New Job Negotiations With Family

Hi everyone, I have been lurking in the background reading pretty much everything on the site And I am interested in getting into the trucking industry. For the record I absolutely love the information here. Now that I am armed with what I believe to be enough information I would like to begin involving the wife and kid in the process of making the final leap of faith. I know and understand that this industry is hard on relationships and family life, and as a result want to minimize that effect. Any tips from fellow family guys/gals?

Welcome Brad!

I don't have a family myself, but I can point you to some great articles we have on the matter:

Article Category: Family Matters

There's a lot of interesting reading there.

We have tons of drivers with families so they'll be able to chime in with their personal experiences.

My only tip is don't go OTR. It's just a job, albeit one that will totally consume you. Why take a job that leaves you with possibly only seeing your family 4 days a month or less? It's just a job. Family is family. There are other ways to earn a living that won't keep you away from your family.

I don't judge those that make a choice to go OTR and be away from their families. Personally, I have the view that life is too short to not be with your loved ones as much as possible. Perhaps there are some out there that live in areas where it's really tough to earn a living wage for their family, and therefore turn to trucking. I can understand that. But I would make sure to exhaust every alternative before turning to OTR trucking in order to support my family.

There are plenty of trucking jobs that will keep a driver with a family home more than your typical OTR. Sometimes a driver has to go OTR to open up opportunities in their respective area of residence.

I was fortunate enough to go into LTL linehaul right out of trucking school. I thought I was going to have to go OTR for my first year, but didn't need to. If I couldn't find something besides OTR, even though I love to be in the truck, I'd turn to something else to support my family, maybe become an electrician. I would miss trucking, but it's more important to be with my wife and children - life's too short.

How old is your child? What 6 sting said is very true. However, everyone's situation is different. YOU WILL MISS YOUR FAMILY WHILE OTR.

It is just me, my wife and our two dogs. She has two grown kids. I'm in NC and the rest of my family is in NY. I miss them all. I spent years researching trucking and discussing it with my wife all along the way. My wife and I are a we. It's our jobs, our money, our life. So, WE are trucking. She is home taking care of everything as best she can. We know this is for our future. We miss each other more than we thought we would. Also, the kids miss me more than we thought they would. Show your wife this site. Let her be your devil's advocate. If your child is young you will miss firsts, birthdays, holidays and more. I will miss my anniversary next week. You can plan to be home for some of these occasions. However, when the refrigerator dies and you are on the other side of the country, what will you do. If there is a death in the family, you may not be able to be there. On the other side. I am loving this life. This morning, I was driving and looking at this beautiful country on her birthday. It was awesome. I'm not a religious person, but I see God daily. I love this country and could never tire of seeing her beauty. The only way things could be better, would be if my wife was in the passanger seat.

This is a MAJOR decision for you and your wife to make. Depending on where you live, you may be able to find a dock to driver position. Or you may be able to find a local driving job that will hire you straight out of school. I hope this helps. Good luck. Don't jump into this unless you are sure it's the right thing for you and your family.

Completely agree with 6 string. I spent the first 3 years of my marriage (honeymoon phase) away from my wife and the entire early years of my 20's. In fact, my 25th birthday was the first one I actually celebrated in 4 years. This previous holiday season was the first one that I was actually home on most of the holidays.

I am home nightly, make more than I made as an OTR company driver, get a week off vacation every 6 months.

The bad thing about local is you're usually on the same roads and sites. And it can be difficult to land a decent local job with little or no experience though, its completely based on your location.

Explore all alternatives like 6 string has said. Only you know your situation. I'm not old enough to know if life is too short yet since I'm half the age of most truckers, but I get the feeling it might be.

Often I've said to my wife that I wish we would've gotten into trucking before having kids. We would've loved to lived on the road together for a year or so and saved up money while traveling the open highway - just live in the truck doing OTR.

Sorry guys I forgot to give a little background info for myself... I have a couple of years in the towing industry (light duty). Of that time I have had a select few days off work and of my working days I'm on call 24/7/365. I'm not trying to dodge the fact if I were to go OTR that it would put a huge strain on the family. But, (there's always a but) the wife and I have been giving the OTR gig a thought as something to do after the kids are grown and out of the house. Things have been getting a little interesting at my current job and I have started giving it a little more thought recently as such. The youngest is going to be 18 in a little less than a year and should graduate pretty near the same time. To make the situation even more complicated the wife has actually suggested both that this could be a great career for me but at the same time has her reservations about me going into this. I really was hoping to keep from making this choice for at least a couple of years so that we could be sure that the youngest would be stable on her own.

I waited until my youngest is headed to college to start trucking. I worked so much that I don't hardly remember my oldest two being little. But I broke my back when my youngest was less than a year old, and I got to spend a ton of time with my youngest two. I highly recommend doing whatever it takes to be around while your kids are young, you won't get tag time back.

So while waiting for the youngest to be on her own. If that is when she turns 18 or finishes college, use this time to do more research into trucking. Explore what local jobs may ne available to you. If you're doing heavy towing, that may count as expierence. Keep your wife involved every step of the way and make it a "we" thing. Good luck.

Keep your wife involved every step of the way and make it a "we" thing. Good luck.

This is the only way I feel I will be able to stand a snowballs chance in you know where of keeping a somewhat strong relationship with the family as a whole. If she hadn't entertained the thought at one point I wouldn't even be here asking for advice. I appreciate what has already been given and will be looking forward to hearing more... in the mean time y'all stay safe and have a good day.