What are the biggest difficulties and hurdles with trucking?

All the other things matter but one thing that stands out as the most important no matter what


That is how to say NO.

Until you learn that skill and how to determine when to say it, nothing else matters.

See, everything revolves around safety and your health, telling a company no thinking they have your best interest in mind seems to be a skill all new drivers and many many experienced drivers lack. There are drivers who think they have to get miles no matter what, which sets you up for everything else.

so learn the most important skill of how to say no, and how to derived when to say it.

 

The biggest issue is the sense you have no control. Loads, schedules, weather, traffic, fuel locations, parking, DOT, breakdowns…….more.

Drivers are in control of very little, but #### keeps running down hill.

 

Trucking is the square root of marriage

 

Solid ice roads
Get loaded, main roads better, if you stay in tracks.

Roads shut down due to some other semi hitting guardrail, riding over the bridge and scattering a load of lumber(about 5 hours)

Going to bed with green grass and waking up with this.


Get to receiver/shipper and he tells you to go to pit/dock/unloading pad and points but he’s never been to the unload/load point

 

We don't have problems.

We only have opportunities to excel.

 

IF you keep dispatch in the loop when problems arise aka a accident closure, late loading etc things run smoother. The rest works itself most times . Never race the clock just do the same steady pace and the jobs relatively easy .

 

My biggest issue was with other inconsiderate, a-hole drivers
Parking in the fuel island, (AKA "taking their 30")
Washing their feet (or any other grooming habit) in the sink
Showing up late to the truckstop and thinking it's ok to block me in by parking 'creatively'
Throwing their trash, poop bags, pee bottles on the ground when they could have just as easily taken it to a trash can
Old iron idling at night when it's 60 degrees (with no muffler)
Can't say I cared that much for reefer drivers either, but I know they have a job to do and that's the deal
Their stupid dogs or cats and thinking it's ok to let them poop where I need to walk


Just inconsiderate people. I can put up with all the other crap, but inconsiderate people just light my fuse.

 

Parking is an issue for sure.
Wait times for loading and unloading, usually unpaid, drive me up the wall. Equipment reliability and poor build quality, shocking how bad new trucks are compared to what a new truck was just 5 years ago.

 

Everything. There's no way I could go back to driving. I ve gotten too cranky in my older age

 

Equipment malfunctions, scarce parts.