Really on the fence here.

I am looking for some help here from seasoned professional truck drivers. I will explain my situation here, and hopefully I can get some help with this.

I was raised in the cab of a truck to put it short. My old man has been a professional Truck driver for 26 years now, about 20 of which have been spent as an Owner Operator, truck and trailer. I grew up going on trips and helping him with everything I could possibly do, of course as I got older, I helped with more. By 14 I was driving the truck in yards and on grid roads. I grew up hauling step deck and double drop freight, so that is what I became used to. Put it simply, you couldn't tear me out of a truck with a chain and a tug boat...or so I thought.

For the last 2 years, I have been working a job where I work on the dock, loading trailers, and then at night time, after my shift is over, I run short, 200 mile trips or so, and then on weekends, I try to run 1000+ if the miles are there. When I take holidays, I go out on the road for however long my holidays are, just anywhere in Canada, same with long weekends. Because I grew up with an O/O, I am extremely picky with my equipment, I take extremely good care of my truck and whatever trailer I am pulling, and my equipment is always spotless, I am known throughout the company for this, and I have people asking me to use there trucks all the time, because I leave them with all repairs needed complete, and clean as a whistle inside and out.

I have the itch to get out on the open road, go further and haul bigger things. My problem I am just discovering is, I found at first I was able to stand all the ########, and lack of pay. Now I find, I can still stand the ######## just fine, nothing is perfect, but the lack of pay is bugging me.

On the dock, every minute of my time is paid, and worth money. As soon as I step into that truck, all of my time is no longer valuable. I know I am preaching to the choir here. I am wondering if this is the best choice for me? I love driving trucks, I honestly do, but, I also like to get paid fair for the amount of work I do, and this industry, as a driver, it is the exact opposite.

The DOT, police, scales, 4 wheelers (general public) weather, dispatchers, you name it, if it exists, it works against the average OTR Trucker 90% of the time. Is it worth it to get into this, even if you love it?

I am only 22, so I have plenty of time to make a decision, but I just wish what every driver wishes, and especially those who have suffered much longer than me, a driving job where your treated good, and paid fair.

Looking for advice here ladies and gentleman, any help appreciated. Take er easy out there.

 

I know this is something I need to decide, I guess I was looking for people to tell me what they might do if they were in my shoes, or if they wished they never would've gotten into this industry or not, but there again, everyone is different.

It just seems, we shouldn't just "suck it up" because we want the freedom of the job. A person works so hard out there, we are a NEEDED industry, yet we are paid extremely low. People and jobs that are not needed, make more, get holiday pay and even overtime. Once again here I go preaching to the choir.

The old man's opinion is if I really want to do it then I should, if I don't then don't. It isn't so much trucking itself that bothers me, it's finding a good company to work for where pay and getting treated good both balance out on the scale of things.

 

I have done driving for weeks at a time, when I take my holidays, usually 3 weeks, I take all 3 at once, then I go open dispatch for all 3 weeks, I stay out for 3 weeks, and I love it, until I add up how many hours I actually worked, and how big my cheque was. It's not that I am trying to find out if I like it or not, it's if I can stand not being paid for all the work truckers don't get paid for.

Because I treat equipment so well, I will flat out admit, I am fussy when it comes to equipment. Now, I have had people tell me, I have no right to be, I am young and newer to the industry, I feel I have a right to be, and I think more drivers SHOULD be more fussy, get this idea out of company people's heads that someone will drive a 15 year old dirty piece of crap in disrepair. Why do I feel I have a right to be? I am a 2nd generation trucker, taught and raised in this since birth. I have been accused of treating trucks, better than people, not actually to proud to say that one, but it is mostly said because I am very bitter and pessimistic. As mentioned, I take extremely good care of my units, have one of the highest fuel mileage averages and low idle times. I have had lot's of calls from customers saying, send the guy in the shiny truck back.

I am not trying to brag myself up, but it is important to me to have respect from older, long time drivers, true professionals. I always listen to what they have to say, and even if they respect me a little bit, for my age and number of miles under my belt, it means a lot to me. Respect from old timers is a great feeling and is really inspiring to me. My point is, I said all that, so hopefully people here will understand, I am trying to make myself into a true professional trucker, and be proud to say it, not someone who says it, but doesn't walk the walk.

Now, the reason I said all that is, yes, there are jobs hauling Coke or Pepsi around or for Wal-mart or something, but, me personally, I am not willing to drive a single axle international daycab around, or drive a international at all for that matter

I do appreciate all the help and suggestions though and I thank you all for taking the time to try and help me out here. For now, there are just no jobs around, economy is so bad, I am probably better off to keep doing this right now, it gives me hourly pay and some time on the road, I can live with that for a few more months I guess.