OTR: A Day in the Life?

I am very,very sorry for your loss,Sabine,but no,no..please don't stay in that funk! I know EXACTLY what you mean about looking at everybody else going down the road on those long holiday weekends,and sometimes I wonder if I shoulda stayed with that numbskull I was married to,whom I have since thanked for divorcing me because I LOVE TO DRIVE! I've only been driving 4yrs now but I'm an old fogey and I've spent most of my life looking for a new place to call home,anyway. Ya know that song by Miley Cyrus..'The Climb'? Well,that's how I feel about driving! There's always gonna be another mountain,and I'm always gonna wanta make it move...its the DRIVE!
I've done lots of things to earn a living,but never loved any of them the way I love driving. Where else can I scream and curse at work(in the secrecy of my cab)!
It must be a very difficult thing for you to continue driving after your husband passed away. I hope you have some kind of support off the road. I basically have become a loner since driving. My son is in the navy and sometimes that's what I have to think about to get me through 'those' days. I still gots my Earl to walk with at the end of a long day,though,and sometimes I like to think about the families that came across in the covered wagons...tough,no doubt.

 

You are obviously someone who is always going to focus on the downside of everything. Why someone would want to get up everyday and commute to an office and deal with that insanity is unknown to me. But I don't feel sorry for anybody,my life's journey is just that..mine. My mistakes,my gains. To quote Cheryl Crowe...its not getting what you want,its wanting what you got. At least IMHO

 

This industry has many different sides to it...There are company drivers, lease contract drivers, owner operators (guys with their own authority) lease puchase drivers...Each one of us lead and live, different lives with different experiances...There is no such thing as a typical day it's kinda like the navy ("it's not a job" It's a adventure) I am an owner op with my own authority...My day is what I want it to be...I go where I want... I haul what I want... I drive what I want...But I will tell you this those other guys live and work in a industry that does not fall under the 1938 fair labor standards act...That should be enough said...I do to, however I have much less stress...This is like any other occcupation, some people do well others as you will find out don't...This is a LIFE STYLE MORE THAN A JOB...

 

Too long a commute to Michigan. Seriously, local jobs pay about 10 dollars an hour where I live, that is not enough money. I made that in 1999, working at Volvo in North Carolina. Considering inflation, that is worth half that today. No way.

I could maybe go to St. Louis, but it is 85 miles one way. I realize my limitations of my area, but my emotional support is here, I am not moving. My family is in Germany, so my friends are really important to me.

It's not like I'm not looking, but SE Missouri is bad.

 

sabine, never suggested a commute to michigan, just figured it cant get much worse than here. Seriously, $10 an hour for driving a big rig? wow.

 

you think thats bad? i just took a job wrenching on big rigs for 11 dollars an hour, and own 10,000 dollars worth of tools required to do my job. plus i am breaking my back every day! Thats ok though... got something lined up in the near future to get back to driving... 165,000 lb plated truck with a 5 1/4 kitty cat pulling flatbed doubles and will earn 20% of the trucks earnings

 

my late husband was offered a job delivering equipment from the local equipment place, kinda like tractor supply, about 5 years ago.......paying $7.50 an hour. And for that you have to maintain and repair it too. Needed a class A to do the job.

I know I live in a bad area, but I am sure you can understand why I feel my support system is so important. I like where I live. I am hoping that I can get to the point where I can get off the road and go to school for something in the medical field. We'll see. It all takes time.

I was just kidding about the commute by the way.

 

Try central Arkansas.

I was listening to a young guy this past evening, had just gotten a job.
His mother had helped him get it. Her employer (Subway owner) needed someone to help around the farm.

So now he gets to work 4 hours a day...on the farm. Then pulls a 4 hour shift at the farmers Subway shop in town. Or vice versa, he wasn't clear as to the order.

He wasn't happy about the arrangement. But at least he's getting 40 hours a week.

 

I'm not really that experienced but I'll throw in my two cents.

A typical week week consists of five or six days of work and sleep for the most part.

Get up in the morning, make a pot of coffee and have some food. Get out and stretch, walk around the truck stop or yard or wherever I am. Brush my teeth, wash up and be ready to work. Do a pre-trip, do the books and then start driving.

Drive a few hours and then stop for a pee break and a stretch. Drive a few more hours and stop for lunch. Drive a few more hours and then pee break and stretch. Drive a few more hours and then shut down for the day. Tomorrow do it again. During the last stretch I'll call home and talk to the better half for about an hour. Otherwise I listen to the Sirius most of the day and occasionally get a good conversation going on the C.B.

That's it in a nut shell. Sounds pretty boring but I love it.

I usually eat out once a day. Either fast food for lunch (McDonalds, Subway, Arbys and the like) or a sit down meal for dinner. Sometimes I spice it up and sit down for breakfast! Yeah, bad humour Actually I had an incredible breakfast the other day at a TS in Wittenberg Wi, home made bread, perfectly cooked bacon and eggs, excellent coffee and a pretty young lady with a great smile who took care of me.

I usually load/unload 3 times in a week and usually I have a reload to head to right away so there is very little down time. Every couple of days I'll shower, either at a TS or a terminal.

Come day five or six I'll be home and will have pretty much maxed out my 70 hours. For the next 36 to 72 hours I'll have time with the family, get the home stuff done and then go do it again.

It's often said that being a driver is not a job but is a way of life. You like it or you don't. I know OTR for many is a lot different than what I do. Out for weeks at a time, sitting for hours or days in truck stops doing laundry and waiting for a load. With a family at home I wouldn't deal too well with that but if I were single I would be looking for a different company where I could run all 48 and Canada and be out for weeks at a time.

Anyway, my 2¢ basically comes down to this, if you want to drive, whether regional, otr or even local you better be comfortable spending a lot of time by yourself in a truck. And unless you're local you better #### well like the job. It's one thing to have a 9 to 5 job you hate where you can look forward to going home at the end of the day, it's a whole other thing to have a job you don't like when home will be days, weeks or months away. That would just be hell on wheels.