Current thoughts on your trucking career?

I'm getting older,so can't stand 8 hours in a manufacturing plant anymore.
Dispatch leaves me alone,all my runs are 1500+ miles,drive nights to avoid idiots as much as possible.
Grab a parking spot at noon and give it up to swifty at 11 pm.

 

My yard spotting job should be so easy. Most of my trailer move amounts are manageable.

However, the ice and snow pack has given way and now we have the return of the giant potholes everywhere. This #### is really getting old, especially in a basic Ottawa truck. It's actually making me miss the smooth ice sheet we had about a month ago.

 

Paper logs or early retirement . Plain and simple .

 

Don’t really know what I want to do, keep on with tankers or go into operating.

All the operating jobs I find suck and I’m not qualified for anything I’d actually like.

I think at this point I’ll just go balls deep in tanker and try and get on with the best company around here.

I’ve been talking to them but I’m like 6 months under their min experience which is two years but their insurance said they would insure me, it’s just up to the big dogs in the office now.

I want to work for a company which hauls everything from dry bulk to fuel which they do so I know all types of tanker. I got my eyes on asphalt.

 

You may want to do a little research.

I know someone that was a yard jockey for several years and when he went looking for another job many of the companies seem to feel he didn't have recent Driving Experience, because he wasn't on the road actually driving.

Just something to think about depending on where you'd like to go in the future.

Good luck.

 

I have seriously considered another internal company transfer to Shorthaul or Home Daily in a Day Cab. This would also give me a chance to brush up on Manual Shifting. The nice part would be staying within the same company on my work history.

I guess it depends on how I feel about Yard Spotting as a long term job or being more of a warehouse guy. Going down that path, some day I'd probably get tired of climbing in and out of the yard truck and would wind up downgrading to Forklift / ClampTruck somewhere. While I like the hometime I would get from this, I honestly keep leaning toward doing Day Cab option more.

 

I voted “Looking”, but in fact I left trucking Jan. 18th.

A date I shall always remember.

Fondly.

 

After 32 years im not happy with some of the new breed but oh well nothings perfect and I'm still young enough and open minded enough to adapt .
Im quite happy with where I am and what I do with no plans to do anything else until I retire or die .

 

Perhaps you would be willing to share some of your insights into the autonomous trucks, in a new thread?

I am in a quandary right now, which direction to go.

Long term, I think I need to pursue a degree, short term....I like what I do.