Why Did You Become A Truck Driver?

Hey Guy, I see you are from NOLA. I live in Metairie. What school are you going to go to?

Howdy Earl, I'm looking at two schools, actually. Haven't made a hard decision on either yet, but I'm looking at Coastal Truck driving School in Baton Rouge, or Swift's company sponsored training . Pro's and cons to each, so just trying to get as much information as I can and keeping narrowing down the con list and building on the pro list til I have one that's bigger than the other.

My first career was a Naval Flight Officer. We should have been paying for all the fun we had. The first emergency and you earned your pay and usually a few grey hairs. Multiple deployments and a combat tour with young kids at home, looking at more deployments. Given an opportunity to retire - no brainer.

Second career decided to give back a bit. Teaching math and science in a middle school. Any time a kid asks "What am I going to use this for?" I can give them a few pointers and examples. Kids are grown, grand kids coming into the picture, but looking for a challenge when I retire in a couple of years.

I love to drive and there are some pretty close similarities between flying and trucking; trip planning, pre-flight (trips), weather forecast, thinking on the fly, attention to detail, etc. Got a sweet deal with working summers and several weekends a month with a local company until I do retire. Momma doesn't mind me being gone (Are you going to be gone this weekend? Wink, wink.)

Looking for 48 and Canada when I finally retire. Get to see the country, get paid and not have the pressure of earning all the bucks to live on. Can even take momma with me when it suits her. Just a different way to enter my golden years.

Cakewalk was probably.not the best word to use lol, deploying is different. I know being on the road mostly alone is probably hard at times, can't compare apples and oranges. I like the idea of being alone on the road but at the same time I know that some days will be lonely. Sounds easy now I suppose but I'm sure that sometimes its no simple task.

Congrats on retirement Nighttrain03, that's a huge success.

Jason, you're right about deploying & being away from home for 2 - 3 wks at a time. Not much of a comparison, true story about the apples & oranges. Just doesn't work. lol

The idea of being on the road with just you & the hum of that CAT/Cummins (whatever it may be) motor in front of ya & the scenery just seems to put it all into perspective. I can't wait til its my turn. Definitely lookin forward to it. :)

Thx about the retirement, been lookin forward to it for a bit now. Kinda bitter sweet tho, hate to leave the military lifestyle, but yet at the same time ready to punch out. :)

Also, thank you for your service as well. OORAH

We don't have a catchy phrase in the USAF other than "Airpower", seems to work for us tho.

BTW, I'm deployed right now & I'm at Camp LNK with an Engineering detachment. This place has changed quite a bit from the last time I was here.(Aug 2010) Was here for 3 weeks then went back to good ol Kandahar.

Later

Mines in my profile ,on my blog I started,but I got into trucking when it went down the blood line and grabbed me in day butt.some say I eat breathe and bleed diesel.

Im in the same boat as Jason C. im in the marine corps and when i get out i know this is what i want to do. Ever since i was kid ive been interested in Big trucks. Im currently deployed in afghanistan and i see alot of truckers say your away from home alot well 3-4 weeks out a time sounds pretty good compared for me not seeing my family for up to a year sometimes so i know when i get out im gonna tried to get hired on with crete and am very excited about it!

Sheesh....why do I always have to be different ??? Back in the day....when I was in my late teens- early 20's, I drove cattle truck, harvest truck for hay, beets,mint, taters, or anything else they would toss in a truck. I drove log truck for some friends...that was interesting...But then I did alot of other stuff, was City police officer, a county deputy, and ended up as an agent for the Depart. of Justice, where I worked for 9 years. The job was fine, the pay was really good( $65-80K a year), but I had never stuck with a job after it started to bore me. So when TSB and I got married, I decided to quit my fancy job, sell my little farm, the equipment, the horses, the cattle, and put what we wanted to keep in storage...and BUY A BIG SHINEY PETERBUILT !!!!! TSB had always driven truck, and knew no other trade, so he was happy to train me. I went to a local cdl school for 4 whole days, challenged the test, and passed. We headed out pullin' a reefer , and happier than 2 pigs in slop. Looking back on those first 12 months, I have to hand it to TSB....he took ALOT of abuse. For some weird reason, I thought ALL exit ramps were just like the ones in Oregon....NOT...I mowed grass in TX, in CA, ran along in the median for awhile in Eloy AZ, twice. But I finally got over my rather odd driving practices, and we did west coast turn arounds for 2 years...makin' money like a hot dog seller. But I tired of the shippers being rude, and the receivers bein' worse. So we traded our reefer for a flatbed, and started a new part of truckin'. Do I have any regrets ?? a few...but none of them are related to the job I quit to get into trucking. To be truthful, my only regret was buying that first truck, and every one after it.Because as far as the money part, I think we would have made just as much, if we'd been company drivers running team. I've taken the truck out by myself alot, and never had any trouble along the way. I'm secure in my driving habits, but stay alert for anything that can happen on the road. You may not see everything from the windshield of a truck, but we stopped and went fishing, spent a day or 2 in Vegas, went to car races all over, went on some guided hunts, and met the best people in the world, from the seat in a truck. I have BBQ'd hamburgers on the back of our flatbed, I've played musical trivia/name that tune parked in a truckstop in CO. I've sat and played guitar with some really amazing musicians. I've met, laughed and kidded with some of the best people who just happen to be truckers. So in the long run, trucking has been good to us. I can't imagine doing anything else. It was the saving grace for me at the perfect time in my life.

Well let me begin by giving a little history of myself.

Was born/raised on a dairy farm in WA state on the west side of the mountains about half way between Seattle and Portland OR.

Spent the better part of the next 21 years in the military and retired from that in June 1994. Spent several deployments overseas during that time.

After retiring from the military, spent 15 years working on computers for various companies and ending up owning several franchises for a company called "Geeks on Call". When it got to the point when I was making enough money to pay the company bills and pay myself once in a while, I knew it was time to change careers.

I had always been interested in driving big trucks from when I was growing up on the farm. Had wanted to drive when I retired from the military, but did not because my daughter was just 10 and I did not want to miss out on her growing up. So when things got to where they were with the computer world, I decided it was time.

So with help from Trucking Truth, I found a home here at Prime, and do not regret my decision. As has been stated many times, there are days when I wonder what am I doing, but most days I am just loving this life style.

So there you have my story.

Ernie

Hey guys, any deaf or hard of hearing truck drivers here? I have always wanted drive BigRig, but being deaf(hearing aids user) made it almost impossible to pass DOT physicals..bummmer. If ever DOT rules abt hearing will change I will jump righ in this dream job:) You all drive safe!..cheers

For some reason, I think I read that DOT is allowing a study on hearing impaired drivers, to see if they can be included. I'll try to look it up and provide a link..........Personally, theres very little in driving a truck that you need hearing for, other than someone yelling obcenities at you...lol But I know the hearing test is mandatory, so we'll see what is out there. Good Luck.

There are indeed drivers out there with hearing impairments that were granted special exemptions so they could get their CDL. I wish I had some information I could point you to on the matter but I'm afraid I don't. Right now, Google can give you more help more than I can.