You really want to be a truck driver?

by Carl (American Trucker)
(Midwest)

Being out here on the road anywhere from 10-21 days at a time takes a lot patience and self-control. It’s not just a job it’s a life style with many trying days. Your truck is your homes if it’s a mess so are you.

So you will spend a lot of time cleaning it. No Company is going to give you a new clean truck trusts me on that one. They will promise the stars out here and you’ll get the dessert instead. I’ll touch on recruiting drivers some time later.

Take this into thought just going back to something I talked about a little earlier. You been working in the corporate world, you start feeling restless and board at the same old rat race of sitting behind a desk all day long and having no adventure in your life. All you see is four white walls and a nice window view from your office. How many times have you looked out of your window and thought to yourself, “I know there is a more exciting job out there for me.” Then the thought occurred to you that you want to become a driver.

You think to yourself “truck drivers make good money, they get to travel all of the time, see different parts of the US and Canada, they have no responsibilities and all they have to do is sit and drive. I would certainly like a position like this.” So in your free time after work or on weekends you decide to take a course. You go through the steps to obtain your CDL license and then decide to purchase a tractor and trailer thinking you’re going to get rich out there on the road. You will be free from the rat race and the same OLE humdrum way you used to live. By this time you’re all excited, you have a pretty new truck, a trailer of your own and you’re your own boss who is leased onto a company. You didn’t do your homework and you end up in a rinky-dink company an soon this happens to you.

But to many new trucks driver’s reality sets in real fast, as soon as they get out on their first long haul. The dispatchers are not too friendly. The pay isn’t as good as they told you. The sound of the companies benefits and the way things are ran is not the actual truth as to the reality of things, your dispatcher makes an appointment time from your origin to destination that is nearly impossible and you have to drive all day long. The only time you get out of the truck is to use the bathroom at a truck stop, grab a bite to eat and sleep. But you have to keep going to meet the delivery deadline.

Just a Little Food For Thought.
Good Luck
American Trucker