Originally Posted by Novacane

There are so many things that are bad when it comes to driving, waiting, being away from home, living what seems to be two seperate lives, being yelled at for something that isn't your fault, construction, getting lost, tickets if you mess up, your life and others if you mess up really bad, listening to your kid growing up over the phone, missing all their activities, the list goes on and on. Instead of telling you three things, I want to tell you what makes all the above, and all the other bad things that go along with driving, WORTH IT.

When you have had a couple bad days, when one load messes up the next 3 loads, because it's not ready, or the trailer has a air leak, then you get a flat tire, or what ever of the millions of reasons happens to go wrong. Then you get yelled at from dispatch cause the repair truck didn't show up on time, and now you can't make the load, so you get yelled at more, then when everything is ready to go, you are out of hours.

Just when you are thinking of giving it up, you get that magical load, one that comes at the end of the day, and is at least a 700 mile run. You have just enough time to make it to the trailer, and it's a nice new one, in good shape, and it's ready to go, parked in a good place, in a yard that gets things done fast, and are really efficient. You literally only have to pull up, hook it and you are ready to go, because they are efficient and the paperwork is done quick and right the first time.

You are in and out of the yard in record time and realize that you still have enough time to make it to a good truckstop, and there is actually a nice parking place. You go to sleep that night knowing that when you wake up, money is going to be made, there is no annoying qualcom messages requesting loads, or waiting on dispatch, as soon as your day can be started, you can be ready to go, so you sleep better, or at least I do.

You get up the next day, and the pretrip goes wonderful, and it's a nice day, good weather, and you know you get to drive the whole day. You get started and you are on your own, no boss breathing down your neck, chit chatting on the cb, there is almost always something going on, sometimes its funny, sometimes its just some good conversation between fellow drivers. You have the sun tanning your left arm, good music on the xm, traffic isn't bad, truck is running good, trailer is tracking perfectly, the turbo is singing a tune, oh yeah.

By yourself, windows up, or down, ac on or off, music loud, or soft, cb on, or off, stop when you want to, watch how everything changes from one region to another, not only the temperature, but the way the grass grows, what trees are more dominant, the people who live there, how the roads are laid out, how different the cop cars are, man the list just goes on and on forever.

You make it through the whole day without a wreck slowing things up, construction zones speeds were good, with no major hold ups, and because you started your day early, you make it to where ever you are gonna shut down for the night nice and early so there are plenty of parking spots, and because it's early, you have more choices on where to stop, and sometimes, you get to go to your favorite place, where the food is good, the shower is clean, and the people are nice.

You spent the whole day doing what you dreamed trucking would be like. And maybe, just maybe, your next load will be just as good, but even if it isn't, you know that the "perfect load" will come again, and take away all the frustrations that come along with the job, and make you realize just how much you love this career.