Thoughts opinions or bull?

Once you get a taste of diesel in your blood it's almost impossible to get it out. Youll almost alway think about shifting those gears. Heres a few questions to ask yourself.
How happy are you at your job right now? Honestly?
How happy are you with your lifestyle right now?
What do you want to achieve with your life right now?
How would going over the road affect these decisions?
If it's acceptable then maybe going back over the road is okay.

 

Stay where you're at.

 

Can't tell you what to do.
You only live once.
Adventure

 

You're kind of like the Jack of all trades aren't you.I think with your exp you won't have any trouble find a company .youre happy with.So with that said I say go for it.

 

Since I have been where you are now Wattie411 let me tell you a story....

I started driving back when trucking really was a lifestyle of it's own with a much greater sense of community for better or worse...lol That was back in 1981, you could get a job back then with a chauffeurs license and a good bull excrement story. I first hired on with one of the strictest companies out there right now but back then they were as outlaw as the rest.. The name rhymes with Tired Slow Moving Trailers...lol. I had only ever been in a diesel truck a couple times in the oilfield and I went to Springfield first and applied with another company and that's where I learned to drive on...a road test. Really, I know, sounds like BS but its not So I went to Duenweg and passed that one! Trucking was fun back then, I won't bore you with some of the wildest times of my life but I got the bug back then. I continued to drive until Barbara Walters and the then fledgling ATA got Congress to do something about all of us 20/20 drivers out there menacing the public and all of us carrying around pocketfuls of different licenses from different states..I had 6...lol. Thus the CDL was born in April of 1991 and like many of you now who hate ELD's I wasn't going to have any part of it and I left the trucking industry.. I did lots of things but I got into operating heavy equipment and I liked it, one day an opportunity came up for me to go to work for a government highway agency running a motor grader among other things and I did it. Over the years I accumulated things like a house on 8 acres and lots of stuff, raised two kids to adulthood and was generally pretty happy but I kept watching those big trucks.. Hearing about all the changes.. Back in 2010 the agency I was working for decided that if I was going to keep driving the low boy and dump trucks I should get a CDL so they sent me to the CDL testing place with a truck and said get one.. Mind you I could have grandfathered back in 1991..lol. So I got my class A then. No school, no training period... Why? Well I worked there 10 years and with the kids gone and Mama happy with her social life I joined here about a year ago or so... I kept hearing how terrible things had got but once in awhile someone would say something good.. I wanted back on the road.. So I thought WTF? I put in an application through one of those application mill sites and it was honest, no recent OTR experience, lots of equipment knowledge, 10 YEARS at the same job... I got a call from a place that I call home now, an end dump/van operation that is well known in Missouri.. Been in business since the 20's... I talked to the guy and said yeah, I can drive trucks but I don't know much about some of the rule changes.. He let me in on a little secret Chinatown probably knows about.. "Once in awhile I can lean on the insurance company and make them let me hire someone I really want regardless of the situation"....lol! He did it and now I am back out there 5 or 6 days a week and I couldn't be happier.. i am making about the same money, maybe a little less and I miss my 16 paid holidays a year but I have a retirement pension coming and I get to drive a big old Peterbilt now...

So just because you step out and make a life for yourself, raise some kids and buy a home doesn't mean you can't come back someday and you don't necessarily have to jump through hoops to do it. Keep that in mind. Took me awhile grading county roads before I got that Pickup truck and a crew of youngsters. I had to learn to run a paver among other things... Good luck with whatever decision you make.

 

Stay put for a year. Speaking from the perspective of someone with similar experience as yours, no company will hire you as a site super without more/longer experience under your belt, should OTR not work out for you.


If in a year you've had enough, go for it, but that way you have a solid resume to fall back on, and not just be yet another 40 year old 'equipment operator' looking for work.

 

Been out here leaning on 20 years.
I know a lot of OTR drivers.
I can count on one hand the number of drivers that I know
Who've quit the road voluntary on their on accord and
Never came back.
And I would have a couple fingers leftover.

Many have tried including me, but we always end up
Back on the road for whatever reason.
The truth is there's not another job that even comes
Close to what we do. Just the way it is.
The highway is always calling you.
Can't sit still for more than 5 or 6 days in the
Same place, then it's time to roll.

Don't waste your time trying to explain this to
Anybody who doesn't do it for a living, they'll
Never understand what your talking about.
It's like your speaking a foreign language.

I sat in JB hunt orientation in 1999.
The instructor told us that their research has shown
That if they could get a new driver to last one year
OTR then he was almost a lock for 10 years OTR,
And he had the numbers to back it up.
We thought he was crazy. He was right.

Call me crazy but I'll say it till I'm blue in the face.
It's easier to get a crack head off of crack then it
is to get a OTR driver who's been out here 10 years
And up off the road.

If the road is what you enjoy and there's nothing
Holding you back, go for it.