Why trucking?

[R Perry]

I was recently asked by a friend, why did I get into trucking.

I would like to hear from other why they chose this profession, or was it chosen for you. Did you just need a job, or was this a goal you had? Over the last almost fifty years I have met so many people with such diverse backgrounds it is a question I have often pondered.

 

[mndriver]

Because age discrimination at age 40 is real.

 

[BlackBart]

Some of us just work well alone and enjoy that

 

[Mike]

Always had an interest as a kid.

Leaving the military, I quickly realized that many people weren't to excited about the prospect of hiring a former Marine. My recruiter lied to me, lol.

After going back to working at my high school job, then roofing with my uncle, and a few other short lived stints, to truck driving school I went.

Did it for a while, then got the chance for Ford to send me to get an associate's degree and work on cars. Did that for a few years, made really good money, then ended up deciding to relocate to Arkansas and immediately went back to truck driving because jobs there was gonna suck.

Been doing it since then. Had I not left the DFW area, I never would have stepped foot back into a truck at least unless I owned it.

Jobs are much better now that I am in northwest Arkansas, but just not much opportunity at the age of 50.

Trust me, with a family at home, I would much rather do something else. Problem is, I was doing this when I acquired the family at the age of 40, and not much else I could jump into to provide a decent lifestyle for a family of 5.

 

[Wore Out]

I grew up around a fleet of cow trucks, reefers and later buckets. Wasn't much of a choice for me.

 

[Shreck]

I grew up around a fleet of cow trucks, reefers and later buckets. Wasn't much of a choice for me.

Worked for my uncle on the farm when I was in high school he had put a dump bed on a old GMC chassis when he bought a new chassis for his milk tank. He asked me if I wanted a job hauling coal when I graduated. I hadn’t given much thought to what I was going to do when I was out of school so the day after I graduated I crawled in it and went to work 45 years later the rest is history.lol

 

[blairandgretchen]

Always liked to drive - or operate machinery. Anything I could get my hands on.

Also worked better outside of a 9-5 environment.

 

[GAnthony]

I was recently asked by a friend, why did I get into trucking.

I would like to hear from other why they chose this profession, or was it chosen for you. Did you just need a job, or was this a goal you had? Over the last almost fifty years I have met so many people with such diverse backgrounds it is a question I have often pondered.

i got tired of working in a garage, fixing things, or solving puzzles, and getting dirty and working about 100 hours a week, and dealing with customers.

so i went to trucking skool, learnt how to drive, and got into trucking, working long hours, getting dirty, solving puzzles (looking for the delivery/pick ups), dealing with customers, but at least, NOT fixing things.!!

so i made out ok....~~~~!!!!!!!!

 

[SueAnn]

When I was a little girl, my Dad took me for a ride in a truck, he could drive anything. Being Daddy's little girl, I wanted to be just like him and learn how to drive everything.

At age 4, I backed the car out of the driveway and across the street. Needless to say, Mom and Dad were not as impressed as I was.

When I got a little older, I started working on motors with him and my grandfather. Dad always said I would have been a great mechanic. I could fix anything.

At 13, I started racing cars, street racing. Thankfully, I never got caught but was a hell of a way to learn to drive a car.

At 17, I bought a Camero. I loved that car. I'd spend every minute on it. It was fast and spotless. Street racing was still illegal but at least I had a licence. LOL

My first serous boyfriend was a truck driver and taught me how to drive a straight truck. My desire to drive a truck far outlasted the boyfriend.

A few years later, one of my Dad's friends drove a truck and I went on a few runs with him. He taught me how to drive an 18 wheeler. I was one happy girl. When we got back home I was driving. I pulled up to the house and honked the horn. The door flew open and out ran my father as mad as I've ever seen him. "You are forbidden to drive a truck!"

A couple years later, I was at Dad's place and a biker friend who also drove said to my father, if I could move his truck he would pay for my schooling to get my licence. My father once again forbid it and said "over his dead body."

A few years later, Dad passed away, I got my licence. Leaving a six figure job, everyone thought I was crazy but there hasn't been a day I wished I was doing anything else. I love truck driving and all that goes with it. It's always been in my blood and I can't see myself doing anything else.

 

[Humble pie]

Well I guess since management did find my first post as funny as I did.

I grew up in trucking. Daddy was one of them outlaw chicken haulers out of South Carolina. I always wanted to drive a big ol truck. At 18 I graduated high school and got a job at a fleet shop. They paid for my tech school to be a mechanic. When I was 21 and a half I got laid off. After that I went trucking. That was 19 years ago. I still get excited to throw my bag in the truck and take off.

 

[Rigjockey]

I always wanted to drive one of them big rigs since I was a kid. Where I lived lots of trucks passed by everyday and liked seeing them.

When I was old enough I wanted to go to trucking school. My Mom suggested I take a ride in a truck with my Uncle to see if I liked it.
When I got home mom asked how did you like it?
I fucking hated it!
So you don't want to drive truck?
Hell yeah, I want to drive a truck! Sitting in the passengers seat sucks!
A few months later I was in trucking school.

I quit trucking never to return a few times.
But once I realised the amounts of paperwork required, I was hooked.

 

[R Perry]

I appreciate all the responses. I never consider trucking, in 69 I started my third year of college. Lost my draft deferment and was drafted, spent seven months in Vietnam, then two years in a VA hospital, never went back to college. Dad got me in the Teamsters, kind of taught myself to drive, plenty of mistakes along the way. Seemed like driving helped me get my head together and was making good money. Never drove local, mostly line, team for a while, hated that. Reality was it wasn't long before I felt I didn't fit in anywhere else, my college dreams and goals became a distant memory. It went from just a job to a lifestyle for me, and I grew to love it, and it's people, even the hard to get along with dispatchers.
Today, it isn't about making a living, it's about what I love to do, I guess that's why they once called it white line fever.
Thanks for all the responses.
Cheers

 

[exhausted379]

My trucking career evolved from my dairy. I always had a truck to haul in my hay and grain, and after about twenty years of putting up with labor, inspectors, and regulations I was getting burned out. So in 1997 I sold out, jumped in the truck I had at the time and set sail.

 

[Electric Chicken]

Better to be outside the warehouse than inside it. My feet kill me if I'm on them too long and I couldn't stand the hens in the typing pool.

 

[Redneck Bob]

I started in 1995 pulling a dump wagon hauling coal. didn't really have a clue what I was doing. lied to the boss of my experience. how I made it the first week without screwing up Ill never know. didn't really have a dad he passed when I was 8 years old. uncle Bob took me under his wing. hence my screen name. everyone called him 'Redneck' he taught me a lot. mostly bad LOL ! tried over the road for 3 years. got burnt out on it. so here I am back to what I know, dumping. haul aggregate now around the surrounding states.

 

[Me & My Truck]

I was hired for an accounting position by a delivery/logistics company, 15 years later they sold it to a crook. After 5 years of watching him cut drivers pay so that he could pay for international vacations and his toys, I had enough. I knew that I wanted to do something that would allow me to set my own pace. If I want a week off I just take it. My husband always talked about wanting to travel. When I thought about how I could get what I wanted and get h in m what he wanted, trucking just jumped to the top of the list.

 

[Canadian Eh]

I had always liked semi trucks, what boy doesn't.
When I was 13 I was trying to get to another town, so stood on the side of the hwy hitchhiking. A nice older couple picked me up and gave me a ride as far as they were going, the man driving said he was a truck driver, and would help me get a ride from there. Took me to a truck stop, and loudly announced that he had just picked me up an hour ago hitchhiking, I was polite, and needed a ride, so would one of the truckers please take me north with them. A guy said he would be leaving in 5 minutes, and happy to give me a ride. That was 1983, and I rode about 9 hours in that truck with the man. I must have damn near driven him crazy with all my questions, but he answered them all without complaint. I was just so eager to learn more about this fascinating career, and hence all the questions. Well I was hooked, I wanted to be a truck driver from that moment on. When it was time to head back south about 6 weeks later, I walked 6 hours to get to a truck stop, and began asking the people who were there fueling up if i could get a ride south. After several No answers, I got a yes. I didn't want to just hitch hike back home, knowing that I would just end up riding in a car, when all I could think of was riding in a big truck. That guy was amazing, and showed me so many interesting things to a 14 year old boy, like why he thumped the tires, and checked the chains on his load, etc.
So when I finally became an adult it was an easy choice for me, I wanted to drive a rig.
Boring story sure, but that was how I got into it.