Good Health, Medication, And Happiness On The Road

I am considering a career in trucking, it's a hard life, but I think I might be okay with it. I spend most of my time now sitting around desk job, or playing computer games, barely any contact with family. I would love to see the country. My primary concern is medication, I've heard the hours are rather loopy and off balanced. I know ahead of time at least that every 4 hours when I'm awake I should take a pill with food. I'm pretty sure I can do that with sandwiches.

I know in advance that my meds react with caffeine, so my goal is going to be to reduce any need for the stuff and tips on that would be appreciated.

I need 1 hr of time to exercise, not sure how that would fit into a schedule except when offloading maybe?

I do love my computer, and going on raids with my friends which I hope I could keep doing, but it sucks up a lot of juice, once I go solo would it be plausible to make a once nightly raid meet for 8 solid hours without draining my truck battery? Is there a cab battery I could run it off of? How does that work out? I am planning to look over the wifi topics next.

I also have several dozen or more hobbies, and I think I sadly won't be able to bring my anvil and forge on board in the cab. But for space considerations and personal planning, what could I approximately fit? Maybe I'll just do beading or something, but I do like variety and mixing up the different media.

Oh and I love youtube, is there a way to download videos to my computer so I can listen to free music?

The medications you take will have to be approved by commercial driving by a DOT certified physician. You can usually call any doctor or hospital that gives DOT physicals and they'll let you know if the medication is ok or not. If not, your doctor should be able to switch you to something else.

You could fit one hour of exercise into your day if you needed to. You'll need a variety of exercises so you can fit in something under any circumstances. Often times you'll be at the loading docks or in a truck stop parking lot so you'll be exercising in the truck or jogging or something.

Gaming is doable and you can keep the batteries charged by idling the engine or running an auxiliary power unit if your truck is equipped with one. The wifi is probably going to get very expensive and you won't often have a good enough connection for fast-paced games. I'm sure there are plenty of people in our forum that are out there gaming so they'll give you more specifics.

You'll want your music downloaded onto an mp3 player or get satellite radio. You can of course stream Pandora or watch YouTube but the wifi costs can get out of hand.

The medications you take will have to be approved by commercial driving by a DOT certified physician. You can usually call any doctor or hospital that gives DOT physicals and they'll let you know if the medication is ok or not. If not, your doctor should be able to switch you to something else.

You could fit one hour of exercise into your day if you needed to. You'll need a variety of exercises so you can fit in something under any circumstances. Often times you'll be at the loading docks or in a truck stop parking lot so you'll be exercising in the truck or jogging or something.

Gaming is doable and you can keep the batteries charged by idling the engine or running an auxiliary power unit if your truck is equipped with one. The wifi is probably going to get very expensive and you won't often have a good enough connection for fast-paced games. I'm sure there are plenty of people in our forum that are out there gaming so they'll give you more specifics.

You'll want your music downloaded onto an mp3 player or get satellite radio. You can of course stream Pandora or watch YouTube but the wifi costs can get out of hand.

i am so glad that i still have a real unlimited internet plan though verizon... The best thing is they cannot reduce my speed or limit me in any way because its in the contract :D as long as i do not change my plan they can do nothing but suck it while i steam and do everything i want :D Hell i used 30 gigs of data one month and not a peep out of them.

However with gaming you have to have stable internet and wifi and stability RARELY go together. Raiding in an MMO on wifi is not something i would recommend unless its a home stable wifi, i wouldn't think that a Wendys or Mcdonalds wifi would have the bandwidth for it to be stable.

As far as time i got no clue i am just about to start CDL school as soon as i get my permit in the mail, i was told i cannot get a start date until i have that in hand.

I am also considering a trucking career. Luckily I found this website, it has a metric shytton of information about the trucking industry, and considering my experience with delivering pizza for twelve years I would say it is accurate enough for my needs. example, the low pay long ours part... no parking... traffic troubles I've had with pizza could be comparable to trucking to a certain extent. When it comes to leasing a truck, private contracting, and stuff like that I'm a complete newbie so I will appreciate any trustworthy information it will give me.

I applied to C.R.England Trucking company today. I was so happy I cried. I was so excited to be getting out off my arse, into a truck, and seeing the country and making money, that I almost forgot to check some reviews about that company which my aunt in Iowa told me to do. I saw so many negative reviews about their trucking school, their management, and even a case where someone was left stranded with a broken down truck. I was shocked. My question, Is this a good company to work for starting out as a newbie/greenhorn/squirt... whatever they call the F.N.G. nowadays lol. And If it is worth staying for longer than a year.

to Kemosabe: I play Eve Online, and would like to know if i could also bring a pc to play on my downtime/sleeptime... but would probably want to sleep more...Being the way eve online is, i can simply check my skills training and sleep. five minutes gameplay tops. Shut down the computer and save energy.

I am also considering a trucking career. Luckily I found this website, it has a metric shytton of information about the trucking industry, and considering my experience with delivering pizza for twelve years I would say it is accurate enough for my needs. example, the low pay long ours part... no parking... traffic troubles I've had with pizza could be comparable to trucking to a certain extent. When it comes to leasing a truck, private contracting, and stuff like that I'm a complete newbie so I will appreciate any trustworthy information it will give me.

I applied to C.R.England Trucking company today. I was so happy I cried. I was so excited to be getting out off my arse, into a truck, and seeing the country and making money, that I almost forgot to check some reviews about that company which my aunt in Iowa told me to do. I saw so many negative reviews about their trucking school, their management, and even a case where someone was left stranded with a broken down truck. I was shocked. My question, Is this a good company to work for starting out as a newbie/greenhorn/squirt... whatever they call the F.N.G. nowadays lol. And If it is worth staying for longer than a year.

to Kemosabe: I play Eve Online, and would like to know if i could also bring a pc to play on my downtime/sleeptime... but would probably want to sleep more...Being the way eve online is, i can simply check my skills training and sleep. five minutes gameplay tops. Shut down the computer and save energy.

i have read TONS of reviews of companies... the one thing i find 9 times out of 10 is its someone who is ****ed off... Rarely do people take the time to post the good about something, but when they are mad they want everyone to know they are mad. Its that reason its very easy to find out the bad about a company and makes it much harder to find the truth about a company. In my short time here i find the guys on this site go out of their way to tell the truth about things instead of simply venting their bad days like i have seen on other sites :D

I don't know man, it sounds to me like you're trying to bring one world into another. I used to be a hardcore gamer, starting in the 90's, and I know for a fact that sitting there for hours at a time puts me in an alpha state. I litereally could not pull myself away from a game and I become addicted. It becomes like a drug and I exprience withdrawl if I'm forced to be away from it. In my opinion, it has something to do with the screen - it's like the screen is addictive and not good for you. I can be online on facebook, or in front of a cell phone, and it's all the same. And it never ends, there's always something to check or do. But sometimes we have to experience something fully, like video games, before we move on.

So I wanted to get away from that and kept all technology to a minimum. And it changes you because you're more connected with nature (especially if you're outdoors IN nature). This is very true with driving a truck or car long distances - it's good for your mental state. When you're paying attention to the road, and just being conscious, you're not thinking, and when you're not thinking your happiness and peace increases, and the boredom disappears. You no longer want to plug into a cell phone or play video games becase you're just happy BEING. (As in being conscious/alive) And in this state, you may be pulled over at a park next to the coast, listening to the waves, or just staring at that nice knife you always carry around with you and appreciating it, and you walk around the beach, and you're very satisfied.

So my point is that you're trying to fix a problem, which you think is lack of entertainment as a driver, with a solution that is actually the cause of boredom. People who are always glued to their phones or whatever seldmom know what to do with NOTHING to do. You gotta ask yourself if you're ready to ENJOY being on the road for weeks at a time.