Senior Board Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 3,589
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
|
Hi, Rookie37!!
First off, Welcome to CAD!!
I don't know if there really is a "good time" to get into trucking, or if there ever has been, or if there ever will be a "good time" to get into trucking. If the industry as a whole hasn't been faced with one set of problems, then it's been faced with another.
Methinks the real issues at hand are staying power, tenacity, self discipline, maturity, determination, the mindset of the driver, and with noobs or wannabees, developing realistic goals and perspectives going in.
So many new Freight Relocation University students and grads are focused upon what they hope to make their first year, or how fast a truck will go, promises made by recruiters, or for that matter, what type of trailer they want to pull. Others are focused upon finding a comapny where they'll be guaranteed 3,000 miles a week at 50 cents per mile to start, while demanding to be brought home for two full weekends out of every week.
Such trivial issues as safety, quality of training, quality of TRAINERS!!, and finding a company who's safety department and upper management will back a driver when a dispatcher is trying to force him/her to run a hot load illegaly or in dangerous weather conditions, or when he/she is too sick to drive safely, seem to somehow get lost in the shuffle.
Regardless of what hard times the trucking industry faces, (and in the trucking industry, there will ALWAYS be hard times in some form or fashion!!) a driver who can run his or her first year accident and ticket free, and who has the discipline to stay focused upon what he/she is doing, and avoid the temptation to jump ship because another company has offered an additional two cents per mile or a shinier truck will have more lucrative opportunities after he/she has a good, solid year of experience under the belt, and even more and better doors open after two years.
Let two years turn into five, and the prospects get even better.
Regardless of the economy, people will always have to eat, and bathe, (as long as they aren't truckers!!) and mothers will need disposable diapers, and cars will need to have oil changes, and fuel will still have to be put in tanks, kids will still want to jump on trampolines or ride skateboards, and movie sets will still have to be moved, aircraft engines will still need to be overhauled, hospitals will still need oxygen, and families will still be relocating to other cities and states ..........
......in other words, if you bought it, or used it, or ate it, then somewhere along the way, a truck brought it. After you used it up, there's a strong likelyhood that a truck carried it away.
Meanwhile, there will always be attrition caused by drug test failures, burn-out, changes in family circumstances, new career choices, and old fart drivers hanging up their log books.
With all of that, there will always be companies who haul specialized freight, or construction equipment, or oil field equipment, or fuel, or high dollar automobiles, and they will still pay a premium for experienced, safe, focused, self disciplined, and, as G-Man so astutely articulated, "professional drivers" who decide to be more than long-term steering wheel holders...... then, there will always be a bastion of malcontents who may have experience in terms of months and years chalked off on the calander, but who will never grow to be anything more than old and bitter, angry because the world has done them wrong.
This is where G-Man's points about being a true driving professional really come into play, although adopting that attitude should be your objective before you ever climb into the cab of a truck.
So, rather than worry about whether this is a "good time" to get into trucking, focus instead upon developing the discipline to suck up the hard times, paying your dues, learning everything that you can, keeping safe, and remembering that for the good driver, there will always be opportunities for growth.
Just my "Useless" opinion!!
|
