Trucker Lifestyle Questions

Regarding the stress of trucking, I absolutely love every minute of my time. I love driving and all the related responsibilities. To me there is far less stress doing what I do now than when I was running an import business.

Truck stops are what you make of them. If you are self contained, with food and entertainment in the truck, you really have no need to park for a 10 at a truck stop. If you do, your time dealing with truck stop life is minimized.

 

Forget being alone. You are being evaluated by predators avoided by prey and parasites seek to mooch money off you somehow.

Hands off technology

Your fequent bathroom breaks might be a sign for further examination of your affected body systems.

You will pay and pay and pay. You will also discover outside of your 34 hour reset or time off at home you do not have the time to lay around soaking in your own entertanment. There is paperwork to be done, small things to fix on the truck, clothes to be washed, glass to be cleaned and chains rearranged ready for the next winter storm waiting for you up the road. Busy busy busy busy. You might disinfect the cab. Top to bottom several times a week. No piss bottles either. Alwasy have that truck in a position to be inspected by people who feel welcome and set a while.

After 10 days that goes away too when you get nose blind to yourself. It's non trucking people who give you the face and show ew in the body language before anything. Carry a set of sandales with you, anti blood products and so on.

The entire USA is my home. I don't really care where I take my time off as long there are things to do, good food to eat and great people to spend time with. Camden NJ or Philly aint it.

No. It eliminates your mind. Turns you into tomorrows you tube zero trashing your truck on a u turn nested between three poles and a bridge painted hot yellow and pink no trucks.

Those GPS are problem generators of the first order. Learn how to double check your entire route on paper. Then telephone with the revelant agencies keep buying up to date paper maps until you hae essentially the whole country covered in trucking specific material.

Then run out in Buy a GPS. Wallow in it's absolute ####tery. The only thing it's eer good for is a physical address needed for taht truck to be somewhere to load, unload, interchange with someone and so on. That's it.

No. YOU PAY. It will cost you anywhere from say 3000 to 10000 if you are stupid enough to sign papers promissory notes to pay that high. You pay. Pay and pay some more. Nothing is free. Get that paid off asap. Make it the very first debt you pay off if anything at all.


You are the douche bag ready to be fired for scraping a curbing and rubbing your trailer tire in front of your company HQ as you swelled up making that turn too tight in front of your boss and his board.

Forget the year and half. You must survive without blemish service on the big road and hopefully in just one particular blessed job howerver ####tery it is until you are able to write yourself a golden ticket. Mine was for McKesson, a pharmacy company that runs narcotics and million dollar loads plus in value. We were prey behavior as a husband wife team with them constantly. But the money and our knowledge of memphis, predators etc served us very very well..

I am a licensed carry soon to train for active shooter enhanced with the Arkansas State Police that means I can carry into certain other places once that license is issued sometime during 2018. That will be what is coming along on the big road from now on. Never again do I hae to ######ig a weapons system out of nothing while using words in a voice shaky with fear and smelling same to a predator group somewehre in some ####ghole usa. I am a Lion. Not Prey. There are some bills for national carry pending in congressional committes. They are carefully being protected and not thrown away right out.

It is not the plentiful jobs. A monkey can drive that truck. In fact computers do it all now. Even deliver. Pick up too. Truckers are obselete they say.

Try me. They think I am obselete. But by gum I'll show em some trucking in three feet of sideways snow coming off Cabbage while the executives wrap themselves mewing to the frozen exhaust pipe.

 

A lot of talk about stress. It's the least stressful job I've ever had but it really depends on the person.

An old saying about serenity, courage and wisdom comes to mind.

You can't control the weather, you can't control traffic etc.

 

It's not the traffic, but those durn annoying tin horn star chief and his star ship troopers hollaring at me on my fuel tank of all places. Yes I know what stop means and yes and yes and yes. But do you realize you are snarling your precious town's rush and that Judge three cars back is fixing to clear all of us out leaving you with a bigger problem to tow. Ive already got the cash fine plus donation ready for Judge so the sooner you quit yelling and preaching, the faster we call can get back to doing what is it we do on friday night.

The weahter. ha. SOme people like me need weather. Bring it. Sunshine and 70 degree blue sky with no wind is boooring. Puts me right to sleep. Do you understand?

As far as the stress part of the work? HA that's not work. I tell you what's stressful. Being wedged between a jasmine breathing bertha on one desk to this side and shoehorned against a frau who cannot stop the pokla shimmy trying to get to the filing cabinet you all must share in that office.

Oh that's the permit and papers office? So solly, I was looking for the dispatcher...

 

Yep, drugs help too.

 

Only because you don't know where the "things to do, good food to eat and great people" are at. Philly is a GREAT city- TONS to do. And Camden is in a bit of resurgence since the county police took it over. Still has its rough parts, but overall, it's a city on the rebound.

 

I have a different take when dealing with broker loads. I kill them with service, including updates on my ETA. Last broker load I did I made several calls during the journey to let them know I was rerouting to avoid an accident backup. After delivery the broker called to thank me for keeping them in the loop. We talked for a while. I wanted to know if they did a lot of loads for the receiver, as that gets me home. I let them know that my company has drivers that can handle their load very well and gave them contacts and phone numbers to call direct and get the same level of service from any of our drivers.

For OP, get a magnetic mount for your cell phone. I can "see" who is calling while I drive and talk hands free on my Bluetooth ear piece. It also allows me to access MyRadar or other apps critical to my "on the fly" decision making.

 

Did you get robbed on the road in the past?

 

Not necessarily "Robbed" Ive had sexual predators invade my cab after following wife into it, I woke up fast and had my knife on way to his neck he climbed over our drivers seat as she worked on getting clear passenger side to expose him to my counter attack. He fell out and ran fast enough to get away.

If you define broken promises in lumpers, tolls etc certainly it happens often vs the company. But you paid it if you knew what was good for you as in being able to get a complete rest and be able to get out fast. Make some money.

Predators did not atempt to rob me straight up, they usually discovered it takes a ruse or some such constructed sob story to see if I was stupid or gullible like some are. I tell em to save it and go bye bye I have nothing for them.

That does not mean I was a hard ### that did not care much if at all for the suffering or challenges for people who are where they do not belong period. I would say there was a little bit of carefully calculated help provided now and then. But never in enough money amounts to set up a future ambush or bigger situation than it already is.

Finally towards my later years in trucking I simply quit helping others if it did not invovle knowledge or experience. Money was no longer given out. There is no point.

 

Isn't there some DOT rule prohibiting carrying a firearm in a commercial vehicle? I guess knife legality depends on the state?