Successful People Who Have Become A Truck Drivers?

I look at my friends on Linkedin and Facebook and many of them have become successful bank presidents, CEO's, lawyers, accountants, and doctors. I am happy for them. Yet, here I am going off to become a truck driver. I feel a little disappointed in myself since I am college educated and have a brain. My family and friends are shocked at my career choice.

I could be doing better in life but, there is JUST NO WORK out there. I don't have the connections. Sometimes its not what you know, but who you know. I am not a people person anymore. I just sort of gave up on building relationships.

Can I do trucking driving? Absolutely. Its easy for me to drive stick shift tractor trailers. Am I overqualified? I keep reminding myself of college educated people who are like me, cannot find work, and decided to go into trucking since its steady work?

Has anyone on here came from a professional position to truck driver? Would like to hear from you.

Lol, The president and owner of Melton Truck Lines Bob Peterson Is a driver, drove for CFI for a long time. He comes out in the Tulsa yard ( main terminal) and bull****s with us drivers and still drives. Bought Melton in the early early 90's now it has a fleet of over 1,000 trucks, he didn't lay off any drivers in the recession asthough he cut pay till the economy picked up. If you ask me, That is a trucker that made something of himself.

And about the education aspect you'd be surprised. CEO of million dollar company's retire INTO truck driving. me myself, I can't do much of anything else. Not to many places want a former 0311 USMC grunt for our skills learned in combat. but there are quite a few highly intelligent drivers out here. and don't think trucking is easy, if you get complacent It's time for you to hang up the hat and get into something else. complacency will cause mistakes and mistakes are a chain reaction and can seriously injure yourself or others or kill them. As a trucker you need to be 100% focused and dedicated.

Ha! good reply. I just left tampa and moved to phoenix. I was there 12 years as a teacher.

Good to hear from ya buddy!

Yeah I lived here for a good bit but been living in WV for a year now had to come down to settle legal issues and crap after my mom passed. I have a few injuries from my time ******* packs in the Marine Corps and this warm then cold weather is wrecking my knee and back lol. There is no getting use to the weather changes so quickly down here. And Arizona, warm weather and desserts some good atv/dirt bike riding out there.

I am a math major and want to be a trucker dont be dissapointed in yourself. I have a lot of respect for these people they are proffesional drivers. I can perform advanced linear equations and speak 6 languages and have 7 programming languages under my belt including algorithmic that nobody uses like pearl. Kazza is morpheus port 1214 in ppp. Something tells me backing a trailer will be just as hard. I am not good whith people either so being alone in a truck sounds great. If i tell a computer or peice of machinery what to do it does not ask why. Ask Brett he could have been an unhappy doctor.He loves what he does if you do something do it proud. Brains can belong in a truck these guys are wise men.

I have over 10 years of employment with the State of Oregon, and also worked in the law enforcement field for quite a few years. I am college educated, but not in any specific field....And trucking probably saved my sanity, and possibly some people's lives...We can stuff ourselves into a cubicle, and tolerate it for the money....for awhile...But for those that need more room, more mental stimuli, less administration, and less micromanagement.....we need the open road.

"If I tell a computer or piece of machinery what to do, it does not ask why." That is golden.

All good posts!

There is the stereotype of a dumb trucker. I am sure there are a number of them out there, but being dumb in this business will get you in trouble. You may find that your education can help you be a bit more flexible and think outside the box to problem solve. If you have read much on this site, you will find that driving is more of a lifestyle than most jobs. It is long hours for a decent wage and lots of time away from family and friends. But the benefits are you have a great deal of control of the choices you make once you get a load. You ARE the captain of your ship and the responsibility rests on your shoulders.

Now in answer to your question, I have a BS in Medical Technology that I have never used, but it got me into a flying job I had always desired. I retired out of the Navy as a Naval Flight Officer managing not only people, but weapons systems for a lot of the battle group. Got an MS in Education and spent 18 years working with middle school students. I am not quite ready to retire so now I am playing with skateboards and seeing the US from a different vantage point. I believe that my education and skills, learned in my previous lives, makes me a valuable asset to the company I work for. That doesn't make me any better or worse than other drivers. A lot of these guys and gals may not be book smart, but they are not dumb either. In this industry I think it is 90% positive attitude that is the key.

My recommendation is to go into this business because you want to. Otherwise you may have issues as GuyJax wrote in a post not long ago.

Best of luck.

Ive been a network engineer for the past 7 year, and am also college educated. I have always wanted to be a truck driver and after being laid off started to research and pursue it.

Now I've recently been offered a position as a network engineer after 5 months on unemployment and I think I will still become a truck driver.

My only hangup with it is the extremely low pay the first year or 2.