Former Cubicle Dwellers: How does trucking compare?

I'm a single guy.If I were t get married,I'd sell my truck and bein a daycab so fast,it'd make your head spin,but I do enjoy my OTR life.I'm takin a 34 in Long Beach,CA later this week and renting a harley.

 

I'm looking at getting into the trucking industry after spending 30 years in consumer products development. Tired of companies and jobs crapping out after 18 months, not by my choice or anything I did, just companies closing, loosing business. Tired of not living in the same place year after year, haven't spent Christmas at the same address for the last 6 years, and even then 3 different countries. Lots of hours on the road driving to remote factories, all hours of the day and night, some 36 hour days that you don't get paid overtime because I"m "exempt" payroll. Or living in a 3 world communist country and working 18 hour days 7 days a week, Sometimes a driving a few hours on the road there, nothing in the world like a truck stop in China, again no overtime. Time away from home? Yep that too, and fast food/truck stop food. Spent a lot of time in Pilot, Flying J and TA the last couple years, have bought a lot of gasoline from old Bill Haslam.

And salaries getting lower and lower, heck, most companies want to pay what I was making in the mid-90's. IF they can pay anything at all, you'd be surprised how many job offers I get that want to pay me "an equity position" which means no salary, make me part owner of a company that doesn't make a profit. I don't even bother to put my MBA on my resume anymore, no one cares, HR sees it and thinks they have to pay more money.

Thing is the traveling/road part was the only thing that kept me sane, get too antsy if I have to stay in an office for too long a time. And working in said communist country has pretty much drained any little sense of political correctness I've ever had. So checking into CDL schools, see what I can drum up. My mom worked in truck line offices all her working career, Hoover Motor Freight, Ryder, Consolidated Freighways, P.I.E. She thinks I"m nuts....

 

yes, companies are squeezing the blood out of us turnips

kinda shoots holes in "the less taxes the corporations pay, the more people they will hire" lie being passed around

if they can get 50 people to do the work of 100, they will cut the work force down to 45, just to increase profits

and by and large, corporations have a higher profit margin now than ever before yet wages for workers are stagnant for the past 40 years

but you just keep working, and pay your taxes and be good sheeple, Bill Gates needs you!

 

So what do you do for a living now ?.. obviously you don't drive truck anymore if its that bad..

 

I used to work in non-profit and retail. Love both and I am back at the retail for right now. My health took a down turn and I am off the road for a few months then my mom's health took a down turn so I am taking this off time to help her out. Anyway I miss the road, going to new destinations, having a new backing challenge, rambling off highway numbers like it's nothing. My company has given me one more extension and then they have to let me go, but I love being out on the road, yea it gets crazy not talking to people, and if you have a co-driver it gets crazy if you really can't relate to that person. Here in my lil small town I love talking about the road and sometimes I'll go to the Pilot just to get a cup of coffee. Can I go back to an office and retail job? Yes. Can I go back to OTR? Yes. One thing about trucking I will have to say and being the age that I am, it teaches you how to be more independent and to be self motivated.

 

o i drive my truck and my trailer and i enjoy what i do

however, that doesnt mean i lose my common senses, my sight, and my hearing

i am very much aware of the direction we are heading, and being aware is much better than being unaware

 

I am not sure if I can drag myself back to my cube tommorrow. I do not get how some people can even look at themselves in the mirror. I work with some people that have no back bone, I could not stand to look in the mirror if I kissed butt, lied, played games that I see.

I thought as we age we are supposed to get more patience. Not me my bs tolerance level is getting tiny.

I don't blame anyone that wants out of cubicle hell!

 

I'm happy you posted that. It's nice knowing I'm not the only one who has an ever-smaller appetite for BS, slackjawed spineless panty-wastes, liars, and posers.

 

got an article the other day that was talking how college students today are of the "entitlement" attitude....


#### have I got news for them.