Profile For Larry S.

Awesome writing! Spoken like an honest hardworking person. Nothing is easy and without hard work and overcoming obstacles, would any job really be worth the self investment and sacrifice? Likely not. Thank you for the advice!

can anyone tell me what to expect?

Metalhead, the single one biggest thing that trips people up when trying to get started in this career is their expectations.

I can't tell you how many times people have quit their trucking jobs, or gone home before they even finished their orientation and training period because things did not happen the way they expected them to. This job is so unique to itself, and involves such a commitment to a unique lifestyle that is contrary to the way that most people live, that it is like a startling slap in the face for many when they first try their hand at it.

The best advice that I can give you, knowing that you've already tried this and blamed your failure on the company you chose, is to expect it to be hard - incredibly hard. Expect to miss home, expect to make very little money at first, expect your trainer to treat you like a dummy, expect about half of what you thought the recruiter told you to be false, heck, you might as well expect the barbecue sauce they serve you with one of the free lunches at orientation to be nasty tasting - we actually had a guy go on a rant in here about that one time!

Expect that you are going to feel like you are being mistreated, that's right because you may very well feel that way. I went through my entire training period going through what most people would consider as untenable mistreatment. The folks at corporate told me afterwards that they knew I was going to be tough enough to handle the job because they very seldom had people make it all the way through the training with this guy! They knew what it was like to endure this nut job, and they still had him training people!

A big part of the training at many trucking companies is designed to test you and see what type of personality you have. If you are the type of person who can't problem solve and keep moving forward in a stressful situation, or manage to get along on a daily basis with really disagreeable people, you may not make it in this job, and they would like to qualify whether those qualities are in you or not, right up front. The training is front loaded with stress because they want to know if you bail at the first signs of trouble, or if you have got the testicular fortitude to face down a dragon and slay him when it is necessary. They will usually give you enough rope to hang yourself, or incriminate yourself by your own reactions, which is why you see so many people on trucking forums slamming companies for the way they were treated - they went in there with false expectations, then they jumped ship and cried foul because nothing was like they thought it should be.

Now, let me counter all of that with the fact that I love this job, and I excel at it every week with measurable quantifiable results, and some really nice paychecks. I'm not saying in any way that you are going to have to be miserable in this job, but what I am saying is that 99% of what most people expect it to be like when they first get started is totally bogus and based on false assumptions. If you want to enjoy success at this career be prepared for a tough time of it for that first year. It literally takes that long to get a feel for how to manage all the many things that can take their toll on you while out there on the road. This job is a problem solvers wet dream. You have got to be on top of your game every day because it's just that type of environment. If you love a challenge then you can do well out here. If challenges tend to make you leery and your mental endurance tends to shut down when taxed, then I say beware the trucking career.