Why do you keep trucking?

I sure the hell wouldn't.... I ever win the lottery I'm out of trucking all together! The frame on this Peterbilt will be stretched & a RV body will be attached. Then I will come out here with my new motor home & drive 60 mph in the left lane just to aggravate you truck drivers!!!

 

I read through the entire thread and my response is directed to the OP...

I don't currently drive, but I have in the past, for a period of about 3.5 years... The money that can be made driving is good in comparison to other 'blue collar' jobs... I liked the fact that I could wake up, do my job and get paid without having to 'deal with' people... I could drive hard and make more $$$ or I could take it easy and make less... Travelling to a different place everyday, or more importantly, not travelling to the same place everyday...

I saw a comment about a trucking video on YouTube that said, "I can't think of a more lonely and dreary job." Lonely depends on your lifestyle and what you prefer. I prefer to be alone most of the time. I am single with no children and have become accustomed to being alone. I can and have worked very well with others; being a resident expert instructor and teaching over 6000 people over the course of 4 years... I don't mind being in the spotlight, but at the end of the day, I prefer to be by myself...

Dreary? Possibly, but I can't think of anything more dreary than going to work at the same place, at the same time, seeing the same people and watching the time pass extremely slow everyday... That's what I'm doing now and I hate it...

These are just a few of my opinions...

J.

 

The only reason I stay at the moment is because I have 1 truck that I am still paying for, if I could sell it I would get out of it until things get much better in this industry. I have 2 trucks, one has been parked for 3 months there is not enough work for it and I can't afford to pay a driver. There is no money in being an owner operator anymore. The industry is dying.

I have been around this industry my entire life. I remember a time when you could make decent money driving trucks. Unfortunatly now the industry has become a joke. I have done almost every kind of trucking, been an o/o almost as long as I have been driving. I made more money 10 years ago then I do now. I had a great run, 4 nights a week, 700 miles a night, home every day, made great money, but I lost the run to another company who was willing to haul it for cheaper.

My rates have not gone up, even though the cost of everything else has. I am now leased on to a company, they just cut our rates .10 because they need to haul for cheap because every other company out there is out bidding them for work. I said, the finance company doesn't cut the rate on my truck payment if I ask them, my insurance company doesn't cut their rate, the fuel company won't cut their rate for me, why should I accept getting my rate cut. I have 100's of thousands of dollars invested in this industry, and I am just supposed to accept working for peanuts. Rates are not going up, and if anything they are only going down. Shippers must all be having a good laugh, they have all these carriers fighting to haul their freight the cheapest. I makes me sick. When the economy does turn around, how do these companies expect to get their rates back up?

I am tired of being slave labour, tired of all the free stuff that I don't get paid for, tired of companies who just want to starve me out of business. The industry really is in bad shape right now. From what I see and hear it is not getting better anytime soon. I still hear people who refuse to believe it. I guess they are living in a dream world. I hear people say "I stay in it because I love to drive". I don't care if you love it or not, you still need to make money, whats the point of doing it if you can't make money at it, or if you can't have a decent quality of life, whether you own a truck or drive for someone. Truck drivers are not even classed a skilled labour, I think we are in the same class as migrant farm workers or something like that. Your big otr outfits don't ever want us classed as skilled labour because they would have to pay more.

I would not recomend this industry to anyone, and I most definatly wouldn't recomend anyone to own a truck, you will only put yourself in debt right now. Sorry for being "negative" but that is just how it really is. I am not going to sugarcoat everything and tell all these newbies that trucking is just great when it is not. There is nothing positive to say about trucking right now.