Why truck driving has such a high turn over rate?

Think about when you have a crappy day at work and you just want to come home and crash. Can't do it over the road. One of the biggest downfalls is you can't escape it. No matter how bad your day is, how stressed out your are, sick, miss your family, you still have to deliver that load and get the next one. How about that morning you have bad stomach cramps because of something you ate, guess what tough luck! Go get in line with the other 20 guys who have the same problem. Oh yeah make it quick because you can't be late with that load! How about when you just saw a bad accident happen right in front of you and there are dead bodies and blood all over the road! Can't go home then! How about when your wife calls and says she needs you home. Can't do it! What happens when a family member passes away or is sick? Well you can put in your home time request but it is going to take a few days. How about when you have been out for 6 weeks and you come home for three days, dispatch calls and has a hot load that must be picked up. Guess what, home time over! What about days upon days of not talking to anyone. Trucking is nothing remotely close to what recruiters make it sound like! Somewhere on here recently a new driver had driven for 24 hours with his trainer and wanted to quit because he snored to loud! That is a sign of newbie in complete shock! Guess what, he can't come home. He just spent $6000 on trucking school and now he needs to provide for his family. I haven't even begun to talk about dispatchers and the crap they dish out or even the stuff shippers and receivers make you do. Stuck in the snow, traffic, breakdowns in the middle of nowhere, bad people, sketchy parts of the cities, DOT there's another whole aspect of the job that will eat you! Every time you pull through a scale they treat you as if you are a suspect in a murder! What about pay? You have been gone for two weeks and the first week due to weather and crappy loads you made $200. The next week you had a really good load to make up for it but you broke down and didn't get paid at all! So now you take an advance from the company and you are now in the hole! So you have been away from home for two weeks and made $200! This my friends is NOT an exaggeration! When you finally do make it home you have three days and all you want to do is sleep! Your wife wants to go out to dinner, however that's all you have done for the past two months. Also the very last thing you want to do is get in the car! While at home you have to keep checking on your truck and trailer so that no one steals it or the batteries don't die because you have food in your fridge. This is also really the only time you can give it a good cleaning, so there is one of your days off. The other day is doing laundry, and the next day you are preparing to leave again.
I know this sounds negative, but you guys asked for the reasons drivers quit. There are many upsides to trucking and I personally love driving. These are just some of the things they don't tell you about before getting in the game or maybe these are things that you just don't realize. Two more while I am at it, brushing your teeth in a public restroom :smt078Disgusting! Poo Poo cramps in LA traffic!

 

From MY wife.... I hate this local #### !!! All you do is come home, bathe, eat, crash...get up...repeat. I get to see you more, when you're OTR or regional.

While my "local gig" was not the typical local job. It paid well

 

I'm pissin my pants lmao.........great post chompi

 

My paycheck.
Some peoples insurance needs.
Air conditioning in the summer.
Heat in the winter.
A bathroom when I need to take a ####.
Someone who can actually answer the phone, then provide me with answers to my questions...without placing me on hold for 30 minutes, or blaming some non existent co-worker...3 stalls down. While f### up my day or entire week.

Time at home for important things.

Definition of "important things".

Kids ball game
Kids birthday.
Wife's birthday.
Wife's #####y day.
Wife's grumpy day.
Wife's happy day.
Christmas
Thanksgiving
Spring Break
My vacation
Getting laid on a regular basis. Unlike the common belief that ALL truck drivers can do without or hire a hooker. Some of us CAN get action at home...if they just get us there.

Renewing my Medical card or taking a drug test...is NOT part of my planned time at home.

It was a good post LMAO. Had to add my thanks too.

 

Hmmmm. Remember that group of kids in school that nobody liked? How they did not seem to 'fit in' with the rest of the class, let alone the rest of the school? Notice how that group kinda stuck together and had thier own little 'thing' going?

I wonder about myself, not having finely honed social skills and not usually the sharpest tool in the shed (or some would think based on my lack of interpersonal confidence and the resulting conversational blunders I might exhibit). How I don't fit in with the shirt and tie crowd, didn't fit in well with the after hours activities of former places of employ as a semi-professional. I could go on but you might think I'm depressed! Why all this confessional writing? How does it tie in the the first paragraph?

A time or two along the way at this forum here i've noticed that there is much hardship in this line of work, this LIFESTYLE. It's not usually 'fun', it's being away from all we know and love, it's not high paying at all, it's downright dangerous. Am I right so far? (I'm not a trucker, yet). It therefore, IMHO, draws those who might not do well in more "normal" pursuits and might be a better fit for those who might florish in social/professional psuedo-isolation... Me included. And yet, here we are with our own little thing, a forum!

Did I strike any nerves out there or am i all wet?

 

For me.....it's the total lack of respect afforded todays driver. From the 4 wheeler thru the shipper and back to the office.

"Sorry driver, you don't get that, get paid for that or drivers don't get that" but the office does.

The other is the pay...( from some of my other posts ) keeping me away from a decent check.....with mistakes, excuses etc. Like one, if my truck falls into pm while I'm out.... my bills can't be closed until fixed therefore I can't get paid.

Another, I did a standby job...... lived in the truck for 4 days around the clock...and on the clock. No showers, can't move, can't leave and no one can come see me......
96 hrs of pay due me and I got a -$45.00 check because some pay clerk didn't think a driver worked that much...had to be a mistake she said. I got my money...eventually and in pieces. A COMPANY DRIVER GETS A NEGATIVE CHECK...SCREW THEM !! I'm looking and there's your turnover. ( or part of it )

and they wonder why I won't do it again......

 

consider the mental capacity it takes to do the job. taking big steaming piles of dookie from the

dot
traffic
shippers
receivers
fuel desk clerks
dispatchers
safety dept
log dept
trainers
tattle tales
qualcom
high prices
low pay
lonliness
dirtiness of missing a shower (it happens)
unsafe equipment
unreliable equipment
know it alls at the petro
stupid local (truck only) laws
and on
and on and on


the mental capacity it takes to succeed in this enviroment is imeasurable. makes a guy want to quit

 

Fixed.

 

My click spent our free time, pissing the other clicks off

You sound like a close friend of mine. He always leaves me with the impression he doesn't feel "good enough". He always seems amazed at some of the things I've done/accomplished in my life.

Even when I try to tell him, it's not what it sounds/looks like...at all. Kinda like trucking. I admire the guy for his accomplishments (he's only been driving for 4 years), especially when he speaks of what he has lost along the way. Before he started driving.

I'm not a suit and tie kinda guy. Although I've held a job that required it in the past. And I haven't owned a pair of blue jeans, since my teens. What's between suit and tie, and never wear jeans ??? A thong maybe ????

No social skills ??? Define social skills.

There is more to "social skills" than being able to interact with someone. The most important part of "social skills" requires that you be approachable. It doesn't matter how smooth a talker you are, you're skills are worthless if the person you approach is not open to being approached.

Make yourself more approachable. This allows the other person to take the firt step, if you're unwilling or uncomfortable.

Not all wet, just not totally correct. But close I would say.

This job can be high paying.
It can include excellent home time, with the right company.
It does draw it's share of loners.

Be careful of using OTR trucking as a method "hiding" from any kind of social life. Psychologist agree, the more you exclude yourself. The more your "social skills" deteriorate.

You must interact with others, to maintain what skills you may have. You'll have many opportunities throughout a trucking career to interact with others. In and out of trucking.

This forum, and the interactions that take place. Are the same as group therapy.

In group, you ##### and moan about how miserable things are. Somebody is always going to have a story that's worse than yours. And someone is going to take great pleasure in twisting the knife at it's deepest point.