Just introducing myself to everyone....

I'm currently in CDL school in central TX, and have passed my written tests and have signed up for a late Feb. driving test. Feel pretty confident about passing, and then it is on with SNI OTR training (dry van). Have been doing a lot of research in regards to the trucking industry. thought i'd share some of my thoughts and impressions thus far with others in the forums. I'm hoping to make some great friends and contacts out on the road. I have a gf driving partner and we are super excited and nervous. We both wish we could just take the test tomorrow and begin training, but in Texas, at least where we are, they have a backlog and so we must wait over a month.

Given the amount of OTR drivers out there, I'm surprised there isn't a bigger social forum! The job is so unique that it seems like there should be more of an online community. Maybe I'm just not privy to that community yet. I hope to get in with some folks because it seems like we need each other out there. If anybody is passing through Austin on i35 I'd love to meet up and buy you a Starbucks. Let me know! I'm a couple minutes from Downtown and I've seen places for rigs to park right there by the lake.

Some things regarding OTR lifestyle have me worried. As I've aged, I've become more
conscientious about my diet. Me and the gf hope to bring a small grill with us so we can mostly do our own cooking. We'll have a crockpot too. Just seems like a bit of a pain though to have to prepare all one's meals in such a cramped (and often jostling) environment. Had me thinking of a biz idea that catered to truckers wanting prepared meals and fresh groceries (and maybe some not so healthy options too, I still like my cookies). Like the Blue Apron service only you could pick it up at a truckstop from the vendor, not have to get your delivery on your home-time as the current prepared meal services do. Would anybody be interested in such a service? I've brainstormed what I'd want specifically for my own-self to come up with this biz idea. I got to thinking that such a service would also include a trash or dirty dishes take out service. It just seems like such a service is sorely lacking for truckers, and with the lack of parking being such an issue, I wonder why such a service doesn't exist. Maybe because wages have been so ####ty for so long. But pay is going up, and these services have gotten real popular with the general populace for good reason. And it seems like a no brainer that truckers would love the convenience of having those services delivered right to their cab door. Maybe add a simple laundry service and generic clothing delivery service. Give the company your measurements and they'll bring you clean clothes. You hand off your dirty generic clothes, wash, repeat. Am I crazy to think this could be a thing?

Other thoughts. I am not going to have a permanent residence while I'm OTR. I don't see the point. We plan on driving most of the time, and then taking just one break over the xmas season. I was mulling the idea of finding enough like-minded OTR truckers who mostly work out on the road fulltime with no permanent residence to form an LLC to invest in real estate that in theory could work out as a timeshare. My reasoning being that I just want a place to crash 1 or 2 weeks out of the year. Why not try to find ppl in a similar situation. You only really want a place 1 or 2 weeks, and by pooling resources, you can get a much nicer place than if you buy it yourself. Even a place you have to share with 20 others gives you more than 2 weeks to use the place per person. I'm not a businessman so I don't know all the ins and outs of what an LLC like this would entail. Obviously if it were easy more people would do it. I do know timeshares have fallen out of favor due to greedy timeshare companies trapping ppl into high cost maintenance fees, etc.

In regards to the trucking industry's future, I'm convinced that we'll see these autonomous companies pushing to get deregulated to try and push human beings out, maybe sooner than later. I hope everyone fights it tooth and nail because I think autonomous is a security nightmare that could literally bring on the end of the world. So that's my 2 cents on that subject. Looking forward hearing back from folks!