[Roosh]

Not a bad job if you think about it. You get to travel and not have a manager breathe down your neck all the time. Rough hours but the pay is improving.

http://www.businessinsider.com/trucking-...ing-2012-6

[theoak]

(06-25-2012 02:06 PM)Roosh Wrote:  

Not a bad job if you think about it. You get to travel and not have a manager breathe down your neck all the time. Rough hours but the pay is improving.

http://www.businessinsider.com/trucking-...ing-2012-6

Long term, yes. But despite what the article says, short term not so much. Trucking capacity has been improving recently: trucking companies have finally started to get people trained to catch up with previous demand just as we are entering another recession.

Once the economy turns back around, "on-shoring" starts picking up, etc you will see heavy demand for truckers. Historically, trucking has not been an industry that Mexicans are willing to do because it means being away from their family for too long. If their stance on trucking holds, this will keep the supply of potential truckers low and the pay pretty high.

[UgSlayer]

I wonder what exactly the hours are? If you could take off months at a time to travel? How hard it is to stay in shape and eat healthy? Doesn't sound like a bad gig for a single guy with no attachments.

50 grand a year isn't much if you have to be grumpy, eat like shit on the road, sleep in motels, not exercise, and work year round.

However, it does seem like a relatively secure job with perceived freedom (like roosh said, no boss breathing down your neck, but i believe there are deadlines).

[WestIndianArchie]

(06-25-2012 06:10 PM)UgSlayer Wrote:  

sleep in motels,

they usually sleep in the truck.

[el mechanico]

(06-25-2012 06:10 PM)UgSlayer Wrote:  

I wonder what exactly the hours are? If you could take off months at a time to travel? How hard it is to stay in shape and eat healthy? Doesn't sound like a bad gig for a single guy with no attachments.

50 grand a year isn't much if you have to be grumpy, eat like shit on the road, sleep in motels, not exercise, and work year round.

However, it does seem like a relatively secure job with perceived freedom (like roosh said, no boss breathing down your neck, but i believe there are deadlines).

You sleep in your truck and pimp it out anyway you like. A guy that was working for me started driving again about 6 mos ago. Since then he bought his rental house and a used truck with payments ofcourse. He told me the other day he made 8gs running some shit to North Dakota in one shot from Texas. I couldn't do it but if you like driving why not? Also truck stop food is pretty good and you make your own choices but in his case it's 4 liters of Dew a day and burger and fries every stop.

You could have girls all over the country and if you're game's tight bang waitresses all the time. Hwy 301 is littered with whore houses for quick bangs on the run they have video machines in SC and cold beers. The girls come out and play pool with you and you can pick the best one. You could pick up hitchhikers and bang or whatever.

[Screwston]

I have a relative that used to be a truck driver. I think he got pulled over and was drinking so he had to stop. I would have no problem doing it for a year or 2 if I had a comfortable Lazy Boy seat, good cd player with good speakers and a comfortable place to sleep. I have no idea if you drive around for months at a time, then come home and chill for a few or how it works.

[Hades]

My old man used to be a trucker. The job sort of drove him nuts, since he'd go from North Dakota to Dallas and back twice a week. He said that the worst part of the work was the insomnia and dealing with bullshit from dispatchers. Don't let the distance fool you, they breathe down your neck over the radio plenty.
He also had to put up with a lot of bullshit until he'd been around for five years or so, since they're very distrustful of the "new guy". It's not a job for people who want to make easy money.

[UgSlayer]

(06-25-2012 06:26 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  

(06-25-2012 06:10 PM)UgSlayer Wrote:  

I wonder what exactly the hours are? If you could take off months at a time to travel? How hard it is to stay in shape and eat healthy? Doesn't sound like a bad gig for a single guy with no attachments.

50 grand a year isn't much if you have to be grumpy, eat like shit on the road, sleep in motels, not exercise, and work year round.

However, it does seem like a relatively secure job with perceived freedom (like roosh said, no boss breathing down your neck, but i believe there are deadlines).

You sleep in your truck and pimp it out anyway you like. A guy that was working for me started driving again about 6 mos ago. Since then he bought his rental house and a used truck with payments ofcourse. He told me the other day he made 8gs running some shit to North Dakota in one shot from Texas. I couldn't do it but if you like driving why not? Also truck stop food is pretty good and you make your own choices but in his case it's 4 liters of Dew a day and burger and fries every stop.

You could have girls all over the country and if you're game's tight bang waitresses all the time. Hwy 301 is littered with whore houses for quick bangs on the run they have video machines in SC and cold beers. The girls come out and play pool with you and you can pick the best one. You could pick up hitchhikers and bang or whatever.

Do you have any idea what the work schedule is like. If it's specific contracted jobs or an hourly thing? Can you feasibly work for 8 months and take the rest of the year off?

Hades, can you also give us some more info? I understand your dad had a bad experience with the job, but be as objective as possible.

Thanks in advance.

[WanderingSoul]

My step dad was a trucker. He would have to spend lots of his days off in his truck stuck in exotic locations such as Barstow, CA. Not something I would want to do. No fun at all.

[theoak]

(06-25-2012 10:16 PM)Hades Wrote:  

My old man used to be a trucker. The job sort of drove him nuts, since he'd go from North Dakota to Dallas and back twice a week. He said that the worst part of the work was the insomnia and dealing with bullshit from dispatchers. Don't let the distance fool you, they breathe down your neck over the radio plenty.
He also had to put up with a lot of bullshit until he'd been around for five years or so, since they're very distrustful of the "new guy". It's not a job for people who want to make easy money.

That's if you drive for a big carrier. If you buy your own truck you can pick and choose loads from thousands of different load boards.

[UgSlayer]

Anybody got any positive stories to share? I feel like there has to be an upside to the job.

[w00t]

these guys spend what ... 8+´hours a day sitting on their ass staring on a road?

i think ill pass.

[Kona]

(06-26-2012 03:39 PM)w00t Wrote:  

these guys spend what ... 8+´hours a day sitting on their ass staring on a road?

i think ill pass.

Here's a video that shows some exercises you can do while you're driving the big rigs:

I know a few guys from college that got degrees in Logistics or Supply Chain Management that are now stuck driving for JB Hunt. I think trucking jobs are up because so many others are down.

Right after the Navy I got a job on a container ship, which of course isn't a truck, but being stuck on the thing with nothing interesting going on drove me nuts. I only did one run from Honolulu to Long Beach, then I quit. It was a really hard job to get, too.

Aloha!

[the_conductor]

$50,000 a year?! Wow, it's more like $5000 a year here for driving trucks. Also there are lots of cases of truckers spamming amphetamines to stay awake to drive at night, and fall asleep on the wheel post-drug crash. Many of those dudes like to think they're kings of the road so they don't bother staying in their lane on 2-lane province roads, which makes for extremely dangerous country driving. Maybe in the states truckers have a bit of a badass alpha-ish image, but Thai truckers are seen as bottom of the barrel in the dating pool, and middle class girls aren't gonna be seen anywhere near them.

[Hades]

(06-26-2012 12:09 AM)UgSlayer Wrote:  

(06-25-2012 06:26 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  

(06-25-2012 06:10 PM)UgSlayer Wrote:  

I wonder what exactly the hours are? If you could take off months at a time to travel? How hard it is to stay in shape and eat healthy? Doesn't sound like a bad gig for a single guy with no attachments.

50 grand a year isn't much if you have to be grumpy, eat like shit on the road, sleep in motels, not exercise, and work year round.

However, it does seem like a relatively secure job with perceived freedom (like roosh said, no boss breathing down your neck, but i believe there are deadlines).

You sleep in your truck and pimp it out anyway you like. A guy that was working for me started driving again about 6 mos ago. Since then he bought his rental house and a used truck with payments ofcourse. He told me the other day he made 8gs running some shit to North Dakota in one shot from Texas. I couldn't do it but if you like driving why not? Also truck stop food is pretty good and you make your own choices but in his case it's 4 liters of Dew a day and burger and fries every stop.

You could have girls all over the country and if you're game's tight bang waitresses all the time. Hwy 301 is littered with whore houses for quick bangs on the run they have video machines in SC and cold beers. The girls come out and play pool with you and you can pick the best one. You could pick up hitchhikers and bang or whatever.

Do you have any idea what the work schedule is like. If it's specific contracted jobs or an hourly thing? Can you feasibly work for 8 months and take the rest of the year off?

Hades, can you also give us some more info? I understand your dad had a bad experience with the job, but be as objective as possible.

Thanks in advance.

I wouldn't say that he had a bad experience with the job, exactly.
He enjoyed it for many years until he was forced to work considerably longer hours under more stressful conditions and developed a bad drinking habit as a result. I have more information in the next paragraph.

(06-26-2012 07:47 AM)theoak Wrote:  

(06-25-2012 10:16 PM)Hades Wrote:  

My old man used to be a trucker. The job sort of drove him nuts, since he'd go from North Dakota to Dallas and back twice a week. He said that the worst part of the work was the insomnia and dealing with bullshit from dispatchers. Don't let the distance fool you, they breathe down your neck over the radio plenty.
He also had to put up with a lot of bullshit until he'd been around for five years or so, since they're very distrustful of the "new guy". It's not a job for people who want to make easy money.

That's if you drive for a big carrier. If you buy your own truck you can pick and choose loads from thousands of different load boards.

My dad did buy his own Freightliner back in '88.
I think that might have been the issue in the end, since he had so many payments to make *(house, truck, property, etc), he had to work very long hours or face all kinds of financial problems.

It is possible that he could have avoided a lot of the bullshit by not buying the truck in the first place and following the road rules. I'm not saying he did this, but many people back then kept different sets of log books.

One set of log books would be presented to the dispatcher, police, or whoever, and would explain how the rules were carefully followed, so and such hours of break were taken between shifts, and a passenger was most definitely in the vehicle and driving.

The other set was for personal use, and showed how there was no passenger, the driver actually did drive for (say) 28 hours non-stop, the hauling site wrote that the shipment arrived several hours later than it actually did (to comply with records), information like this.

These days you can't get away with that sort of thing. Everything is more heavily regulated, truckers generally aren't popping handfuls of benzedrine, and dispatchers are less likely to make impossible demands since they can get keel-hauled by the authorities. While it keeps truck drivers safe (I agree with this completely), it prevents truckers from making a boatload of cash and just leaving (like my dad did).

[snoop]

(06-26-2012 07:51 AM)UgSlayer Wrote:  

Anybody got any positive stories to share? I feel like there has to be an upside to the job.

For the kind of money that can be made there is a lower barrier of entry. I think that is the appeal. most of the people I've known who drove trucks did so b/c they didn't have many, if any other skills.

[raliv]

I'm in the middle of CDL training (hopefully to work in the Texas or North Dakota oilfields and make bank) but we have had some trucking company recruiters come by and give us the rundown.

The shortage for truck drivers is very real due to the increasing Federal Safety regs that are driving more and more old truckers out of the business. The shortage is also due to increasing tuition costs at Tech CDL Schools which scholarships don't cover as much anymore due to the recession because they aren't full semesters (7-10 week course). Guys just cant afford to go to school or don't want to get trucking jobs away from their wives and kids. (this is a middle age male DOMINATED field)

If you are single, you can drive for a few years and save up a bunch of money and see the country. If you own your truck, you can make a lot more than a company driver. This one recruiter in his 3rd year of driving owned his own truck (was still making payments though) and made 80 grand last year. He can't stop driving though due to truck payments. He pays for fuel and truck maintenance. It's a headache but he made more.

Basically you live in your truck. No need to lease an apartment or a car. The Federal regs now force you to take a 30 hour break every 70 hours (basically you get your weekends off). So if you are in a good city where you know someone, you can go out and party at night and crash at your truck or your friend or families house. Lots of truckers like to stop by the casinos in Vegas and spend their weekend there when they drive out to California.

My instructor fully expects wages to increase with the shortage of drivers and the demand for freight being hauled only increasing in America. The smaller debt ridden companies are going to get swallowed by the bigger, more liquid, safer companies but that only means opportunity.

The downsides are:

1. Say goodbye to your home life and family if you are going over the road. If you can get past the fact that you aren't going to be home for more than 4 days a month, you can make lots of cash and "run" (drive) over the road all over the country. Most older guys getting into the business just can't stomach being away from home. You can always schedule to come back for a weekend if you put in a notice though. Or you can always find a local route though with Coke or Pepsi or UPS or something and go home at night. Tons of different options.

2. Dealing with annoying dispatchers or bad trucking companies.

3. Not much time for fitness (although come new mega truck stops have gyms)

You are going to make lots more money in the oil business and if you are a motivated, safe driver and follow the safety regulations. Oilfield drivers just drive the trucks to the oil wells and back. Not even real "driving" jobs but you can expect to WORK. There are tons of jobs that require employees to hold a CDL. If you hold a safe CDL, you are going to have a job.

If you don't have family or financial obligations, you can save a bunch of money. First year over the road company drivers make 40 grand starting out. If you are really motivated and have experience, you can open lots of doors and maybe start your own trucking company or drive overseas for some international corporations making 6 figures in Iraq or Afghanistan or some shit hole. Just don't spend your money or get DUIs.

Also, more and more trucking companies are now reimbursing new drivers for their CDL training costs if they sign on. They NEED the drivers.

[rudder]

(06-27-2012 09:26 PM)raliv Wrote:  

I'm in the middle of CDL training (hopefully to work in the Texas or North Dakota oilfields and make bank) but we have had some trucking company recruiters come by and give us the rundown.

The shortage for truck drivers is very real due to the increasing Federal Safety regs that are driving more and more old truckers out of the business. The shortage is also due to increasing tuition costs at Tech CDL Schools which scholarships don't cover as much anymore due to the recession because they aren't full semesters (7-10 week course). Guys just cant afford to go to school or don't want to get trucking jobs away from their wives and kids. (this is a middle age male DOMINATED field)

If you are single, you can drive for a few years and save up a bunch of money and see the country. If you own your truck, you can make a lot more than a company driver. This one recruiter in his 3rd year of driving owned his own truck (was still making payments though) and made 80 grand last year. He can't stop driving though due to truck payments. He pays for fuel and truck maintenance. It's a headache but he made more.

Basically you live in your truck. No need to lease an apartment or a car. The Federal regs now force you to take a 30 hour break every 70 hours (basically you get your weekends off). So if you are in a good city where you know someone, you can go out and party at night and crash at your truck or your friend or families house. Lots of truckers like to stop by the casinos in Vegas and spend their weekend there when they drive out to California.

My instructor fully expects wages to increase with the shortage of drivers and the demand for freight being hauled only increasing in America. The smaller debt ridden companies are going to get swallowed by the bigger, more liquid, safer companies but that only means opportunity.

The downsides are:

1. Say goodbye to your home life and family if you are going over the road. If you can get past the fact that you aren't going to be home for more than 4 days a month, you can make lots of cash and "run" (drive) over the road all over the country. Most older guys getting into the business just can't stomach being away from home. You can always schedule to come back for a weekend if you put in a notice though. Or you can always find a local route though with Coke or Pepsi or UPS or something and go home at night. Tons of different options.

2. Dealing with annoying dispatchers or bad trucking companies.

3. Not much time for fitness (although come new mega truck stops have gyms)

You are going to make lots more money in the oil business and if you are a motivated, safe driver and follow the safety regulations. Oilfield drivers just drive the trucks to the oil wells and back. Not even real "driving" jobs but you can expect to WORK. There are tons of jobs that require employees to hold a CDL. If you hold a safe CDL, you are going to have a job.

If you don't have family or financial obligations, you can save a bunch of money. First year over the road company drivers make 40 grand starting out. If you are really motivated and have experience, you can open lots of doors and maybe start your own trucking company or drive overseas for some international corporations making 6 figures in Iraq or Afghanistan or some shit hole. Just don't spend your money or get DUIs.

Also, more and more trucking companies are now reimbursing new drivers for their CDL training costs if they sign on. They NEED the drivers.

I gave it some serious thinking, and concluded "no." I would perhaps bother to get my CDL if it was a requirement to land a good paying job in the oilfields, but there's a good reason why there's a driver shortage: I haven't heard of a company that pays for detention time. Do the math or check out this trucker's website who did the math:
http://www.smart-trucking.com/truck-driver-salary.html

[teh_skeeze]

I deliver parts for a Mack dealership here in NJ. I make good money for what I do ($13.50/hr + health insurance that I pay $35/wk). I enjoy being a driver, but I am on the fence when it comes to getting a CDL. For one, you can kiss any partying goodbye, as your legal BAC gets cut in half. The other thing that is making me hesitant is the pay. Right now, I can't really leave home, so I'd have to stay local. One of the guys who delivers our freight tells me he knows CDL drivers that only make $15/hr, not much more than I'm making right now. I need to do something though, I hate relying on other people to keep a roof over my head.

[Teddykgb]

(02-24-2015 10:10 PM)teh_skeeze Wrote:  

I deliver parts for a Mack dealership here in NJ. I make good money for what I do ($13.50/hr + health insurance that I pay $35/wk). I enjoy being a driver, but I am on the fence when it comes to getting a CDL. For one, you can kiss any partying goodbye, as your legal BAC gets cut in half. The other thing that is making me hesitant is the pay. Right now, I can't really leave home, so I'd have to stay local. One of the guys who delivers our freight tells me he knows CDL drivers that only make $15/hr, not much more than I'm making right now. I need to do something though, I hate relying on other people to keep a roof over my head.

I know quite a few dump truck drivers, garbage truck drivers and heavy equipment drivers and they are all making around $22 to $28 an hour.

It seems most of the long haul freight companies are not so good to work for considering you make quite a bit less and a lot of them pay per mile so if you aren't moving you aren't making money. I would seriously look into dump truck or garbage truck jobs. Most of them in my area are starting around $17 to $19 an hour and if you are good you should be able to make low 20's quite quickly.

During the summer months you can expect a lot of overtime from dump truck driving but of course unless you are high on the list during the winter months you might get laid off.

[teh_skeeze]

Dump truck is something I have strongly considered since it seems the only job I'm good at is picking things up and putting them down. Dump truck driving is just picking things up and putting them down on a large scale. Getting laid off in the winter would only be bad because I'd have to keep my demons in check during the most difficult time of the year.

[Teddykgb]

(02-24-2015 11:05 PM)teh_skeeze Wrote:  

Dump truck is something I have strongly considered since it seems the only job I'm good at is picking things up and putting them down. Dump truck driving is just picking things up and putting them down on a large scale. Getting laid off in the winter would only be bad because I'd have to keep my demons in check during the most difficult time of the year.

It's a pretty gravy job from what I've heard. Most of the guys usually just pull up to the job site and let the excavator load them and drive off. Half the time I don't think they even have to get out of their truck unless they are checking to make sure they don't have rocks on the tailgate.

The only other time I think you would have to get out is when you are pulling a transfer trailer and you would have to get out and unhook. Sometimes it can be a pain the ass trying to find a spot to park your transfer trailer while you're dump your first load.

[The Beast1]

(02-24-2015 11:05 PM)teh_skeeze Wrote:  

Dump truck is something I have strongly considered since it seems the only job I'm good at is picking things up and putting them down. Dump truck driving is just picking things up and putting them down on a large scale. Getting laid off in the winter would only be bad because I'd have to keep my demons in check during the most difficult time of the year.

I always wondered how much those snow plow guys in the snowy states make each year. Going around and plowing people's drive ways.

[Basil Ransom]

Not that it's relevant to trucking as a career per se, but trucking is mostly a bullshit job created by inept government policy. Wear and tear on roads is proportional to the weight on an axle, to the fourth power. So if you double the weight borne by an axle, the road damage goes up by SIXTEEN times. Work the numbers out, and 99.9% of highway wear and tear is from trucks. If trucks had to pay for the damage they cause, most of the trucking industry would disappear. Put differently, if the roads were privatized, the road owners would tell truckers to GTFO. Compare with trains, where such costs are covered by users.

Oh and when trucks do crash, it is far more catastrophic, as frequently happens.

For more info (not my blog): http://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-h...y-subsidy/

Or just google the topic.

[el mechanico]

^ Tarded post. How are you gonna get all your stuff? A lot of these guys own multiple trucks and bank big.