Consider yourself Warned about trucking!

*LMAO* The warning label is when we were growing up...I recall some of the other kids in class (not me, I was an *ANGEL* ) who were...shall we say "difficult"? I'd rather drive a truck and not be home for weeks on end than teach kids or drive school bus...I'm just not that type of person, kids give me the willies.

 

With your 11 years on the road and the passion for trucking then why do you call it just a job?? I love trucking and call it a lifestyle as I am out on the road most of the time and away from home. How could it not be? Yes its a job too but I dont get to go home everyday and live out of that thing I work in. I guess if I was home more then it would be more of a job as I could try to enjoy homelife more or could I?

 

If you own your own landscaping company you could make that most places. It requires a $2500 hitch to carry the mowers and a $2500 mower(which you could probably buy used). Still not anywhere near the 40k an owner operator has to come up with.

Then much hitting the pavement trying to drum up business.

I guess I was fortunate starting out at an LTL company back in the 90's. While I spent a year otr it is indeed a pita.

The interesting though is that trucking tracks the economy very closely. As soon as we hit growth again all those companies that are trashing people will be begging for anyone to take their freight. I still remember when anyone who could breathe could get a job trucking. It will come again.(now whether this is good or not is another thing)

 

It's a job! now I'll say it doesnt suck, but it's not all roses either. Have I had better jobs? yes. But I have had much worse also. After one year I gotta look back and say I made a good decision. I miss my wife and kids, alot. But I also take alot of pride in being able take care of them better. I have said in other posts and ill say it again, if your job does not satisfy you then find another. It's not the whole industrie, just that one job. Find a better. Or, if you hate driving that much, quit. Pretty simple really.
b

 

I think a lot of the problem is state and federal programs paying for the driving school. If people had to spend their own money they might think the decision through a little more.

 

Rollin coal is right. If you do it for money, it's no longer a lifestyle its a job. If you don't like it do something else. A friend told me one time how he complimented a driver on how nice his truck was, and the driver said no matter how nice the truck is, it still keeps you away from home.

 

I kind of asked for the challenge when volunteering for the USMC.
In some ways it was the same analogy.

With this trucking endeavor it can be considered the same- in this case one only needs to satisfy the one year financial committment to pay back those thousands in cdl training and if they dont like it they move on. Wasted time or not its not a life sentence and the Cdl is applicable beyond OTR to land a higher compensation occupation.

If it is hell , (on wheels) than one can assume what doesnt kill you will make one stronger- taking some crap, being humbled grows virtue and character.

Nobody can take that away from you once its earned.


JMO

 

Sure...but then it gets you back home again, dispatch willing.

The whole lifestyle/job thing is pretty simple...it's just some don't want to see it. Is it a job? Yes, because it pays for your time. Not as well as we'd like, but it pays. Is it a lifestyle? If you really think about it, packing just enough to "make do", working within the system, living OTR with other guys/gals who all do the same...it's rather like the 'bikers' out there...even if you shower every day, and cook everything in your truck instead of eating at the grease joints, it's a change of life, compared to living at home. It's a type/style of living, being a nomad, out on the road for weeks/months on end. Even if it's not a life-long commitment, the time you spend as an OTR driver is at LEAST a temporary "lifestyle" change. Unless you were born on a greyhound or as a child of a possum belly queen, in a truck. Then it's just your life.
Funny, I can "get" driving OTR, but I don't "get" why the parents of my bf's friend sold their house to live out OTR in a motorcoach...