Motivations For Choosing Trucking

Hi everyone.

Like many of you I've made a pretty drastic career move later in life. I stepped away from Christian pastoral work after almost three years. I got my CDL last year and drove a school bus for 9 months as I helped my parents stay in their own home until last fall when they moved into a senior living apartment. In January I started training with a dry van company and have been driving on my own for a little over two months now.

I am currently undergoing life coach training, and my current plan is to start a coaching/consulting business. Coaching drivers and consulting with companies to improve their driver trainer program (born out of my own experience with a trainer).

One of the first steps in this process will be to understand what motivates people to become drivers, so if anyone want to share their reason(s) I'd love to hear. And if you have a link to studies on this question, please put them in your response as well.

Mark, welcome to our forum!

We've all seen how training is done in trucking. I think most of us agree it's not always what it should be. We've advocated for change and yet it's seldom ever improved.

What makes you think you can jump into a well established industry, as a consultant, when you have zero experience? I'm not trying to be critical. It's a realistic question. What could you possibly offer that they haven't previously considered and rejected?

The economics of trucking drives the decision making process. The whole training process is driven by the fact that this commodities based business can only spend limited time and resources on training.

Many very successful drivers like myself have refused to get pulled into training. My company begs me at times, but there is no incentive for me. The sacrifices made by the trainer are not worth the paltry financial incentive. Therefore what you end up with is trainers who are desperate for money.

Most of our trainers now days have very little experience. I've always thought they should require trainers to have seven years safe driving experience at the company before allowing them to train. Then they should pay them an amount that would entice a person to put in the seven year requirement. But, guess what would happen?

We'd have no trainers!

Totally correct Old School, just like my starter company (ya'll know who) lol @ 6 months experience, they were trying to get driver "trainers". I was asked to do it by then, a few times, my reply, "NOPE !" NEVER

Besides with my 1st 2 co-drivers, with the same experience, wouldn't listen to any advice, or help I tried giving them when they really needed it. Why? oh because they "thought" they knew it all, already hahaha.

I'll third that as well. I worked for the same company and they also desperately tried to get me to train. I wanted no part of it. The companies don't have the time, resources and money to train properly.

In addition, as some who taught physical Motorsports, teaching is in itself a profession that needs to be taught. Not only would one need to be an accomplished driver, they would need to learn how to teach. It's equally as difficult as driving for a living. It's simply not going to happen in the real world.

A third thing to add is that, given the nature of trucking, most truckers are to varying degrees anti social, and the longer we do OTR are quite accustomed to being alone, sharing our tiny home on wheels is not easy and different than just about any other form of teaching. Personality characteristics are magnified. It's just a phase that both trainer and trainee must get through. The shorter the better.

(I wasn't using the platform correctly and thought there hadn`t been any responses to my post. I took a closer look this morning.)

Well Old School, looks like I was wrong. Sounds like the first step will be to grasp what an uphill battle this will be. Thank you very much for your frank reply. I am new in the industry and can already see some of what you are referring to. There are huge challenges, and I may be naive to try this. But doesn't trying to enact change require some level of naivety :-)?

I don't come to this fight completely unarmed and I feel I have a couple of pieces of leverage. One, a friend of mine who has risen to upper management in his company. He started in dispatch and since he is by nature a deeply caring person, he really gave himself to his drivers. And the numbers reflected the time he invested in his drivers. We have a mid-term plan to implement programs at his company as he gains more influence there. Second, (I don't want to say much on this public platform) my own experience made the cracks in our program glaringly obvious. I now have the ear of some in the company who are interested in my proposals.

Old School, I don't know if there is a way to correct privately outside of the forum but suspect you would know that? Would you be interested a phone call about this?

PS. Would those of you who replied mind sharing what got you into trucking in the beginning?

One further response to you Old School.

When reviewing my experience one of the administrators lamented the fact that some trainers are just in it for the money (ironic I know) and don't care about the students, referencing my trainer. I objected because I feel that my trainer actually did care deeply about me, my safety and my future as a driver. However, because of his own limitations he wasn't able to perform his job adequately (again I'm being intentionally quite vague here).

What the biggest hurdle right now, is you have no idea how wrong some of your ideas are. This will not become apparent until a few hundred thousand miles down the road, and then something will "click" and it will be glaringly obvious why something was done a specific way, back in the beginning. It happens to most of us really. We come in super excited, spot things we think are just terrible, and vow to fight the good fight to change them.

If your dispatcher buddy has never driven a truck, he really has no idea what is helpful for a driver, or just something we have to do to make some desk driver somewhere happy.

First, focus on learning how to drive the dang truck. Trying to become a life coach in the midst of this will make you an exhausted and dangerous driver. Focus on learning and honing the craft first, then learn how to apply life coach coaching to it.

I got into trucking at age 66 because it was the only job that I could get. Trucking doesn’t discriminate based on race, gender or age. I’m 69 now.

I was retired from age 60. Decided that I needed to work. Applied to a lot of typical jobs, only got a couple interviews. No hires. Most of the small town jobs to which I applied get tax credits for hiring certain classes of people. I don’t fit.

Only one major trucking company was willing to overlook that I hadn’t worked for 5.5 years.

I never had a childhood dream of driving a big rig. I had driven large diesel motor homes towing a car. I do enjoy driving the big rig.

My Dad gave me toy Tonka trucks (metal not plastic) when I was a little kid on the farm. He gave me a dump truck, a cement mixer truck and a drag line shovel. I’m about to start driving a dump truck. So maybe that is a little kid’s dream come true.

Hello Mark,

I am in year three of my career and I am a trainer. First, I have to agree with Nae Nae, if your dispatcher hasn't driven before, he is not credible on the subject of how to help drivers. The best fleet leaders/dispatchers are those with at least 150,000 miles or so as they have experienced the struggles and hardships drivers face out here. Granted while part of the problem in the industry is finding motivated and qualified individuals that work hard AND safely, while keeping their head about them. The 2nd issue is the limitations on funding to pay for training with profit margins in this industry being so thin. Not to rain on your parade but not sure how many carriers would pay for consulting when many won't pay their trainers what they probably should.

As far as what motivated me. I was in the mortgage industry for over 20 years and was an industry burnout using cannabis and alcohol to get through an industry that eats your soul. Living in a rural area, the only option I was qualified for was trucking to meet my families income needs. Many drivers come here out of necessity not because it was a first career choice. Many different backgrounds too. Military, teachers, felons, factory workers, construction workers, policemen, etc. All walks of life. For me I enjoy the job security and earnings potential though it takes a great toll on my family. Others like the idea of being given a job and being left alone. Others escaping "woke" corporate policies.

My Dad drove commercially for 30 years, retired in 2023. He drove mainly for the television and film industry in California but during the off months (hiatus) he drove OTR for a private mom and pop based out of downtown Los Angeles. I grew up watching my Dad drive commercial trucks and semis, many memories of watching a semi pull up in front of my house. Really nice Pete 359 with a reefer or a Cascadia with a dry van. When I turned 19, I got my CDL for the first time in California (2012 - this was back before the laws changed and you were required to have school training. In 2012, you could walk into the DMV , take the permit test, come back two weeks later and take the drive test and then you had your CDL. It was up to you on your own to find a practice/test vehicle.) I drove OTR charter buses and in town charter/shuttles and at 21 yo was hired by my local transit agency in my hometown driving city transit. I did that until 2016 when I left the industry for a while to peruse the airline industry. I loved that just as much as driving buses. COVID basically killed the industry in 2020 and I also lost my Mom. I lost my way for a bit and like so many, really struggled mentally post-COVID and with the loss of my Mom. In 2023, I got back on my feet and decided I wanted to go back to commercial driving but this time, was going all the way. Getting my full Class A with endorsements and start driving tractor/trailer - maybe still drive buses as a side gig on my free time.

I graduated CDL school at the beginning of 2024 and started working for one of the mega’s shortly thereafter (Schneider). Really trying to gain my experience and get time under my belt and Schneider is a great place to do that. It’s what you make of it. Although, I have no desire or plans to leave. At least not right now. I’ve gotten involved in safety and compliance and am looking into joining the training department. My experience with Schneider’s training program was overall very positive. The only issue I had was with my driver trainer I went out with for a week who appeared to be doing it for the extra money and not because they had an interest in training new people. This is where I hope I can make a difference in the future.

I would say returning to this industry and getting my Class A was the single best thing I could have ever done for myself and the reward has definitely been positive. I know everyone’s experience may be different, especially as it pertains to working at a mega but I can’t say enough positive things about my decision to come to Schneider. Yes, I could be making more money. I’m well aware of the pay gap. But I’d rather make a little less money for the sake of being happy to show up to work everyday with good equipment (I drive a still very new 2024 Cascadia) and have a really good driver manager and overall relationship with the entire management team at my base. Working out of a small satellite yard that’s ran by our base is a positive too considering it’s 7 miles from my house (Base is 150 miles away).

The other really cool part is I get to say I followed in my Dad’s footsteps. I really came to this industry because of him. I always heard stories of people who’s parent’s were a police officer, doctor, pilot, lawyer, etc and they went on to do the same thing after watching their parent (Dad) do it. This is my story and I’m so happy I did it. Yes, the industry is in a bit of a struggle right now but I love my job and the old saying is if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. Well, I definitely have plenty of days where I work for my money and definitely have those “gosh I wish I was just at home right now” moments but I wouldn’t trade anything for what I have today. I’m in it for the long haul, no pun intended.

That’s my story. Look forward to reading others.