Have A Great Career But Want To Switch To Trucking. Need Advice.

Hey guys,

Lets start off with a little about myself. I'm 30, Recently divorced with no children. I work full time as a retail store manager, I make somewhere around 95k a year so I can complain about that part. I obtained my CDL in 2022, I've got right at 5 months experience most of that being flatbed. The company I was with (which I won't name) just wasn't for me, low low pay, always an excuse when to not get me home on the weekend, and when i did get home the truck better be rolling at 34 hours and 1 minute or they wanted to know why. My Dad was a truck driver so it's kind of in my blood. I love the whole aspect of it, even the long days, long hours in doors or waiting on the not-so motivated forklift driver to show up to work. It's always been my dream, My fear is what if i get out there and I actually hate it. If I were to not stick it out, I would be kinda lost. All in all failure is my biggest dilemma.

Besides having a bad experience during your last foray into trucking, are there any other reasons why you think you might fail? -Prior commitments? -Some kind of disability? -A chronic illness?

Bc you have so little experience you would most likely have to go through a training phase with any company that offers you a job. Try not to look at that as a negative. More training = a better chance of being successful.

You mentioned getting home on weekends with your old job. Can we assume you had a regional gig that kept you on the road for a week at a time? Are you looking for another regional type job? Or are you willing to be an OTR driver?

If you do decide to give the trucking game another go rest assured you have plenty of drivers here on the website that can offer assistance if you ever need it. Unfortunately, if you get out on the road and realize after a couple months that the lifestyle is something that is not for you, all the help in the world won't make any difference.

You have some experience. Try to draw on the knowledge you gained from those 5 months to help you make an informed decision about whether or not you'll be able to live the trucking life.

Hi Aaron.

If a man tries something new and decides it’s not for him, it’s not a failure. Especially for a young guy like you, why not jump back in and give it another shot?

I spent 8 months with my first company (dry van) and overall it was not a good experience. But I had options so I tried another company, (reefer) and it’s worked out very well for me the second time around. Next month will be two years with the second company and I feel more all the time with them. But if I decided to quit driving or to switch companies again, I wouldn’t view that as a failure at all. I would just view it as a great adventure and then be ready for another great adventure.

In all probability, if you try it again you will have a much better experience than your first one. Like a very wise man said very recently on this forum, “there’s only one way to find out”!

Good luck moving forward. (And backwards).

Aaron A,

Congratulations on wanting to pursue your desire to drive a truck for a living. I too came from a truck driving family and after a tour in the US Navy and as an auto mechanic I became a driver for my goals and spent the next 42 years and logged just over 3 million miles enjoying the highways of America.

Just remember that all the joy and adventure of the road can be lonely if you desire time with family and friends especially if you go OTR. And if you are used to $95,000 a year from your current job be prepared for reduction in your annual income. Good luck.

RealDiehl-

I think just that bad experience put a toll on my mindset to be honest. So I have that thought in the back of my mind thinking it would happen again but that's just deep-down fear. Failure is not an option here; I tend to put all I have got into my career, and this would be no different.

I have two pending offers with dedicated accounts, both come with just account specific training so getting back into it isn't going to be an issue at this point. Side note, both of them are touch freight one being van and the other reefer. I really do think this would be a good move for me, but all the negative Nancy posts about all the bad things tend to take a toll (even though they shouldn't). But it is time (very soon) I think to make the move,

BK -

I appreciate the inspiration. Glad it's all working out for you, are you OTR , Regional or Local? I am curious of your journey so far.

Navypoppop -

I too have been a mechanic for nearly 10 years. Only been running the store for about a year or so. I do think it's time for a change. I have made peace with taking some sort of pay cut, As mentioned above, I have two offers both being dedicated accounts. Those particular accounts pay somewhere around 80k or so with some (very) hard work of course.

Aaron,

You have a good head on your shoulders and know exactly where you need to go. The fact that you have 2 offers that are dedicated runs is a plus in that you won't have to worry about waiting on loads while on the road.

I say go for it and enjoy the future career. You will be fine.

Aaron, I’m OTR with a 100% reefer company out of Texas. We go to most of the US states east of the Rockies. Denver is the farthest west we go. States we seldom or never go to are AZ UT NV MT SD ND FL. I’m kinda disappointed about not getting to see AZ and UT, but maybe someday after driving is over and I become a Nomad I will spend a lot of time in those states.

You can make $95,000 per year with certain driving jobs but most require 2 or 3 years or more of experience. Like Walmart, min. 30 months. One of my friends just got hired to a dedicated dry bulk cement job that is a 200 mile round trip twice a day for 450.00 per day and home every night. Nice gig, but it would get monotonous in a hurry for many drivers.

I’m too old and lazy to try flatbed. I’m content to just pull a box around. I like reefer better than dry van but some drivers are just the opposite.

There is something right for every driver out there. Just keep trying until you find your niche.