[bandits44x]

If I had the chance to go back in time, I would not get into this industry. Maybe you will love it but you will work killer hours and never see your family and friends. The money is good but break 70 logged hours down and see what your hourly pay is...it sucks. I'm getting out of OTR soon...it's just rediculous to sit for hours and not get paid or get paid detention which is a joke. Good luck to you..maybe it will all work out for you. It gets old FAST!

[hamboner]

Honestly, don't ever come into trucking looking at it as only a job to provide you a paycheck. Most ppl who come into this business looking at it as alternative means of providing income end up washing out really fast. This profession is absolutely a lifestyle and you have to love everything about it if you ever want to get anything out of it. My father is going on 40+ years as an O/O. Throughout all those years I have never heard him say that he wished he had went a different direction in life. He eats, sleeps, and drinks OTR trucking. When times get tough he just rolls with the punches. Most weekends he gets home and has time to rest up, but he usually spends most of that time at the local truck shop making repairs and hanging out with his O/O buddies swapping stories of the past week. All of his friends are truckers. There are times during the holidays when he has extended time here at home, and he gets restless and antsy cause he cant hit the road. Trucking is his life and he doesnt look at it as hours worked, but rather money he has earned doing something he enjoys. To keep ur sanity in this business you cant figure up the time you spend doing the job and expect to come out ahead cause it will never happen. Never!

[str.whl.hldr]

Originally Posted by hamboner

... To keep ur sanity in this business you cant figure up the time you spend doing the job and expect to come out ahead cause it will never happen. Never!

Lol. So true.

For some people trucking becomes an identity. Trucking almost has to be with so much time invested in it. No doubt there are moments were I can not get anywhere else though.

[trux]

Just a comment on back problems, I never have had an injury but before I started trucking I had chiropractic type problems at least a couple of times a month. It was an ongoing thing for about 15 years. Often I couldn't stand up straight due to extreme pain.

But once I started driving, and I got a pillow for lumbar support, those problems have completely gone away. I haven't been to a chiropractor a single time in the 16 months I've been driving.

And as far as unloading goes, I haven't unloaded anything in the entire time I've been driving.