Why did you get into trucking?

I did it, originally, for the money...precisely the wrong reason to do anything. But my decision was not without merit.

As a kid, I remember loving the sound of the long, yellow diesel powered school bus that would run us up and down the foothills to and from school. I also loved radio. I was a DJ for about a dozen years, then started a family. I didn't want to move "up and down the dial" (as in the WKRP theme song!), so I opted for a quick solution. This was back in the mid 90s.

I drove almost 9 years, got divorced, and got into management. I stuck with it for three years, but in the end elected to leave because having to tell one more employee to get off the phone and go back to work would have put me in jail.

I've been back out about 19 months now, and I enjoy it. But I'm remarried, so I'm waiting for the economy to rebound, then I'll find something where I'm home more often. But I still basically enjoy it.

 

I can relate to everything you said...which is sad, I think.

What were you making your last year in radio, may I ask?

 

I always hated sitting in a classroom, so when I finally finished high school, I never even considered college. However, low wage drudge jobs were driving me nuts. At age 28, I finally decided I needed to get a skill of some kind. But 4 more years of sitting in a classroom wasn't appealling.

I made the decision to train to drive trucks based on a whole lot of things. The short training period was one factor. When I started, a job was almost guaranteed. Wages are decent. All important things when considering a career move.

Most important of all, though, is that trucking suits my personality. I love driving. I love travelling. I enjoy my own company, but also like meeting new people. I hate having someone looking over my shoulder all day long. I hate "teamwork" because my experience with it was a few people doing all the work while everyone else goofs off. Out here on the road, I have a job to do and the company leaves me alone as long as I'm doing it. I'm the only one responsible for doing the job, so I know I won't be blamed or punished because someone else didn't do their job. And the constant change of scenery keeps me from getting bored.

 

I grew up around trucking. My grandpa dad and uncle all ran small fleets, now my brother does too. I was working on and riding in trucks all summer long as a kid, probably had half a million miles in the passenger seat by the time I turned 16 and got my license. I knew what I wanted to do for a living at a very early age. In 1st grade the teacher asked us to draw a picture and write a story about what we wanted to do when we grew up. Mom still has that picture framed in her hallway... the same color truck I'm driving now lol.

A couple days after I turned 18 I borrowed one of dads trucks and went to get my intrastate CDL, been driving some sort of truck ever since starting out in a 24" straight truck hauling newspapers and moving to a big truck a couple years later.

Counting the straight truck years, I've been at it for 12 years now... there's still days that I can't believe I actually get paid to do it!

 

As a very young kid, I remember watching the big trucks roll through my home town on US 50 in southeastern Colorado. I thought they were really "neat" way back then. This was back in the early '50's when trucks were trucks, men were men, (and in some cases sheep were nervous, but that is another story...)

Anyhow, my family had nothing to do with trucking, and I didn't either until m a n y years later. We used to go camping in the Colorado mountains, and I would be lulled to sleep at night by those jakes as the trucks would come down the grades. My folks would whine and complain about the noise, (so don't camp next to a highway, duh...) but I loved it. Hell, I still love to hear those "chains rattle!"

I bounced around driving some city delivery light trucks as a young adult, and for a bit drove buses for both Greyline and Denver Transit, but never switched over to real trucking. Got involved in other interests and put trucking on a back burner.

Retired from a career in law enforcement in California, moved here to southern Utah, and found that I just wasn't ready for full retirement at that time. Looked around at various things, almost bought a franchise for a tool company, but at the last minute decided against it.

Decided to do the one thing I had always wanted to do, but had never done. Got my driving school out of the way at an Applied Technology School at a very good price. Had a job actually before graduating from the school. Drove various types of big rigs for about 12 years before disability made me retire for good. (Or bad, haven't made up my mind about that yet.)

 

I can remember when I was 4 years old and my mother would take me to a street where my dad would come along in a gasoline tanker and take me for a ride. Ever so often I would make trips with him and other drivers too. They all were very good drivers and that's where and who I learned from. I would ask my dad so many questions about trucks that it became obsessive with me. I'm talking about learning back in the 60's and 70's when truck drivers were considered knights of the highway.

Money wasn't an issue as much as working for a good company and doing the best I could. In doing that I managed to keep my record clean ( I was very lucky ) so later on I started to look for a company that I could retire from and I found it. So I started when drivers were the keepers of the road and I liked the status.

 

For me it was a nartural move. I started out driving tow trucks when I was 16 then moved up to a class B with air brakes at 26 and move to full class A in just a few months because a friend of mine had a truck and needed a driver so I jumped at it and the money.

 

Grew up around trucks & logging/grading equipment. Plus watched Smokey & the Bandit, and BJ & THE BEAR too much as a kid.

 

Well it is a "trite but true" saying. It is something that "gets in your blood...