Why I Am Becoming A Truck Driver Later In Life

Let's face it this world has gone mad. Every single day in my job as a State employee in a high paying Network Administration position I was being inundated with backstabbing, political correctness, crazy feminists (don't take it personal ladies because I love you) and nepotism. It appears that every year the job was getting worse and harder as they demanded us to do more with less. The only way that I can describe my feelings is that I was a fish stuck in a fish bowel swimming in circles avoiding the bigger fish trying to devour me. I just couldn't see living for Friday for the next ten years for a lousy pension. Like almost everyone else there, I was stuck in the proverbial rut and all of my life energy was being sucked out of me between horrible management and self-entitled politicians. Not all but many of them are horrible people. It seems the good people never lasted long enough to bond with and jumped ship. I was one of the last to go. I struggled with a mid-life crisis shift and had no idea what to do until one day I saw a trucker at a rest stop happily enjoying his lunch in a lawn chair. Bingo, then it hit me that since I don't trust many people after my experiences maybe that would be a good thing to try. I did alot of research and I know that trucking is by far not an easy job anymore. With a landmine of regulations, long hours, high turnover, and possibly losing your medical card for just sneezing, I've decided to start School on Monday with Knight. I am paying for my own school out of pocket as well. I have to tell everyone that I'm scared but I am tough because I adhere to 3 principles in life. 1. Never let anything get you down 2. You can handle anything 3. Treat others the way that you want to be treated. Can anyone give any good advice for starting out a new career once I'm out of training?

Thx in advance,

I adhere to 3 principles in life. 1. Never let anything get you down 2. You can handle anything 3. Treat others the way that you want to be treated. Can anyone give any good advice for starting out a new career once I'm out of training?

Hey Ray, your own advise is a really good start. Good Luck Man

Definitely. Here's our starter package that we always send everyone to. It's required reading for anyone that's getting ready to start a trucking career in our opinion.

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road Training Program

Good luck to you. I'm a miserable state employee in Maryland living for the weekend. Sounded like you were describing my office. I hope this works out for you,

Remember even when everything goes well with a load something always seems to go wrong. It's how you react to these seemingly endless impediments that really makes a difference. Work through the problem, communicate with the people assigned to help you, and don't be afraid to ask for help. You will make mistakes but try not to make the same mistake over and over. Checklists can be a huge help when first running solo.

Sage advice, I am also a pilot and am required to use a checklist every time by the FAA. This is probably why I am still alive.

Remember even when everything goes well with a load something always seems to go wrong. It's how you react to these seemingly endless impediments that really makes a difference. Work through the problem, communicate with the people assigned to help you, and don't be afraid to ask for help. You will make mistakes but try not to make the same mistake over and over. Checklists can be a huge help when first running solo.

I'm new around here and I just started driving, but at the end of the day one thing I can say is to keep your cool, a lot of situations will arise they will make you to yell and scream, sometimes in the confines of the cab I do yell and scream when no one can hear me do it but that's generally after the situation has resolved itself, keeping a cool level head will get you trough 98.8% of the problems that arise, over reacting during them will make it ten times worse, hope I helped goodluck at school and on the road

"fish stuck in a fish bowel"

I am going to call you Jonah. Hopefully this feeling didn't last the full three days.

Ray, I do t know how old you are, but I like you left a really great paying job, moved to another state in hopes of helping my son get into a better place (left Cali) came to Oklahoma. Due to being a little over 55 your put out to pasture in the job world, so I started driving a school bus, I decided I wanted to be as far away as I could from minute to minute screaming kids. This is something I've always wanted to do, but circumstances didn't allow it. So now I'm taking a shot, now that I'm older. I'm still in school but you CAN do this and I'm sure will enjoy it!! Keep it going no matter what!!!

I started driving at 47, and took a sizable pay cut to do so. But I'm so much happier now for doing so.

The rat race isn't all that's it's made out to be. Live first. If not, you'll wake up someday and realize you never had a chance to win the game.

So change the rules..