Tough Industry

I feel like I'm living life rather than waiting in the cubicle for quitting time

I love that line. I'm going to use it right now in fact to start a new conversation. You'll see it in the subject line.

As someone who has been driving only as long as you - Just take the loads you get and run them. Do as good a job as you can every day and don't be in a rush. Expect to make a mistake or two but work hard to minimize them. Expect to be given responsibility that may sometimes go above your experience. Expect things to change, it's the one constant in life.

You can look at every single company out there and you'll find very little difference among them. The difference is YOU (as in self)! It's what VALUE you bring that will make the difference. Sometimes that value is driving a lot of miles. Sometimes that VALUE is making the decision to pull over for the night when you're to tired to drive. Sometimes that VALUE is doing the tough thing when you don't want to do it or don't like it.

In life, no matter where you are there YOU are. Good or bad, YOU are what makes the difference in every situation!

I'd use the lemons to lemonade analogy but that's too easy and if I dare say a little worn out. Plus, I'm old school and a crusty old veteran to-boot. In the military, I ate a lot of crap sandwiches and did a lot of things I didn't really want to do. All I could do was "embrace the suck." To get through it I would just convince myself that I liked "the way it sucked." That made the difference every single time. Am I saying that we have to like everything we have thrown at us? No. But we have to do the best with what's in front of us.

I've said enough. I'm sounding preachy now. I don't mean any of this in a personal way other than to say it's a learning experience and sometimes you don't know until you know. But try to hang in there until another opportunity presents itself.

Finally, there is a lot of experience on this forum. I can tell you I have learned a great deal in here and saved myself a couple of headaches along the way!

Good luck!

I'm three months in as a trucker and am already feeling jaded. Schneider changes their compensation on us without any way to "negotiate" so I decided to leave. Go to WEL Companies, a complete clown show, and they put the CDL holding trainees double bunked in a truck after we signed a contract stating we would be a hotel during training. So, now on to the next one, as the song goes. Wish me luck, I guess?