Ramblings from an old timer
 

Background: Drove my first time in late November 1984 in a Freightliner cabover with a super 10 transmission from Orlando, FL to Everett, WA. School of hard knocks. Since I'm in the waning years of my career and looking at all these questions from new drivers I've felt compelled to post the following.

The ONLY job of a truck driver is to keep himself and the motoring public safe, everything else is secondary. Nothing, including your desire to make money, or company policy, should distract from this singular focus. Thou Shall Not Kill.
MONEY, one of the very few reasons why we do this job. Learn to drive 600 miles per day consistently and in as little as 3 years you will make 50K a year or $1000 week as a company driver OTR. Don't lease, train, or whatever program they offer.If your in your first million miles and want to be successful as a rookie you must learn this industry, learn to drive, and make mistakes on the company dime before you become a business owner, owner operator, or whatever fancy name they give it. PLEASE DON'T LEASE.
Last but not least. If your goal is to truly be a professional in this industry and an exemplary highly marketable driver GET YOUR ***** TOGETHER. Get your hazmat, TWIC, and passport, keep your nose and driving record clean and no matter your DAC (many a lie has been posted on mine in 35 years) you'll be hired anywhere.
This industry is not kind and difficult on family life (2 marriages later) but I still enjoy the challenges and drive food grade tanker for a company that provides me a brand new truck yearly. I drive a little over 150K miles per year and make a decent living.
Maintain your health and God speed.

That is the ONLY reason I drive or do any kind of work! I don't know about you but I work to live NOT live to work.
Other than that I agree.

At 150k miles annually, damn, someone is working too hard.

I got into driving to impress Shania. Took me a million miles to realize she wasn't impressed all that much.
I tried motorcycles, hot rods, military jeep, horse, and nothing impressed her.
I originally came to CAD, because I was convinced she was one of the members…. and now I don't know… I'm up for suggestions. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqFLXayD6e8&spfreload=10

I have done lots of work for the shear joy or challenge. You don't get paid extra to pick up vegetable oil in Northern Montana in late January but no one else would go. I've cleared several acres of carolina woodlands and sawn into timbers for a cabin build, lots of work, no pay. I guess attitude is everything. Enough about splitting hairs if driving is done exclusively for money. Opinions vary.
Good to see some humor on the board thou. 150K miles annually is 2800 miles per week, easy right? I suspect that the elogs will curb this number because I work 3 weeks on and 1 week off and it has been difficult to maintain even 3300 mIles per week no matter how much I scold dispatch. The added nickel per mile should make up the difference thou.
God speed.

I have found that I actually use less of my driving hours using E-logs than I did with paper. BTW I do the same exact run every night so the mileage and times are the same.

That's probably true. On paper your fictional writing needed to be believable in particular the driving hours and tended to be conservative . Elogs do however stop you dead if you have just a minor set back at a shipper or a flat tire and your up against that 14 hour rule. When I started driving in 1984 we had the 5+5 split break which to this day still makes more sence since it is rare I sleep more than 5 possible 6 hours and who came up with the 70 hour rule, it is making any OTR job **** by forcing someone to park for 34 hours, 1000 miles from home, in the middle of BFE.... government control and common sence are mutually exclusive