What's your life like as an OTR trucker?

You must factor "job satisfaction" into the equation. People with job satisfaction live longer.

 

Not in hazmat/tankers or a LTL job with a company like Old Dominion.

 

Right, but most new drivers, even with all endorsements can not get those jobs. Like I said, it is possible, but not likely.

 

There is no short answer for what life is like on a daily basis. There are many categories of trucking and in each one are many different companies who operate in as many ways. I'm looking at 50 trucks at a truckstop. If I asked each one what their day was like I'd get 50 different responses. And my ### kicked, probably.

 

I'm going to tell you the cold, hard truth. As soon as you see everything you can possibly see on the road, you will not enjoy otr unless you're born with wanderlust and gypsy in your blood. You may crack 50k your first year if you run hard and the company you work for pays a respectable wage.

You will put in long hours and your body and mind will take a beating whether it's the bumps on the road beating you up or sitting on your rear for 10+ hours a day. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt, positive and negative.

Read the forum and learn about other people's experiences and mistakes so you can as many of the negative ones as possible. As far as money is concerned, you won't get rich off of trucking but you can live off of it as in 70-100k a year doing specialized work.

If you find you enjoy OTR, you will have a career for a few decades until Robo-truck takes your job.

My advice, get your CDL and drive but enroll in some online classes so you have something to do in your free time (you will have a lot of it) so if the trucking thing doesn't work out you can still go back to the world with some sort of job/degree.

Just my two cents.

 

Wait....you're 16 years old
Attend cdl school when you're 18 years old and drive intrastate until you're 21 yrs. old, then run all 48 states.
Join the US Navy SeaBees as an EO (Equipment Operator) then go right into trucking after your enlistment is over. You'll have experience plus a cdl the Navy paid for.

 

Then trucking is not the job for you.

 

How do you feel about having every minute of your day micromanaged? How about having to.follow very strict rules all the time?