Comments By Eugene K.

A reliably excellent and concise response, Old School. Thank you as always.

As someone who has struggled with mental health issues of my own, I would argue they do not preclude one from a successful career in trucking. What it all comes down to is, again, preparation.

I knew full well that my insomnia would be a struggle, and could possibly aggravate my mental health symptoms, so I sought ought as much support as I could in advance, and ramped up my accountability to my support network so that I stay on the beam. On my CDL training diary, I actually hesitated posting once or twice when all I had to “contribute” was venting, out of fear of how I’d be perceived on this forum. In the end, I chose to go ahead and post, both to work through my own insomnia-driven anxiety and ALSO to prove to those following along, that THEY TOO can work through the challenges they will face on the road.

There are countless thousands of posts on this forum that can help prepare anyone for a successful career in trucking — if they want it!

Just checking in, still alive!

I spent a week on home time at my parents’ beach condo, and got to play with my 14-month-old nephew every day. Both spoiled me rotten.

At this point in my training, there really isn’t much to update. We are at about 21,000 miles out of my 30,000 and pretty much in a comfortable routine. Most of our sleep is when the other is driving—which sucks for both of us—but every 2nd or 3rd night we usually catch some down time, either arriving at a receiver early or in a gap between loads. This allows us to catch up on stationary rest.

At this point I do pretty much everything at shippers and receivers myself. Drop and hooks I love because most yards are pull-throughs, offsets, or straight backs. Live loads I still have my struggles with, but I’m very slowly getting better. My D seat trainer told me her backing was so terrible that she never even backed without help until she got to her solo week 😂 so that makes me feel a lot better.

Right now we are at a Love’s in Kentucky on the way up to Michigan, then routing down to west palm beach. If we are lucky we can get stuck with a 34 hour reset there, because I am officially over winter lol. Then our plan is to get dispatched out west to California again, and, if possible, stay out there on relatively short loads west of the Rockies. I know lots of drivers prefer the plains states, Midwest, and east coast, but I’m not one of them.

Scenery is more important to me than $$$, to be honest. I made this career change for the lifestyle, adventure, unpredictability, challenge to my independent thinking skills, and the ability to take home time to visit friends and family all across the country. The money I will be able to save from not having any rent, mortgage, car, or insurance payments will be close to $20,000 annually, so even if I’m only a medium-tier earner instead of a top-tier earner, I’m perfectly okay with that. I’ll be able to bank and invest those savings and still retire early :)

Till next time!

Hi Matthew -

I’m sorry you’ve had this experience. I can’t help but notice this is only your second post on the forum.

It seems like a lot of the frustration you experienced could have been avoided by spending more time researching this lifestyle change in advance.

I’m just about finished with my 30,000 miles of team training with Wilson Logistics, and so far I haven’t experienced anything that I didn’t read about here first before I got in the rental car to orientation. Every last-minute change and inconvenience, every headache, every moment of confusion or frustration, all of this I read about in advance and was prepared for.

Also, I’m not sure where you get the idea that trucking companies micromanage everything their drivers do on a load. If anything, it’s the opposite. While there are certain guidelines and recommendations, we have almost total freedom over route planning and where and when we stop for fuel or rest.

Whatever you choose to do next, make your mental health a priority first, and then spend plenty of time consulting the resources here before you do anything else!

For what it’s worth, this is a very personal issue for me, because I have LGBTQ in family, one of whom is female-presenting and was beaten within an inch of his life and hospitalized. I’m not offended just for the sake of being offended.

Arguing over gas prices and who is worse, Trump or Biden, because of commodity taxes and regulation, etc., has a place here on this forum because it directly affects every truck drivers’ income and day to day life.

Coming in here and impugning an entire class of people as “absolutely disgusting” is unacceptable and has no place on this forum.

I don’t think there’s anything serious about this post at all, and I’m not the only one either.

The moderators here volunteer hours of their busy schedules with no compensation, and it’s a disservice to those of us genuinely seeking help in our new careers when they waste time dealing with trolls.

If I’m somehow in the wrong and this is a serious post, which I doubt, then my sincerest of apologies for the “cheap shot.” I am offended by the post and may not be the only one, which casts doubt on the OP’s intentions to begin with. Since the “issue” is almost completely tangential to trucking, it looks more like a troll just wants to stir the culture wars pot by watching people argue about it out of some bizarre need for attention. And that’s exactly the reaction he got, which I myself fell victim to.

So I’ll move on and in the future I’ll know better than to feed the trolls next time I see something like this.

I dunno, this thread doesn’t have much to do with trucking anyway, and has gone on long enough for being clearly fake.

The OP has no posts prior to this one and hasn’t left his mother’s basement in Dallas since it started.

Although “homophobic” contains the Greek root “phobos” for “fear,” the English suffix “-phobia” or “-phobic” does not always mean “afraid of.”

Homophobic is defined as “having or showing a dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people.” (It is not, however, limited to straight people, as closeted homosexuals frequently demonstrate homophobic behavior out of fear of being outed.)

Qualifying the aforementioned examples as “absolutely disgusting” is therefore about as textbook a definition as it gets.

That said, my politics are so far off the map I will proudly identify as both “republiphobic” AND “demophobic.” 😂

Nice pull on the GPS, Bird-one! 😂

This post was fishy from the start and has all the trappings of a troll checking in from home.

I call BS as well. That said, I stand by my sentiments from the previous post on this imaginary “issue.”

“The problem is the over the top flamboyance, daisy dukes, flirting, and just the in general man trying to be a woman.

It’s absolutely disgusting.”

I’m willing to bet that your trainer is absolutely not flirting with you. Are they making unwelcome, unsolicited sexual advances? Sexually inappropriate comments? Uninvited comments about your looks or perceived attractiveness? Direct or indirect passes? Sexually inappropriate comments about other men?

Unless their actual nether regions are on display from beneath the hem of the shorts, just because you find them too short for a man to wear isn’t really your business. And the “over the top flamboyance” is an entirely subjective judgment.

I’m with Turtle on this one - I can’t think of a better textbook example of being homophobic, not to mention transphobic on the last one.

It’s 2021. Sounds like your trainer can teach you about a hell of a lot more than trucking.

Joel as of now Prime and Wilson are both UA only for pre-employment, though my contract at Wilson does state hair follicle can be used at any time for random checks.

The industry is very rapidly moving in the direction of hair follicle as the primary method.

My suggestion is ALWAYS assume you will be tested via hair follicle, give yourself enough time to make sure you pass that, then double it.

If you fail a pre employment screening you’re basically toast. Give yourself six months. It’s the only way to be sure.