i'm twenty-seven and i've been driving for five years. i work for my dad, he has six trucks left. we haul dry bulk in tanks now (lime mostly, calcium, flyash, cement, ect) in texas and to the surrounding states occassionally. i've never been to a truck driving school or driven over-the-road, so i can't really tell you much about the otr lifestyle or what it would be like to get started in that kind of driving environment, but i've been around trucks all my life. sometimes the work rolls along and things are good - i can remember what it felt like when we moved into our first real house. sometimes, i don't know ... things can get kind of rough. when the north texas oilfield business went under in the early 80s it was hard on us. my mother walked out on me and my sister, left us in a trailer home outside of lamesa, tx without even sayin nothin. my dad has probably lost more money with trucks than i'll ever think about making.
in high school, i got a four year scholarship to the university of texas in austin and i graduated with honors in '02. afterwards, i got a really good job at dell in round rock and i worked there for about a year. i even wore a tie. everything was great except that i was miserable working in an office and i overheard someone call me "white trash" one day in the break room. i put in for a transfer to work in the shipping warehouse and was denied, so i quit. don't be afraid to do something different if you're unhappy.
i get up everyday now and i drive a truck. most days i'm working before the sun comes up and i'm working when the sun goes down. i've never slept for more than five hours at a time in a truck, and i've never "run out" of hours. on the good days i can't imagine doing anything else, and on the bad days ... i don't know, you just try to be prepared and learn from your mistakes. if you're serious about driving truck, then get your cdl and sign on with someone else for a while. be patient, get a feel for the trucks, make your mistakes on someone else's dime. stay away from the chicken feed. learn how to run the numbers, research the different types of freight and work in your area. becoming a successful o/o in the industry today is not impossible, but you should definitely be prepared.
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they will tell you they don't make any money because complaining feels much more natural than saying the truth. I moved to Canada to 1997, have university education, changed a ton of jobs here but I have never made so much money as I did after I bought my first truck. True, ocassionaly my paycheck was ... $0, but that's only because of my own stupidity. I should have spec'd the truck from the plant and bought it brand new. Unless you have a ton of money in your savings account or you are an A1 ace mechanic, don't buy a used truck. If you decide to go into trucking, work as company driver for a year or so, then get a new CHEAP truck like FTL Columbia or International or Volvo (nothing fancy, no chrome) and find a carrier that pays well. There's a reason why major fleets change their trucks every 24 to 36 months... So, get a new cheap truck and - most importantly - RUN SLOW.
