Why Do People Decide To Get Into Truck Driving?

Driver Solutions has been in the truck driving industry for over 23 years providing CDL training to inexperienced truck drivers. During that time, we've read a lot of information online about the trucking industry. It's great to find an experienced driver like Brett who provides, as he says, "a positive, yet honest view of the trucking industry." We think Brett has a lot of great information on his site that enables anyone considering a trucking career to make an educated decision about whether or not it's right for them. Our hope is to add some information from an "insiders" point of view since we are working directly with those who decide to start CDL training. Today, we want to share with you some of the reasons why students go through the Driver Solutions program to start a trucking career.

Each week, we get the opportunity to work with new students just beginning truck driver training. We always take time to sit down with some of these students so we can ask about their experience here at training. Not only do we want to know how we're doing, but we also want to know why they decided to get into truck driving in the first place. We ask them to tell us what they were doing before they decided to find a trucking job and why they chose trucking over other options out there. Here are just a couple of the common stories we hear…

Steve was in a remodeling business with his dad. The economy started to go down the tank, so he moved to Indiana to get a job with Chrysler. He worked with Chrysler for a couple of months before being knocked down to part time status. As you can imagine, 3 days a week just doesn't cut it when you have to pay the bills and take care of a family.

Prior to coming to Indiana, Steve had also worked for a company in Florida where he was helping fuel trucks and trailers. He was around trucks quite a bit during that time. He started to enjoy working in the trucking atmosphere. It was then that he first started to think about the possibility of being a truck driver. He said there was a good feeling when he was able to sit up high to really see the road and his surroundings. Things in his life changed and he ended up going another route by starting the remodeling business with his dad.

Here it is several years later and Steve still remembers the feeling he got from working with trucks. His current job was not working out, so he turned to truck driving so he could find stability. Steve had thought about truck driving for awhile, it was just a matter of the situation being right for him to make a career change.

Terrence was in a similar situation to Steve. He was a general contractor doing home repairs, additions and remodels. Terrence found that more and more people were deciding to go the "do it yourself" route. More information is now made available online and through television regarding home repairs. With the state of the economy hitting hard, people were deciding to try to save money on these projects by doing it themselves. This "do it yourself" craze really started to hurt his bottom line.

Terrence saw truck driving as a career that he could get into quickly. He was able to get out to training in a matter of days. After just a few weeks, he will be able to earn his CDL license and be qualified for a truck driving job. There aren't too many jobs someone can get into that quickly with proper training. Especially jobs in a stable industry where a driver can earn between $35,000 - $40,000 in the first year.

Terrence happened to see an advertisement online one day about truck driving and wrote a note to himself to look into it a bit further. After comparing a trucking job to other options, he decided that a trucking career was the right move for him at this time.

These are just a couple of familiar stories we hear each week when talking with our truck driver training students. In a lot of cases, it comes down to the timing being right for someone to make a change. Truck driving makes a great option for someone looking for job stability and a steady paycheck. It's an especially attractive option if that person has always thought about being behind the wheel of a big rig.

Right now, we are seeing a lot of people in this position. We encourage these people to gather as much information as they can about the industry before making their decision. We hope to join Brett in helping you decide for yourself if the trucking industry is right for you.

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