Take A Leap Of Faith But Upshift With Caution

{QUOTE} I never said I work for slave wages??? You assumed I do??? {QUOTE}

Well , yes you did...post # 1 Quoted from the thread titled "So you want to drive a truck".......Now if you make it through school and get that CDL, you get an opportunity to train over the road for weeks with someone who is getting paid to train you and a bonus at the end, if you pass the hiring road test.

oh wait, didn't they tell you that??? Yes, you have to take a final skills test to get hired on for that job you've just spent weeks running around the country for $240.00 to $350.00 before taxes and deductions. Yea, you may have enough $$$ during the 20,000 miles training to eat, do laundry, and send a few dollars home to momma to pay all those bills that keep piling up.

ok so now you got the job, now your in for what is called work. Your life will now consist of driving, loading, unloading, route planning, trying to maneuver a big rig or the biggest straight truck you will ever see down the road. You might think about leaving your nice street clothes at home because you won't have much time to go out and party, your running the road weeks in and weeks out for cpm pay, which is cents per mile. It's like a dollar bill.

you run all over the place and a dollar is generated from your efforts, this is referred to as revenue to the truck and this goes to your boss, the big trucking company that allows you to call yourself a trucker. Then money comes out of that dollar to keep your truck rolling along with all the other gerbals and the 22 cents to 28 cents or whatever your getting to keep, is your cpm, cents per mile pay. Now if your getting 28 cpm, for every 1000 miles you drive, you get to earn $280.00. Huge difference between reality and the bull doozies your recruiter told you you could earn.

 

That's true , new drivers absolutely need to be made aware of the pitfalls. I guess I need to work on my reading comprehension skills. My apologies milesandmilesofroad. I see what you mean by your posts now. Sorry to come off as an ###.

 

I don't think it is accurate to say you just tell it like it is.. because, you seem to have expressed the downside.. the negatives.. and there are some upsides and positives to trucking... Why else would you have stayed in it for 44 years...

I think that is what can be perplexing to us rookies and wannabes... We have recruiters painting a lovely picture and many truckers painting a horrible picture... And then wonder why the rookie jumped in and did not head your well intentioned advice and warnings..

But it is really simple.. if I see someone chowing down bwl after bowl of chill and I go to get myself a bowl.. and they warn be how awful it is.. my first thought is.. if it is so bad why is he chowing it down.. if it was awful.. he would push it away and get something else or go somewhere else... But he is chowing it down and warning me it is awful.. Falk, this must be some good chili and be wants it all to himself..

 

For most people, going to the gym is boring and very hard work. Some however, get hooked on all the hormones that the body releases, the discipline it takes to get the body to respond to training, the feeling of accomplishment...it's a natural high. The tougher the workout, the better.

Some people hate driving. They hate being away from home. They can only drivefor 2 hour stretches and then they have to stop and rest. The sheer boredom is overwhelming. These are those people that you see at the truckstop counter blowing everyone away with stories plagiarized from Tom Clancy, ModernMarvels and the Millitary Channel. They drive 300-350 miles a day for 30 years. Why didn't the go and do something else? It's like that guy in the gym that's in the way. He doesn't work out, he doesn't train, he lacks discipline. All he does is get in your way, wanting to talk about something he saw on the news. He doesn't like to work out and he is stopping your workout too.

Pulled a 12 wide, 14'4 tall load to Baltimore yesterday. Dundalk. It rained and rained. Traffic was bad. I got wet. So did all the other OSOW guys. It's part of the job.

Maryland routed me across 68 to 70 to exit 9, hopped on us40 east to hwy 63 south to 70. There are spots on 40 that are very tight when youre 12 feet wide. Came out on the other side of that construction at Hagerstown. People in traffic were fighting and jockeying for a better position...I don't care. I just let her idle along. I don't care if someone pulls in front of me as long as they don't stop. Made it to 695, went north caught 95 went south to exit 56. Made it to Dundalk and did the TWIC thing to get checked in. As soon as I got out of the truck the rain came pouring down. It rains upon the righteous as well as the wicked.

12 wide and 14'4 tall. Nothing major. Done loads like this thousands of time. I did my job to the best of my abilities, delivered the load and rewarded my self to a steak dinner and an adult beverage delivered to me by a cute waitress. I AM SATISFIED. It was a good day.

I think back in history what men used to do for their families. A guy would leave his family, go out west facing hostile people, and animals, no water...etc, try to make a living so that he could send back for his family when he got established. If those guys had the same mentality that some of you big babies do (no one person in particular), the United States would be called the 13 Colonies. Heck what about sailors. Get on a ship to support your family and the odds of you coming back healthy were slim.

Its a job! Cowboys ran cattle for months on end, sailors didn't get any home time for a couple years. Things haven't changed. You can't get home but once every 3 weeks...boo freakin hoo. If you are a driver, and you hate driving, go do something else. If you are a driver, and you hate driving, and can't do anything else, you are a loser. Sucks to be you. Accept your fate.

 

Whoa.. okay.. okay.. I see it now.. ####.. thought I was getting better at seeing all the road signs..

I too missed it and took it wrong.. and I do believe that anyone considering getting into trucking needs to take off the rose colored glasses and put on the realism and fine print readers..

Too often we get caught up in the excitement and it doesn't help that the megas real you in fast... They will get you there in days.. barely enough time to pack.. let alone think it through... Which is part of their strategy...

Sorry.. I did misunderstand and read more into your post...

 

Maybe the point that newbies and wannabes are missing when on older vet like "mamamor" and sometimes my self tell them the bad things about trucking is the fact that when we started driving it was much easier a job to get into...I mean , when I 1st started there wasn't a CDL requirement , or a school requirement either. No such thing as a private school or community college course. There were a couple of the bigger places in the area like Pilot , Roadway , Redball , OD , TransCon , that had company schools , but you had to know someone that "knew" someone to get hired. Trucking has gone through many , many changes in the last 30 to 40 years and , sadly most of those changes haven't been for the good. The "Good OLE days" were just that ...Good.... Nowadays not so much. I think that was what milesandmilesofroad was trying to say.