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Hi all, I am looking to start truck driving and making it a career. So, I know the pros and cons with lots of research, for the most part. But tell me what you think!
I am 25 and I have had success in the retail world, being a flooring department manager at Lowe's for over a year (quitting) and being a Grocery Manager for 3 months (quitting)... I left the retail world because I felt I was about to go insane trying to have to put on a face for customers day after day while busting my butt and cleaning the whole department, stretching myself thin... LOL.
I have mental illness and due to it, I am very introverted and don't want to talk to people too much, so this might be the perfect job for me. I also LOVE driving and sight seeing. I want to travel the USA and I think this is the perfect way to do so.
If I enjoy it enough, I will make it a career and either continue with going all across the east coast (where I live) and the USA in general... If I want more time home, I will try to ASAP go into a more dedicated/local route.
Good pay after the first year, good benefits.
By the way, I was making $4,000 less a year at Lowe's and the grocery store than I will be making at the beginning of truck driving (and it goes up fast the longer you're with trucking, and if you get with the right company after 5-10 years you could be making 6 figures).
By the way, I was making $4,000 less a year at Lowe's and the grocery store than I will be making at the beginning of truck driving (and it goes up fast the longer you're with trucking, and if you get with the right company after 5-10 years you could be making 6 figures).
6 figures as a truck driver? Working for who?
I was always under the impression that most truckers stay in the 40k-50k range forever.
I was always under the impression that most truckers stay in the 40k-50k range forever.
The pay for truck drivers has went up a bit, especially for vets of the industry, because there's such high turnover and there's a huge shortage. I contacted like 15 companies that had jobs available and all of them keep trying to talk to me about their opportunities, but I've already made my company choice, lol.
Team driving is where you can make some serious money. Over $100,000 a year if you're really at it and have a good company. You can also make over $100,000 if you lease your own truck, but you have to pay for all maintenance on it... so it's really not $100,000.
Walmart, the average pay is $68,000 a year. If you stay with them a while, I'm sure you can make over $80,000 a year.
I think that self driving vehicles are a real possibility, and long haul trucks are probably the easiest things to automate.
Looking at it in terms of a long term career, you have 40 +/- years before you retire. Looking back to 1977 (40 years ago) we did not have GPS, cell phones, internet, usable personal computers, etc. Most cars had crank window handles, analog dial operated radios and carburetors.
If I had to guess, the number of truck driving jobs is going to decline in 10-15 years, and be virtually non-existent in 40.
I think that self driving vehicles are a real possibility, and long haul trucks are probably the easiest things to automate.
Looking at it in terms of a long term career, you have 40 +/- years before you retire. Looking back to 1977 (40 years ago) we did not have GPS, cell phones, internet, usable personal computers, etc. Most cars had crank window handles, analog dial operated radios and carburetors.
If I had to guess, the number of truck driving jobs is going to decline in 10-15 years, and be virtually non-existent in 40.
I'm extremely optimistic in driverless vehicles, I love technology, but I think it'll be at least a decade or two before this becomes obsolete. Especially if it's flatbed driving (you have to keep adjusting the load to make sure it will stay down). They can cause a hell of a lot more damage than a smaller driverless car. But I hope youre wrong, if I enjoy the field! LOL
You can make 6 figures after working as a driver a few years behind you and you keep a clean driving record. Additionally you make more money working as a team driver OTR working as a company driver. Basically that means you drive with someone else and do tag driving. One may drive at night while the other person you are with sleeps in the cab and driving days. You're out for weeks at a time driving with someone else.
You put in a ton of hours and work with someone else. Married drivers often do this or someone you like being with all the time. It can be done but it isn't easy, lots of hours and sleep deprivation.
I'm extremely optimistic in driverless vehicles, I love technology, but I think it'll be at least a decade or two before this becomes obsolete. Especially if it's flatbed driving (you have to keep adjusting the load to make sure it will stay down). They can cause a hell of a lot more damage than a smaller driverless car. But I hope youre wrong, if I enjoy the field! LOL
I agree. It won't happen immediately, and different portions of the industry will automate at different rates.
That doesn't really matter much though.
Let's say the first segment of the industry to automate is city to city, regular route stuff. From a Proctor & Gamble factory to a Walmart distribution center, or between different UPS hubs. Easy, regular, can be scheduled overnight when there is less traffic, never goes on residential streets because the facilities are all just off the highway.
Once that becomes automated, all of the drivers who held those jobs are going to start looking at other jobs that haven't been automated, like flatbed driving.
I think that even flatbed driving could be automated with relatively little difficulty. At the moment, monitoring the load is the drivers responsibility, because the truck absolutely has to have a driver. Once the driver isn't really necessary, people are going to look for other methods of monitoring and adjusting loads. We already have devices that can measure the tension of straps. Those devices send that info to an onboard computer, that computer realizes a loadstrap has become loose, it signals a motor to tighten the strap.
No human necessary. In fact, the computer system would be better than a person, because it won't forget to do it, miss a strap, or mistakenly over/under tighten.
Yes, these computers, control wires and motors will cost something, but I will bet that that they cost less than the annual salary/benefits of a driver.
I don't mean to imply that you shouldn't be a truck driver. I do mean to say that as you become a driver, you should prepare yourself for the next thing, whatever that is.
When an autonomous truck runs into a minivan full of kids, there will be a national outrage and huge lawsuits.
Why aren't we flying on autonomous airplanes? Trains can be automated too, but there are still plenty of train engineers.
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