What's Was You're First Year of Trucking Like?

It can get in your blood, which isn't a bad thing because you'll never be unemployed as long as you have that CDL. In tankers you'll make more than most college grads.
Prepare now for school and your first job:
original birth certificate
original social security card-not laminated
cheap work gloves
flashlight
steel toe slipon style work boots
sleeping bag & pillow

If money is tight, until your first paycheck, stock up on Ramen Noodles, instant coffee, etc.
Microwave use is free in truckstops.
I'm one of the OTR type drivers; love running the roads coast to coast and border to border. Some like the local stuff, which is good because those drivers are needed also. Not for me though, I want OTR and sleeping in a different city/state every day.

 

My first two weeks in the truck OTR we witnessed 3 fatalities and a truck fire.
I asked my trainer if it was normally like this out on the road. He said no, you must be bad luck.

 

Do your school in February that way when you are alone in the truck (without a trainer) you will have a full summer to get experience before tackling winter snow and ice.

My first year was:
If you get enough miles to make money you will wake up early to get out of the town before traffic starts. Then work/drive for about a day and a half of what everyone else works. Then stop, eat and relax for an hour. Go to sleep before the sun is down most of the year. Wake up with an hour or two for yourself before doing it again. For two or three weeks in a row. Then two days off. Some guys like to do 6 weeks or more.

Do a full year year accident and ticket free and you will have the opportunity to move up.

Mike

 

It was a hundred years ago and terrible. It's a good thing that I was much younger then. I couldn't turn the crank handle to start the truck now.

 

Learned to slow down and let that guy who has been creeping up on you for the last 20 miles go.

Learned to kill my lights at night instead of using brights to let him know he has room to get back over.

Learned to not use the Jake in the truckstop.

Learned to go slow in the truck stop instead of 40.

Learned to not give bear reports about bears 200 miles ago.

Learned to find a good gear in traffic and let all the hot rods go on by then slam on the brakes 30 times a mile.

Learned to park the truck first time it slipped or saw someone else in the ditch during bad weather.

 

My 1st year was 1985. Started out picking up and delivering landscape and construction machines for my dad. All local. But later on I moved to otr...wow, what a difference. Can't say I regret ever driving but if I had it all to do over I would have picked a different career.

 

Awesome....I suppose there is hope afterall.

 

First year of trucking: I learned I could get fat.

Now I have to watch how much and what i eat.

 

The first year is getting used to a lot of things. The hypnotic effect of the lines passing by on the road in the middle of the night for hours. Trying to force yourself to sleep when you are not tired, and trying to stay awake when you are tired because some brilliant engineer in the DOT actually though a 14 hour rule was a good idea and served any type of safety function when it does a LOT more harm than good. You will get used to your ears in pain when traveling over the rocky mountains. You'll witness amazing city lights, brilliant sunrises (sets), and you'll learn some of the most imaginative ways to dispose of urine. Something will go wrong, you will hate it for a day, then lay alone at night thinking about how much loneliness you are going to have to fight out of your heart or else you'll quit. You'll meet people who make more money than you do by taking away a little bit of what you make and sleeping in their warm bed at night, but then ruin your chance to go home, while telling you not to idle your truck, sleeping in a hot box in the summer, and ice box in the winter, but they go home to a cozy bed, next to their loved ones while you suffer, and make less than they do. You will be hurt, disappointed, and used. You will get disciplined for doing what you were told, and you will wonder why you became a truck driver, but then the sun will rise, you will hear your favorite tune on the radio, and it will all come clear until someone who uses you to make money for themselves put their paycheck before yours again. It will be a vicious cycle. You'll reach out to other truckers, start to feel a part of a brotherhood. You'll meet more homeless in a week than most people meet in a season. Then, just then, a beautiful sunset, and another favorite tune makes you feel like king of the world. You finally make it home, but when it's time to go back to work you feel sleepy and tired and you didn't get an appropriate amount of rest for the load you are supposed to deliver. They'll charge you for being late. You'll lose a day of work, and will think you might as well have just stayed home another day and slept. The first 3 days after getting back on the road after being home are the hardest. You wish you could have more time in a familiar place, but then you get used to your job, and start to feel better about it. You become reluctant to go home at all because of the problems it causes you every time you must leave. etc... etc... Some of this is my own personal experience, and will vary for you. I'll note I focused on the negative the most, because it is what you MUST prepare for. You will enjoy many things. I've been to every great wonder in the lower 48 states aside from the grand canyon. Meteor crater is just 6 miles off of I-40 in Airizona. You can swim under a waterfall in west virginia during the summer. Ouray Colorado has a clothing option hot spring with truck parking. However, those things are few and far in between. Get used to losing your concept of time fast, because you will not have a routine life style. You will not have a set schedule, and you will never know what is waiting for you down the road.