Location:
Colorado Springs, CO
Driving Status:
Experienced Driver
Social Link:
A supervisor a few years back suggested I consider a career in truck driving, since I enjoy driving and it pays well. I thought about it but thought I couldn't since I have insulin-dependent diabetes. Long story short, I decided to actually start looking into it and discovered I could get a federal exemption. Eight long months later I finally finished going through the tedious process of getting an exemption. After a few months of thinking about it, I finally took the leap and signed up for company-sponsored training with Swift. The rest is history!
Pgwright88keys@gmail.com
Posted: 22 hours, 18 minutes ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
Its not really a rolling split cause i will still take a 10hr break.
I have a google maps of hotels with truck parking if u want to email me. It wont link here. Go swimming at the hotel!
Truckingalongfun@gmail.com
Oh gotcha, makes sense.
Yeah I’ll email ya!
Posted: 22 hours, 29 minutes ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
I went through something like you are going through now. I suddenly hated driving and was thinking of looking for something else. I knew it is going to be hard to find if not impossible to find a job that pays six figures like I had grown accustomed to, but money isn't everything.
Then one day out of the blue I realized life isn't so bad trucking and I have been content everyday since.
I'd give it some more time before throwing in the towel.
I most likely will pick a new career at some point but I am planning on waiting until I have paid off all my debt and ideally I’ll wait until I’ve saved up some money first. With the low cost of living in WV and no debt, I could afford a huge pay cut. I still want to make good money but any new career is at least temporarily going to require a pay cut.
I’m glad you commented because I know from past conversations on the forum you and I have very similar thought processes about driver pay. I can’t help but think my attitude about pay is not helping my current dissatisfaction lol. I don’t think about the pay too much now that I sold the house but it’s difficult not to notice the differences between a good paying local job vs what is considered a good paying OTR gig. The overall pay is similar but OTR drivers really take the cake when it comes to unpaid hours worked.
I try not to think about it but I think it’s always in the back of my mind to some extent
Posted: 22 hours, 43 minutes ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
Sorry for all the comments 😬I’m trying to keep up with responding to all the great feedback from all of you.
Rob did a great job of paying off debt! Congrats! I paid off $70k in 2 years but its just me, no family.
Congrats to you too!! $70k in 2 years is nothing to sneeze at.
I often drive for 5 hours then stop for 2 hours. Eat, take a walk, take my shower then drive another 5 hours.
“Rolling splits” as I like to call them are so difficult to maintain in my opinion so hats off to you for being able to do that. I can do it if I need to but I end up tired as hell if I just do back to back sleeper splits all the time.
Before i had a home, i made it a point to get a hotel room from time to time.
Maybe try to learn something. I learned how to edit my videos. Try to learn playing a keyboard or guitar? Draw?
It’s funny you say that because that’s actually exactly what I did this weekend lol. I’m typing all this from a hotel room in Seneca, SC. It’s so important to get out of the truck sometimes.
I’ve been thinking of picking up guitar or violin maybe. I play piano already so I’m thinking of an instrument that might go well with piano if I ever decided to make my own covers.
Posted: 22 hours, 55 minutes ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
Im wondering if it might be possible for you to run more series of shorter loads, somewhat like regional for them, but more like connecting smaller loads, perhaps at least multi stop loads. Again, with us, once I get in a certain region or lane, they will keep me in that area for a few days to a week.
That’s a great suggestion Davy. I never thought of that but I do know we have different load planners for different areas of the country so it could be a possibility. After this next home time I have scheduled I think I’m going to try just staying out for a couple months so I can see how they actually run and what their lanes are. They may even have a dedicated lane I can run for a while if I want something different but it just wouldn’t be in the area I live in.
Your point about talking to yourself is hilarious but it brings up a good point. I used to drive in silence all the time and I haven’t really done much of that in a few years. Some good old fashioned alone time and introspection probably wouldn’t hurt.
Posted: 23 hours, 1 minute ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
My podcasts:
Pirate History Podcast
Literature and History (Doug Metzger)
Philosophize This (Steven West)
Tides of History (Patrick Wyman)
Awakening From the Meaning Crisis (John Verbaek)
America's National Parks
Ancient Greece Declassified
American Birding (ABA)
Big Picture Science
Joe Rogan
Fall of Civilizations
Fantastic man thank you!! I’ll start listening to some of these tomorrow!
Posted: 23 hours, 2 minutes ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
Do the loads have plenty of time on them that you don't need to push your 11/14 every day? If the load has plenty of time are you able to shut down early and get a rental car to explore a bit?
Hey Rob, yes they generally do but that’s also kinda the nature of flatbed so I usually try to finish them as quickly as possible so I can just burn my 70 up and take a 34. I could take longer but it would put me in a situation where I’m having to run recaps and I do a lot better with having that built in 34.
Try your best to push through it, keeping your eyes on the prize of being debt free. Trucking over the last 5 years has allowed me to pay off $40,000 in credit card debt while being in a single income household with a family to support. I felt a great sense of relief when I didn't have that burden any more. I was spending probably close to $1,500 a month on only minimum payments.
Congrats man, that’s quite an accomplishment! And thank you, I will keep my eye on the prize. I have about $45k left and with my current lack of bills for the most part I should be able to get it paid off in a year give or take. I’m in the home stretch
Posted: 23 hours, 42 minutes ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
Try adding some structure to your drive day by planning the time out in advance.
Thank you, I really like this. I’ve been generally structuring my work day by splitting my drive time into three sections of 3-4 hours each with a 10-15 minute break as one break and a 30 minute break as the other break. I never thought to structure my personal activities while driving.
I listen to several different podcasts, but I don’t like to listen to multiple episodes of the same podcast in a row. So, during my 10-hour break or when I have down time during at shippers or receivers, I will add episodes from different podcasts to break up the monotony. My interests are history and philosophy, but I also listen to this learning Spanish podcast
Do you have any specific podcasts you recommend? I only recently started trying out podcasts. I’d love to hear any recommendations others have as well.
I also mentioned geocaching and birds. The Geocaching app is free and most rest areas have at least one geocache. My wife and like birding. An app titled Merlin will show your different birds in your area and even has a “sound id” function that will tell you what birds are nearby based on the bird calls you hear.
Thank you for the suggestion. I’m definitely going to try out the Geocaching and Merlin apps!
Posted: 23 hours, 50 minutes ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
You have not driven for SPD long enough to get accustomed to the routine, lifestyle and schedule. It takes time to adapt to a different type of driving job. Have you given it enough time yet?
Definitely not. I’m just not sure I want to 😂
Dr. James Farmer said this: “We do what we HAVE to do so we can do what we WANT to do.”
I haven’t heard of James Farmer but I have heard that quote before and it’s a great reminder, thank you
Posted: 1 day, 1 hour ago
View Topic:
I could use some career (and maybe a bit of personal) advice
I’ll try not to make this long but just a heads up, I’m not in a great headspace right now.
So I’ve kinda mentioned it here and there on the forum the last few months but I’ve had a couple job changes recently. I left G&Z in September because I was selling my house and they wouldn’t let me take my dog in the truck with me. I was in a sleeper truck and did a good amount of regional work but it was officially a local job so I also wasn’t sure how well it would logistically work for me to live in the truck full time. My plan was to sell my house and live in the truck to save money and pay off the rest of my debt. I really liked working for that company pulling pneumatic tankers and I was on track to make 6 figures if I stayed there til the end of the year. They also really wanted me to stay and there was great potential for growth there. I worked there overall almost a year and a half and it was probably my favorite job I’ve worked so far.
Anyways so I left them and went to work for a regional/otr small company in Utah (Ag Needs) doing flatbed. It was fun at first because I got to do loads I hadn’t done before including hauling heavy from time to time but the pay rate sucked. I made all right money but I was working my tail off and making, in my opinion, pretty sub par pay for the amount of work I was putting in. I worked there for a few months.
The house finally sold in January and I went on what was supposed to be a three week vacation to kinda reset because I haven’t taken time off in years. I ended up driving out to Utah and cleaning out my truck and quitting that job and taking like a month off and moving from Colorado to West Virginia. I bought a camper to live out of when I’m “home” and it’s on a friend’s property but my overhead is lower than it’s been in several years.
Fast forward to now…I started at SPD about a month ago again doing flatbed. This company is great. They pay pretty well (not top notch pay but definitely above average) and with me living out of the truck and working a lot I’m able to save a ton of money. It’s also great experience as we have contracts with major aerospace companies and the freight is often not conventionally shaped/sized freight so we have a lot of oversize loads. We also have a ton of high mile loads it seems like. Benefits are good, equipment is great, plenty of work, etc. Only thing that’s a little hard is their policy is you have to be out at least 3 weeks at a time.
Sorry, that was long, but here’s where I’m going with it (just wanted to make sure you had the background so I don’t have to explain later):
I hate it.
I generally like the work itself, as in, flatbed. And my current setup will allow me to be debt free in about a year if I maintain a reasonable budget and make around what I made last year or more. But I’m just not adjusting well to all of this. I can’t even say what it is exactly that I’m having a hard time with but I’m just bored and tired all the freaking time. I don’t get an hour down the road before I want to just start banging my head against the window. I seriously don’t know how you OTR guys and gals do it!! I do talk to friends a lot and listen to music and anything I can find but it only helps so much. And it’s not just boredom; there’s definitely a good amount of depression mixed in there as well. I did just break things off a few months ago with the girl I’ve been on and off with for a few years so I’m sure that’s not helping things. I’m also not used to the long trips with nothing but driving for days (I’m used to loading and unloading at least once a day). I’m also used to more of a routine with at least one weekend day off per week.
It’s a great job and I’m saving tons of money but I’m just not happy with it most of the time. I have my days I absolutely love it but the constant monotonous driving just kills me.
I have thought about leaving trucking but I want to at least stay in long enough to pay off all my debt. I just don’t know what to do about the way I’m just not in a good headspace at this job. I don’t know if I should just power through or look for something else. I also don’t want to screw up my work history by job hopping either.
I definitely feel a little weird about posting this and sharing a lot of my personal life in light of recent events on the forum but I really could use some advice on this. The average person doesn’t have a clue what it means to drive OTR and most of you are intimately acquainted with it.
Do you have any advice moving forward for me in this situation?
Posted: 1 hour, 57 minutes ago
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Thinking of Packrat...
Honestly this whole thing is dumb. Who cares if Packrat is a chronic liar. It just really surprised a lot of us. I don’t dig into people’s personal lives on the forum so I didn’t see it coming but he got exactly the response he deserved.
If I spoke up today and told everyone I have 3 DUIs or I’m actually a couch potato who doesn’t work and I’ve been making everything up for the last 8 years, I don’t think that news would get a very positive reception either. I don’t know anyone who likes a chronic liar