working for. I knew coming in that I'd be low man on the totem pole - that my 30+ years of experience in other fields were meaningless here. I knew I had no right to expect to work for a company that would fit my personality - right out of the chute.

I don't know if I was right about any of it, yet. Indications, so far, are that I wasn't egregiously wrong. I seem to have picked a decent company - and they've hired me. I've enjoyed the job so far. I think it helps that the CB is almost never on, too. I left kindergarten too many years ago to put up with it again, and my kids are old enough that their complaints are actually almost adult in nature.

It's a profession, and I expect to be a professional. That means, if I don't like something, I have three options.
1) Change it
2) put up with it
3) go someplace where it doesn't happen.

It does NOT mean whining in any forum - Internet, lunch counter, or CB. It does NOT mean blowing a fit and declaring the entire industry unfit for human habitation - then walking away.

(I'm on this forum to learn - and I've done a lot of that. Am I expert? Hardly... but what I HAVE learned, I can pass on to other newbies. Individuals starting a new job/career are not served well by doomsayers. Newbies are served best by encouragement and education. In the end, only they can decide if this job is for them. Crying into your beer or microphone just dilutes the educational stream and makes it harder for us to actually learn something useful.)

 

We have to many "experts" on this forum. There are as many company personalities as there are different driver "personalities". One company may work for some but that company will NEVER work for others. As you have said newbies need to research the companies they are interested in. Talk to drivers, both for the company they are interested in and other drivers. As the police will tell you there are different accounts for a crime as there are wittnesses, same with trucking. Some will condem companies like Swift, England, Stevens ect but there are others who will give reports of these companies.
There are those who complain about Swift (I used to drive for) I am sure they have true issues with Swift, I myself and a few I know have had success with them. Is Swift the best I doubt it but I would not say they are the worst as some would say. They where a good fit for me and I was happy with them. Just because they where a good fit for me does not mean they are for others. As there are companies that would fit other drivers but for me it would not work out.
You newbies out there listen to lurchgs do your research not just on this forum but go out to the truck stops and "Talk" to the drivers ask questions some will answer you some won't if you can go to a terminal talk with the drivers. Check out the safety record of companies. Do what ever you can to research the company your interested. Take your time don't rush into it make sure you understand what your getting into. I look at OTR as more then a career but also a life style since you live on your truck for weeks at a time. If you go in with all the research you did and an open mind you can make it.

 

I'd like to add a little that I've not particularly made clear in any of my posts - because they are generally aimed at newcomers.

But it's also true that experienced drivers should do the same thing. When thinking of leaving your current company, take careful note of what you do NOT like about it, as well as what you DO like about it. Research other companies, just as though you were a newbie - and see what's the best apparent fit.

It should be a tad easier for you, because you have (probably) established a circle of friends. You can certainly strike up a conversation with any jack driver on the planet in any stop. Heck, in my past two weeks of trainee-ism, I was approached at least once in every truck stop. The first question I was asked, inevitably, was "Who do you drive for?". After that, it was either "I used to drive for them", or "What are they like?"

I suggest that it's a good idea to keep doing that - always. Go back to your truck and keep notes, too, after your conversations.

When it comes time for a change of venue, you'll be ready. Even if you stay where you are permanently (I'm sure it happens to some of us), you'll have a stack of info from which to draw when somebody ELSE talks about changing employers.

Never stop researching and learning. Really. Never.