I turned in my truck today

I can't blame anyone for throwing in the towel. I often think those of us out here that live this life are latent masochists. LOL. I got talked into a "promotion" as manager in a M-F, 9-5 office trucking job. Didn't work out for me and I went back OTR knowing full well all the downsides and negatives so I guess that makes me crazier than most. I did the local thing and the home every weekend thing too but they weren't fits for me either. It takes me a full day home to "detruckify" as my wife puts it. So it's OTR more out but longer in for me and I just deal with the bad and enjoy the good. I love to drive and I love OTR and I just take the good with the bad as a whole deal. I had a slide this winter too so I totally get the "oh $#!+" moments and how they make you question being out here at all. My trailer came around me, but I was able to get her back under me without hitting anything - it was close enough for some cussing, though - a guy (I'm assuming it was a guy, might have been a woman, though) zippity doo daa ing along in the slush and patchy snow pack in a big 4WD pick up blew a stop sign when he came up to it way too fast and tried to stop way to suddenly for the road conditions and spun out into my lane I had to take evasive action. Luckily I was poking slow enough and did the right corrective things so I had enough time and space to get her back under me before hitting anything, but it was a close call. It was safe enough to drive, but you needed to drive slowly and carefully which I was but he was not. I get where the OP is coming from and with all the hazards we face from other drivers it gets hairy sometimes. This really isn't for everyone only I'm afraid after six years you might have absorbed too much diesel to ever get it fully out of your system.

I wish you the best of luck and I cant WAIT for this spring. This winter has been a booger for sure and I accused my DM of checking the National Weather Forecast for winter storms so he would know where they were so he could make sure my load went there slap in the middle of it. He laughed and said it had been a tough winter for accidents so they were under instructions to try and keep the new guys in the milder stuff so it's been a lot of extra snow time on the older hands this year. Gee thanks. So this is a year when being experienced isn't such a good thing. He laughed and said that's one way to look at it, but hey that's why you guys make the big bucks - at which point we both laughed.

Best of luck in the real world and if nothing else, you have had an experience you'll never forget.

 

Took me a couple years but life is pretty normal for me,7:00am start time working 5 days a week (usually) and weekends off yet I'm still in a truck.
I never go to truckstops and I sleep in my own bed every night,life is pretty good.

 

If you're comparing Knight to Wal-Mart...that sir is an out right un-truth.....60 + changing jobs every 18 to 36 months.....wow...just wow.....

 

I think it's more the lifestyle than company that did him in.

Some people just get bored and can't hold a job no matter what. I know I'm one of them. I envy those who can work 20+ years at one place.

 

Thanks for that Animal, one of the best threads I've read in awhile! Drive On!!

 

Educating yourself about the trucking industry is not going to prevent you from having to deal with ill informed, arrogant, dispatchers, D.O.T. officers that are there solely to produce revenue for their particular state, companies that make drivers wait hours upon hours to get loaded/unloaded, etc., etc. Nevermind the bad weather, automobile drivers that are dangerous and clueless and living in a truck for weeks on end.

Sure, there are better jobs out there in the trucking industry but they are few and far between. I don't blame 1Xdriver for getting out. I think about it just about every single day. For what most of these jobs are paying for living and working in that truck 24/7, it is a wonder that they can keep half the drivers the industry has. Hence, all the CDL mills out there.

Good luck to you, 1Xdriver.

 

Make sure you keep your med certificate up to date also on your CDL, just in case somewhere down the line you need to go back to trucking, or to use it as a 2nd income.

 

with all due respect to OP and others, I think with a great certainty that OP will be back. You just don't put up with our industry for 6 years and go back to live happily ever after..
You either won the lotto, have a BS degree, or a set business to fall back to.
Like Mrs. NavigatorWife said.. keep your medical card up to date and your CDL. Godspeed.

 

You can exempt the Med Cert, but hold onto the CDL..

 

Trk driving is trk driving.Hes tired of everything not just certain companies.Can't say that I blame him.