Is Trucking for me? What are the hours really like?

Good for them. I've no need to prove to anyone that I'm "hardcore" or whatever. I'll take all the comforts I can get.

My first company truck has a parksmart. So I've ac or heat on demand. So far in three months I've never sweated or have been cold while sleeping or sitting at a customer. If it's over 80 degrees outside I can be idle with impunity. (Truck is set for 90 degrees but it goes with ambient temperature, not what the weather channel says). Mattress was replaced with a brand new one when I got the truck even though it only had 50k miles on it then. I have a tv and a fridge and an entertainment system (to be fair I barely turn the tv on). It all works flawlessly. I also don't have a camera in my truck. Sure. Some of these things I had to buy. But they're not expensive if you stay away from truck stop pricing and they are all good quality.

This is my first company and my first truck. If I'm going to live in this thing for a month + at a time, I'm going to make it as comfortable as I possibly can. The fridge has already more than paid for itself and I'm eating much healthier than truck stops allow. The tv and ps4, while mostly useless, are awesome for days when I'm at a customer waiting for hours. The parksmart allows me to sleep in a temperature that suits the best rest I can get. The not having a camera allows me to sleep at night without worrying about some creepy dude watching me or listening to me.

I didn't get lucky with all this. It was all part of a plan that I had before I ever decided to drive a truck. I chose a company that had good equipment, paid well and didn't have cameras (Schneider for those wondering). Paid well is a contested thing, but for OTR without a camera they offered me by far more than anyone else. If your experience was different, don't assume that it is going to be the same way for everyone.

 

Well somebody is polishing a turd. Is it great? For me it is, but I knew that going in.

I have seen the country and I still do, but that all depends on the what you think the country is. If you think the country is tourist attractions, night clubs, art galleries, sporting events, well manicured natural parks, beautiful people, places, and things trucking isn't for you. If you have a different idea or want to see what the real country is about trucking might be of some interest.

Great pay is an exaggeration. You are working, often long hours. For most truck drivers divide that pay by the hours worked it isn't so great. Your pay is better then fast food. The work is too, but divide the hours by the work and it will look worse. With experience, a great record, and perhaps some contacts, work yourself into a great paying job but that will likely not be your first, second, or even third job in trucking.

You never work your own hours. You work when there is freight that pays. When their is no freight you don't work. As it is now, at some safety nazi companies will lead you to believe you are working at your own pace, but will micromanage you like you won't believe.

Most freight is run at night, unless you luck into a particular job, most of your driving will be at night. When you get some experience you can pick jobs better but unless you are lucky, your going to do a lot of night driving at irregular hours.

Possible, but not likely.

Yup. Their is a possibility, you could luck into the right job right off the bat, but it is not likely. After that jobs ends, what are you going to do? Get lucky again?

Fat chance with that as a new driver. You run when you are needed for freight. Rarely have regular hours. Many drivers are unloading or doing some other trucking activity on their 'off duty time.' There will be down time to catch up on sleep but nothing regular. Of course things can change with some experience and good record.

Sounds like somebody polished up his pathetic life to make it not sound so bad. People, even truckers, do that. Rarely is anything regular in trucking. If you need a regular life, trucking is not for you.

 

Keep your day job: you'll never make it as a recruiter,
Who do you think you are telling these new guys the truth
Like that.

 

As you can see by your thread, there are a lot of mean,hateful drivers in the trucking industry.
For me, my schedule changes with each new load. I,personally like it this way. Driving nights has a lot of advantages.
There will be a "learning curve" they may be difficult to overcome. Remember this tho, you will not change the industry to suit you. You will change to fit in. This job has kept the bills paid during very tough economic times in this country. If I can do this job,as well as all the hateful people on here, then you CAN do this job too.

 

In my opinion, @Chinatown has done more to help drivers on this site than anyone. Listen to him. He'll drop wisdom on here all the time. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do.

 

You work INSANE hours. you just DO. Work 10, off 12, work 14, off 8, but you fudge your book for 2 hours and and work another 14.

If you plan on making decent money, it's just what you do.

Flatbed has the most regular hours.
DECENT Reefer companies has the most IRRegular hours, but pays about the same as flatbed without having to tarp.

Pick your poison.
I personally, got sick of getting absolutely FILTHY with no opportunity to shower for 2-3 days, making me, and my SHEETS so stinky I couldn't stand it.

Whatever you're doing, there isn't a lot of downtime unless you are with a crap company. It's work like a dog 24/7 until you get that magical home-time.

And OTR is NOT for the faint of heart. 90% of drivers don't last a year.

It's a way of life. Either you can cope with it or you can't. And you wo't REALLY know until you try it.

Good Luck, driver.

 

Not one of these answers in this thread are full of hate.
They're telling the guy the truth.
This ain't fairy tale trucking out here.
He's not gonna be at the club dancing on
Friday and Saturday night. He's not gonna get a full days rest every day and he will have to drive at night.
Sometimes 3 or 4 nights in a row.

He'll battle rush hour traffic in big cities that he's never
Been to before.
He'll sleep Parked on the street next to abandoned buildings
Or some big warehouses by himself at 2 am in the morning.

He'll be approached by beggars at every turn.
He'll eat more terrible food than he has his entire life.
Everybody cops,DOT,cars,buses,shippers,receivers,
Truck stops,other truckers, politicians and even the
Company that he works for will hate him.

He'll have too eat hours and cover for everybody else's
Mistakes. Free of charge.
He'll be lied too repeatedly until he figures out on
His own when when they're lying and calls them
Out on it.

He'll pee in a bottle.
Some days he won't get a shower
Canned food might be all you have to eat for the day.
He'll have to carry toilet paper because the customer
Thinks so lowly of him that they won't let him use
Thier bathroom with running water.
He's got to use that port a John out back that
Hasn't been cleaned in a month.

He'll pay a 40 percent mark up on anything he has
To buy on the road.

Other than that it's a great job. Lol.

 

This is life.

 

Well, I guess your idea of hateful and my idea are two different things!
Are you really going to post on here that there aren't hateful drivers?!