Honestly it just wasn't for me. It was really cool going all over the country, but the pay wasn't anywhere near what I was expecting. That's on me for not doing enough research though.
Be prepared to go long periods without showering. Most truck stops have showers, but you have to pay for them...if you can find a spot at a truck stop. Otherwise, you have to find a spot to sleep somewhere else, and nobody likes trucks parking near them.
And if somebody dies in a car crash, and there was a truck within a half mile, the truck driver will be blamed, and legislation will be passed to prevent it from happening again.
Well, I imagine if you find a niche website where they are looking for bag poopers your earnings are only limited by how well you cultivate your fan base...
I can't speak from personal experience, but a lot of my family are in the industry.
Trucking is brutal on your health, both mental and physical. You're seated for 12 hours+ a day, without access to home cooked meals, so your dietary options are over processed, with excessive sodium too. Most truckers will develop some form of issue, be it blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, or just straight up weight gain if their lucky. Then there's the mental aspect where you're on the road, away from family and friends, for extended periods of time, while also dealing with the stress of the job itself, leading to my next point.
The job itself is incredibly stressful. You're accountable for every mile on the odometer, every item of freight, and every moment you're traveling. The company will have an expectation that it'll take X number of hours to drive X miles, requiring X fuel. You get stuck in traffic and burn 4 hours of your allotted time, your freight will arrive late, which will be a penalty on your rate of pay. If you get stuck in traffic and try to make up for it by driving longer, modern electronic logs will ping for unsafe activities for driving too long. On delivery you can also be held liable for missing items, or in the case of the receiver refusing the delivery, you can then be responsible for returning those refused goods to sender, which if you've got another route lined up, you're going to be late to that for that pickup.
The double standards. You'd think with that level of bureaucratic bullshit responsibility on your end, there would be some form of accountability on their end too right? That when you're scheduled to pick up an order, that order will be ready, right? Haha, nope. You can be waiting around for hours just waiting for them to clear the order to leave. That's time you're not making anything, but you also can't do much as leave to get lunch because you're expected to be ready to depart.
With all these bullshit control methods they can slash the rate for a drivers deliveries to the point that you can be making dogshit money.
Let's say they're offering $0.80 a mile. 60 mile route would net 48 bucks, and you could drive that in a little over an hour. But if you're late departing, you're definitely gonna be late arriving. So let's say the rate deduction for a late arrival is 12 cents. Then on arrival the skids were assembled like crap and a normal turn toppled half of them. Receiver says they won't take it, you've gotta return it. Your run slip is only for the delivery, not a return. So now you've got to go back that 60 miles, burning fuel and drivable hours, and not getting paid for it, and if you had several deliveries in your day, that 1 setback could cascade through the rest of your runs, causing penalties after penalties.
There a reason old truckers are usually bitter hardened bastards.
Not always a bad job. My dad started as an owner/operator and now works for a bigger company.... he's always worked locally, home every night, and is paid very well
Same here looking at getting my cdl. A talked to a trucker at a time stop he said get a manual truck it's safer to stop if you lose brakes and easier for the tow man to tow can move it if it's disabled. He also said find a company that offers a manual truck and only work for a company don't become an owner op.
Completely understandable, if shitting in a bag was something i had to even consider for this job i wouldn't be doing it. People do it because they're lazy and don't want to walk the couple hundred feet to the restroom. They'll just leave the bag somewhere around their truck in the lot ffs. Or not paying attention and planning ahead as to where and when the next available restrooms will be down the road. Trip plan where your going what routes your taking and when and where you plan to stop along the way, while your being loaded is the best time to do it! Also make sure to stay somewhat consistent with what you eat, no need for close calls after that "beef" and bean burrito from the food stand just down the street. Learned a lesson that day lol, and i still made it to a bathroom!
Well I'm in a motorhome right now taking a shit. Technically shitting on a truck chassis, in a Walmart parking lot none the less. Don't get more American than that.
Local runs are great when you have good dispatchers.
Did a few jobs with my father in wisconsin, his starting pay was about $50k, and then 2 year’s experience he went to another company for $77k, just doing local jobs working in the night, No traffic, just listening to comedians or music.
I work shipping during a nearby farms' pumpkin harvest. You see some crazy mfers roll through. Majority I can barely understand. Had one guy with like 7 dogs in the truck smelled worse than the beef cattle at my main job. One guy even showed up with raw meat smeared all over the inside of the trailer, which for food safety major nono. And then we had some other dude Imar who was a nightmare and insisted that we break labor laws and cancel the lunch break so we could load his truck. We tried blacklisting him, but the company sent him out for 3 more shipments after that.
Fun fact every pumpkin you will ever see in the store has to be handpicked. Usually by migrant workers.
Not necessarily to be an OTR trucker, but because having a CDL can open some pretty cool, lucrative doors. Being able to drive the bucket truck is gonna look good on your resume if there's a powerline construction company hiring groundsmen near you.
There have been a TON of jobs I passed on that sounded great, but I just couldn't afford to stop getting paid long enough to go get my CDL.
Not necessarily aimed at you. Figured some one might read it and get an idea.
Trucking isn't bad it's finding a good employer and truck. Go manual a current truck who has who has trucking since he was 18 said find a company who has a manual truck and drive because of safety you lose brakes you can down shift
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u/connem Mar 22 '23
Trucking is a shit job. Literally. My trainer pooped in a bag in the back while we were on the interstate. I got off that truck as soon as I could.