Trucking is not just a job; It is a lifestyle. For most, the transition to the trucking lifestyle is difficult. This is why the vast majority of CDL school graduates are no longer in the trucking business after six months…or less. They are not ready for the challenges or for the days and weeks spent away from home and family. Some universal truths about the trucking industry are not always pretty.

One of the first, and most obvious, is that any company in the trucking business will not offer the normal amenities that are taken for granted in most other jobs. For example, sick leave does not exist in most trucking jobs. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid… period.

When I had a “normal” job, it was never a big deal if I needed to take half a day off for a doctor’s appointment. In trucking, getting to a medical or dental appointment is often a roll of the dice. You never know if you’re going to be home to keep it. I once lost a crown on one of my front teeth and had to drive for two weeks like a professional boxer who should consider alternative career options.

When I had a “normal” job, no matter how stressful or harrowing the day had been, I always had the comfort of knowing that I would eventually go home and sleep in my own bed. In trucking, a long-haul driver eats alone in his truck or at a truck stop at the end of a long day and then retires to the “comfort” of a small bunk. Then he gets up after a few hours of rest and does it all over again. I never thought it would be possible to miss the company of some of my annoying ex-coworkers, but the loneliness of the road is very real.

One of the biggest issues affecting many truckers is the anti-idling laws adopted by many states. These laws place limitations on the amount of time a truck is allowed to idle and offer stiff penalties for violators. For example, in the city of Denver, a truck can legally idle for 10 minutes per hour. Well, if it’s 8th at Mile-High City, it takes 10 minutes or more to warm up a diesel engine. Do legislators expect the driver to get up during the night every hour to idle for 10 minutes and then return to an icy cocoon? The only word that comes to mind is… DUH!

In Illinois, the law states that a driver must be present when idling. I wonder how the police intend to discern this. Should they call the taxi to wake us up? This seems like an equally brilliant method of helping the driver develop a healthy sleep pattern.

The laws in other states are proportionately ingenious, but I think the people who wrote these laws should try to rest in a 20º truck in the winter, or a 95º truck in the summer. So let’s drive 600 miles the next day and think safety!

Unfortunately, this disregard for basic humanity doesn’t stop with stupid legislators. I have experienced it, first hand, from a trucking company. The story goes like this:

Shortly after I arrived in Odessa, Nebraska, my a/c compressor gave out and went over 90 degrees in the truck. I called the breakdown department to tell them I needed to drop off my cargo at a nearby terminal so I could get it fixed. The initial response I received was: “The Company does not consider air conditioning to be a valid reason to reallocate a load.”

My response was, “That’s probably because ‘company’ isn’t the one trying to get some rest in a 95-degree truck so they can drive 600 miles tomorrow. If the roles were reversed, I’d bet the pointer on their’ validity scale’ would have a dramatic reversal”.

It amazes me when I consider that most people would be prepared to come to blows over subjecting their pet to extreme heat or cold, but many trucking companies and legislators seem to disregard a moral thermometer regarding subject truck drivers to substandard conditions. This seems to support my contention that a trucking company only seems to care about the amount of revenue generated, not the welfare of the driver. Despite his sophistical rhetoric to the contrary, the reality is in his actions.

On this occasion, it was necessary to threaten to quit in order to afford a basic necessity. However, playing the “I will quit” card is not always the smart choice. If a driver stops working when he’s a long way from home and then waits for the company to provide a ride, he’s in for another wake-up call. As another driver on a popular trucker forum points out regarding this:

“They’ll bend over and give it to you without Vaseline every time…guaranteed!”

The smart option is to hang in there and wait until you are driven home and all your belongings are removed from the truck. A trucking company will also not pay to ship your belongings. At a minimum, the truck must be delivered to a company terminal and the driver must have the financial sense to provide his own transportation for himself and his belongings. Trust me, if you get mad and quit when you’re in Moose Turd, Ontario, you better have a thick parka and a good pair of snowshoes!

When it comes to large trucking companies, there seems to be no getting past their impersonal nature. One reason is that dispatchers are assigned to zones. As a result, the drivers and dispatchers never get to know each other in person. To me, the dispatcher in whatever zone I’m in is a faceless “John,” and to him, I’m just a truck number. I’ve found a few exceptions to this rule, and my hat is off to the precious handful that have tried to insert their own personal touch. But in the end, the cogs of the huge corporate machine tend to drown out their tiny voices, and the machine spews out a number.

I often get the distinct impression that many managers and dispatchers really think they know what life is like on the road. Having lived on both sides of the fence, I will say that you can understand the life of a trucker sitting behind a desk in the same way that I can understand what it is like to be a cowboy watching a rodeo. I may have a little idea of ​​what it’s like to be a cowboy, but I still have no idea of ​​cowboy life.

Sitting in an air-conditioned office, it’s impossible to understand what it’s like to need to apply emu oil to your feet at night to prevent your heels from cracking; or the need to urinate into a milk jug; or being forced to drive 600 miles with a toothache; or the need to spray Lotrimin in the crotch to prevent jock itch. Nor can they understand the need to spend a whole day of their precious time at home preparing to get back on the road.

I’ll be the first to admit that my “cab view” gives me no insight into the inner workings of a trucking company or the stress, responsibilities and headaches that go with it. I also recognize that successful management does not always coincide with the wishes of the employees. Despite my criticisms, I have a high degree of respect for strong, competent, and ethical business leaders. Like truckers, they don’t live in a world where “everyone” can prosper. My contempt is only for business leaders who are greedy and unethical, and whose primary goal is to line their own pockets like a squirrel stuffing acorns in its cheeks, with no regard for the hard-working people who make their standard of living possible. .

The trucking industry highlights the fact that there are often ethical conflicts between making money and doing the right thing. A description on a trucker’s website describes the trucking industry as: “…basically a slave industry with truckers working an average of 70+ hour weeks, many of them [whom] They don’t get paid while sitting in trucker parking lots for sometimes 8 hours or more (a full workday for the average American!) Truckers don’t get paid overtime like everyone else.”

I probably wouldn’t go as far as calling it a “slave industry.” Any driver is perfectly free to quit at any time, but the trucking industry certainly, in my opinion, lags behind in providing basic driver services enjoyed by the majority of the American workforce. Trucking, without a doubt, is an industry in which you have to defend yourself or you will have fingerprints on your face.

I have on a few occasions been asked by people who are considering a career in trucking to offer perspective. The following is the advice I would give to any potential new truck driver:

Trucking is more of a lifestyle than a job. If you’re not ready to make a MAJOR lifestyle change, save your CDL school money and forget about it.

· Investigate companies. Check them out online, talk to experienced drivers, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Interview with the company. Yes, you heard right. Prepare a list of questions for a company you are considering and feel free to ask them. Any self-respecting recruiter will be happy to oblige. If he isn’t… run like the wind. Join a truckers forum to get straight answers and separate the wheat from the chaff. A recruiter won’t tell you that the company he’s recruiting for has a 120% turnover rate among drivers. Research the companies!

Your first trucking job probably won’t be with a blue-chip company. Genuinely good companies only hire experienced drivers and don’t use recruiters…they don’t need to. All but the luckiest have to pay their fair share before they have a chance to be hired by a really good company that will treat them with respect.

Even “good” startups will treat you like a piece of meat. They care about the cargo being delivered…period. Your time at home, your quality of life, and your job satisfaction are purely secondary concerns. Get ready for it.

If you are considering becoming an owner/operator, educate yourself on what this entails. I have seen many new owner/operators who were desperate to sell their truck after 6 months. I would recommend that anyone start out as a driver for a company to make sure trucking is really what they want to do for a living. I cannot stress this enough… Educate yourself!

Even with that said, trucking can still be what you make of it. It gives you a freedom and autonomy that most other jobs can’t match. Trucking can be a rewarding career, but it doesn’t come without great sacrifices. If you’re not prepared to make those sacrifices, don’t waste your time and money.