Driving experience needed before a CDL

If you take a cross country trip go during the day one way, then over night the other way. Depending on where you end up a lot of long haul driving will require over night drives. If you get your load in the evening or your appointment is like 2AM or something like that, youll be on the road at night. Grocery/reefers are common for overnight appointments.

 

I think I have to clarify what I mean.

my idea of freedom mr choosing where to go, when to go and when to say hell with it I’m going home.

to me that’s freedom. The constant stories I hear from company drivers isn’t freedom for me it’s more like slavery.

 

Most jobs are like that. You know how to do something and the employs you sort of like a machine to do it. For me its freedom enough I dont have to sit in meetings all day and have meetings about meetings and deal with the same people all day face to face. The fact I got commanded to drive to NY instead of Oregon isnt that big of a deal.

If it becomes a big deal maybe one day Ill buy my own truck. ive been saving. Maybe one day, never know.

 

Owner-operators are slaves to their small business. I've known dozens over the years and they all physically age prematurely.

 

Ive watched my parents run businesses, I know how it goes. All the hidden expenses are mind boggling. I probably will not do it. But youll never know. I havent had my midlife crisis yet.

 

I think some of the things people who haven't had to deal w/ it underestimate is how mind-numbing the cubicle farm can be day-after-day. The same ego driven office politics w/ the same dysfunctional drama magnet personalities day-after-day. Even if as a company driver they send you to some places you don't necessarily relish going, at least the along the way your office will have a view of scenery that constantly changes, your not playing tug of war all day w/ where the aircon temp is set and you don't need to get a consensus on which station play on the radio. "Freedom" can be little things that just add up to a better general experience.

 

To answer the original question, you absolutely want to get comfortable driving a car, for reasons you’ve already noted. All driving requires the kind of automatic situational awareness that comes with practice. You don’t have time to analyze what’s going on in traffic, by the time you’ve figured out what one driver is doing, five more things are in various stages of happening.

 

There was a time when I rarely drove my pickup, and when I did it was mostly in a rural area. I had been driving them for years, but for several years was either on a motorcycle or a big truck when in heavy traffic. When I started driving my pickup in the Houston area again, i was not comfortable at all in it for a while. lol

As far as freedom being a company driver and having to do what you are told, what type of job are you going to get that you don't have to work when and where you are told, the difference is in a truck, you are the only one there, and even though it is heavily regulated, in a lot of ways that just makes it better for a company driver.

If you are not the type of person that lets little things stress him out, then I say go for it, if you have stress issues, then it probably will not be for you, lots of folks find out they can't handle the otr game.

 

I say go for it. Never mind the owner op naysayers. Unless you're already wealthy, you won't begin as an O/O, anyhow. A company driver may not get to choose his or her own loads, but a company driver is fueling at the same fuel pumps as these O/O's and are not paying sixty thousand dollars plus in fuel costs per year to do it.

Just a mini rant, there.

Driving a truck and driving a car really are two different animals.

 

I understand where you are coming from, I have always been an OO and with my own authority until this year where I am now technically leased out, but with the same freedom.
What I was talking about is being a company driver has as much or more freedom as any other job a guy might have. Any job I ever had I had a time to show up, a time to go home and a job to do while I was there, usually with a boss or fifteen somewhere close by, trucking is a better fit even as a company driver for a lot of people and they will think they have all the freedom in the world compared to what they are used to.