A truckers life is a hard one.

by Carl Smith
(Ohio)


A truckers life is a hard one.

The life of a trucker is a hard one. The loneliness, the isolation, the distance from your loved ones, and the constant need to stay vigilant. After all, driving a truck means being in charge of a fast-moving mass of metal which could cause untold damage if it went out of control. It's a huge responsibility. 

I've picked up many trucking stories along the road, during my 27 year career, and met a lot of other drivers. Some have been wonderful people, others untrustworthy, and others tragic souls lost on the highway. 

If a truckers life is so hard, what keeps a trucker trucking? Some would say it's the 'romantic lure' of the road. But, in reality, it comes down to money. 

Trucking may not pay like it used to, but for people like me, who aren't cut out for customer service work, who find it difficult to talk to other people all day, a truckers life, is the only life I know. Driving used to attract more loners and people from the margins, but thanks to better safety regulations, things have settled down, and most truckers are good, honest family people.

One of my best friends from the road started out as a family man, before he gave in to the temptations of life on the road and his freedom, and embarked on an affair. He lost everything: kids, wife, home, car, even his beer cooler. But that's the job. It's a constant test of your moral fiber, where every night at a lonesome truckstop is another chance to make a bad call.

But I have never strayed, thanks in part to seeing the detrimental effects of trying to live a secret life. It can make you old very quickly. I keep a picture of my family on the dash, and I never take off my wedding ring, no matter what.
One of the things that really keeps me going, though, is the chance to spend my days surrounded by mountains, plains, deserts and forests, ....to always be wondering what's round the next bend. 

There's not much advice I could offer someone starting out nowadays. The business has changed so much. I think it's safer on the road, than it once was. But, thanks to tight profit margins, with trucker's pay getting the squeeze, only the most efficient, dedicated truckers can make a living. 

All I can say is keep your eyes on the road, keep the tank full and keep your family in your mind. Even if they're not in the truck with you, they're always along for the ride.
Your Trucking Brother
Carl Smith (American Trucker)

Comments for A truckers life is a hard one.

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Feb 20, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
A trucker's wife's life is not easy NEW
by: Anonymous

I am married to a OTR trucker & maybe you can help me here with a change in my husband's behavior & I have talked to my close friends who are not married to trucker's but lately my husband is controlling & on the phone if a conversation does not go his way or I say the wrong thing he yells & screams at me, he does not get to come home for home time like every 2-3 months & him & his team driver do not get along, when they do a 34 hour reset, the team driver is out of the truck leaving my husband alone for 34 hours, now my husband tells me he would never cheat on me because of you have no idea if a woman or women have an STD, he never takes off his wedding ring, but him starting fights for no reason on the phone & he only calls me only 2-3 times a day, is starting to make me wonder. My friends tell me don't believe a F***ing word he tells you, that because he wears his wedding ring don't mean a F***ing thing & that when he is doing his 34 hour reset, he is F***ing the s**t out of some skank & my friends are saying yeah lot lizards have diseases but what about a female truck driver or some lonely housewife on the CB or a waitress or a clerk at a truck stop, & when I told my friends that he never called me on Valentine's Day to wish me it which he never forgot to do & I told him about it, he says I was making a big thing over nothing, well that is when my friends said Bingo, that was because he was doing the wild thing with some skank & also my friends said truck driver is a 11 letter word so is skank chaser & also when I tell my husband that we need to talk, he likes to brush it off & ignore it but boy he sure can keep bringing up sex & with nothing getting resolved I feel if I have sex with him I would feel used for his needs & not feel like he is treating me with love! He was never liked this till he started trucking & he has been doing it for 3 years & his team driver is leaving him the end of the month & he never told my husband, my husband saw the message on the computer call center, the team driver gave a reason for dental work but my husband is taking it personal because the other guy did not discuss it with him. Now is the job making my husband this way or what? And my friends already have it in their brains that ALL trucker's cheat & this is the main reason they get the job to do that because they will never get caught! I hope you can shed some light on this for me, thank you!

Feb 16, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Great read thanks! NEW
by: Anonymous

Great read and applicable to all of life.

Aug 15, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
just saying NEW
by: Anonymous

Very well said. Thank you for posting this.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Speak Your Mind, Vent, Unwind, Get It Off Your Chest.