Does trucking really ruin your life at home?

Truck driving is not the only career that requires someone travel and be away from home... They do seem to be the biggest cry babies and whiners about it though...

I travel a lot for my job, a lot of people in sales, marketing, business and the healthcare travel to name only a few travel and spend time away from home and family for their career...

As for it ruining your home life.. it doesn't have to.. and if it does, trucking was the sole reason for it...

 

You mean to tell me that these guys were not big time winners before they got into a truck? They hate their lives and blame it on trucking.

Old lady threatening to leave and giving you ultimatums like, "either you quit or we are finished"? You will have marital problems regardless of where you work at. Go ahead and quit. The heifer will to leave anyway. Waitaminute, you live in her house. You're the one that has to go back to Grandma's basement.

If you're a screwup, and your wife has to hold your hand to prevent you from getting hurt, you cant go OTR. In fact, you cant even go local. You see these man-child types everywhere. On the crapper talking to the wife, "Yes honey, I did wipe. Wipe again? But why? I already told you that I wiped." Or in a restaurant on the phone reading the menu so the wife can order his food. If she's not there to tuck your fat arse in, she will grow to resent you.

 

Driving truck otr isn't for everyone.People needs to know and understand that this isn't just a job but a lifestyle.When I first started I thought i would get homesick because I have never left Iowa but I didn't.I did however didn't like doing this alone so I got a pet and alot of my fears disappeared.For people with a family may be difficult managing this type of lifestyle knowing when you do get hometime it'll be 5 days at most a month.I don't think ai could do OTR if I had a family.

 

I think there are some people who have a personality that is more suited to long haul trucking than others. My dearest friend and mentor at my former office job with a public utility had a father who was a long haul trucker out of Chicago his whole life and loved it. When she retired she insisted on selling her house, buying a motor home, and forced her husband (a tall guy, all arms and legs) to become a homeless person, fold himself into the driver's seat, and drive all over the country for a few years (she finally relented and they bought a house in a retirement community in Phoenix). She obviously inherited the love of the open road from her father. Her husband is still a part time consultant for the pharmaceutical company that he worked at for many years. There is an example of true love and devotion for you

 

I can't get heads or tails out of your avitar what is it?

 

Trucking is NOT a life style. Its a job plain and simple.
As was said by another in the thread, lots of people travel for their job. Trucking is no more a lifestyle than any of the other folks that must travel for their job.

 

Otr trucking is most certainly a life style.You live in your trk.Most call it their home.Also I didn't say all trucking jobs was a lifestyle but OTR is.

 

Sorry i strongly disagree. And i doubt most otr drivers have no home outside the truck. There is very little difference between a driver sleeping in his truck for two weeks and a construction worker sleeping in a hotel room. Heck most otr drivers get home more often than many others that have to travel for work. I deliver to the job sites nearly every day and many of these guys have to stay 3 months or longer before they can go home. Jeb there is an Australian firm working at a phosphate mine in northern Florida the get 2 weeks at home every six months. Do we say construction is a life style? Of course not. But put a guy in a truck and he needs to feel special with all these bs terms.

 

The answer is absolutely yes. It will destroy your home life. Not sure why it would even be disputed. Of course it does. And the thing is, I know of several people who thought coming off OTR and taking a local job would save their marriage. It actually made it worse, because their wife or husband had developed hobbies and made friends, and they had just grown apart.

This is an incredibly difficult job in that sense. But I don't consider what we do to be actual work. I haven't worked a day since I got my cdl. The people really sacrificing are the ones we leave at home. Wives and girlfriends(may they never meet lol) and kids. They are the ones who are really making the sacrifice. And I would wager that us always complaining about how we have it bad, or only talking about trucking when we go home, that doesn't help.

I'm sure the last thing they want to think or talk about when you get home for a couple of days from the very thing that steals all of your time, is that thing which steals all your time.

The best move I have made is to get my cdl, and the second best thing I've done is to remain in close personal contact with almost everyone from the academy. We are all out here and still very much in our learning phase, still learning to manage our time, still learning when to actually open the door and get the hell out of the truck.

I know that I have a list of people I can call to keep me awake at 3am and they know they have the same. I can't call home at 3am to shoot the #### about some catastrophic accident I just saw on 80, or asking about a shipper I've never been to, or a type of load.

But when I get home, I have to desperately try and leave that #### in the truck. Nobody gives a #### about it. They have kids and real jobs and physical demands or ailments. They can't even begin to comprehend what we are talking about anyway.