Leave Office Job for Truck Driving

I start CDL training Monday through Roehl's CDL program. I'm using the last two years of my GI Bill and am leaving healthcare. I had a job I enjoyed but the hours and nonsense you have to deal with on a daily basis from management and coworkers finally took its toll on me

 

I acquired my CDL as my “back pocket career” twenty some years ago. Wife made a great deal more than me, so if we moved in a transfer for her, I’d instantly have something to do.

IMO, the “best” truck jobs involve another skill. Load securement, for flatbed, is one. Pneumatic trailer, hauling plastic, is another. There are others.

It’s very, VERY important that you like the TYPE of truck-driving jobs you take. Pride is huge. Emotions out of whack WILL get you or someone else killed. There are no “just show up and endure it” workdays where you sneak out early. Claim a doctors appointment (you’ll put in for those two weeks ahead). In this world, you snap that chain to your collar and git it dun. Muddy (and as happy) as a dog after a pair of shoats in a wallow.

Trucking is full of doorslammer dumb butts. Try to stand out. Attitude, appearance and skill. (I ran a load yesterday where the average MPG for this company on this load is in mid-sevens. I had a non-aero trailer and was in low eights. I wasn’t “trying”; am still new. You need to stand out in some fashion).

Certifications are worth your while. When I talk with a recruiter or fleet owner and tell them “twenty years” and clean record with Haz Mat, Doubles-Triples plus Tankers they wake up. TWIC plus Concealed Carry means I’ve passed several backgrounds before. Call today, drive tomorrow.

Truck driving is classified as unskilled labor by the US Dept of Labor. Daycare workers and janitors. It’s better to be a in a skilled blue collar position, overall.

Still, it’s no real penalty to quit or be fired in truck driving. So long as that record stays clean and one has demonstrable acquired truck skills.

Work towards being able to change truck jobs at will. If you run into problems (tickets, accidents) you may get trapped at a bad job. Invest in tools and gear. Look ahead.

Soldier, fireman and police officer are safer. Each has pensions. Each has better amenities. And a lot more competition. Society finds them necessary. Not so, this.

Truck driving is for disposable people. Someone cuts a small check to survivors and it all moves on. Like it didn’t happen. No union or legislators looking out for your interests. No “John Doe” safety bill in the House Transportation Committee. No memorial plaque. In this sense there is no safety net. Or recognition. (One of our teams was killed yesterday. Entire company is nothing but old experienced hands; many on second or third career).

Lots of guys want local work. Daily. Might not pay well because of competition. Or it’s back-breaking local delivery with company observers following you around. (Shirt-tail out on 98F day and they write you up). Plenty of horse puck aggravation’s in this world. Strongly recommend you see what’s available. And what experience is necessary to get those jobs. In some ways it’s harder than it looks to “get there”. Much more than a strong back and willingness.

I prefer OTR. Two-three weeks is about right. But the kid is long since grown up and I’m now divorced. Plenty of guys want to be home every weekend. Not easy to make good money in 4.5-days. Much easier for planners/dispatch to run you two weeks.

So, it’s not so much what YOU are willing to do, but what’s available. No one cares what you want. And what you can get is determined by your record and your experience.

I can pick up the phone and make another 20k annually. But I ###### sure don’t want to work that hard any more. Not even sure I can at my age. The point is to get to where the job offers flood in. And that may mean taking jobs that put off being home very much the first couple years. Be prepared.

Anyone thinks truck driving doesn’t have a lot of “people problems” is kidding themselves. But if one did well enough in an office job, that should take care of dealing with those above you. But dealing with traffic can be a rude and daily worse awakening (as it’s increasingly populated by foreigners who neither know nor care about traffic laws; the principles mean nothing as they can’t deduce A from B).

Basically, there’ll be a daily fifteen-minute window when you’re re-loaded and have hit the outskirts of a major metro area. Locked on the cruise. A newly-opened pack of smokes on the dash, fresh coffee at hand and something funny just came across the CB. (Don’t expect more).

Good luck.

 

A lot of us introverted types get in to IT under the false assumption its a good job for us antisocials. Once I got in there I realized it was more people-facing than most of the people person jobs I foolishly signed on to. I had to deal with every single person in the agency. I could fix computers like there was no tomorrow. Develpoed a sixth sense I could even isolate those tricky motherboard issues quickly most of the time after doing it a decade.

But the people aspect just ruined it. I work better and more efficiently when i am alone. Having people ringing my phone every half an hour asking for the status of their repair or keeping them on the phone while trying to figure something out was a huge handicap. Was never able to reach my potential.

As long as I am not replaced by an autonomous truck, or screw up and roll the truck, I probably wont career change again. I am making a lot more my first year on the road to. Retired from IT pulling in 40-45k. Now I'm earning 60-70k depending on the routes I get.

Last check i net 1900. This week coming up is home time week so its a short route and wont clear 1000. My average is around 1500 gross.

In IT my salary was 3200 a month. I have seen a check that large already in a single week running the north west on a week I was supposed to be off. I got a bonus for staying out and doing it. Just one so far, but it feels great when you get a good week.

 

“For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught. To say the things, he truly feels. And not the words, of one who kneels”.

I’d say go for it. Be free.

 

I actually left trucking medically and went to college to take a stab at getting into IT.

What I learned helped me stay out of IT all together. I would have rotted in it, going to meetings about meetings about stuff that is meaningless.

Life is too short to be sick, sad and unhappy. Do what you like and stick to it.

Some of my happiest work is essentially the most mindless. Running a front end loader for example. That's FUN. But does not require much thinking beyond physics and safety.

 

I had an illness and injury in one year. I was blown over by a storm in my truck.

So, I also attempted college and got as far as a 2 year degree in Cyber Security following another industry complaining about a worker shortage and thinking I could be a White Hat or Security Pen-Tester. That was a bad plan on my part as it's so specialized and requires many expensive certifications plus experience. Other life crap happened and financials got to tight so I had to abandon that path and dragged myself back into trucking with a refresher.

I'm curious if anyone still does anything with their technical skills or if they had to abandon everything they learned. It's one of the things that bothers me feeling like I studied so much and now it's all going to waste except for customizing my home Linux PC or dabbling in Python.

I dunno. Maybe I need to get into a road driving job at a steady pace where I can fit in time for Tech projects on a good laptop and just find satisfaction in that. Maybe even try to learn Java or Python/Kivy for Android Apps.

 

I got into programming and pen testing/hacking. Sadly I dont use any of it anymore. I didn't have the strength at the end of my workday to try and build a portfolio for employment. I was kind of burned out.

I wrote a program in python that probes ip addys routers and attempts to gather info by sending icmp pings with different flags turned off and on.. The idea was to do it without triggering a log in the router. Had some success. Thats as far as I got there.

I dont really miss it. What I really want to do is just play games. And I can get that out here for the most part.

 

Son, what you really want is a wife and family. A home. Don’t settle for less. (Yes, things will get worse before they improve. And it will take men to make that happen. Be one of them).

If a job can be outsourced, it will. Take the jobs and earn the credentials that requires YOU to be there for things to happen. To get paid.

Yes, truck driving “can” have enough time in it for any of us to study. To read.

As Thos. Jefferson wrote in a famous letter, one is to choose something of a spiritual nature to read directly before bed. To ruminate upon during the hours of sleep.

It’s one of the things I most enjoy about OTR. Time.

 

When I was still in the program I participated in the College Cyber Defense Team. I hacked the team Lab Room with a denial of service attack.

I suppose part of me misses that feeling of technical achievement (or shenanigans) and also at the time I thought it would lead to a good income. I keep wondering if there is a way to still do that, but on my own terms self-funded through truck driving. Maybe I could try to publish tutorials on Kindle or something.

I would like to mess with making a game, but that could be a huge undertaking unless I went the retro route and did a text adventure for fun.

 

Someone in another thread suggested listening to podcasts or audiobooks about Philosophy or any ideas that are challenging to follow. I'll definitely do that if I go back to road trucking.