End Of A Journey - My Year Of Trucking.

Feanor, barbering is completely production based as well. You get paid either in a percentage or you rent a "booth". Barbering can completely be feast or famine. I live near a military post so the 1st and 15th is feast. In 3 1/2 days of work bringing home $1,600 to $2,000. Then you have the none payday weekends. Where that same amount of time bringing in between $400 and $800. I worked for a percentage, sort of. I paid the owner of the shop 25% of my sales. So I kept 75% of my sales and all tips. Money can be great in barbering. Down side is it always a 1099 position. So paying ALL of your taxes and no benefits. Plus you have to maintain your own insurance in case you injure someone. Straight razors and shears are always kept, well, razor sharp. You can take off a chunk of an ear with one careless snip of your shears. Overhead in barbering fairly minimal. Schooling for Barbering is fairly extensive. In most states it is 1,500 clock hours to graduate. At 40hrs a week it is a little over 10 months. Graduating from barber school just like in trucking does nothing more than allow you to test for your license. You still have to pass a "written" and practical test to receive your license. Tests typical run $100 a piece per try. Than you have your licensing fees on top of that. Anyways enough about barbering. This is a trucking site.

Very interesting. Maybe I should check into barbering haha!

Thanks Will, I do plan to share more stuff soon!

There is nothing wrong with realizing when its time to make a change.

I survived 1 year and 7 months going OTR. The loneliness is a real thing. I've been a loner most of my life, but coupled with the sleep schedule and the tight load windows, it can be downright miserable at times.

I can remember when I first started, I would go out 9-10 weeks. (I learned not to do that), because I would go crazy.

The last 10 week stretch I was out, towards the end I drove through the desert on I-40 at night in nothing but my underwear; just to do something different.

About three weeks ago, I was assigned a dedicated rail job that pays for every hour I work.

I start in the morning and go to bed at night steadily. Most of the time I bobtail to a truck stop at the end of the day. I work the rails in chicago, work as far west as Iowa, far east as Ohio.

About two days ago, I told them I wanted to be permanently assigned. Its still far away from my home, and I have to go out 5 or more weeks at a time, but the scheduling is so much better than OTR.

I'll finish my 2 years experience working the rail. The rail guys and rail dispatch are a close knit group. Way different than OTR.

Fantastic read, very well done and relatable. If I may, I recommend you keep your CDL to have something to fall back on. I wish you the very best 😊