Finally Quit Trucking.

I laughed at this one.
Try Colorado rte 550 OP with 45,000 in the box
Smoking brakes even with the engine brake
Scared of a tire blowing out ? Cliffs on 550 have a 100+ foot drop

And you’re irritated because of steering wheel vibrations ? Grab your balls and man up!

 

Otr was not for me but there are other options. I know I have complained about my job at times, I guess all trucking jobs have their issues but I'm learning to take it all with a grain of salt because overall I don't have it bad.

Start work at 6:30am done around 3pm usually. Leave out in the morning and return to exactly the same spot at the end of the day. Park the truck and go home. I'm still making 54k per year which is allot better then all of other people living in my community. I still have what I consider to be normalcy and still be with family on a daily basis when off duty.

Frankly, at least this point in my life, it's not that bad

 

6:30 is a God awfully early time to be at work. I start at 5am which is obviously much worse than your situation and I get out at 1:30-2:30.

It sucks trying to make plans for people who are all on a 9-5 schedule and it sucks waking up in the middle of the night.

I'd recommend trucking to my enemies, few others.

 

Tell him as sweetly as possible that you are new to this and easily confused. Yelling will only make you work slower.

(Still using that line 12 years in. Lol)

 

They talk to us like garbage because of the new breed door slamming steering wheel holders. That and all the white Volvo drivers and their wonderful accents

 

I have never worked 9-5 those are bankers hours. Pre-cdl I worked as a milk reciever, basically unloading the milk trucks I now drive and load....ironic. anyways I worked 3rd shift for a while. I worked a 1030am-630pm those hours suck. To late of a start to do anything before work and too late of an end time to do anything either. Frankly I'm pretty happy with 6-3. Can't complain. $1k per week isn't too bad either.

 

Ok

 

Well, I am the complete opposite of OP. Except the noise for the brief time I hauled pneumatic trailers, I can only really relate to the hand issues that come from gripping the steering wheel. They are the worst when in high winds, I’m driving at night, or on winding roads. Sometimes I wake up after that shift and can barely open my hands. It sucks.

Everything else though, I can’t complain. I used to be that poor ####### loading and unloading trailers. I haven’t worked a single day since I’ve had my cdl. My worst day of trucking is still better than my best day in any other job I’ve had. I think it’s a matter of perspective. I’m not entitled to a #### thing. I’m blessed to get to do this. I GET to do this. I’m not entitled to do so. I could work for a living. Now I never do and make more than I ever had the prospect to make before driving. The hours are long and require attention, but let’s face it... we drive. It’s not rocket science. 14 year old kids on farms do what we are doing every single day of their lives, longer hours and for way less money... they do it to survive.

Some are college educated but the majority of us are not. Some are felons and some have pristine records. The fact that a person like me who has a felony record, a terrible job hopping history, no college degree, a GED and literally no desire whatsoever to be a productive member of anything close to what most would consider society... can spend a total of 8 weeks between studying and repeatedly backing up and pulling forward, then make 70k per year in the first year doing nothing but sitting on my ###.

Shut the #### up and drive. Get over yourself. I was entitled for the first month. I’d yell at and abuse planners if they let me sit or didn’t bend to my will... and it go me nowhere. So I tried something else... I tried enjoying the things that normally frustrate the #### out of people. I stopped rushing through traffic or planning my day around it. I started sleeping in rest areas and on onramps. And you know what? When I watched traffic flow around me and saw the rat race unfold from the center lane, like a boulder in a river... I thank God I’m not at all like them. I’m content smelling for an extra day so I don’t HAVE to be married to the truck stop. There was no reefer grinding next to my head at the intersection of 191 and I70 last night. Nothing but more stars than I could count and brighter than any I’d ever seen before.

I took one of those cushy home daily jobs and I took a pay cut to come back out on the road. That just wasn’t for me. This is me. Trucking has changed me in a year and a half. I couldn’t ever work in an office or on a dock ever again. And I don’t even want to think about a regular 9-5 job. If I ever say otherwise put a bullet in my head.

I’m not one of those people who just says trucking isn’t for everyone or that I wouldn’t wish it on an enemy. Trucking isn’t for entitled punks. I recommend everyone that I know get their cdl and come out here. Every kid that I know who is turning 21, I’m begging them to get into a truck before they have kids and a mortgage. They could be set for life. Debt free. Always employed and employable. And never have to work a single day in their life.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. You could work for a living.

 

And btw... 12 percent of deaths on the road aren’t truck drivers. Even if they were, that would mean I’m 88% more likely to die on the way to a job in a box that I absolutely hate. If I die doing this, I’m doinf something I love and I’m providing a way of life for literally hundreds of millions of people, perhaps billions, of you include the folks in other countries who benefit from our economy. When I was unloading trailers at Home Depot, I was nothing but a blight on the global community. I provided absolutely no substance or service to my fellow man. Now because of me hundreds of employees, maybe thousands have things to sell.. providing their livelihood... and the things they sell were made with components from all corners of the world.

But enjoy that 9-5. That meaningless void that you call an existence. God what a boring life!

 

@RedRover change your grip on the steering wheel. I did and it worked wonders, getting completely rid of probable carpal tunnel syndrome that had started aggravating me.

Now I make sure my hands and wrist are in as straight a line as possible, thumbs on top, holding the wheel like I hold a golf club. Now I can drive all day in a hard broadside wind without pain.