What are some of the pros and cons of being a truck driver?

Question

I got burned out on being a dental hygienist a couple years ago and still can't decide what to do with my life. I've got a strong urge to be mobile. what are some of the good things about driving a truck? What are some of the bad aspects of this profession? Is it hard to learn how to drive a semi? My biggest fear is running over someone or something. What kind of income does a trucker make on the average??

Answer 1

The pros (for me).....Freedom, not having someone over your shoulder riding you all day long.  Seeing various parts of the country....some of the prettiest sights you'll ever see, and when you're lucky you have time to stop for a while and admire them.  Unpredictability- (unless you're dedicated/local) you never know where you'll be heading next...you never know what you'll see in the next mile...as soon as you're getting sick of one place, you're off to another place.  Watching the sun rise and set in a different place every day.  Meeting new people.  The various opportunities and variety that's available in terms of type of freight, how you prefer to live/drive.  The money is good....your first year may not be spectacular (I earned about 35K), but after a couple years of safe driving you can make 65K + a year....more if you "specialize" and learn to haul cars, oversize, etc....

Mainly I think I enjoy it because it's a job, but for people who enjoy the lifestyle, it doesn't FEEL like a job!  Sure there are days where everything will go wrong and everything will feel tedious and annoying.  But for me, I'm out here....I have many "creature comforts" in my truck....I make it feel like HOME, so wherever I go, I bring my home with me.....I guess I sorta feel like it's working from home.  You don't have the routine and rat race of a 9-5 job, and that makes me very happy.  

The bad aspects?  What's truly "BAD" all depends on your current lifestyle and how you tend to look at things.  If you have any sort of family or home commitments, it puts a major strain on those.  You will not see your children and spouse as much as you want to, you will not always be able to get home for everything you want to see, some companies are bad about getting you home LATE so you MISS something important.  

This is enough to make many drivers miserable and hateful out here.  Many drivers seem to take out their unhappiness with their job choice on everyone else out here, so you deal with a lot of rude, inconsiderate, even downright ANGRY drivers.  Lots of garbage on the CB and more often I'm seeing people actually taking out their anger on people in person.  But this is easy to avoid if you keep your composure and you're a more mellow person.  

Of course you're also dealing with a sea of 4-wheelers of whom 99% of them have absolutely NO courtesy, NO idea what it takes to drive a truck, and NO common sense and therefore you have the responsibility of making the "right decisions" and driving to compensate for everyone else's stupidity.   I don't worry about "running someone over" much, as I learned how to drive defensively so that I am doing all the right things and being as safe as I can.  I do worry about unavoidable wrecks, people running into me or causing an accident....but the chances are in your favor, if YOU are being a safe driver and "leaving yourself an out", you can often minimize the damage/injury in the unfortunate incidence that you're involved in a wreck.  You see a good portion of drivers out there with 10 yrs/1 Million Miles of safe driving....so if you do the right thing, you can be accident-free out here.  

You will encounter problems with your company.  No trucking company is perfect, they will tick you off from time to time, it is hard to truly feel respected, especially when many companies have a thousand plus drivers, and communicate with you primarily over an on-board computer system.  You will be frustrated, feel slighted, feel ignored, feel like a "number"....if this is a major source of agony for you, grit your teeth for 2 years and you can find a job with a smaller company where they give you a cell phone and a little respect, and at least know your name.  

You will suffer delays.  Breakdowns can leave you sitting on the side of the road, or stuck in the shop for 3 days...some companies will pay "layover pay", some will not, but any decent company WILL pay for your hotel room.  Some drivers p**s and moan about the loss of miles for the week, I look at it as a "paid hotel room and a vacation".  Shippers and recievers will delay you....you'll sometimes sit for hours waiting on a door.  Lots of companies offer a lot of "drop and hook" freight to avoid this...I personally don't get mad at waiting, I look at it as time to surf the Net or take a nap.   Weather will delay you, and have you sitting in some BFE town in Wyoming for 2 days until the blizzard passes.  And of course, any of these delays can and will happen when you're trying to get home for time off.  

You're subject to inspection at any time by the DOT at scales and sometimes they "suprise" you on the side of the road....this can be a real annoyance.  Like anything else, there are good cops who are simply doing their job, and there are BAD cops with attitude problems who get their jollies from treating truckers like c**p.   I have found that 99.9% of the time, if YOU have a PROFESSIONAL, POLITE attitude from START TO FINISH....you will not have any real problems with law enforcement.  If they're gonna write tickets, you're not going to stop them....but being an a*hole won't get you off any easier.  

The laws are changing for us out here, and it's getting more and more ridiculous with how the govt. is s******g with the rights of the individual driver.  That's not something I'll try to explain here, as you'll have to learn about logging rules and such....but let's just say it is getting more and more restrictive out here, before too long you'll have to log bowel movements on your logbook with color, size and consistency remarks.

Then there's the general comfort issue....you can make your sleeper pretty cozy with TV, a fridge and microwave (all you need is an inverter)....But you're still crapping in public restrooms, showering in public showers (well, they're private rooms, cleaned after each use, but you know what I mean), you might not always have time to shower every-single-day, or Nature will call during one of those times you're broke down on the side of the road, or when you simply can't find a place to park a truck.  You don't get to watch your fav. tv shows, don't get any home-cooked meals.  Truck stop food is pitiful, greasy and unhealthy....you can improve your diet by shopping at Wal Marts and buying a little grill to grill meats, buy a crock pot to cook dinner while you drive....still, it's not home :)

Basically, the good has to outweigh the bad for YOU....I personally THRIVE on the variety, being in a different place all the time, the unpredictability.  If I'd have been born earlier, my mom says I'd have been the ultimate hippie in a VW Bus....this is sort of a modern, controlled, and paid version of that for me...without all the drugs LOL....I stay out on the road (my husband and I) for 3 months at a time.  We go with the flow, roll with the punches....we have our stressful days, sure, but at the end of the run, it's all worth it for us.

It's a LIFESTYLE....not a job.  Some people don't like the lifestyle...that's when it becomes a JOB.  You're doing the right thing asking questions.  If you know any truck drivers well enough, see if you can ride along for a couple weeks....see what it's truly like....then you'll have a real good idea whether you want it or not.

Answer 2

indepnednece. good pay.

long hours and hard on the kidneys.

Answer 3

The pay is pretty good depending on how committed you are (I heard something like 79 cents a mile??? ballpark if youre experienced).

You get to mostly set your own schedule, adn you get a lot of alone time.

Your cabin is basically your house so you can pimp it out; cushions and music and all that  (and some "manly" stuff).

Plus you can wear trucker caps and eat mostly slim jims.  No one will care!

Cons: i really doubt theres a dental plan or health insurance or a union.

Also, there's not really anywahere to go.

Answer 4

it is a good life if you can spend 24 hours a day in a truck ( this is if you drive over the road ). you should consider a job as a local driver first. You get home every day and do not have the high cost o flife on the road. It is expensive to eat at a truck stop. If you go to a good quality school they can give a feel for the safe handling of a semi. Still expect long hours and frustration from the poor 4 wheelers that will cut you off and the rude workers at the whare houses. A lot of them do not like truckdrivers. Written from 10 years over the road and local experiance

Answer 5

I would focus on another career. The money sounds good but you are only a machine that drives the truck. You have no life. The police, DOT, customs all treat you as a criminal. I spent 12 years over the road and gave it up 7 years ago.  There are plenty of other opportunities that are far more rewarding than trucking.

Answer 6

Pros:  If you enjoy driving, trucking can be the perfect job.  You get to travel all over and get paid to do it.  You get the satisfaction of regularly completing projects

Cons:  Can be tough on your body, sitting in one place for hours at a time.  There's usually lots of pressure to get the job done, as profits are slim in trucking.  Every cent you save goes to the bottom line.  Driving a semi in traffic can be mighty challenging.

Whether learning to drive a semi is hard is really something only you can answer.  It's more involved than most people realize.  In terms of income, you can run from the 40's for an inexperienced driver well into the 100's for a specialized carrier.  That's not something you'll be doing right away, though.

An alternative driving option is FedEx Custom Critical.  They carry high priority shipments around the country and drivers can operate everything from a simple van to a full size tractor trailer.  The money can be pretty good and your trips are arranged for you.  If you can arrange a partner to drive with you, you'll get longer trips, but single drivers do fine as well.  My old company used to get quite a bit of use out of Custom Critical, since we didn't want our freight handled by conveyor belts.

Answer 7

You are looking at life on the road?  OK, some of the pros and cons, as seen by an Australian.  To start with, to get a semi trailer license is not that hard.  You have to do a lot of training, and the best way is to learn from someone that is doing the job now.  Travelling as an offsider can give you a feel for the work, before you commit to the cost of obtaining a license.  

With your fear of running over someone or something, do not be afraid of that.  You drive now?  It is the same principle driving a car to driving a 115 tonne triple road train...  drive defensively, and allow yourself enough distance to stop in a hurry if you need to.  Just remember, when you turn a corner, to allow for the length of trailer that you have attached...  or that telegraph pole on the corner may be worried about getting skittled!!!

Some of the good points about being a transport operator... You can get to see some spectacular countryside that many people have never seen...  Depending on who you are working for, and what you are doing, will determine what sort of money you can make.    You can also make lifetime friendships from the transport industry, and there is different career paths to choose should you get bored with driving.  

Some of the bad points...  The enforcement agencies can regard your wallet as a cash cow, write you up for the most minor offence.  You then have the fun of trying to get off the charge, which is not easy.    You can spend a long time away from home, with only the phone and the internet to keep in contact with loved ones.  You can sometimes get car drivers that do crazy things, and that can cause grey hairs at a quicker than normal rate.  Depending on the reputation of who you are working for, you could get a rotten company to work for, and that is no fun!  

As a suggestion, try the offsider path first, to see if you are keen to get a semi license.  If you do decide to get your semi license, find out if you can get work driving in your local area, doing deliveries and pick ups.  That will give you confidence in your skills, and not be far from base should anything happen.  If you are still keen to keep going, then you can look at doing either linehaul or long distance transport.  

I do hope that this has been of help to you, and wish you well with your endeavours in the future.

Answer 8

I'm a dispatcher for Henry Trucking (Norfolk VA)

It depends what you're looking for we pay .86 per mile + FSC (fuel sur charge = helps keep fuel cost down for you)

If you wan't to be home every night we do intermodal, pays well.

If you are really looking to make money, go over the road but you will pretty much live in your truck.

Answer 9

I am a retired tractor trailer driver and i drove 2 million accident free miles.

It takes about 6 months to get used to the all hours of the day and night driveing that you will be doing plus learning your way around to get to your destinations.

Dont expect much family time because your life will be in that tractor trailer but you will meet alot of friends along the way.

No it's not hard to learn to drive a tracor trailer anyone who can drive a pickup truck with a standard shift can drive a semi,you just got alot more gears :)

the income is great about 65K a year a s a company driver.