OTR Trucking Is HARD WORK???

"I keep seeing posts on Facebook and you tube about OTR and how HARD it is and how these guys were LIED to or mislead about hometime, etc. by these big ol mean trucking companies. Luckily, a lot of responses come from experienced drivers like some of y'all here that say you SHOULD'VE researched more or to drive local."

I refer to this as "everybody gets a trophy syndrome." Young people today don't comprehend sacrifice and think anything out of their comfort zone is "hard work." Most need recognition for doing the basics, I got out of bed, where is my cookie?

I spent over 30 years as an accountant and HR director for various firms of all sizes. I'm driving for the same reasons Tired of having CEO that don't know how to do their own job, much less mine telling me what and how to do it without regard to the laws involved. After being let go at the last company because I was blamed for doing what he told me to do, I had enough. My husband asked if I would consider driving a truck with him. Absolutely! Here I am several months later. I admit I have a lot still to learn but will never go back. Plus, I'm with my husband all the time.

I got out of bed, where is my cookie?

Welcome to Wil Trans. JPT driver here. Consider your entire training period a test and really your entire first year. if you truely want it you will roll with the punches. The 3months i spent in trainning seemed like eternal hell away from home so long. Now i usually aim for 12 weeks out and one week home.Generallt last about 8. If my sig other was into OTR we could forgo renting a place. Anyway good luck!!

Like Gary, I spent 15 years in higher education admin. After programming their systems by trial and error - my background is NOT in IT, I have a BA in English Lit - I was told I was out of touch with college customer service practices and found my head on the chopping block. When I finally got another admin job, I found myself watching for the hatchet to fall again and drinking myself stupid to deal with the stress. Now I'm 52, divorced, kids all grown and all over the country, no home obligations. I just finished truck driving school and looking forward to going OTR.

Teri G, Welcome to the forum!

Congratulations of getting your CDL!

Do you know where you are going to start your career at?

Hard work? If I wanted to do a hard working job, I'd become a nurse. Fact is, we drive for a living! Yes, there are stressful situations in this career, but the majority of time spent in a day is on the open road. You may be worrying about getting to your appt on time, but you can only go so fast over the speed limit before a whole new issue arises. Flatbed and tankers have a little more to it than us van drivers do and I can see where that can add additional stress and physical work, but at the end of the day, I realize that I'm driving for a living! I'm seeing a little bit more of the country every day! Saw the snow covered Rockies for the first time just 2 days ago and I was in awe! I'm pretty much on a paid vacation having adventures every day I'm out and loving every minute of it. Is it hard work to drive 10h in a day? Not at all. Is it exhausting to drive 450m straight on I-70 through Kansas and Colorado being only able to go 63mph? Most definitely, but I hardly consider it hard work.

Gary i'm with ya on this one I too was in IT for 19 Years after I got out of a truck to take be with the kids while they were small . IT will suck the life out of ya. I had open heart surgery, and 3 days after my surgery the company I was contracted too said my position was being eliminated . ( that's some gratitude for making them MILLIONS of $) LOL . Now i'm getting ready to get back into driving as I did love it before. Have to start over from scratch but hey that's all good because I needed to catch up on all the latest rules and regulations. I'm all set for Roehl just waiting on one more paper I need then i'll be heading to appleton.

And Unholy I never considered it too hard even when I did drive before, HOWEVER there are times there is A Lot of work to do ,

And this job can get stressful as hell sometimes . IE donner in snow, Cabbage, grapevine etc.... these were one of the few things I didn't miss when I got out of my truck. Although they do provide some Amazing scenery.

Hmmmm... this thread reminds me of how I'm not gonna miss daily status updates and/or stand-ups/team meetings all day long.

I had a position once that required a break down of your day in front of the entire staff at the end of each day. When my boss made me stand up and explain why I had taken TWO restroom breaks more than expected... and I had to say in front of everyone "my stomach has been upset and I have diarrhea today" I knew my career had hit a new low.

Gotta love how even when you are in upper level management, you still have some jackhole breathing down your neck watching every minute of your day (literally checking in AND reviewing minute by minute daily logs)

In my last position I remember thinking, "when am I supposed to do actual work when I have 4+ back-to-back daily stand ups every single day?" And of course they we're supposed to be 15-20 minute check ins, but if you didn't ask for permission to drop off early, you'd end up riding out an hour long ramble by the client rep and lead on the call.

Plus if you did get off the call, you had just enough time to get back into a good grove when it was time to stop and call in on another project.

And yes, I know I could technically "work on something else" while listening to the call... but gawd, did it ever get old. I worked better with my headphones blasting some music instead of waiting to be asked some random question out of the blue.

20 years in tech development, I'm done. I actually enjoy stressful situations (good stress) and real work when I am doing something I know well and love. So "hard work" while doing something I think I'm gonna love... I'm so excited to get this career going.

I do find it interesting that over my extended research into this industry, I'm finding over and over "tech folks" just like me with a similar age, similar work history, similar drive for purpose in a new career all making this same choice. Makes me think I'm on to something.

I'm a former tech worker, although a different sort, getting into trucking now too. In CDL school I saw people thinking their way was better than the way the guy with 29 years experience was teaching it. I saw guys who apparently had no idea what a work ethic is, and they certainly had no work ethic. I saw guys with such an incredibly slack attitude about safety that I started hoping they'd fail just so I, and my family wouldn't be on the same highways as they'd be on. I saw a lot of get rich quick dreams, and disturbingly, well, paranoid attitudes and I continue seeing those attitudes on forums, even this forum, but a lot less so than on the "other" trucking forums.

All I can really control is how I respond or react to what's going on around me. I'm getting into trucking mostly because I kept finding that whenever I was looking at help wanted ads, half or more were for CDL jobs.

Now, though, I'm finding that I believe this industry and job are for me because it's challenging but rewarding. Yeah, I'll work my tail off. Nothing new there. Will I get a gold star for that? No. I'm not even looking for the supposedly ubiquitous $70K/year driving job, like a lot of the guys in my CDL class were.

I just want a challenging yet rewarding job where my good attitude, hard work and my tendency toward independence will be a good fit.