Hey guys,

I am really interested in OTR truck driving and thought maybe I could get some pointers before making the plunge.

I am 35 and have been working in engineering doing drafting and design for 17. I am completely sick of the cubicle office environment and have been seriously thinking about getting into truck driving.

I don't have a wife or kids and no real aspirations for them in the future. I don't mind being alone for weeks or months at a time, I actually thrive in solitude. So I thought trucking really sounded like a great career option. Long hauls with my house right behind me(my sleeper). Small living space is not a problem for me since all I really use is my laptop anyway

I'm currently in Bakersfield and have been looking at Western Truck School - California Truck Driving School , which is like 5 minutes from my current job. My goal is to save up first then pay for the schooling up front.

I am currently reading
Bumper to Bumper: The Complete Guide to Tractor-Trailer Operations: Mike Byrnes: 9780962168765: Amazon.com: Books
http://www.amazon.com/Training-Survi...ywords=big+rig
Amazon.com: Becoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Truck Driving: Thinking Of Becoming a Truck Driver? You MUST Read This Book First. eBook: Brett Aquila: Books
Trying to get a leg up on what I am getting into. Any other reading material you guys could suggest would be much appreciated.

The only thing I am concerned about is making sure I can still pay my car payment and insurance for it which equals out to about 400 a month and keeping my cell phone which is about 150 a month.

Should I wait to pay the car off first then switch or could I make it with the starting salary?

I am completely fine with starting at the bottom and working my way up.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

A Few Important Questions:

How adept are you at dealing with difficult people??

I can dig the solitude bit, but if people problems are part of what's causing the burnout you are experiencing, then realize that you will face some pretty peculiar people in your career as a driver. You'll encounter them just about anywhere and everywhere you go, including within the ranks of most trucking companies. Trucking is an industry that draws a lot of social misfits. Tune into the CB radio in the vicinity of any truck stop and you'll understand.

Looking back, I guess I was a bit luckier than most other drivers. With the McMega carriers, you're just a number; an employee number with a truck number, a trailer number, a load number, and a deadline. You're a faceless butt to put behind the steering wheel of a rolling missile that can weigh up to 40 tons. You're problems are your own.

Fortunately, I found a terrific midsized company to drive for. ("NDI", now named "NDL", out of Sellersburg, Indiana) They were big enough to keep me running, but small enough to know me by name. They were also very family friendly. Safety was of paramount importance. They would respect a driver's decision to shut down in dangerous weather. I also had an awesome dispatcher. Do remember, that was a decade ago.

As in any profession, I had to deal with a few jackasses, but I also met some really fine people. My trainer's nickname/handle was "Grumpy". Quite a character, and quite grumpy at times, but he was an incredible trainer. During our first three days together, (72 hours, running as a team, 24hrs a day, nonstop, from day one) he spent less than 12 hrs. in the sleeper birth. He never expected me to pull more of the load than he did. There was none of the "noobie abuse" that happens all too many times.

How do you deal with high stress levels?? Particularly, the stress of a sedentary lifestyle?? What's the real difference between an office cubical and the cab of a truck??

If you stop and think about it, the cab of a truck is something akin to a cubical on wheels. I don't know about your current occupation, but along with the rolling cubicle you'll be working in and residing in, you'll have the stresses of long, irregular hours, and a lifestyle that lends itself to poor dietary habits and poor living living habits.

Another Major Stress Factor:

During you're first year, and particularly your first six months as a solo driver, your stress levels will be exceptionally high. You'll be on an intense learning curve. After a few weeks at a trucking school, followed by a couple of months with a trainer, after which time you'll be turned loose with a big truck and trailer that can cause serious damage, serious injuries, and yes, you can even kill people.Things happen fast. Errors and oversights can be very unforgiving. The stakes are high. You'll most likely hear alarms going off in your head on a constant basis. They'll eat at you. Remember, although they'll be unpleasant, those alarms are assets, not liabilities. They'll challenge you to maintain a keen focus.

That is most likely what will happen, but remember something very important. If those alarms in your head aren't making their presence known (and with some rookie drivers and even experienced drivers, they don't!!) then in all seriousness, you need to park the truck and take that as an indication that you are not properly focused.

Consider Health Issues:

The career of an OTR driver can be an open invitation to long term health problems; especially if you don't handle the freight. I used to be a radiology nurse, and many of my patients were former truck drivers. Decades of hard living resulted in obesity, diabetes, hypertension, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, (COPD) End-Stage Renal Dysfunction, (ESRD)and circulatory problems that all too many times resulted in amputations of lower limbs. That was BEFORE the days of the energy drinks, which by there very nature wage war on the human body's digestive, metabolic, and immune systems. They also wreak havoc on glucose/insulin balances, hence the diabetes. I'm not wanting to scare you; just warn you. OTR driving is extraordinarily hard on the body.

Three of the biggest contributors to health problems are that few truck drivers drink enough water, and they often go too long without stopping to urinate; those two factors alone will drive your body's ph balance into highly acidic realms. Another factor that comes into play is that many drivers eat right before they hit the sleeper berth. When that happens, the liver fills up with blood and that triggers the body's metabolic system to store food as fat.

Additionally, the stress of the lifestyle will challenge your immune system. I remember getting hit with the flu while driving the outer loops of Chicago. It sucked, but it was also dangerous. You're going to be in and out of truck stops, more than a few filthy restrooms, cafes, terminals, and freight docks, breathing the same contaminated air as thousands of other drivers from every part of the U.S., (except Hawaii) Mexico, and Canada. I strongly recommend you begin a regimen of vitamins, minerals, nutritional supplements, and anti-oxidants. Drink lots of water, and squeeze lemons or limes into it; that helps to flush out your kidneys.

As far as your truck being your primary residence??

That's much easier said than done. I would strongly recommend that you have some place (other than your truck) to hang your hat and call your home, even if you're just renting a room somewhere. There will be times when you need a break from living out of your truck. Anytime your truck goes in for repairs or service, your "home" goes in as well. Living out of your truck isn't necessarily cheap, either. A steady diet of fast food and TA truck stop cafes will make you belly fat and your wallet thin. Being that you're unmarried and unattached, I highly recommend getting a post office box to receive your mail.

I would encourage you to scroll down to the thread "A few questions if you don't mind" for some further insights[/B]
(OP by "Athena";same forum)

Please understand that I'm not trying to dissuade you from embarking on a driving career; I'm just trying to offer you some realistic perspectives that you generally won't find in the truck stop promotional booklets. I only ran OTR for a couple of years, and was never a "career driver". For me, being a trucker was just something that I wanted to experience. Being in my mid 40's at the time, and being a husband and a father, as well as being a business owner, I had a limited window of opportunity in which to do it.

The Good Things I Remember:

I experienced many wonderful things. Things like rolling over the desert on a moonless night, and running the "Chicken Hauler Highway". (Hwy 54 between Alamogordo and Santa Rosa, N.M.) Many nights, I'd shut down for a short break in Corona. I'd fix myself a little grub, climb out of the cab, and pull out my fold-out lawn chair. I'd lean back and look up into a sky that was just exploding with stars. I look back and remember driving through the White Sands Missile Range during a meteor shower..... and once again seeing the sky exploding with stars. When the moon was out, I'd view it through the lenses of my binoculars, and it looked so very close......
I remember running Hwy 90 through West Texas on a cloudy night, shutting down for a short break outside of Marfa, Tx, and feeling the darkness that was so thick you could almost slice through it with a knife. Silence unlike anything I'd ever experienced. You could almost "hear" it. Words just can't describe how wonderful those moments were.

I remember the night that I was rolling from Tucumcari, N.M to Amarillo, Tx. and watching a super cell that produced a light show unlike anything I've ever seen. Pink lightning!! It went on for hours. The aftermaths of those storms weren't so beautiful. The storms had moved out just before I arrived in Amarillo. When I pulled into the Pilot in Amarillo, several big trucks in the lot were on their sides; there must have been some hellacious wind sheer. Quite a few drivers were reporting damaged windshields. There were baseball sized hailstones all over the place.

I had missed the dangers, but not by much. I guess that The Good Lord watches out after children and fools, and I wasn't a child!! I can only assume that The Pilot had an emergency generator system. There were power outages, but their lights were still on, although the fuel pumps were inoperative. When those storms hit Dallas/Ft. Worth in the very early hours of the next morning, the hail had knocked out windows in many of the downtown sky scrapers,thousands upon thousands of vehicles were damaged or destroyed, and over 400,000 people and many businesses were without power for several days.

I often ran loads for Caterpillar, from Imperial, Ca. to Peoria, Illinois, then back to Imperial. It was a very lucrative and coveted run. Our trucks were governed at +/-78MPH, and between Arizona and most parts of Missouri, the speed limits were mostly between 70 and 75MPH. The loads were were time critical, but even as a solo driver, with the higher speed limits, I could cover a lot of ground in a 14hr. time span.

I drove at night whenever I could. To the point where it was possible, I planned my driving schedules around predicted rush hours. I'd pull out after evening rush hour, and try to put the big cities behind me before morning rush hours. Driving the deserts and the mountains during the daylight hours was awesome, but you couldn't pay me enough to drive a big truck through Chicago or around Atlanta in mid afternoon or at rush hour.

At night, I missed seeing the mesas and the incredible rock formations along the highways, or the majesty of the desert, but there was far less traffic. Less traffic meant more miles each day, all while breezing through (or around) large cities without the hassles. Shorter times in transit translated into being assigned the more preferred loads, with better miles. With thai, I gained the respect of my freight managers, and earned bigger paychecks.

Our trucks were equipped with the electronics gear that allowed us to bypass many scale houses, and most of the scale houses we couldn't bypass were often closed at night. Additionally, the drivers with whom I shared the highways were generally more experienced, and of substantially higher quality than many of the daytime drivers. True professionals. I had some interesting conversations over the CB, without all of the moronic, vulgar, trash talk that permeates the channels during the day.

The Not So Good Things I Remember.:

Although I enjoyed some wonderful things, there were also some downsides. It's not like I had much time to experience the joyful things to their fullest degrees. There was never enough time to shut down and roam the flea markets in Quartzsite, Arizona, or to stop off at the old tourist spots along what used to be Route 66.

I remember making an autumn run through New England. It was like being right in the middle of a picture post card. I was surrounded by the Autumn leaves in the trees, but there was no time to shut down and enjoy it. Then, there was my one and only run through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Amish country. A quaint little town, with streets filled with horse drawn buggies. Unfortunately, time didn't allow me to shut down to enjoy those thing, either.

On that same run, I remember pulling into a roadside stop one afternoon for personal relief. I was already missing my wife and our daughter, and I was wishing that they could have been with me to see the incredible beauty. While walking along the sidewalk, I came upon a Mennonite family; the father, the mother, and three precious young daughters. I smiled at them and offered a friendly "Hello!!" They just ignored me. My heart sank. Apparently, their culture discourages even momentary interaction with strangers. That was a real disappointment.

I would have loved to have found a campground and pitched a tent for a few nights; instead, I had to settle for a short break. In less than 20 minutes, I was back in the cab, and back on the road. After all, I was driving someone else's truck, (someone else's depreciating asset) with somebody else's freight, (someone else's wealth and potential profit) and I was on someone else's time, (someone else's dime) with the reputations of my employer and the shipper, as well as my reputation as a driver, all hanging in the balance. I was never on an excellent adventure in my personal R.V.

For all of the advantages that nighttime driving offered there were some huge downsides. By about 4:00am, my circadian rhythms were making themselves known, and registering their protests in no uncertain terms. I would get VERY, VERY TIRED. Remember, driving "tired" can be every bit as dangerous as driving drunk, so I had to be VERY, VERY CAREFUL I drank coffee by the gallons. By morning time, as other drivers were pulling out of the truck stops, I was pulling in. Come evening time, as other drivers were clamoring to get in, and as the lots were filling up and the parking spaces becoming fewer, I was pulling out. Once again, though, the trade-off was (almost) constant fatigue. Did I mention that I was almost always VERY, VERY TIRED??

My blood pressure and cholesterol levels shot through the roof. Muscles turned into sponge. (I never handled the freight.) In two years time, I quite literally looked and felt like I'd aged somewhere between five to ten years. I could see it in my face, in my skin pallor, and on the grey hair became much more pronounced. I met more than a few drivers who looked quite a bit older than me, but they weren't.

Overall, with all of the good, and even with the not so good, I enjoyed my time as a driver; but after two years of being out on the roads, , I was ready to come back home. I may hit the road again someday, and go back and visit some of the many places I drove past without seeing while I was running OTR, but if I do, it will be in a small RV, on my time, and on my dime.

Hope this helps!! Best of luck to you, but always remember:

"Luck" is a phenomenon which occurs when the thresholds of preparation converge with the thresholds of opportunity and/or circumstance!!

 

Craze,

Go for it. I was in a similar situation, and finally got "crazy" enough to pay for a cdl physical. I passed and the rest is history. I got lucky and landed a "line haul" job right out of the gate. I loved the job, but I loved it in spite of its flaws, since I hated my previous cube farm life so much.

I'll quote a guy I heard on the CB, who said he used to be in corporate America, and driving a truck was like being on vacation every day. Probably pissed off the "real" truckers, but......


Like the previous poster, I aged a lot, but I made $50,000 a year in my linehaul job, which I consider to be a lot of money. Being comfortable being alone for long periods is a big plus. Thriving on being alone (and away from a boss ! ) is huge plus.

Technical skills like being able to back up the truck in tight spaces are critical. Took me a few years to get even half decent backing up.

Overall, truck driving was my favorite career over a lifetime, probably.

I drove for 6 years. I don't regret it.

Try it and see how you like it. Gotta be better than engineering, right ?

Best of Luck,

ZW

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

@Useless

I can pretty much be the fake guy at work with the fake laugh and listening to the nonsense small talk at the water cooler. I can play the whole bureaucratic office game when needed. So I don't have a problem being social or unable to do it, I'm not really worried about any tense or hard to work with people. They would actually be easier to deal with since I know I will be back on the road soon enough.

As far as lifestyle goes I am already researching healthy eating and fitness for trucking and meditation with mindfulness has completely helped me stop stress in it's tracks.

You are right too looking more into it. I would need to get a place to stay when on home time. I will probably find what the cheapest alternative is while I spend a few years getting my experience and total mileage driven to a respectable level.

@Zombiewoof

I'm glad you can relate to my problem and it's nice to hear success stories of people that somehow escaped the cube farms.

I currently got two job offers with my current career, so I'm going to arrange it so they hopefully get in a bidding war for my position, so that way I can bank more money, then hopefully after saving for 6 months while researching and studying I will be fully ready to get into the business with some oh !@@#$ money stashed away.

The hardest part I hear so far is the trainer part and the horror stories of getting stuck with a terrible trainer in a cramped space for months. So I will be mentally preparing for that.

And this is just to anyone who may read this thread.

I have been watching trucker Vlogs on Youtube and their attitude is so much more positive and then I go to forums where it seems like this is the worst job in the world. It's hard to decipher from the positive and negative. I guess I would be just as negative about my career if some potential ITT Tech student asked me if he/she should get into engineering and drafting, but this isn't something I chose either. It was just something my dad got me into right after high school and it payed pretty good at the time, so I stuck with it.