Looking for a new career!! TOUGH DECISION

I had a uncle that did that. Double dipped. 27 years in the army then retired from the post office. Died a couple months later.

 

I disagree with most of what passingtrckr has written. I did not spend anywhere close to that amount of time per week waiting load/unload. Most companies pay you detention past 2 hours. You can log load/unload as sleeper if you are in the sleeper and are not personally doing anything. Most companies will allow you hometime 1 day for every 6-7 days out and most will allow home time every 3 weeks. Most 401k plans are handled by a third party and you can choose which mutual funds your money goes into. Not all private companies have gone to 401k. You have a better chance of having your car stolen then you do of getting truck jacked. That should be like the last thing to worry about on the road. A reset is only 34 hours. If you run hard and use your 34 then you are doing good. 13 years is a heck of a long time to stay somewhere where you are not happy.

 

Sorry to hear that, but you do have to agree that the logic is sound. Not many get that kind of chance, or at least not many take advantage of it. What do they say? (myself included), If only I knew then what I know now. LOL, Think smart, it seems that it is something that a lot of us fail to do.

 

There was an old saying that a Master Chief retiring from the Navy would only last 3 years past retirement. All of the ones that I knew that retired only lasted less than 2. I guess their bodies can't handle the lack of stress. They are so used to being wound up all the time or something. It is a really weird thing.

 

Well, you can get a change of jobs in the military, you just have to be presistent and follow the proper channels. 13 years might seem like a long time when you are young, but trust me when I say they seem to fly by as you get older. It seems like only yesterday that my oldest was born, and she just turned 13. Was only a blink in time from 31 to 44. No matter where you go or where you work, unless you become independently wealthy and are the boss, you have to answer to someone and may not always be happy with where you are, but life is what you make of it, so make the most of it.

 

People like passingtrucker are the ones that you don't need to base your decision on,maybe he worked for a bad company,maybe he hated driving to begin with,maybe he chose wrong spots to park,maybe he hated everything about trucking and maybe you won't.

 

I agree with mandiesel. I drove, and never had those problems. My hubby is driving, and does just fine on miles without falsifying his log book. He refuses to do so, and the company he drives for watches that stuff pretty close also. He gets paid dentention for anything past two hours from his appointment time. He also ends up with a lot of drop and hooks.

Yes, there are some good points about the military and government retirement deals, but your retirement plan can also be entirely in your hands, whether you do 401k or set up your own retirement plan. If you don't like being in the military, then why would you want to stay?

My hubby gets home for about 3 1/2 days every three weeks. We have time for a lot more than quickie sex. He brings his truck home for his home time. He also gets home when he asks to get home. Since March when he started with the company he drives for now, they have only messed that up one time, and it was a weekend dispatcher that dropped that ball, not his DM. He's got a very good DM.

 

All you newbies reading this, take a moment to use CRITICAL THINKING on the people who had strongly objected to my recommendations that newbies not enter the trucking industry. If you owned a fleet of say 100 trucks, and you're having problems trying to fill driver positions because truckers are quitting left and right to leave OTR, and settling down to an hourly-paying local job, would it not be prudent to engage in a deceptive campaign to entice people to become truckers ?? The problem that these fleet owners are facing, is that the trucking industry has a loooooong list of negative reputations, which had been disseminated by the internet. You only need to go to any truck stop or rest area to confirm these negative rumors. Being an OTR trucker has serious pay discrepancies (as opposed to what you can earn as a local hourly-paid driver), and safety issues. You should also talk to local hourly-paid drivers, and ask them why they had left OTR, and if they would ever go back into OTR again.

The negative reputations of OTR trucking is becoming common knowledge, thanks to the internet. As a small-fleet, or owner of any sized trucking company, it's only logical that to counter these negative rumors, you'd have to go online, and disseminate positive rumors, to counter the negative rumors. The drivers on this forum who are telling you OTR trucking is the panacea to living the American dream of making good $$$ to buy a house, have 2 cars on the driveway, and time off to enjoy the fruits of your labor, are pulling the wool over your eyes. These people are dispatchers, under orders from the terminal manager to join this forum, and disseminate positive rumors to counter the negative rumors.

Clearly, one of us is lying. I have nothing to gain by telling you to stay out of trucking; or to quit OTR trucking and settle down to a local job. My prime objective is your wife, children, and your happiness. I want you to live the American dream. In my years as an OTR driver, I've watched others sink into drug and alcohol abuse, when the long hours and separation from family had taken its toll at their wives' loneliness and depression. I've seen truckers who were devastated to learn their kids had become drug addicts, because their absence as a father figure had resulted in a period of identity crisis by their teenage kids, and the kids started to hang out with the wrong crowd. When father tried to talk reason to his kids, they replied "oh now you're talking to me. I thought your trucking job was more important." As an OTR trucker, your kids will gradually loose respect for you. These kids will go to ballgames, and other social events with their peers, and notice all the other kids have their mom & dad with them, while you're not there to be a father. You're out on the road, making the rich even richer, and you don't realize the damage OTR is causing your family, till you come home to see divorce papers waiting for your signature, or your wife is getting fatter, because when women become emotionally depressed, they eat more.

There is so much wrong, so much evil in OTR trucking. I don't want others to suffer as I have. I don't want any of you newbies to get taken advantage of, like these shippers, receivers, and dispatchers took advantage of me. The people on this forum who are trying to entice you to become an OTR driver, are not drivers themselves. They're the same people who took advantage of me. They're trying to counter all the negative talk that's discouraging people to become truckers, by adopting the same strategy as used-car salesmen. Much as a used-car salesman will say "this car was driven by an old lady, who only used it on Sundays to attend church services," these dispatchers are trying to fool you to believe they're drivers themselves. Their prime objective to increase the number of newbies entering the trucking industry, to replace the ones leaving OTR trucking.

My objective is your happiness in life; to be home more often with your wife and children, so you can live up to your duties as a father and husband. In contrast, their objective is $$$$$ and to make the rich, into filthy rich people, even if it means bringing in cheap, low-paid truckers from 3rd-world nations across the ocean, or throwing the borders open to Mexicans who refuse to learn English, and expect Americans to learn Spanish instead. Mexicans who are taking $$$$ out of our economy, and sending them south of the border. One of us is lying to you. Who has the most to gain by deceiving to you ??

 

I am not sure if you are talking about me but I am NOT a dispatcher. I think that you are extremely negative and that someone with a positive mindset would do well with a big company, just as I did.

 

I sure am not a dispatcher either, nor a recruiter, nor employed by a trucking company or school in any way shape or form. I use to drive. My hubby is currently driving truck, enjoying it, and getting good miles, good pay, and good vacation time (1 week paid at $1,000 every 30,000 miles). With your negative attitude passingtrucker, someone needs to give this guy some of the positive. Not everything about the industry is negative, and it takes a special woman to be married to a trucker, a woman that can handle raising the kids and running the household on her own. I am one of those women. Our 13 year old son is dealing just fine with dad being on the road, and dad does just fine at being a father even if he is not here every day of the week. It's not the quantity of time, but the quality.

Not very many drivers fall prey to the drugs and alcohol, as both are not allowed when driving (drugs are not allowed at all), and will lose you your license real fast. You may have had a bad experience passingtrucker, but the industry is not 'going to hades in a hand basket' as you seem to think.

Besides, to get most of the local hourly gigs, you need at least 1 year otr experience if not more.