Can Someone Like Me Have A Chance To Be A Trucker ????

im 29 yrs old lives in n.carolina with mom /grandpa no criminal record/ clean driving record work @ daycare from2009-2011; sadly resigned in the summer 2011. been lookin for work since then;nothing. only rejections .........trucking came a rolling into my mind /heart..................

My question is what im doing wrong /what im doing right. also i have a choiced company training school in mind just want to know if im going the right way or not.

please help me out with ur wisdom/ knowledge please guide this future trucker on the right road. thank u

Richie, you can do it !!!! You need to research...whether you want to go to a private cdl school (your state employment office can help you get into a WIA program to pay for it, if they have it), or a community college cdl program, or a trucking company cdl school. If you go private or college, then you are able to choose what company you want to work for. They will give you your OTR training...but like any other new driver...you need to stick with them for a year...to get your experience. Then you can go anywhere !! So start there....AND start doing the High Road !!! here's a link High Road Training Program It will get you way ahead of the other folks in your class who are coming in green...YOU will be coming into cdl school with KNOWLEDGE !!!! We are always here to help....and answer any questions you may have....WELCOME TO TT !!!

Ty starcar. enjoyin the online training that TT has here . made studying wayyyy easier !!!!!!! my choice of entering this career is company based. chosen one {knight transport} based on what i have research; i like / confident with my choice

otr is a different mindset but im willing to take the plunge /become anew person. just keep helping along i feel alone / scared in making this decision but im going to do it . its all i think of dream of finally having stability in my life

Richie, you can do it !!!! You need to research...whether you want to go to a private cdl school (your state employment office can help you get into a WIA program to pay for it, if they have it), or a community college cdl program, or a trucking company cdl school. If you go private or college, then you are able to choose what company you want to work for. They will give you your OTR training...but like any other new driver...you need to stick with them for a year...to get your experience. Then you can go anywhere !! So start there....AND start doing the High Road !!! here's a link High Road Training Program It will get you way ahead of the other folks in your class who are coming in green...YOU will be coming into cdl school with KNOWLEDGE !!!! We are always here to help....and answer any questions you may have....WELCOME TO TT !!!

-Starcar

What Starcar said. You can do this, Richie. I went through the state WIA program and it worked. It took a few months but they paid for it and I worked my tail off. You live with your parents - no problem! You won't have to worry about the house, or rent, or utilities while you're over the road and you'll have a nice place to come back to on your down time...

GO for it, Dude.

-mountain girl

im 29 yrs old lives in n.carolina with mom /grandpa no criminal record/ clean driving record work @ daycare from2009-2011; sadly resigned in the summer 2011. been lookin for work since

Richie, I'm going to be brutally honest with you about getting into trucking. Nobody has ever been unemployed for three years while living at home with their mom at almost 30 years old by accident. There is work out there, you just haven't wanted to make anything happen for yourself. That's worries me tremendously because trucking is really, really hard.

Those first few months are some of the most exciting you'll probably ever live but also some of the most difficult and stressful times imaginable. Not only will the lifestyle turn your entire life upside down, but the hours are super long, there is quite a bit of pressure to deal with, and the job is performance-based meaning you have to really bust your *ss if you want to do well in this industry. You have to have a competitive nature. You have to be fiercely independent and self-motivated. You have to juggle time management, people skills, driving skills, and a whole array of others.

You will find many times during that first year on the road that you're in way over your head, you're not sure if you chose the right career path, and you're going to want to walk away. I'd bet 90% of the drivers out there at least seriously considered quitting the trucking industry altogether numerous times that first year but forced themselves to see it through.

Almost anyone can learn to shift gears, steer, and back up a truck. No big deal. But very few people have what it takes to thrive in this industry over the long run. I've had many careers over the years - from being the climber in my own tree service to welding, Harley mechanics, computer programming, to managing a pizzeria. Never have I had a career that was more demanding than trucking in so many ways. And no matter how many ways we try to communicate just how difficult a career in trucking can be, many people find themselves completely surprised and often times overwhelmed by it.

Richie, If you're going to get into trucking it's going to take a whole lot more from you than just signing up for school and learning how to shift and back up. It's going to require a complete change in your approach to life. No more sitting back waiting for things to happen. No more getting by on the bare minimum. No more leaning on the people around you to prop you up. You have to stand up, work hard, and make things happen day in and day out. If you think finding a job is hard, imagine negotiating a 70 foot long, 80,000 pound building on wheels through downtown Chicago in January during evening rush hour, in heavy snow, at night, and trying to find your way to the rail yard. Once you get there it's like, "Wow! Thank God I made it!" Unfortunately that's only getting in. Now you have to grab a load and get back out - the same way - all over again. And that's only a few hours in the average day of a trucker. It's extremely demanding in so many ways.

Very few people have what it takes to thrive in this industry. You really have to ask yourself if this lifestyle is what you're looking for. Do you want to be challenged hard every day of your life? Do you want to live in constantly-changing circumstances with tight schedules, high risk, erratic sleep patterns, and very long hours? Remember, a trucker can be on duty 70 hours in any 8 day period. That's almost two full time jobs. But that's only the time you're logging as on duty. There will be times you're logging sleeper berth or off duty even though you're maybe sitting at the docks getting loaded or doing laundry or some other type of work.

Being able to drive a rig is the easy part. Doing it safely day in and day out under extremely challenging circumstances is quite another.

When I was 19 my buddy and I left Buffalo, NY in an old van on its last leg with $500 between us. We drove to Atlanta and didn't know a soul. We found work through a temp agency the very morning we arrived and then lived in that van for 3 weeks in the parking lot of the place we worked eating peanut butter and jelly or cold soup out of a can while we saved up our money. We worked 60+ hours a week. Finally we scraped up enough to get an apartment but it was in such a bad neighborhood that we had to get out of there. Having shots fired right outside our apartment door one night was enough. So we went back to living in the van for another three weeks, continued working 60+ hours a week, and saved again for a new apartment. All that time we never asked for nor received a dime from anyone. We were going to make it on our own 100% or die trying. In fact, we knew it was time to get to work when the brothers that owned the company pulled up in their Mercedes and BMW respectively to let us in. We could have asked for help. We could have had it much easier. But we didn't want help that would make things easier. We wanted it hard. We wanted to do it ourselves.

That's the type of spirit it takes to thrive in this industry. You need a lot of grit and resolve. If you think you have it in you then go for it! But make no mistake about it.....it's going to be one of the toughest things you've ever tried to do and it never gets easy. It will get a bit easier as you get better, but it's always a tough way to make a living. That's what you're faced with.

@ brett aquilia: one word to sum up what u told and that word is powerful .soulful and it was like i needed to hear it. to me i m looking for a challege.. a life challege .....but yes ur right mr.brett.its hard lifestyle but it will forge a new you . a different u . a person who knows who/ what he is .i took myself out of the rat race we call life to reevluate my goals, my mindset and of my attitude towards life/ my place in soicety. mr brett i do want/ desire to become a trucker. to ensure that the job i do is a serious matter /treated as such. everything else is secondary..

to me i learnt from my mistakes / failure from the past. ready to start again in my life. i can truly see you care and want me to suceed /not fail if someone worried about someone.

thank u brett

richie collins

@ brett aquilia: one word to sum up what u told and that word is powerful .soulful and it was like i needed to hear it. to me i m looking for a challege.. a life challege .....but yes ur right mr.brett.its hard lifestyle but it will forge a new you . a different u . a person who knows who/ what he is .i took myself out of the rat race we call life to reevluate my goals, my mindset and of my attitude towards life/ my place in soicety. mr brett i do want/ desire to become a trucker. to ensure that the job i do is a serious matter /treated as such. everything else is secondary..

to me i learnt from my mistakes / failure from the past. ready to start again in my life. i can truly see you care and want me to suceed /not fail if someone worried about someone.

thank u brett

richie collins

Trucking will change ya huh Richie? You just don't know how right you are. Some step up to the challenge and accept it head on and others break beneath it's weight and crawl back under the rock they should have never crawled out from under in the first place. Some grow stronger from having to deal day to day life of a trucker and some realize it's to much and go back home and live happily ever after. You find out what your made of. Don't get me wrong. It's not a test of physical strength. Very little muscle involved. It's 99.9% mental with 00.1% strength. It's a mental game you play with yourself.

Now that's not saying that those that realize trucking is not for them failed in any kind of way. Some do and some don't. The mental part comes from every side. The stress from driving. Dealing with shippers and receivers. Dealing with dispatchers and other drivers. And in my personal opinion is the biggest amount of stress comes from home. You have a driver and it's his first time away from family and he is doing really well but the first time he receives a call from home it can wreck him. I have seen it with my own to eyes when I was a trainer.

I had one student that was almost done with his training, week to go, and he gets a call from his wife complaining about him being gone all the times and she can't stand for him to be away and the next thing I know he is wanting to get off the truck and head home.

Remarkable words guyjax. just from what everyone has me in deep thinking/some debating. yes its a new direction anyone who want to be a trucker. all anyone can do is try/give it their best effort..i hear/get what everyone is saying to me....

Time to go after what i want to do in life time to get back in game of life and make the effort to bring dreams to life

ima study harder than what i was doing.. believe in myself once again

do or do not, choice is mines and mines alone

Time to go after what i want to do in life time to get back in game of life and make the effort to bring dreams to life

ima study harder than what i was doing.. believe in myself once again

do or do not, choice is mines and mines alone

Almost anyone can make it in trucking if they really want to. It's not that people can't figure out how to drive em. The problem is they quit because the drastic change in lifestyle and the pressure you're under (especially when you're new) just overwhelms people. If they would stick with it long enough to get better at it, keep a great attitude, and adjust to life on the road, many of them would go on to have long, fantastic careers.

If you're ready for a life-changing challenge, trucking is a great one in my book. The schooling is short and inexpensive. Even if you quit trucking after just a few months you would have made enough to cover the costs of schooling. You'll walk away with a backup career, no debt, and a ton of amazing life experiences. So the challenge is monumental, but the time and money risk involved is pretty minimal. That makes for a favorable risk/reward ratio which is pretty hard to find in life when you really look for em. Eating ice cream is another!

If you haven't already, read through my book Becoming A Truck Driver: The Raw Truth About Trucking. That's a link to the free online version. It's a short, easy read with a ton of stories and insights from my years on the road. It will certainly help you understand what you're getting into so you can prepare for it.

The other thing to go through thoroughly if you haven't is our Truck Driver's Career Guide. That has mountains of information on pretty much every topic imaginable that pertains to getting your trucking career off to a great start.

I'll tell ya what.....from the little bit we know about you so far, trucking might be a huge game-changer for you. Even if you're only in it for a short time you may find it has a springboard effect into other careers and pursuits in life. Living on the road for some time and developing the confidence to handle 80,000 pounds rollin down the highway is going to change you.

Trucking was my first career when I was 21 and it was the foundation for the entire rest of my life. I spent 15 years out there but took some breaks along the way to try other careers and pursuits from time to time. Over the years I've had a variety of careers and opportunities, but trucking was the career that launched everything else. That's what I built off of.

So you don't have to make a lifetime commitment by any means. But if you can dig deep and find the fortitude to dedicate yourself to getting one year of over the road driving experience there's no telling where that will lead for you. You might retire from trucking at 70 years old, you might start a new career in 6 months. What's the difference? As long as you have the opportunity to pursue the things you'd like to do with your life. Trucking might be the perfect way to get the ball rolling.