Please talk me out of this!

No flaming here. Just do whatever makes you happy, and if you can afford it, then lease or buy your own rig. That way, you can work for whoever you want without being tied down by company setbacks, unfair policies, etc.

 

Drive on Truck driver .... Welcome back

 

I'd say save up a bit and just buy a truck instead of an RV. Get your own authority and run loads when you want to. No point in going back to being a pleeb after all this time in a successful business.

 

There are many pros and cons in this profession depend on the truckers personal life too. Otherwise you will again face the same as it is happen previously with you.

The truckers life is tough sometimes, always stay out of home and travel long ways for long time.

But you really love it then no more issue!

 

Pleeb, pledge, peon, newb, new guy at the bottom working for somebody else, basically. You might check if the local colleges have cdl classes. Way cheaper from what I hear and you're not stuck working the loan off for the company.

If the training isn't an actual requirement for getting your license, it isn't here, you'd be even better off just find an owner op to ride with locally. Other than the hands on practice, most everything you need to know is on this site somewhere.

 

Look, I don't want to sound like I hate what I do, but anyone saying you should just give it all up and buy a rig needs to get their head examined. I like driving, but the truth is that this industry will chew you up and spit you out in a minute. The hours are long and the pay sucks, even if you're an O/O. You will have little contact with people you care about and I can't think of one driver I've ever met who didn't have some kind of health problem stemming from the job, whether it's a bad back to diabetes from the crappy diet.

To tell someone with almost no experience to go out and pay $150,000 for a rig or even $50,000 for a used one, is criminal. Look at your situation now. I know nothing of real estate. Should I go out and sell someone's $500k home for them with no experience? If you are serious about getting into this, I welcome you. But please don't be under any illusions that this is some BJ and the Bear, noble king of the road, last American frontiersman kind of crap. It's hard lonely work with little or no thanks and the rewards are mostly what you give yourself.

My suggestion would be if you can put your business on hiatus for a few months, do that. Go out with a company or team up with an O/O, get some miles under your belt, see what you like and don't like, then make an informed decision about what you want to do.

DON"T just go out and buy a rig, because odds are you are going to not be driving a truck a year from now. Realistically, most people don't last a year in this business...

 

I'm with Kdryan. I wouldn't go rush out and buy a truck but it sounds like you don't have a lot to lose if you want to be a company driver for a little while. That's probably all it will take to get it out of your system. I know where you're coming from too! No matter how bad it sucks sometimes when you are away from it for a little while you start to really miss it bad. You are going to find that DOT is a lot tighter, also a lot of companies have gone paperless. However there is satellite radio now and GPS. These make driving a hell of a lot easier! If you are really looking to get ragged on, just tell everyone you are going to lease a truck right away. You will get responses that way! Good luck man!

 

To put it fairly I find a lot about the industry frustrating and crazy, but yet when things are going smoothly it can still be a nice experience moving the big rig down the highway.

Personally I'm looking for ways to get out of it or at least cut back. Checking out things like vending routes or whatever. I just think OTR consumes way to much of a persons life. I think people doing this deserve a much better hometime or vacation package.


With all that I would say it is interesting to be part of the transportation industry, but to jump in for a second round why limit your considerations to trucking?

I guess sometimes when trucking and I'm by the rails, or airports, or harbors I think there so many possibilities. For some reason I am fascinated by the Merchant Marine industry and think it would be so cool to work on one of those giant ships and go from just seeing America to seeing the world. Also when I see the pilots take off in freight planes I kind of envy them.

Just my perspective.