Trucking can be like a bad marriage, continued.

I'm a owner operator now, own, drive, own vehicle and get paid.

That means I pay a lot more in expenses, tires, tags, breakdowns ect, but it has it's rewards.

Won't get rich, but still has it's rewards for the independent types.

Come to work when you want, leave when you want ect.

When use to that it's very hard to go back to being a wage slave.

Don't get me wrong, when a owner operator you're still a wage slave, only you have a bit more say in how you're being used.

Sadly, most attracted to trucking aren't the most intellectual types of people you'll encounter.

Many are social loners, drifters, and not very educated.

Trucking, now days, is a community that won't fill any missing holes in your life.

The community of drivers as a whole just isn't very hospitable.

At least not to me.

For one I hate how guys in trucking talk on their cell phones 24/7.

From the time they get up till bed time, yapping on cell phone, to who knows who.

When I'm driving I concentrate on what I'm doing, I find being on cell phone while at works makes me a unsafe driver.

Details are important in trucking, like a pilot, you have routine, a check list of things to do before or while hooking up to trailer or un hooking.

When yapping on phone it's easy to get emotionally distracted and forget a step.

And in trucking just forgetting one step can be fatal or cause a lot of damage.

I just don't like yappers.

Usually urban types, but now I even see older types with cell phone headset wrapped around head.

The passion I use to have for this trade is long gone, now I do it more out of reflex.

Not only that, but I'm a owner now, so being able to work when you want becomes addictive and cannot see self going back to forced schedule.

When poor, broke and on the bottom, you kind of have to enjoy life as you go along, cause you don't earn enough to enjoy some elaborate retirement, so you have to enjoy life as you go, cause in this trade, at least as owner, there really is no golden years.

It's a sick trade, either spend years on road away from things that matter, or get own truck and spend years of life putting most of earnings back into truck/ equipment.

It's a sick trade.

I've gotta decide real soon how to move on with future, either invest in more trucking headache, or just say the heck with it and try to branch off into something else, put money in education, maybe a nice new car, RV...who knows.

Maybe land, just not sure if trucking still has the returns it use to.

Think maybe I got into to late.

Also, trucking jobs that don't bother mentioning pay, before you even apply, are basically jobs where they want you to kill your body, in order to barely earn living wage.

That's how little most transportation 'suits' think of you, as a driver.

There is no 'sit down', no discussing terms, nothing, it's basically

'Hey pal, either you want the job or your don't, if not I'll hire Mundaz from Cuba, cause I know they'll work 18 hours a day, and won't pester me'

When applying for trucking job, no one wants to get to know you, it's just 'Go online and fill out application', which is totally static, doesn't allow for a lot of things you want to fill in or explain.

And then want you to dig back 10 years in your life and account for all time, jobs, vacations, lay offs, sick time, the whole 'no gap in employment' BS.

It's not the 60's or 70's or even 80's anymore where people kept same job for decades...now lucky if one keeps same job for more than 11 months, especially in trucking with it's brutal treatment of drivers.

The trucking industry, as a driver, will always treat you as if a high school graduate, no matter how many years doing it.

They think you're dumb, stupid, and don't have any other ambitions other than to have whole life, while there, planned and routed for you.

(The good ole days of trucking were not like that, not even)

Technology has taken much of the fun and independence out of trucking.



You barely sneeze and alarm bells go off in office, drift 12 inches off of route, alarm bells go off, and more.

As a driver (especially if work for large carrier, like Swift, U.S Express ect) you have no independence, none, you're just a robot and your input matters zero to the company, yet will bring in and hire a 21 year old to run your life, 'load plan' for you, and condescend to you over phone or qualcom.

You're treated more like a pet, than a seasoned professional driver (These days you are, not in the past, but that's for a different post)

Look, I know loads have to be delivered on time, I understand costumers pay for that to happen, but somewhere in the mix, the driver part of the equation has been lost, and is why getting harder and harder to find qualified drivers, and must instead constantly hire from 'Truck school pool'.

At this stage of life, I have nothing more to give to the industry, if not for my 8-4, off on weekends schedule, I'd walk away, would rather sell used or new cars, or sell RV's, where I'm around people instead of alienated for days, weeks, months at a time all alone or only around other drivers who are totally unkept, hairy, scraggly, anti social, depressed, fat, bloated, and in bad health, and mainly men or males.

So if you like women, forget about it, all you'll mainly be around is other industrial type males who have zero interest in you, and are always glued to headsets. (or now many foreign drivers litter the landscape)

I really feel for those drivers that can still do it, I certainly cannot.

Stuff has to be delivered, but not by me anymore.

oh, and I'm just getting started, the tragedies I've seen, ruined lives, abuse...so much more to follow.