Trucking across America

Hello everyone good morning,wanted to ask everyone a question. I recently had a trip where I reported a ripped up tire during pretrip but wasn’t paid for repair time. This hasn't happened to me yet since I'm pretty new... but what should I do... just let it go?

Been with fed x ground five years team driving well there downsize of it no partner no job and that’s where I am today so dumb me decided hey I’ll go local interviewed today and road test and drug test. Happy about it me myself and I. In the truck working hauling Long box. But I’ll I can get hired in with line haul from a big carrier. Anyway long story short. Im proud of myself I s less money like 300 less a week. Hopefully I’ll get a raise. Wish me luck. Hahahahaha

If you want a balanced life I think you have to get home most nights and eat dinner with your family or at least get home. That’s what a 9-5 job provides. There are some truck driving jobs that allow that, but most of us over the road haulers do not have a balanced life in my opinion. Of course everyone has an idea of what they want their life to be like. To me, a good day on the job is lots of miles, drop and hooks, and being able to get to the truck stop early to find a spot and have a nice clean hot shower followed by a good meal. What makes it a really great day is if I am going to make it home that night after being away 12 to 19 days on the road.

Getting a little tired of switching between different radio stations. Last week I had a haul from Dallas to Charlotte. I binged through a podcast series called S-Town which was really good, but want some more variety.

Anyone else have good stuff they listen to on long hauls? I recently got Spotify premium. if anyone has good playlists they want to share, post a playlist or what you listen to..

Hello everyone, this will sound like you've all heard it before but I'll try anyway. I have my cdl license for a year now, drove for a company for 3 months until they broke their agreement with me and I left. Start driving for FedEx custom critical straight trucks since then, came to an end since I'm moving to another state. The problem is I cannot find work that's local and if I do I don't have the time(1yr-2yr) driving tractor trailer. Need to be off basically on the weekend....this also seems to be a problem. I feel as though my cdl will be going to waste. Anyone know of any company that hiring around mountain view Missouri? I appreciate any help.

Check out this article from the Washington Post on the shortage of available truck drivers in America.

"The industry reports a growing labor shortage — 63,000 open positions this year... They say there may be closer to 100,000 truck driver openings."

It seems with so many openings, companies are willing to increase salaries, benefits, and provide big signing bonuses: "Recruiters who show up daily at TDDS are offering jobs that pay $60,000 to $70,000, with full benefits and a $4,000 signing bonus."

Now might be the best time in a long time to get into the transit & transportation industry!

What do you think?

miss my kids & family.. done w/long hours OTR. My littlest is 8 years old and i feel like i never see her you know the say they grow up fast! ive been in this industry for a longtime and im ready to stop with the 12 hr days and long weeks but my compnay is pushing back and doesnt want me to stop long haul cus im sur eits more profitable or something and they say im a great driver...well give me a break than! what gives?

I was a trucker. A few years back I was drivin up a icy hill in the middle of winter when another semi coming down the hill started to jackknife. His trailer swung out sideways blocking the entire road and headed straight towards me!! The whole time all i could think of was this is it. Thank god no one was hurt. Must have angels on my side or something. We all walked away and I learned a lesson to never under estimate mother nature when your drivin.

what do you guys think? we don't have enough long haul drivers but one thing is that you can't drive across state lines until 21... what do you think - should they open that up to help fit the need?

i feel like a lot of those kids are getting other jobs like construction and maybe we could keep them if we let them drive across states before 21

So I'm going to be going out of state to start my career as a truck driver in November so I've put in my resignation on Monday so that the Principal can turn it into the board and I let transportation know also so that they know that they need to have someone in the driver seat of my school bus beginning November 1. I've been driving the school bus since January 2016 and I really love the job. I can't afford the salary that I receive for doing the job. This was never meant to be a lifetime job but a step up to getting my CDL. My purpose has been met so the time has come that I was finally ready to step out of my comfort zone and go to school to upgrade my Class B Driver License to a Class A Driver License. I achieved this in 6 weeks and completed my training on August 30 and earned my Class A Driver License. I'm nervous about this trip but I'm excited to be able to get more necessary training under my belt and be able to start earning my Class A driving experience so that I can get better runs that will have me at home every night for the next two years. My son is a Sophomore in high school and my daughter is a Junior in high school. I also have two dogs whom I am the main care taker of. In the mean time my husband who is a Union Iron Worker is going to have to try to stay busy with work close to home which is bringing more financial hardship on us. At the same time he has been wanting work that would have him to be at home everyday since I was expecting our son 17 years ago so it's a win for him while also a burden because it's hard for him to have enough work to keep him busy at home to bring in the necessary income to pay the bills.