Truck Driving Overseas

Although I've never been in the military, I have always done a lot of risky things for work and hobby. One of the reasons I've survived all these years unscathed is because I listen to people who have been there. Patrick offered his first hand experiences. Old School's friend was kidnapped and had to be rescued, lucky to be alive. Several others offered very well thought out arguments.

After hearing all of that, if you still think you'd like to walk untrained and unprepared, without any military experience, into a war zone hoping to make a few extra bucks I guess you might as well do it because you're obviously not long for this world anyhow.

The hardest part about learning to manage risk is surviving those early experiences. Joe Simpson, the very well known author of "Touching The Void" and other mountain climbing adventures, should have died about a dozen times already but didn't. He's been terrible at managing the risks but lucky in that he's fallen off of mountains all over the world but still lives to tell about it.

He said in his one of his books, to paraphrase, that a lot of people he knew, or knew of, had died in their very first mountain climbing accident.

I've survived a lot of risky adventures unscathed and will continue to do them, but wisely. I take calculated risks. I'm not reckless. I always seek a lot of advice and do a lot of research first and when someone who has been there tells me, "I don't think your current approach is a sound strategy" I don't say, "Well I'm gonna try it anyways."

Graveyards are full of people who thought they knew more than they did. Personally I think it's a dumb way to try to make a few extra bucks, considering we live in the wealthiest and safest society in the history of humankind. But at the same time I'd wish you the best if you tried it. As long as a person isn't dragging me into their bad ideas I don't care what they do.

The first $75k is tax free. TBH, most of the time your base pay is setup not to exceed $100k. It is all the additional, non taxable, pays that put you above the $100k mark.

Look into it. Who knows what the opportunities are nowadays compared to 10 years ago overseas as a contractor. Hell I think even the first 75K or so you earn isn't even taxable.

You'll never know until you apply.

Auggie are you driving in a war zone? It's a rhetorical question...why encourage someone to do something so dangerous?

Nope, I'm not. I was in the Army for 15 years though so I have a pretty good idea of what goes on :)

Not my job to tell this young man what to do. I encourage everyone to apply for what they want and ONLY decide after the interview if it's for you or not. You ALWAYS take the interview.

Patrick pretty much laid out what happens in a combat zone. I just told the OP how to look into it. It's up to him whether or not he wants to pursue it. I'm not his parent. I'm some dude on the internet that can give him some information on what he's interested in.

As it turns out, Dyncorp wants a year driving experience before they'll hire you. See, right there he'll run into his first road block. One he would not have hit had we all been hysterical in trying to convince him not to drive as a contractor.

Think if it like this: the media breathlessly reports every American killed overseas. When is the last time you heard of a truck driver buying the farm? Yeah, me neither.

2004 - 2011 was different time. Who knows, maybe nowadays you can drive from some supply point to Kandahar, make $150K a year and not worry about anything more than mosquitoes. I know I don't know what goes on over there anymore.

Tell you what though, I may look into this :)

I'm just trying to seek information on a trucking website about what other companies do offer job overseas

Just saying, this is an American trucking site. Find a good overseas site, maybe learn to read a few new languages. This is TruckingTruth, and we are telling you the truth. Want to go overseas and basically die, for money you could make over here? Be our guest *cues music*. You can make basically just as much money over here if you work hard enough. After a few years, you can make $104,000 a year at Trimac Chemical Transportation. Work a couple of years at other starter companies, get the required endorsements, and you're golden. (by the way looking on preview, i don't know why the entire thing is in italics. sorry.)

I was typing as Auggie was. Trimac also needs 1 year, and only a tanker endorsement. Full list of companies over $80,000 a year.

Look into it. Who knows what the opportunities are nowadays compared to 10 years ago overseas as a contractor. Hell I think even the first 75K or so you earn isn't even taxable.

You'll never know until you apply.

Auggie are you driving in a war zone? It's a rhetorical question...why encourage someone to do something so dangerous?

Nope, I'm not. I was in the Army for 15 years though so I have a pretty good idea of what goes on :)

Not my job to tell this young man what to do. I encourage everyone to apply for what they want and ONLY decide after the interview if it's for you or not. You ALWAYS take the interview.

Patrick pretty much laid out what happens in a combat zone. I just told the OP how to look into it. It's up to him whether or not he wants to pursue it. I'm not his parent. I'm some dude on the internet that can give him some information on what he's interested in.

As it turns out, Dyncorp wants a year driving experience before they'll hire you. See, right there he'll run into his first road block. One he would not have hit had we all been hysterical in trying to convince him not to drive as a contractor.

Think if it like this: the media breathlessly reports every American killed overseas. When is the last time you heard of a truck driver buying the farm? Yeah, me neither.

2004 - 2011 was different time. Who knows, maybe nowadays you can drive from some supply point to Kandahar, make $150K a year and not worry about anything more than mosquitoes. I know I don't know what goes on over there anymore.

Tell you what though, I may look into this :)

Well I already have a year and 4 months of driving experience so that gap is pretty much non-existent.

So then you're halfway home :)

If you apply keep us in the loop during your interview/employment process. I'm curious as to how it works nowadays. The only requirement I would make non-negotiable is to be armed. If they tell you that you can't carry a weapon, walk away.

So then you're halfway home :)

If you apply keep us in the loop during your interview/employment process. I'm curious as to how it works nowadays. The only requirement I would make non-negotiable is to be armed. If they tell you that you can't carry a weapon, walk away.

Will do, and I'll keep that in mind to ask that question during the interview.