Talking Shop: The Just Talking Thread

Thank you @Davy A @Old_School @Pianoman for your sage advice and wisdom.

I will prayerfully consider what each of you said and thank you for weighing in on my situation.

I appreciate y'all.

Hey Trucking Friends,

It has been a while...3 months to be exact.

By the grace of God, I'm happy to report that I am still with the trucking company.

I have consistently taken the safest routes to avoid incidents.

In the later part of December, I had one minor incident where I did a hard braking at a yellow light when I was bobtailing and hit a pothole. The computer relayed to Safety that I was in a "crash." After the Safety Manager reviewed the footage with the Head Mechanic, they dismissed it because I hit the pothole which caused the "crash trigger."

Last week, I almost took out my driver-side mirror because I was too close to the glad hands of another trailer. The glad hands caused a hairline scratch on the back of the mirror. No major damage. The Night Supervisor dismissed it after I showed him the picture.

I just take one day at a time and focus on being the safest driver I can.

What is funny and ironic is that I won Safety Driver of the Week after Thanksgiving.

Overall, I am still striving to be safe every day.

Thank you again to those who advised me to do my best and stay with the company.

I appreciate you all.

Nothingwrong with thatkind of recognition from your outfit. Becoming a professional driver is a journey, one that I have been on for a decade now, and still have days where the "ah-hah!" moments happen.

Congrats on the safe driverof the week award, and kudos to you for gritting it out and staying with the career. It never gets "easy", but it does get "easier". If it was easy, it wouldnt be as much fun!

Hey trucking friends,

I just want to give an update... My God's grace I have one safety driver the week again this is my third time!

Also I am curious can I put my CDL education as tax write off? It was a career change and $4,000 of schooling is nothing to sneeze at.

Thoughts?

Hey trucking friends,

I just want to give an update... My God's grace I have one safety driver the week again this is my third time!

Also I am curious can I put my CDL education as tax write off? It was a career change and $4,000 of schooling is nothing to sneeze at.

Thoughts?

I think you can deduct the expense. I was able to deduct mine, but I was also self-employed at the time, filing a Schedule C form.

Do you do your own taxes? My advice is to use a good tax preparation person. Then they can give you a definitive answer to your question.

Also I am curious can I put my CDL education as tax write off? It was a career change and $4,000 of schooling is nothing to sneeze at.

Thoughts?

I don't know what the single person deductible rate is this year, but a couple years ago it was $12, 000. I asked my new tax person what I needed for deductibles and she said unless I had more than that $12,000, I didn't have to itemize. Even with my house payment, I didn't reach $12,000. So I don't know if it's up to $14,000 or more, but if you don't have that much in deductibles you don't have to worry about claiming that $4,000.

Laura