Life dilemma

Discussion in 'Heavy Haul Trucking Forum' started by idriveaholden, May 3, 2020.

  1. REO6205

    REO6205 Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    LOL...Fifty? Big Deal! I was fifty 23 years ago and I still get out and drive when I feel like it. That means you're twenty now? Sheeeesh, I got boots that are older than you.;)

    Seriously, it's obvious you like trucking and you're not afraid of the OS/OW challenges. That means you have a good work ethic. Apply that good work ethic to something like UPS that will reward you for it.
    I did well with driving but I had a lot of good years when it was still possible to make good money, too. Those days aren't now and they may not be again. I think you'll find that most of the old guys like me will tell you to stay with the good job.
     
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  3. Rubber duck kw

    Rubber duck kw Road Train Member

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    I'd suck it up and keep the UPS job, at least for now anyway see if this economy turns back around anytime soon.
     
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  4. Western flyer

    Western flyer Road Train Member

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    The great trucking delima.
    Do you stay with the one you love.
    Or with the one that loves you.
    Hang around long enough,we all go through it.

    I've had great paying jobs that I hated so much,
    I was sick the night before just thinking about
    What I had to do the next morning.

    I've had jobs that didn't pay squat, but I loved
    Every minute of it.
    Looking back, I spent way more years at the ones
    I liked. Money was second to happiness.

    Now I'm older,it's money and retirement first.
    I don't have many more chances to get it right.
    A think a lot of it depends on age.

    At 25 I would have never put up with all the
    Rules at UPS.
    Now at 51, I'm trying to figure out how to get in.
    Every situation is different.
     
  5. petrolK9

    petrolK9 Light Load Member

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    Whenever I have worked at one of these "places to retire" jobs, there would usually be a core group of drivers who had been there a long time and others would come and go. Every one that came on said they were in it until retirement because the benefits were so great and increased every year.

    I wasn't at UPS, but one place in particular, most drivers would stay about 2-3 years and the core group remained. One question might be if you want to do whatever it takes to be in that group that stays forever. Heavy Haul to UPS sounds very incongruent to me. I just can't see most Heavy Haul guys I've come across fitting in with the UPS culture. But to each his own, I usually don't stereotype except as a countermeasure.
     
  6. D.Tibbitt

    D.Tibbitt Road Train Member

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    Gettin' down westbound
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    Dude, from one flatbedder to another . Money aint everything . If u enjoy open deck work then get back out there. I can imagine how bored u feel with that linehaul crap. Why it pays so much money i will never know. Its obvious them chains and binders are in ur blood tho. Hope u make the right choice
     
  7. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    The Marlboro man preferred his cigarettes, cowboy hat, riding the range and being free. Threw caution to the wind.
    'Marlboro man' Eric Lawson has died of lung cancer, aged 72. An actor who played the rugged Marlboro man in cigarette ads in the late 1970s has died of lung cancer.
    'Marlboro man' Eric Lawson has died of lung cancer, aged 72
    upload_2020-5-3_15-34-44.jpeg .[​IMG]

    Yeah, exaggeration!
     
    Last edited: May 3, 2020
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  8. truckdad

    truckdad Road Train Member

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    I gather you have a family. They should come first. Take the money and security for now, as this screwed up world we're in may take a loooong time to recover..
     
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  9. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    White County, Arkansas
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    Satisfaction is something not many see in life.

    My own life. When SSA handed me a few sheets detailing my lifetime earnings to the penny some years back I realise a simple question.

    Zero. But I was very happy being a trucker. I'll die a trucker. Even if I am yapping on the fence about it. But as a income to stack a couple of million before retirement? HA the nerve.

    Judging by my friends I was lucky. A rolling office, solo all the time and boss 2000 miles away, remote working long before there was even a remote job... I am the boss. I was very satisfied with everything. If not I made a fix for it when something broke. And the ladies were wonderful. Would not marry any of them though. They are just too wild. You don't take a wild bird and cage them. They simply lose life and die in it.

    If I did not like a particular situation in work? I moved on either through engineered firing, banning or quit. I refuse to waste even one hour of my crappy life saying yes massa and do a job that I throw up on physically. The body has a way of revolting against really bad work. Whatever it is. Its easier to deal with a half burned up screaming human inside a wrecked vehicle than it is to say fold envelopes in a workshop. (Something many deaf and other handicapped ere assigned decades ago in the bad old days.)

    Oh yes. We were satisfied and free. Run around several countries doing what we need to without someone picking over every little thing or decision made. Yes they yell at me if I was early because I was wrong. Or late when I am still really wrong. And wait and lose money when on time. So F it. LOL. Tomorrow is a new day.

    Fast forward to today. When I consider my life from then to this, Ive done it all. Im happy to sit on the porch. Espeically when flip flop from overseas wants to try his or her hand at driving. Have at it. But I'll still die a trucker. I don't know how to be anything else. I could take a stab at it. But would have to be something worthwhile. Not wasted motion. Time goes away fast and theres not much of it to fritter and waste as a dishwasher.

    What would I do? Many things. My favorite would be either loader or dozer work. Thats play time. Not work. I understand there is a new I-11 being built out west for 2000 miles. I might go that way someday and be a part of it. Who knows. But not yet. Ive still got work to do tending to my loved ones while they are still with us.

    Ultimately thats very important. Being with people you love, even if they are sick and probably will pass on in due time. This is not the time to be roaming the USA. Your time with them is very important while you have it. Many of you would not wipe a tear at all reading this but most families do not understand truckers, mine did not with one exception. And you wonder why we don't have too much old time Filial Love in most of them while they lived with me gone so much.
     
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  10. Coffey

    Coffey Heavy Load Member

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    You'll find out after a couple weeks/months if you can handle it for the long run if you can't I suggest you save as much money as you can now for later or to buy yourself a truck and go o/o
     
  11. tscottme

    tscottme Road Train Member

    With the money and time off at the new job find a hobby or something to give you the meaning you are missing.
     
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