I was living on unemployment for two months and thinking life sucks because the county I lived in had basically zero decent jobs. I had tossed around the idea of truckin' since I was 19, but was always told I couldn't do that because I was too young, or I had the wrong plumbing or (the biggest one) couldn't afford the $5K for truckin' school and didn't know anyone who would train me or that there were companies that would finance training. Meanwhile, nearly 20 years later and physically unable to continue the job I had, I went to the local employment department, where I was told I could get a job and get trained by the company. So, I called Swift, put in my papers for the training and haven't looked back.
I believe I got adequate training at their academy, then got a decent road trainer. I worked for them as a company driver for a little over a year, moved on to a tiny mom n pop operation that went out of business when their bread and butter auto parts manufcturer company shut down for a strike for several months, went to Prime for almost two years, where I lost my ass and then returned to Swift as a lease-op. Two weeks from paying the truck off and getting the title, a drunk driver hit me head-on. My truck burned to the frame. Swift backed me up 100% and had no problem putting me in another truck. After the crash, I didn't want to make any immediate big changes, so I went right back to what I was doing. Nearly a year later, I found the account had lost its allure for me, so I turned the truck in (no penalties and got my escrow account back in full) and started with a private carrier where all we do is haul our own stuff. Been here for over a year and I like not having the hassle of maintenance, fuel and all the other BS attached to running a truck business.
I own a house with acreage, three cars, two motorcycles and I have time now to work on another venture that
@Duck helped light the fire for, whether he realizes it or not.
February, it'll be 12 years I've been truckin'. It gets tiresome, but never boring.