I'm 18 - should I become a trucker in a few years? Need advice...

I got to agree with everyone stay in school. As much as I want to drive I plan on continuing my education and getting a business degree and my freight broker/agent license so when the time comes for me to get my authority and all that good stuff I'll be prepared for it. Trust me good things come to those who wait! I don't want to do this to get rich I want to do it because I enjoy traveling, driving, and doing office type stuff and this gives me all three in one package deal.

 

Hey DL, there is no such thing as a freight broker/agent license. Just an authority from DOT the same way an O/O gets an authority for a truck.

 

Driving a truck is not a career and for those of you who think it is that is probably why you struggle with all the so called down side. Driving is in your blood it's your passion there is nothing else you want to do. It's not a second career (it can be) a way between two means (it can be). A good driver does it because it a passion. There isn't anywhere else I want to be but behind the wheel. I have a college degree in business, I'm a successful owner operator and didn't shut down due to the price of fuel this summer, nor did I whine about the price of fuel or anything else. I run my own authority and have been for the past 28 years.

As far as you being 18 and thinking about it....if you're thinking about it maybe you should think about it more in college. You know it in your gut and you have the taste of diesel in your heart. I don't come from anyone in my family driving a truck, it was something I wanted to do at a very early age but I didn't want anyone to own me. I got the degree in business to be a successful businessman.

I'm old school, I didn't have trucking school I was taught by the neighbor down the street. But that was back when it was allowed by the insurance companies....everything has changed since then. I worked every summer with him, we teamed and ran coast to coast 7 days a week and just for good measure when I was off on Christmas break I was back in the truck to learn how to drive on ice and snow.

No one can make the decision for you if this is right for you. Some of the cons are...you miss alot of family things (remember you're working), holidays don't become such an important thing anymore, you've got to learn that you are the "professional" driver regardless how the 4-wheelers drive it will be your fault if you're involved in any mishap. You have to have patience for shippers, receivers and everyone you come in contact with and to most people you are the low life of the country. You'll learn that it is a mostly a lonely life on the road and what once was brothers of the road is now everyone for themselves. Long hours and hard work and don't let anyone tell you it's not. This is not a 40 hour work week...it's a 70 hour work week.

Some of the pros....you are a free spirit (company drivers within reason), you get to see the country (some of it a night), you'll meet some fantastic people and make some friends that you can count on, you can look someone in the eye and know if they are lying, you have the satisfaction knowing you did the best you could at the end of the day.

Stay in school or drive a truck....ask a driver and you'll get a different answer from each one you ask. What should you do....you need to ask yourself and be honest with yourself in the answer.

 

Well said driver! I definately love being behind that wheel and being a free spirit roaming around to whatever. Some of us like me are born with the diesel in our blood family own a trucking company and all my uncles have driven there whole life and. But the rest of em just smell that diesel and road and start loving it from the start. But its not for everyone like he said long hours sometimes, and sometimes alot of sitting around waiting. But I wouldnt do anything else I love being outside and go completly nuts when I work inside a factory all cooped up.

 

I meant to say school.

 

I would strongly urge anyone I cared about from ever getting involved with trucking.

That said, most people will listen to what you say,then do what they really want to.

If you really want to drive a truck, then you'll probably find yourself behind the wheel if it's possible.

My hope would be, that doing so doesn't limit your potential as it so often does for many people out here.There's not a lot most drivers are suited to do after spending 10-15 years on the road.Many of us don't have a degree or a back up plan.

It's often a thankless,stressful job where the downsides usually far outweigh the ''freedom'' of the road.

As Janice Joplin said,''Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose'',and you'll lose a lot out here.

You'll lose being near freinds and family,you'll lose control of your time,and judging by the way many drivers carry themselves these days,a lot of them lose their self respect.

Stay in school if you can.

 

You know yes you have too be pasionate about trucking its more a lifestyle then a career but its a great career for the uneducated seems too be a lot of uneducated drivers out here. My suggestion if you can go to your commmunity college if you cant afford it try too get grants or loans for it but most community colleges offer truck driving training for a course and while your doing that you can look at other things too study like business courses or computer technologies, but yeah I suggest you go to school and see whats there.

 

I drive for a private company out of Kansas City. I run to Houston as a team. We run three times the first week and two times the next week. I make right at $51,300 per year plus benifits. We leave at 5 pm Sunday and we are back by 7pm Monday. Four nights a week with my wife and kids followed by five nights a week with my wife and kids. I think it is a good job.

I still believe the best use for my talents would have been foot model but we do what we have to do.

 

My 2 cents.
Follow your heart - follow your desires - follow your dream.
What will you have to lose? The cost of the trucking school - maybe, but if you find you don't like it or it just isn't working - you're definitely young enough that you can do something else and not have missed a beat.
The trucking industry is being hit by the economy - so what, everything else is, too! I know numerous construction companies - the companies we were delivering product to - that are out of business. Hundreds of thousands of people are being laid off everywhere. Even some trucking companies are parking semis.
But, by the time you are old enough to become a trucker, I certainly hope this mess is ancient history.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have gone to college. It might not have helped me right now, in the current economic chaos, but there are many companies out there doing various types of services or manufacturing or whatever that like to see that you made the commitment to spend that many years in school.
It isn't even necessarily whether the degree you earn is related to a prospective employer. It's the same thing as many companies wanting High School diplomas now and rejecting GED's.
You could do a 2-year stint in college at the least before you are old enough to drive.
If you did that, you might even find your "true calling".
Then again, you might find that calling out on the road - encounter something or someone or and idea you wouldn't have come across otherwise.
Good luck with whatever you do.

 

Check out nursing, my old racket. Surgical nurse in orthopedics. Just like twisting a wrench! And men are in need in that particular area. Lots of heavy lifting and a needed know how in power tools and carpentry. And yes, you do need to know how to read a ruler. Also a bit of digital photography and electronics gizmo know how is needed. It helps if you can set the time on a vcr or DVD recorder.

You also must be able to think on your feet and not be afraid of blood. Kinda like a truck driver, so maybe you are half way there.

That is where I would be right now, or retired.

Mike