Posted on 05/31/2015 4:50:53 PM PDT by Vigilanteman
This is the situation. I am late 50s in the corporate world of supply chain management. I've done OK, though not spectacular and gone about as far as I can go. We are empty nesters now and my mother, for whom I was the primary care giver, passed away about six months ago.
The present corporate world is giving signals that my work, which they were formerly quite happy with, is all of a sudden, a topic of petty complaints. I believe it is time to look for a new career.
I see tons of ads for truck drivers promising a minimum of $60K annual income (about what I am making now) with benefits better than I am getting now. Some, such as the link, are even volunteering to train you for a CDL as long as you commit a minimum of one year to them after you graduate.
It sounds to good to be true, but since I work in logistics and deal with a lot of vendors who have trouble finding and scheduling trucks, even from locations within a 6-8 hour driving range, I think "could be."
One of the things I think I would enjoy about being on the road a lot would be being away from all of the PC, petty, unproductive office politics. I worked my way through college driving cabs and delivery vehicles, though none of the variety requiring a CDL. I can honestly say I enjoyed the work from meeting different people to the solitude of the road between fares or deliveries.
I did it for a short while when I was between jobs. I thought it would be kinda fun for awhile— that I would get to see some nice places, stop and take a picture or two. Forget about that. There is no place interesting to stop that is going to have anyplace for you to park, not even to get a decent meal. I remember the bad food very well. If by chance you did find something interesting where you could park, your hours of service would always get in the way. If you were tired and wanted to take a break, same thing. The hours of service kept you going. By the time you did run out of hours, it was almost always somewhere desolate and boring. If the truck broke down, I was not getting paid for the day or two that it took to fix it. It paid the bills but it was not a very good job.
I did it for over 10 years.
Here’s the trick. Both you and your wife get the CDL. Start out as a company team, and learn the industry. As soon as you can, either lease (first choice for tax purposes) or buy your own rig, and find a good company to sign on with.
You are now a professional tourist. Enjoy. Truck Stops are the pits. They’re clean, not all truckers are. The trick is to stay out of them.
My wife and I would knock out the miles we wanted to do, and then go sightseeing (including hotel room) where ever we were.
You can net over $100k, but don’t try to be a homing pigeon. Set up with a fridge, microwave, and satellite dish in the truck. It is what you make of it, but if you want to travel, and not have to buy the motorhome, there’s nothing better.
If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask. If you want to talk PM me, and we’ll swap phone numbers, and I’ll answer any questions I can.
One last tidbit of advice, Stay on top of your health. I didn’t, and it’s why we’re not still out there.
Good Luck (Hammer Down!!!)
My cousins kid is a 18 wheeler truck driver. His hands are about twice my size and he stands about 6’5 and 230lbs
Meet those requirements and it should be easy.
petty complaints.... yep I hate those. My boss recently complained to me about not filling in updates in my tickets everyday even though the update would say no change and would continue to do so for several days. His boss wants to see a date change in the ticket even if the ticket itself has nothing in it of value.
In short I did not fill out my TPS Report “Office Space”
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e6/06/aa/e606aa3e27f52ae9a39abe4555545718.jpg
TPS Report
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-58UxQc1cLQg/UAXwFV1p5xI/AAAAAAAAFM4/uCqwAtw41RI/s640/TPS+Report.png
I used to chat with Barb every day....it’s so sad when you loose touch. They felt like family.
Oh my...it is sad that you lost that daily contact.
The biggest problems the two investors I know had were that most drivers seemed to be "self entitled drifters with no sense of accountability nor personal responsibility for timely performance." On one review of a drivers history, it was found he was making routine off route stops to visit his girlfriends in various cities. He complained when he got fired for it.
There was property damage to the truck on top of this. Truck owners have to comply with industry standards for the types of loads they haul. One incident damaged the integrity of the seal for a truck so that goods were exposed to the elements. The fool driver had backed it up and damaged the truck, then never reported it.
bttt
If you want to drive a truck the best paying jobs are either heavy haul or tankers. It takes a lot of experience to do heavy haul, so, you may want to look into hazardous material, tanker work.Tanker drivers are well respected as are heavy haul drivers. I drove big rigs for years but left the industry and went into construction, but I was still young and was a good choice at the time. But I’ll tell ya, driving gets old quick, driving the same roads over and over gets to be quite boring, but, it pays well if you get in with the right outfit.
I went with him on a run one summer, and we started by picking up enough lead to be about 500lbs short of max load. That was two small pallets in the middle of the trailer. Then we went a couple of hundred miles down the road to a Dixie Cup plant and filled the rest of the trailer with Styrofoam cups. He'd get paid for almost 2 full loads in one trip.
Yes, Mild Sleep Apnea is a condition I share as well. If I'm on a road trip and feel even a hint of it coming on, I pull in the rest area or off at the next exit. An empty bladder, a snack or, at worst, a 10-20 minute nap and I'm good for another few hours.
It was all my fault .....I was having serious health issues and was out of the loop for a long while. Stuff happens. I pray that she is OK.
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