Long haul truck driver
03-04-2009, 03:22 PM
#51
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jan 2009
Posts: 41
Originally Posted by bcrosier
Once again, I can't believe no one else has picked this one up:
So you're saying there are advantages! And another thing in common with aviation!
So you're saying there are advantages! And another thing in common with aviation!
There are certain truck stops around the country that are notorious for "lot lizard" activity. Two I can name off hand are the Loves and TA on Whitaker road in Amarillo TX and the small one by downtown Detroit MI.
In trucking you really get to the see the lowest humanity has to offer.
03-06-2009, 09:02 AM
#52
Line Holder
Joined APC: Sep 2006
Posts: 86
Originally Posted by New B
In trucking you really get to the see the lowest humanity has to offer.
1. West Virginia (the whole state with an emphasis on Beckley)
2. On-Demand freight (mostly the pilots - including myself and being in Laredo)
3. Trucking (fat drivers that will die before 50 due to a combination of Hepatitis, diabetes, heart disease and blood clots)
03-06-2009, 11:03 PM
#53
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Position: A320
Posts: 127
Some of you are saying things that you would be getting hammered for if you were talking about an aviation career. If I said that flying looks like a fun job because you only work about 80 hrs a month and you get paid to travel to all kinds of awesome places. I think I'll go to school for a few weeks and jump right into a jet making 50,000 a year, or maybe I'll just buy my own RJ and go out on my own straight out of flight school, I passed the school and have the license, I must be qualified right. Would you think I was miss informed?
The truth is most of the time trucking sucks and even though anybody can get a license it does require skills that come with experience at times. Blind siding an unlit dock built in the 30s from an alley at 2am, in the rain, having been awake for 16 plus hours in east coast traffic and not bending anything takes a lot of skill and patience. Leaving the cdl school you do not know how to drive a truck, I promise, I was a instructor at a program and also with a company. You want to learn in somebody else's equipment. Your first company will fight you for your days home until you finally quit. A better part of the money you make you will spend at truck stops. You will long for a conversation with someone who has more than a 9th grade education. And if you think your schedule is inefficient as a pilot talk to me after you spend three days stuck in a terminal in calexico waiting for your load to cross the border, or the first stop of 5 for the day takes 7 hrs while you pay someone to unload their own freight. Your paid by the mile and stop/delay pay is an insult at most companys.
That said when everything is going right and you are cruising through the desert listening to you favorite radio station(xm is a must) it is fun. The biggest problem I had with trucking and the reason I left was longevity. At 24
I had worked my way to a Hazmat carrier. My girlfriend and I where making about 160,000 a year as a team. 80,000 each being gone four days a week is pretty good at 24 years old, but my schedule would never get better or have any flexiblity and I was for the most part making as much money then as I would in 40 years.
If you need a job and don't have a choice go to a community college for your license, Don't pay more than a 1000 dollars and find the smallest company that will hire you afterwards. Make sure they have freight in the area that you live or that you live in a freight lane. Be ready to enjoy flying for a living in a whole new way when you come back, my worst day in the cockpit has honestly been better than my best day in a truck.
The truth is most of the time trucking sucks and even though anybody can get a license it does require skills that come with experience at times. Blind siding an unlit dock built in the 30s from an alley at 2am, in the rain, having been awake for 16 plus hours in east coast traffic and not bending anything takes a lot of skill and patience. Leaving the cdl school you do not know how to drive a truck, I promise, I was a instructor at a program and also with a company. You want to learn in somebody else's equipment. Your first company will fight you for your days home until you finally quit. A better part of the money you make you will spend at truck stops. You will long for a conversation with someone who has more than a 9th grade education. And if you think your schedule is inefficient as a pilot talk to me after you spend three days stuck in a terminal in calexico waiting for your load to cross the border, or the first stop of 5 for the day takes 7 hrs while you pay someone to unload their own freight. Your paid by the mile and stop/delay pay is an insult at most companys.
That said when everything is going right and you are cruising through the desert listening to you favorite radio station(xm is a must) it is fun. The biggest problem I had with trucking and the reason I left was longevity. At 24
I had worked my way to a Hazmat carrier. My girlfriend and I where making about 160,000 a year as a team. 80,000 each being gone four days a week is pretty good at 24 years old, but my schedule would never get better or have any flexiblity and I was for the most part making as much money then as I would in 40 years.
If you need a job and don't have a choice go to a community college for your license, Don't pay more than a 1000 dollars and find the smallest company that will hire you afterwards. Make sure they have freight in the area that you live or that you live in a freight lane. Be ready to enjoy flying for a living in a whole new way when you come back, my worst day in the cockpit has honestly been better than my best day in a truck.
03-07-2009, 06:56 AM
#54
Line Holder
Joined APC: Jan 2009
Posts: 41
Originally Posted by kspilot
And if you think your schedule is inefficient as a pilot talk to me after you spend three days stuck in a terminal in calexico waiting for your load to cross the border, or the first stop of 5 for the day takes 7 hrs while you pay someone to unload their own freight. Your paid by the mile and stop/delay pay is an insult at most companys.
Originally Posted by kspilot
I had worked my way to a Hazmat carrier. My girlfriend and I where making about 160,000 a year as a team. 80,000 each being gone four days a week is pretty good at 24 years old, but my schedule would never get better or have any flexiblity and I was for the most part making as much money then as I would in 40 years.
03-07-2009, 08:00 AM
#55
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Professional Flying and Trucking
Originally Posted by kspilot
Some of you are saying things that you would be getting hammered for if you were talking about an aviation career. If I said that flying looks like a fun job because you only work about 80 hrs a month and you get paid to travel to all kinds of awesome places. I think I'll go to school for a few weeks and jump right into a jet making 50,000 a year, or maybe I'll just buy my own RJ and go out on my own straight out of flight school, I passed the school and have the license, I must be qualified right. Would you think I was miss informed?
The truth is most of the time trucking sucks and even though anybody can get a license it does require skills that come with experience at times. Blind siding an unlit dock built in the 30s from an alley at 2am, in the rain, having been awake for 16 plus hours in east coast traffic and not bending anything takes a lot of skill and patience. Leaving the cdl school you do not know how to drive a truck, I promise, I was a instructor at a program and also with a company. You want to learn in somebody else's equipment. Your first company will fight you for your days home until you finally quit. A better part of the money you make you will spend at truck stops. You will long for a conversation with someone who has more than a 9th grade education. And if you think your schedule is inefficient as a pilot talk to me after you spend three days stuck in a terminal in calexico waiting for your load to cross the border, or the first stop of 5 for the day takes 7 hrs while you pay someone to unload their own freight. Your paid by the mile and stop/delay pay is an insult at most companys.
That said when everything is going right and you are cruising through the desert listening to you favorite radio station(xm is a must) it is fun. The biggest problem I had with trucking and the reason I left was longevity. At 24
I had worked my way to a Hazmat carrier. My girlfriend and I where making about 160,000 a year as a team. 80,000 each being gone four days a week is pretty good at 24 years old, but my schedule would never get better or have any flexiblity and I was for the most part making as much money then as I would in 40 years.
If you need a job and don't have a choice go to a community college for your license, Don't pay more than a 1000 dollars and find the smallest company that will hire you afterwards. Make sure they have freight in the area that you live or that you live in a freight lane. Be ready to enjoy flying for a living in a whole new way when you come back, my worst day in the cockpit has honestly been better than my best day in a truck.
The truth is most of the time trucking sucks and even though anybody can get a license it does require skills that come with experience at times. Blind siding an unlit dock built in the 30s from an alley at 2am, in the rain, having been awake for 16 plus hours in east coast traffic and not bending anything takes a lot of skill and patience. Leaving the cdl school you do not know how to drive a truck, I promise, I was a instructor at a program and also with a company. You want to learn in somebody else's equipment. Your first company will fight you for your days home until you finally quit. A better part of the money you make you will spend at truck stops. You will long for a conversation with someone who has more than a 9th grade education. And if you think your schedule is inefficient as a pilot talk to me after you spend three days stuck in a terminal in calexico waiting for your load to cross the border, or the first stop of 5 for the day takes 7 hrs while you pay someone to unload their own freight. Your paid by the mile and stop/delay pay is an insult at most companys.
That said when everything is going right and you are cruising through the desert listening to you favorite radio station(xm is a must) it is fun. The biggest problem I had with trucking and the reason I left was longevity. At 24
I had worked my way to a Hazmat carrier. My girlfriend and I where making about 160,000 a year as a team. 80,000 each being gone four days a week is pretty good at 24 years old, but my schedule would never get better or have any flexiblity and I was for the most part making as much money then as I would in 40 years.
If you need a job and don't have a choice go to a community college for your license, Don't pay more than a 1000 dollars and find the smallest company that will hire you afterwards. Make sure they have freight in the area that you live or that you live in a freight lane. Be ready to enjoy flying for a living in a whole new way when you come back, my worst day in the cockpit has honestly been better than my best day in a truck.
Skyhigh
03-07-2009, 10:08 AM
#56
Line Holder
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Nov 2008
Posts: 74
ive been in wy now for nearly a month and after 30 resumes... FINALLY had someone with the courtesy to call. it was directv re sat dish installation job. they were wanting more info and would contact me next week if i met their qualifications etc... btw i see where a janitors job opened up at a school in ohio ($15 an hour) and had 700 applicants!!
03-07-2009, 02:12 PM
#57
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Position: A320
Posts: 127
Originally Posted by New B
Tell me about it. My buddy just spent two days waitng in McAllen TX on a produce load.
What company did you work for?
What company did you work for?
03-07-2009, 02:17 PM
#58
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Position: A320
Posts: 127
Originally Posted by SkyHigh
Professional flying and trucking sound the same except as a pilot you don't make the same money as a trucker for a long time and you have to spend much more than 1000 dollars to get trained.
Skyhigh
Skyhigh
03-08-2009, 10:19 AM
#59
Self Employed.
Joined APC: May 2005
Position: Corporate Pilot
Posts: 7,119
Originally Posted by kspilot
Not really, while you stay busy and don't spend as much time at home as some want as a pilot, trucking will completely consume you. As an over the road driver you have no friends, your family becomes close aquaintances, and you won't know how to handle anything but a work for 18 hrs sleep for 6 schedule. I enjoy going to work everyday now and you can't put a price on that.
Skyhigh
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