What Did You Do Before Becoming A Truck Driver?

It's funny, I remember seeing this thread and thinking that I would post in it if I successfully made trucking into a career. Time went on and I forgot about it.

I was primarily in construction for most of my life, started as a labor/apprentice framing when I was 15. I framed, roofed, siding, general construction while learning my way up. I ended up doing large scale water and fire damage restoration, moving from a lead carpenter to bags on super, to project manager to director of operations. We did large commercial and residential losses, many of which made the news frequently. I had peroids of time where I always had my own business going. I burned out on the restoration industry and owned/operated an interior trim, stair railing and door company for the remainder of my years in construction.

I've played music professionally, had a couple of record deals that went south due to young musicians doing things that we do. I still play music and record.

I raced motorcycles for decades, taught but not enough to consider it a profession. I raced enduros and dirt, desert racing as a kid. I road raced for many years, was sponsored but never made any money at it. I still have an AMA number, and our club eventually moved to AMA racing. While it sounds impressive, it's just club racing, and with age comes the cage. I will be hitting tracks again, but in a car this time around. I stayed relatively injury free, but have lost a few friends to the tarmac gods in the sky.

I taught skiing professionally for 10 years as will. I'm PSIA certified. I also coached and taught adaptive. I still ski, although it's nice to be able to do it without having to dive into the technical side of it, it never leaves you once you teach at a professional level. I was filmed for some commercials at some of the resorts I taught at. I also was an on site rep for various manufacturers at that time until finally staying with Elan skis, which I still ski on today.

I’ve always worked in transportation. My first CDL job was at 19 years old driving charter buses. Back when it was a lot easier to get a commercial license. Proved a little challenging to find a company willing to take a risk on a young 19 year old. Insurance companies weren’t super keen on the idea. But, I found one who was and it worked out great. When I turned 21, I left that company and drove city transit buses for a municipal agency in Southern California. After that, I left driving for a few years and took a variety of jobs in the airline industry. From customer service, operations, and all the way to management. I loved it. Thought I’d stay there forever. When COVID hit, I left the industry and it took a while for me to figure out what I was going to do again. But I got back in the seat and this time I decided to go for my full CDL-A and start driving tractor trailers. My years of driving buses definitely has helped, even though it is a totally different animal. Now I’m at one of the mega carriers based out of WA state. - Best decision I ever made to get my career back on track in a post COVID world. Yeah, freight is down a bit. But at my company, we’re showing an upward trend. I’m having a great time.

Nick states:

My years of driving buses definitely has helped, even though it is a totally different animal

You bet! As a CDL instructor, I have had two long-time Greyhound drivers who wanted to move up. It was a devil of a time getting them to do the backing skills with a long vehicle that bends in the middle!

Well, here it is, 46 pages of stories of how readers got into trucking. Enjoy the rest, add yours.

I was a termite guy for a decade. Moved from AZ to OK and worked for a garage door company for 19 months before going to Walmart and becoming a manager of the produce and meat department. What I learned, retail is not for me. I've been wanting to be a driver for most my life and now my kids are old enough for me to get out on the road so here we go! School starts Monday!