physical demands of trucking?

You'll be required to hook and unhook.Sometimes you'll have to swap loads with another driver or drop your load at the terminal.Sometimes you'll have to unhook at the customer.Sometimes you'll have to slide the tandems either because the load is too heavy or the customer requires you to move tandems all the way back.You may get trailers that require all your strength to slide the tandems.But their are some nice drivers that believes in team work.Some customers have driver assist in load and unload which could only mean watching them and counting everything that goes on and off trailer.None of it is real hard but does require physical work.

 

Yes.

Some companies, maybe not.

Outside of unloading. Some things require manual labor. Crank-up a loaded trailer dropped too low. Climbing into & out of a trailer, cleaning stuff out of a trailer B4 you can use it because the Driver who dropped it didn't.

"Stuff" happens.