Profile For Christina H.

I have done boat load of things. I was a Nursing Assistant right out of high school for 6 months, this was a temp job while waiting to go to boot camp for the Navy. I was in the Navy for 4 years as an Aviation Hydraulic Mechanic at a pilot training squadron for helicopters in Norfolk. Mainly that just meant I did inspections, refueling and flight line directing. Training pilots are fun! Or is that scary? I had a lot of short term jobs when I got out of the Navy, but one of my favorites was being a tour guide at Norfolk Botanical Gardens. I was sad to leave that job, but my husband (ex) got transferred to San Diego. After working through a temp agency there for about six months, I went to truck driving school and went OTR for 2 years when I decided to go to college before my GI Bill hit my delineation date. Got a BA in Business Admin and Paralegal graduate certificate in business litigation. All through school, I worked 2-3 office jobs. Then, I worked as a Paralegal for about 1 year when I was accepted to graduate school back in my home state of Wisconsin. I did well, but didn't finish. Have been working for the State for almost 4 years now. Burnt out on bureaucracy and want to go back into trucking to pay off my student loans and just do OTR for at least the next 5 years, if not longer. Ironic to return to something I did before college to pay off my education, but that's how things are sometimes.

Buenos Nachos! May you always have good nachos! Wanted to push this back up the list.

David, that was not hard truth, that was just fun with statistics. If you really want to lay down some hard truths, please provide us all with the the entire data set for lease operators. I want to know the number of people in the data set, where they all fall in the salary range, the static date or date range the the data is pulled from, how the data is collected and by whom (because that can definitely influence the type and data collected). I would also want to know years of experience for the "CDL Holders" as well as whether data was gathered as they left leasing as to their net gain or loss on their income including the potential sale of the rig. This is only a small slice of what I would consider as "Hard Truth", all the other commentary is just fluff.

Or, "Pearls of Wisdom" from Experienced Drivers...

Seriously, take everything Old School said to heart. Anyone getting ready to start training should read what Old School said over and over until it's drilled into your brain. The reality is that this industry is incredibly difficult to get started in. The money for schooling and the length of time it takes is really very modest. But the toll it takes on your nerves and your life as you've known it can be huge. It's exhausting, it's stressful, and you're overloaded with information continuously. You often feel like you're hanging on by a thread because of the workload, and you'll often feel like you've chosen the wrong company or the wrong industry altogether because things are so different than you expected.

Go in with an open mind. Do anything they ask of you (assuming it's safe and legal of course) and do it with a smile. Work hard, listen and learn, and stay positive. If you'll keep moving forward one day at a time and keep a great attitude and work ethic it will work out great in the end.

And frankly Brett, I think Old School's gem above should be clipped and posted in the area of "So you think You Want to Be A Truck Driver" maybe as a PDF addendum or as an addition to a FAQ page.

I love your realism Old School!

Bob,

It appears that you define a "good" job as being only the ones that require a 4 year degree (and I will assume you include those that require more education like Masters and Doctorates). You also assume that a degree is a magical doorway that automatically allows you access to these "good" jobs. I know many well educated people that are grateful to be working at Starbucks, McDonalds, taxi company or a local grocery store because the job opportunities available to them were scarce or nonexistent for there level of education or type of degree. I have an unfinished Masters Degree and a crap ton of debt and now I am pushing towards getting back into trucking to pay off my failed educational investment. Mind you I work in state government and have a job that many would feel blessed to hold, but it's not worth my health and happiness to be miserable. Truck driving and other trade jobs pay well and are decent and honest ways to make a living. And, on top of that employers are desperate to fill many of these, most have avenues to employment that include apprenticeship and on-the-job training that minimizes the debt that most college degrees incur. They also have higher starting and average salaries over the course of a career than those requiring general 4-year degrees. The job market is glutted with over educated and under-skilled individuals. Don't denigrate something just because you don't understand it or don't want to do it.

There's a sense of pride when you can show off your knowledge and know you've trained someone to do a job well. That's why trainers should train.

I believe that's their thinking exactly. They don't want to just throw money out there because it won't bring in quality instructors. It will bring in the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Not only that, but they have to survive as a company in a hyper-competitive industry with razor thin profit margins. If it was Apple or Google and they had 300 billion dollars in the bank between them with some of the fattest profit margins of any company in the world they could afford to pay big money to recruit top-level trainers. But trucking companies aren't going to spend that kind of money to recruit the best of the best as instructors.

Actually I am of two minds about this, a trainer shouldn't be financially punished because a student can't learn, but nor should a student be punished because a trainer can't really train. There has to be a common ground where everyone's needs can be achieved, including the company's.

Hard to tell exactly since I'm viewing it on my phone Pat but it really resembles a set of mobile scales. If it is, talk about the ultimate in irony of a trucker who always has to be aware of weight, pulling though a set of scales while hauling mobile scales.

Well it is mobile but it is not scales. I'll let a few more people guess before I tell what it is... LOL

Looks like it might be an elevator? Would it have scaffolding so you could work on exteriors for building construction?

You should wait for some more replies. I haven't driven OTR since 1998. I will tell you that, for me the 500 miles across Nebraska on the I-80 were the most boring, though some of the other Great Plains states tend to be a drag also. Everywhere else the changes of scenery and landscape were always breathtakingly beautiful to me, so not boring at all.

Books on tape, talk radio, music, watching the scenery and paying attention to the road and my driving!