That Little Voice That Eats At Ya.

I've been looking into a few places and reading here (again KUDOS on the way this site is ran and maintained) and the pull seems stronger. Although I still have mixed feelings about being away from home that much. Even though my kids are at the very least an hour and half away I still feel like I'm leaving them.

You need to take a close look at your "mixed feelings". Most company sponsored CDL/Driver training itself will be away from home. Your trucking job will probably put you on the road for several weeks at a time, and you'll only get phone calls & maybe Skype type video connections to your family. Like Brett pointed out, it's not all that hard to walk away from the OTR trucking, but just keep in mind you might feel like a visitor at your own house. If you can come to grips with this, the open road will still be there.

I would caution anyone thinking of trucking to avoid romanticizing the job. I did just that, and the jerk back to painful reality hurts like heck. It is a tough job and only the tough will be happy and prosper. I thought the cab of a tractor trailer would be my own little world where I could escape ignorant people and attitudes. Nope, they come right along for the ride. I have nothing but ultimate respect for the drivers that can be successful in this challenging industry. I can't believe the meager amounts of money being paid to skilled professionals who risk their lives every day to get products to places on time. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone. I just think that every driver on the road should be making at least twice the amount of income they bring in. It's hard.

I apologize if I made it sound like I was romanticizing. Sometimes the writer in me takes over!

I would caution anyone thinking of trucking to avoid romanticizing the job. I did just that, and the jerk back to painful reality hurts like heck. It is a tough job and only the tough will be happy and prosper. I thought the cab of a tractor trailer would be my own little world where I could escape ignorant people and attitudes. Nope, they come right along for the ride. I have nothing but ultimate respect for the drivers that can be successful in this challenging industry. I can't believe the meager amounts of money being paid to skilled professionals who risk their lives every day to get products to places on time. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone. I just think that every driver on the road should be making at least twice the amount of income they bring in. It's hard.

When one loves what they do, it can very well be "romantic"... Add to it having the one you love teaming with you and it only gets better ;)

Our ultimate goal is to team in our Class B expediting truck for 4-5 years then for me to go back to a tractor trailer expedite with the love of my wife as my non-driving navigator ;)

I would caution anyone thinking of trucking to avoid romanticizing the job. I did just that, and the jerk back to painful reality hurts like heck. It is a tough job and only the tough will be happy and prosper. I thought the cab of a tractor trailer would be my own little world where I could escape ignorant people and attitudes. Nope, they come right along for the ride. I have nothing but ultimate respect for the drivers that can be successful in this challenging industry. I can't believe the meager amounts of money being paid to skilled professionals who risk their lives every day to get products to places on time. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone. I just think that every driver on the road should be making at least twice the amount of income they bring in. It's hard.

Very well said and that couldn't possibly offend anyone. I agree with every bit of it. In fact, back in '93 when I started I made close to $40,000 my first year. Nowadays that's a little above the average that you can expect to make your first year. Well in order to compare what I made in '93 to wages today you would have to adjust for inflation. Adjusted for inflation, $40,000 in '93 would be the equivalent of about $64,000 today. So if a driver had a bit of a slow start and made $32,000 their first year they would indeed have made about half of what we made 22 years ago.

I agree that based upon the risk, sacrifice, job duties, and expectations that go along with trucking, drivers should be paid far more than they are. But in the end, supply and demand for drivers will dictate the wages. It's still one of the best paying blue collar jobs. Unfortunately with so many blue collar jobs disappearing in recent decades you've had an influx of people into the trucking industry so wages have stagnated.

When one loves what they do, it can very well be "romantic"...

I agree with this also! Life on the road can be like a dream at times. The sites you see, the people you meet, the adventures you're on - it's incredible out there for the right person. But there's no getting away from how dangerous, stressful, and challenging the job is. And I don't care if you drive 50 years it's never going to get easy. Some jobs may be easier than others, but trucking is a tough way to make a living and you do have to have a thick skin, discipline, and motivation amongst many other traits to really thrive in this industry.

To me it's the type of job that takes a pretty hardcore person to thrive at it. Most anyone could do it. But to really enjoy it you have to be highly motivated and really be looking for challenges every day of your life. Not many people live that way or think that way. Most people would rather have a relatively safe, simple, predictable life building birdhouses in their garage, especially if it paid well. But to cruise around the country in an 80,000 pound monster with tough weather, traffic, and schedule...it's takes a certain type of person to jump out of bed wanting to do that everyday.

Trucking is a dream come true for so many people, but the ultimate nightmare for others. So there is no right or wrong answer about the quality of a career as a driver. It's purely subjective. It depends entirely on the personality, circumstances, and life goals of the person in question. If it suits you, you're going to love it. If not, you'll probably hate it.

One of the things that makes it fun and interesting is the people you meet. They come from every imaginable background. You'll find teachers, pilots, lawyers, computer programmers, corporate managers, small business owners, restaurant managers, farmers, police officers, firemen, and factory workers. You can be sure a lot of these people found a great new life in trucking after burning out from previous jobs. Others had no better choices when it comes to finding blue collar work.

So for each person, trucking will mean something different. And for each of us there are probably times in our lives where trucking would be perfect, and times it wouldn't suit us well at all. If you're out there and trucking suits you perfectly then there's nothing on Earth like it. But it's as tough as almost any career you'll find out there.