What Did You Do Before Becoming A Truck Driver?

To be honest, I cannot even call myself a trucker yet. I am in the process of being retrained by WorkSafeBC (WCB). Just waiting for the call to go to CDL driving school. Before that, I worked as a logger on British Columbia's West Coast. Throughout a 40+ year career, I went from highlead to helicopter logging. I had the airbrake endorsement but never really used it. Drove a gravel truck for a road rehab company and helped the bull crew move jet fuel around at various times. One time, I got pressed into service operating the push truck to help low bed a grappleyarder to the beach. I spent a winter in the oil patch back when I was a young punk. So I guess anybody that becomes a trucker this year will called "The Covid Crew".

My first love: felling big timber with chainsaws...

Worked in publishing for 30 years. Business shrank and pay shrank even more. No kids or spouse at home now, so free to be on the road.

24 years army as an Armor Crewman. Couldn’t play with tanks anymore so I figured I would go to the next best thing.

Man I worked in a warehouse making Below value in the warehouse i drove forklift, I drove cherry picker, I drove the walkie ride, and etc. it was truly a dead end job they didn’t want u to move up unless u was in this click and I honestly got fed up

Was a material handler for 3 years with FedEx Express (the main hub) in Memphis,TN. Would go back. I had a blast there but the paychecks were ugly as crap. Did night shift than switch over to day. Like I said I would definitely go back to FedEx,but under one circumstance. I would have to drive for them.

Paperboy, Gas station attendant, burial vault maker/installer, plumber, landscaper, binder, pressman, injection mold tech, pvc extruder tech, & general laborer of all sorts. Those are some of the jobs I got paid for. Others like fixing cars, furnaces, roofs and such I learned and performed so I didn't have to pay anyone. I ran a lot of production machinery, usually becoming a lead, training , giving breaks, joining the safety committees & doing OSHA spec inspections. Older siblings went to college and I got volunteered to get a job even with good grades and ap classes. The folk needed another income, not another expense. At least I was used to hard work & confident that if another man can do it, so can I. Trucking aint a bad gig & I kind of like it for the most part. When you're solo it's on you to sink or swim & you won't necessarily have to carry the weak links. That's the best part of all. You get to keep your success. God willing of course.

I hope to be starting training for class A CDL in the next week or two. My previous 34 years has been as an engineer. Since 2006 my salary has steadily gone down and is now around 70% of what it used to be. The kids coming in are allowed to run things, I even got in trouble for opening a small pocket knife at work because a 32-year-old "man" said it made him feel unsafe. We are treated like crap.

And, since 2014 work has been on and off. Layoffs are rampant, company culture is toxic and I've had to move a lot. OTR truck driving looks like it will suit me much better. I'm really looking forward to changing careers.

Greetings,

Not a trucker yet but just waiting for work to slow down so I can go to school! When I got out of high school I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I thought I’d buy time doing two years at community college. Once I did that I had to choose a field to go into at state college and I chose a “worthless” degree in Industrial Technology (fancy name for all the shop classes we took in Jr/Sr High!). Graduated and went into my field (printing) for 6 months and got laid off. Spent the next 10 years working at a courier company and other odd jobs. Stumbled into Property Caretaking and did that for @10 years. Liked it but rich people are f**ked up mentally. Started doing work on a military base that lasted 8 years until the contract was up. Now I’ve been at an artificial grass company doing deliveries for the past 3 years. Said they’d sponsor me to get my class A and do some heavier work for them. I think they’re reneging now that Covid has been going on. No worries. I saved up enough to go to school myself. Just waiting for it to get slow so I take a month off to go to school.

Started way back delivering TV Guides to neighbors, cutting lawns, delivering newspapers on my bike 1 canvas bag over each shoulder, US Navy, auto mechanic, otr truckdriver 42 years and finally retired Rv 5th wheeler. Always love the trucks and miss the drivers but I still stop in the truck stops to talk with drivers and buy the coffee.