lack of self confindence/want to be a trucker

Do it brother!!!!! Once you get behind the wheel of your assigned truck, you are going to feel empowered! I've got 10 years in and it keeps getting better

 

Really sorry to hear about the loss of your wife.
That's got to be the hardest thing on earth, next to losing a child.

A way to think about it..
A new chapter has opened.
I made it through THAT.
I can do anything.

If you have basic common sense, you can do this.
There are lots out here that lack that common sense, and they really struggle.
The mechanics of operating the vehicle will fall into place.
Will you be able to use your God given common sense in all of the other applicable scenarios that WILL come up?
That's where most fail.

Something tells me you can handle it.

Just do it.

 

1st, let me say, I'm sorry to hear about your wife. In a way, it makes this decision a lot easier. Some drivers have sick family members and can't get home to help them. You are at the right age. 60's, I feel is too old to do that, even though some have to. Driving modern trucks is not much different than a car these days, so much so, it's easy to forget what you're driving. Schools today take even the most seemingly inept drivers, and give them a chance. A great majority don't make it a year, but many do, and you might like it. Best thing, is you deliver to places like where you work now, and it's nice to be able to leave.
Good luck.

 

I was 58 when I left a 21 year job to go on the road. Granted, I was driving a truck for them and had been OTR before that.
My wife then developed serious health problems. That has been very difficult for both of us with me being away. She is now doing much better.
You can definitely do it. And you're in a good position because you don't have to be home on a regular basis. You're not too old. I'm almost 62 now.

 

@JamesWeed Driving a semi forward is not difficult, backing it up is. Most modern trucks are Automatic transmissions, so your not shifting.
If you have money for training you are better off that way a trainer carrier does not own you as an indentured slave.
Go OTR if you want to see the country.

When you stop having a fear of semi trucks is when the truck will teach you to respect it.

 

Are you getting any younger? No. Will you regret it if you don’t try it? Yes. There’s your answer. If you’ve got the discipline and work ethic to work over 30 years at one place, then you’ve got more of the “right stuff” than most of the drivers I see these days. You’ll see more interesting things in two years than you’ve seen in the last 50.

 

haha, what is with this "go to truck stops, talk to drivers, find out from the drivers which company is best"

Have you been to a truck stop? Last thing truckers want is some greenhorn hanging around, asking questions through parking lots and shower hallways asking which company is best? Isn't that what this forum is for?

Next someone will say "pop a squat in the trucker bathroom and start asking drivers through the stall walls" I'd probably say as I'm sitting on the toilet "I'm thinking of driving for Swift?" I'd get a loud "LOL!" echoing throughout.

 

Seaboard Foods is a separate company from the tanker one. They run reefers as well as local trucks hauling hogs into the Guymon, OK plant and also local trucks hauling from their feed mill in Guymon out to the hog barns.

 

Don't they haul pork in reefer containers to the seaports for export?

 

I said do people watching, not talking

 

Yes, Seaboard Foods does. They have a big pork plant in Guymon.