Getting with an LTL to transition to strict dock work.

Make a plan and have 3-6 months of living expenses saved up. Then make up a backup plan and finally a third option in case the first two don't work out. Just don't put yourself in a hole you can't get yourself out of.

Personal story: I am having a horrible time at work right now and I am getting pretty much crapped on by my middle level management. Just to show how petty they are, their in-cab cameras caught me "yawning briefly while driving" and I was counseled on it. I am on Phase 2 out of Phase 3 putting my new plan together. It will take me an additional 19 months to get this done so I can leave. I am trying to pick up a instructor position at a commercial driving school (ironically the same one I graduated from but a different location). It would be awesome to go back full circle and end my career where I started out as, but instead of seated at a desk, be on the other side doing the lectures. The position is open right now. I am more than qualified to apply for it right now (I have instructor experience in the past where I held lectures to 200+ people audiences for two hours at a time when I was active duty military). I also consider myself a subject matter expert in the field I would be teaching. I also absolutely am done being micromanaged down to a in-cab yawn. My main hold up is putting together the over redundancy of my plan to ensure every single base is covered, and I do that at the expense of my shrinking tolerance of my current job.

I got my arse beat when Yellow went under. It was brutal having all of that income just be gone and all the bills just piling up. I don't want to see anyone else in that position, so I hope you make a measured and very educated decision and factor in the thousand things in life going right at the moment that can quickly turn against you when you are the most vulnerable. Best of luck.

 

Mind if I ask, where do you see yourself 5 years from now or want to see yourself? Professionally?

 

You are the same age as me. I also am having issues with things and I also don't know what the universal solution is. My advice is to quit using your CC and prioritize paying off your balance. I did the whole debt snowball thing and paid off nearly $100k in debt in just over two years. Once you got that breathing room, needing money will no longer be your #1 priority. Granted, you will need to sacrifice some of your lifestyle on the way, but you will feel a ton better when you have options where you can prioritize what you want to do vs how much it pays.

You should also consider some community colleges and see if they have any trade school type programs that run on weekends. Maybe learn how to weld or repair stuff. Some offer apprenticeships where you can still generate some form of income. My best friend from high school is also my age and he just got into law enforcement. Left his truck driving life behind and now wears the full uniform working at the State Capital building. I also want out and I've been thinking about doing a crepe stand for several years.

 

That’s the big problem with trucking and wanting to do something else or even down grade the class of truck you want to drive . I’ve found alot of class b jobs like roll off on-site fuel deliveries .concrete etc actually pay a lot more for local work in my area . Like $28-35 a hr vs $21-26 for semi truck . The problem is if you want to leave trucking or work the dock like the op posted . If down the road you want to get backing into trucking and want to drive a transport truck again but it’s been months or years of not being behind the wheel is a lot companies will not hire you because you don’t have recent experience. Especially in the current market where just switching driving jobs can be hard to do because few are hiring . The whole industry is a racket in my opinion. you can have loads of experience pulling vans or reefers but if you want to move over to tanker , flatbed etc sorry you need some experience doing that kind of work.