[PontiacMatt72]

I'm thinkin bout makin a carreer change...

I currently work an Office job, sitting at a desk all day inside. it's a decent job, not so great pay, and good retirement and isurance/benefits.

but, I'm 23 years old and just can't hardly stand this sittin workin on a computer all day.

Thinking about trying something different with potentially MUCH better pay, but not sure about retirement (if any?) and not sure bout benefits/insurance.

Truck Driving (Semi trucks/big rigs), anyone done or do it? I don't know if I'd make a lifelong carreer of it, but maybe try it for a little while?

Just looking for insight/advice/input from others...

[GT182]

Union trucking job is the way to go. Owning your own rig is a good way to go broke, especially these days with fuel prices the way they are. You'll be home once in a 'blue moon' and then spend most of your time on repairs or preventive maintainence.

I drove hauling new cars for Anchor Motor Freight from 77 to 93. Good money and home a night of two during the week, plus home every weekend. Freight is a different story tho. When I was laid off from Anchor I hauled freight for a guy that had 6 of his own trucks. Hauled valves from Vermont to California and backhauled produce to Montreal Quebec. 20% was my pay and believe me, it wasn't all that great. 60 bucks went to a lumper to unload the produce.... one lumper at each drop. You did that or unloaded it off the trailer yourself if you could stay awake. Usually it was 3 to 4 days out (illegal of course) and back as fast as you could make it (even more illegal). Get caught with your logbook not up to date and it's a 1200.00 fine or more. You being the biggest thing on the road means tickets for some car that's speeding and they get you instead. You don't argue with a cop.

Sitting at a computer will pay you more than trucking will. If you have a family, they'll appreciate your computer job more than you will. Out trucking and it's a gamble they'll still be there when you get back home.... I know, I went thru that and lost. You both wonder what the other is up too. Too many temptations for either of you. That's what my ex found out cause I caught her and her boyfriend when she didn't expect it. If you're single, no worries.

My advice..... stay with the computers. It's safer no matter how you look at it. Just my .

[andrewT]

hey man

not to rip on truck drivers ( I am going to drive trucks for work until I get into firefighting) but trucking is another form of sitting on your arse. Except your on the road. I personally love driving but also hate "office" style jobs.

Thats why I wanna be a firefighter! exciting to boot

oh and I forgot, I have heard that truck driving is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world because it requires constant concentration while maneuvering a huge object down the road for long hours without adequate sleep in some cases.

[4dblnkldude]

The greater the risk, the greater the reward. If you have something to fall back on, you have your ace in the hole. Your 23, take a chance. I'm 34 now and do HVAC installs and service, I've done all aspects of this job. I want a career change as well, to much crawling, bending, lifting, climbing and so forth. I looked into driving but the pay was not there, perhaps that is my geographics though. So what to do now? My mortgage is paid every month, my wife and I both have decent jobs, I even manage to have a couple beers with my buddies on friday night. OK now I'm bitching .....sorry. Good luck in whatever you choose.

[Stuart]

I just took a long road trip today (700 miles) and while I was driving I noticed a couple big rigs with ads on the back for drivers. One said they paid 42 cents/mile, another said 52 cents/mile. I don't know how many miles their drivers put on in a year, but for discussion's sake if it's 100,000 that would mean an annual paycheck in the range of $42,000 to $50,000. That's not bad money, but you can probably end up making more by sitting at that computer...

[marxjunk]

Its a hard life style, and most truckers arent very healthy...your either in a rush or you dead in the water..if the truck doesnt move you make no bank....


I think I could do it..over the road, no city driver..some weeks i drive 12oo miles and it doesnt bother me a bit........6 hrs? seems like a blink and its over...ive thought about it a lot, what kills it for me, i got too much stuff...literally...

[Sirrotica]

It's a great job if you wanna work 12+ hours a day with no OT. Hardly any drivers work hourly, most get paid off of what the truck makes and if the wheels ain't turnin, you ain't earnin. If you happen to land an hourly job there is no OT all straight time because wage and hour has exemption from transportation jobs so 40 hours means nothing, your allowed 70 a week. Local jobs are hard to come by and especially if your a new driver you get stuck with the worst routes, oldest trucks, lowest paying jobs because your lowest on the totem pole. Also an added bonus, you get to sleep in the truck too, but you won't have trouble sleeping because your dead tired most of the time. You get to worry about DOT stops, scales. Another bonus is you get to keep your truck clean on your off time. As already been mentioned very little home time with family and friends. Most drivers get home late Friday, early Saturday AM, and get their hours off (32 hours off) so they can start the new week with all their hours, that's usually leaving out on Sunday afternoon, or evening. Owners or dispatchers don't care whether your legal on hours or not, because if you get caught the fine belongs to you, not them. Two tickets in a year and you're done driving because the insurance company won't insure anyone with a bad record. You get to keep your logs up to date and if you get caught with them not current, your fined and out of service (means your sittin for free) til you get them up to date and legal. If you get DOT inspection and the trucks not legal your out of service and sittin again for free til the owner gets someone to either fix it where it sits or gets it towed to a garage. You can eat all the fast food you can stand too. Sounds like a great job, doesn't it?...........................

[GStage1]

Just an idea...what does the local FedEx or UPS guy make?

[stimpy]

Originally Posted by GStage1

Just an idea...what does the local FedEx or UPS guy make?

unless you have alot of experiance you will not get one of these jobs and it varies from hub to hub as there contracts are differnet .

25 years and I am retired , I ussually tell people who work in a office that think it must be a great job that they don't see the bs of it like we do , you will make less than minimum wage , you will work a average of 65 or more hours a week the first 2 years of your employment , you will get screwed outof money by your employer , you will sleep on your time off at home , you do not have a set schedule . in otherwords some days you start at 2 am some at 8 pm and you have to be on time , and you will sit alot at customers and not get paid because the company made a deal with them on unloading times and no you won't get the shiney truck till you do your time , and you find out your dispatcher is worse than a politician when it comes to promises and lying . you will fight for spots at the truckstop when your tired and need rest , you have people bang on the truck while your trying to sleep or have a 20 year old reffer next to you that fires up every 10 minuutes , your wife will cheat on you since your not home , your kids won't like you because your not there . the dog well ditto . the cat won't care ( they are so narcisstic anyways ) you find out customers can be a pain , coffee that tastes worse than gear oil . the waiting for 5 hours to take a cold shower and having to pay for it . shall I go on??? and right now buying a truck unless you have business savy and connections is a bad thing to do especially with fuel prices and licensing fees going up .

[limejudge69]

If over the road trucking doesn't interest you, you might try local delivery. I've done local in foodservice, beer and milk. Let me start by saying IT'S HARD WORK! You are humping the product down a ramp, into basements, cellars, up stairs, down stairs. However you stay in great physical shape, you are home every night, and the pay can be good. You usually start out as a helper with lower pay. But after you get a CDL, you can usually get your own route and make decent money. Try SYSCO, US Foodservice, Rhinehart, Miller, Budweiser, etc.

[rohrt]

ever thought of joining the military?

[quick67bird]

I have worked for local LTL companies for the last 25 years and can say that you are better staying with computers. You can make decent money, but at the expense of your home life. The trucking companies do not care if you daughter or son has a school function; they need you to deliver freight. If you look at most local Pickup and Delivery drivers you don't see many old ones because the work breaks down your back and knees.

Most local trucking jobs start out at $15-$17 an hour and they top out around $20-$25 an hour. UPS pays the most, but you have to work part time there for a couple of years to get a full time position. You do get OT if you work over 40 locally, but a lot of local companies are getting around the OT law by working you hourly for 8 hours and then sending you on a line run later in the shift which pays mileage.

I got out of the LTL business and work as a driver at a nuclear facility and hope I can retire here as I have never been happier.

Robert Rife

[Half-Inch Stud]

Pushing a desk all day can wrack havoc on a man's health. Okay, a woman's health too.

A task outdoors may pay "dividens" in health and outlook.

[PontiacMatt72]

Originally Posted by rohrt

ever thought of joining the military?

yes. just aint sure that's the route I want to take either... uprooting and moving far away for extended periods of time... don't know how I feel about that. I'm deeply rooted i'm afraid. I love to travel tho. And, I would be third generation (Grandad - Airforce, Dad - Airforce)

I should have mentioned earlier, I'm single, no kids, no girlfriend... just family and friends.
I have a Bachelors Degree in Business. (graduated a year ago in May)

What's got me started into thinkin about truck driving, a fella that owns a local trucking business was telling me about it, and telling me how good a money can be made. quoting him, "if you don't net $2K-$2.5k a week, your doing something wrong." He said he does "heavy haul", including heavy machinery and military equipment transportation. He then gave me his card and told me that if I was interested, come talk to him.

I really appreciate everyone's input. Helps to hear other perspectives and be reminded of the pros/cons to truck driving.

[mviker]

I'm a desk jockey today, but in a previous life, was a courier. It was pretty good money back in the day, around 27 -30K a year driving my own small pickup truck. Made a 60% commission and drove around 300 miles per day. Got real familiar with all the roads in about a 4-5 state area. I don't know where you're at, but if you're thinking of a driving job, you may want to look into it. You're mostly delivering small packages, sometimes larger loads. It changes every day. The only trouble is, the better you are at it, the more likely you might be to get tickets. Speeding and parking. Still...It was a great job back then. got to see a lot of places and got the 9 - 5 hours. Since you're driving your own vehicle, maint. is up to you as well as gas. Got to file quarterly taxes too, but if you stay on top of it all, it's ok. I'm doing the computer thing now also. Pay is good, but I can't see doing it forever. Socling away my cash for a new plan when the time comes.

[The Champ]

A business degree and you want to be outside.

Do you have a sales type personality?

I've been in outside sales for most of my life after getting out of the military in 1978. You would still be utilizing your degree, still interacting with a computer, but will get to be outside and meeting people most of the time.

I have few regrets with my career choice.

It the idea of walking in to a new prospect's location and making a sales call frightens the heck out of you - then this would not be a career path for you.

[68lemansman]

Ive been driving for about 15 years now and I think the best thing about on the road is that you dont have a boss up your a** looking over your shoulder, but on the road can be hard and dangerous. You hae to take a lot into consideration such as weather, whats around you and the other drivers. I almost killed a lady cause she pulled out in front of me with no turn signal and all because she was in a stopped lane and didnt want to sit there any more. So she decided to pull in my lane with no turn signal.I was scared shi*less! If i didnt catch that and manuvered my truck just in time. I would have crushed her honda and pushed her atleast a few yards down the road before ever stopping. Some people drive like idiots and think these trucks can stop on a dime and they cant. I loved it at the begining but after awhile you can get tired of it. If you can get into a local delivery company and drive a class b truck like ups or maybe a beverage company like budweiser or something along those lines. This way you wont be gone over the road for days at a time and can be home but also get the feel and experience of driving trucks if you never had it. Then maybe after that if you still want to drive move on up to a class a which is driving heavy haulers.

[Andre]

"not so great pay, and good retirement and isurance/benefits".

Most people on the board would kill for these type of benefits. If you aren't making enough cash, try a second job for 20 hours/week. You have a pretty good job, you just don't realize it yet.

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by Andre

"not so great pay, and good retirement and isurance/benefits".

Most people on the board would kill for these type of benefits. If you aren't making enough cash, try a second job for 20 hours/week. You have a pretty good job, you just don't realize it yet.

Even working a part time job and a 40 hour a week job you'll work less than driving a truck, and probably make more money too....LOL

You wanna drive and be outside, then deliver food. I made probably $50K a year delivering for a deli and tips are cash which up to you can be reported down to the last cent and you pay tax on it, or keep most of it and be tax free. That's your choice how you handle that part, also depends on how much your employer gets into your tip money on how it gets reported.

[Don Chapman]

If you dont like sitting in front of a computer all day will you like sitting in front of a steering wheel for most of your day as a truck driver? I cant tell you much else that not already been said. I work for US Foods and am home most nights except on 2 day runs.
But like Limejudge said its hard work. We also have a lot of injuries. Out of 60 drivers at at our division there are usually 4-5 out with injuries all the time. Usually a back, knee, shoulder or ankle. Im usually too tired to do much when I get off work but im double your age. I usually work 50 to 60 hours a week. I am fortunate to be paid by the hour.
I dont think I would like over the road trucking being gone all the time,But If your still single
you could give it a try just dont expect your girlfriend to stick around. As a starting OTR
driver you will probably get the worst runs and little pay. Dont believe anything a recruiter tells you from a trucking company they just try to suck you in with false promises.