Profile For Rock

Your new trucking career is not finished for a backing accident. This is a hard profession to learn and takes some time. Yes you made a mistake but try to learn from it. Start applying to other companies. I would not volunteer the reason you got fired. Eventually you will find a company desperate for drivers. Get your first 1 to 2 years of experience and then look for a better truck job.

Last week there was a guy in a car that drifted into my lane within a couple feet of my drive tires cruising at 70mph. He was staring at a large screen smart phone that he was holding. I blew my air horn. I wanted to kill the guy because he dam near killed me and the other drivers in the vicinity.

I find the time running from 4AM to Sunrise the hardest. Many times if I have the extra time I pull into a rest area and take a 30 min to an hour nap right before sunrise. This helps keep me driving safe.

Appreciate the awesome write up! I stopped driving several months ago but just got an offer to drive on a local Walmart dedicated account. I am seriously considering it. I have delivered to Walmart Dcs before in the SE but that was OTR. The local gig sounds like more of a grind but coming home daily sounds like it could make it worth it.

Counting 2 months of schooling and 9K miles. I have thrown in the towel. I was a Tanker Hazmat hauler with 2 Companies and there were many cool things I liked about the job. The people I worked with within the company, the adventure, the danger to a certain extent, the respect of barreling down the highway with 45k lbs of hazardous material. The trucks were modern and fun to drive. This was the closest job I have had that almost felt like my time in the Army although still vastly different. So these were some of the very cool parts.

The thing I could not get over however was I had to wake up 2:30 am to 2:45 am every morning, commute 35 minutes to work 45ish back home due to rush hour. So my average day came out to just over 13 hours so I had to put in14-15 hour days counting the commute. Also unloading at the chemical and paper mills a couple of times a day really felt like I was shortening my life span with all that stuff I was breathing in continuously. I would do unloads in places where there was stuff literally spraying everywhere, smoke bellowing from above creating its own weather, large pools bubbling just a few feet away of gods knows what. Last week I drove into this paper mill that felt like a disaster ride at Universal Studios or something. There was so much stuff spraying all over the place, things rattling it was unreal. And some of the spots you have to back in those plants are insane also!

Another issue I had was the pay. They paid us $12 an hour when waiting around to be loaded, unloaded or even doing it ourselves. Per Load pay was more on average however. But for the amount of skill involved with the self loads and unloads, the chance of injuring yourself with the product, the hazardous environments, having to wear full chemical suits, dealing with the careless 4 wheelers every day that almost don't see you in time to prevent an accident made it feel like I was being taken advantage of.

Really cool job overall. But for me the Hours (1 day off a week 65-70 a week), low pay for the work involved, literally came out to $7.10 last week (net take home) to haul hazmat over 300 miles a day. The health concerns with sitting most of the day, breathing the fumes from the product and whatever stuff is floating around at the plants makes this career option a no go for me. I feel like I can do better. Such as work 40 a week and make the same pay and not sacrifice my health or social life in the process. Having done this job just enough to get a good taste of it I have the utmost respect for most truck drivers out there now. The ones that give a dam about the profession. You guys definitely deserve to make more for the hours and stuff you put up with. A part of me will miss being a part of this daily carnage and abuse.

I was let go on the day I was suppose to graduate from my first trucking company because on my final driving test my tester failed me. I put in a hard 30 days and 2 weeks of OTR for basically low wages. My OTR trainer told me I was one of the better driving students he has had in a long while and would be a reference for me. On my final driving test the testers have no clue how good of a driver I was. I made a few minor mistakes which they amplified to unreasonable proportions as if they had something to prove for themselves. I had Just a few minor hiccups during the official road tests. So here I am two days later applying to other truck companies. I honestly feel I was let go for the wrong reason. I drove 2800 miles for this company during the month with no incidents plus another 1000 in CDL-A school before that. I was suppose to have my truck next week pulling in around $900 week (counting bonuses) on a sweet dedicated route. Doubt I will land anything like that again with no experience and a mark on my record. So what do I do now?