I No Longer Want To Drive A Truck

Respectfully, if you allow one detour to shut down your journey to success, you may find your rewards greatly delayed.

Remember; if you wait for all the lights to turn green, you’ll never get to the store.

If driving is not for you, better you decide that now than later.

I think I've come to the point where I've decided trucking isn't for me. Or at least not otr. I understand what you all are saying . And it's true that in any career there are going to be times where you have to sacrifice a little to make a lot. As much as I would like to pursue an otr trucking career, I just can't seem to make it work out . Seems every time I've tried to pursue it, some roadblock has been in my way. And besides all that, lately I've been having issues driving at night. So it's probably best that I give up my small ambitions anyway. But I am glad that I took the time to study the industry since it helps me to relate to the drivers I interact with as a guard since I now have some limited knowledge about the things they deal with. I realize that in any job, not everything is going to be all "green lights" , but there always seemed to be too mainy "red lights" when I considered trucking. I will continue to keep reading tt and enjoying the content though. Thanks for everything! :)

I’m grateful there are security people like you! Your negative experiences, on a driving job, may just make you a terrific security manager or dispatcher or planner.

Good luck to you in ALL you do! 👍

Where I am at ltl shippers get serviced in minutes.

That right there is the crux of the problem. This is a common practice, especially at foodservice distributors, and has resulted in countless lost hours (not to mention lost preplanned loads) for me. Local and/or LTL trucks getting first priority has left me waiting 6 or more hours just to be assigned a door before. Warehouse receivers (you know, the guy who comes over and signs off your bills) giving local and/or LTL deliveries first priority has had me waiting in a door upwards of 4 hours to have my load received. One particular place left me sitting in the door for 6 1/2 hours for 3 pallets, all the same product, and as a result I was late to my next delivery for that load, which ended up having to be rescheduled, and they charged us a $250 rescheduling fee for the privilege.

Now, call me crazy if you like, but when I arrive on time or a little early for an appointment, I expect that you're going to have a door available for me. And once the product has been unloaded and downstacked as necessary, I expect that you're going to come verify the count and sign my bills expeditiously. Not when you get around to it, not after taking care of the local guys who just happen to keep popping in while my product sits on your dock thawing.

This practice of putting OTR trucks at the bottom of the list is absolutely ludicrous, and needs to be stopped.

Where I am at ltl shippers get serviced in minutes.

That right there is the crux of the problem. This is a common practice, especially at foodservice distributors, and has resulted in countless lost hours (not to mention lost preplanned loads) for me. Local and/or LTL trucks getting first priority has left me waiting 6 or more hours just to be assigned a door before. Warehouse receivers (you know, the guy who comes over and signs off your bills) giving local and/or LTL deliveries first priority has had me waiting in a door upwards of 4 hours to have my load received. One particular place left me sitting in the door for 6 1/2 hours for 3 pallets, all the same product, and as a result I was late to my next delivery for that load, which ended up having to be rescheduled, and they charged us a $250 rescheduling fee for the privilege.

Now, call me crazy if you like, but when I arrive on time or a little early for an appointment, I expect that you're going to have a door available for me. And once the product has been unloaded and downstacked as necessary, I expect that you're going to come verify the count and sign my bills expeditiously. Not when you get around to it, not after taking care of the local guys who just happen to keep popping in while my product sits on your dock thawing.

This practice of putting OTR trucks at the bottom of the list is absolutely ludicrous, and needs to be stopped.

Where have I heard that before ? Hmm seems like every driver I deal with has the idea (and rightfully so) that their going to get priority and fast load/unload. Now I don’t know that I’ve seen drivers wait quite 4hours a Ltl, but I can imagine it happening. Where I am at all drivers except ltl have to disconnect , so if the guards forget to call and say your load is done, to may end up waiting a little longer. Seen it happen a bunch where the guy was done hours ago , but the inside forgot to tell the guard, or the guard got distracted and didn’t call. So you probably know this, but ask the guard after two hours and if he doesn’t know, go ask the inside. But don’t be like some who call or come in every two seconds to ask about their load. That’s really annoying.

Went back and read this thread. Trucking has always been a dream of mine even when I was riding a tricycle. If all goes as planned , I should be starting school in Jan or Feb of 2019 pending a medical exam that I need to complete my dot physical.

Great to hear.

So now I've got my company and division picked. I'm working through the cdl prep course on here as well. Is there anything else that I can do or anything else I should research or study to prepare myself? Thanks!

Yes, read training diaries. You will see the struggles we all had. You will have some too. Best of luck. What company and division did you pick?

Yes, read training diaries. You will see the struggles we all had. You will have some too. Best of luck. What company and division did you pick?

Wil Trans which is to my limited knowledge a reefer only company. The decision was between them and Roehl. But the only advantages roehl had were multiple types of freight and maybe more miles. I'd say 95% of the employee reviews were positive. And most of the negative reviews were very obviously drigruntlrd former iemployees. If anyone has had any experience with them please share. Wil Trans has some arrangement with prime which is funny to me cause I almost went with prime a while back and I'll potentially be pulling their trailers for about the same money. The only downside in Wil Trans is the two weeks without pay. Roehl pays from day 1 as I understand. But that's typical for me when starting a new job. Know more specifics in January. Can't wait!

Found Aaron P's training diary . On of 7 of 23 and it has been very insightful! Thanks for the suggestion! Makes me even more anxious to get started. Trying not to wish my life away in anticipation of January.

Where I am at ltl shippers get serviced in minutes.

That right there is the crux of the problem. This is a common practice, especially at foodservice distributors, and has resulted in countless lost hours (not to mention lost preplanned loads) for me. Local and/or LTL trucks getting first priority has left me waiting 6 or more hours just to be assigned a door before. Warehouse receivers (you know, the guy who comes over and signs off your bills) giving local and/or LTL deliveries first priority has had me waiting in a door upwards of 4 hours to have my load received. One particular place left me sitting in the door for 6 1/2 hours for 3 pallets, all the same product, and as a result I was late to my next delivery for that load, which ended up having to be rescheduled, and they charged us a $250 rescheduling fee for the privilege.

Now, call me crazy if you like, but when I arrive on time or a little early for an appointment, I expect that you're going to have a door available for me. And once the product has been unloaded and downstacked as necessary, I expect that you're going to come verify the count and sign my bills expeditiously. Not when you get around to it, not after taking care of the local guys who just happen to keep popping in while my product sits on your dock thawing.

This practice of putting OTR trucks at the bottom of the list is absolutely ludicrous, and needs to be stopped.

Us LTL have 10 or more stops in the local area. More than likely we have an appt time when we show-up at the DC you're sitting at. They have a limited amount to time to offload their stuff from our trailers before we start charging detention. Plus if they are that SLOW they won't get their stuff at all! Sorry. Sayonara. We'll resked your delivery for tomorrow. Oh, btw, there will be an additional $125 redelivery fee because you couldn't be bothered to offload it today.