do you think being a driver is too sedentary of a job?

Truck drivers can drive up to 11 hours a day between 10 hour breaks . They cannot drive after being on duty 14 hours but they can continue to work loading or unloading beyond the 14 hours .
You would likely spend many hours in the truck waiting to load or unload but it wouldn't have to be sitting . You could go in the sleeper .

 

I'm from California and I can tell you that pretty much everything outside of the north east is far easier as far as getting around and docking the truck. Now, I'm no expert, I've only been trucking for around 8 months but from my experience so far the most difficult place for trucking is the north east. The streets are too narrow, the docks don't have enough room to make a smooth dock. I was once told when I just got out of school that everything east of ohio was a pain and now I beleive it. Last week I was in Queens, NY and the dock was a nightmare. The streets on the east coast don't seem like they were made for trucks. You won't find as much difficulty elsewhere, for the most part, in the rest of the country. Being a regional driver in the north east seems like it'd be the worst in the USA trucking industry. You guys should be paid a lot of money! Don't get me wrong, I love this job, but I'd be happy to never have to travel to that region again in my career.

 

It is sorta what you make of it. If you want to make more money your going to have to run your hours out every day if you don't care about the money as much u can just work 8 hours a day the company might be a little upset but it's up to u

 

First of all you have air ride seats in OTR trucks & you can pull off in rest areas or truckstops and relax or walk around; lay in the bunk and do power naps. Much easier driving West of the Mississippi. Las Vegas, Nevada is a good place to relocate to due to no personal income tax and the cheapest homes/condos in America. Home prices there are still dropping. You can buy a half-million dollar home/condo now for $200K or less. Great weather year round. In trucking, you can drive 11 hours within a 14 hour window, which gives you 3 extra hours to stop and walk around and stretch, eat, etc. on those long cross country trips. So, yes, much better than being a cabbie. Your health should improve. I'm originally from TN, and been looking at Las Vegas for a few months now; thought we had a home there last week, but someone beat us to it; back to square one. No big hurry, prices still very cheap and still slowly dropping.

 

I guess you never fuel or do the required pretrip before starting and written DVIR at the end of the day and never get inspected at scales . . That doesn't count loading or unloading on many days

 

Several things: you're driving a cab. A sedan with a bench seat and no lumbar support. Of course your back hurts! I think the only job that's worse than being a cab driver is a metro bus driver. If you are going to run the bigroad, go ahead and start running BEFORE buying a residence in the Dakota's. the Dakotas feel like a different planet when compared to the northeast. Make sure that's the planet you want to live on.

 

The seat in a truck-tractor is more like a desk chair than a standard automobile seat. You sit erect with your feet typically flat on the floor (like you would at a desk or table), not with your legs stretched out in front of you like a car. This is another reason (besides the air suspension in the seat column) that the truck seat is much more comfortable. I doubt most automobiles would have the headroom needed to put this type of seat in.

 

I think the grass is always greener. I gotta tell you though I think driving a cab around Jersey is lot less stressful then a 45 ton, 53' trailer!

I think your perspective of a truck driver is slight off. You don't just drive around one little area like a cab driver. You could be in NYC one day and Dallas the next! Yes some of the western states are less congested but you will most likely share the same amount of driving time in the city as you would in the desert.

Personally, yes I would rather drive a truck then a cab. Freight doesn't complain! (or shoot you in the back of the head!)

When it comes to traffic, back pain, long hours etc... its all the same. Keep in mind though at the end of your cab shift you go home, when you are at the end of your driving shift in a big truck you don't!