As someone who started trucking while still in high school, than went back a few years later to attend university, I'm curious about the number of drivers in the same category. When you read some government stats, it shows something like 98% of truckers have either a high school diploma or less.
So my question is for the minority of drivers with some college or university education: Did you find yourself behind the wheel before, after or during your post-secondary education? (Truck driving weekends and summers put me through school.)
What do your friends and family think of your decision to drive for a living, considering you have formal education which gives you other, usually white collar, opportunities.
And do you tell your fellow drivers about your education or do you hide the fact to save the inevitable 'what the hell are you doing here' questions.
As a footnote, I've been in and out of trucking for more than 30 years, and still believe there are times when it's one of the best jobs in the world (and times when it's the worst).
Not looking to start a debate on education and its value, just curious why some of us find driving a truck more attractive than sitting in an office.

I have no doubt that most people who drive for a living have a high school education. Most with whom I have spoken who have degrees, whether undergraduate or graduate earned their degree's prior to going on the road. Some had experience prior to going to college or drove while taking classes. One's education usually doesn't come up. However, you can usually tell by the way someone handles themselves and speaks whether they have a good education or not.

Don't you have to at least have a HS diploma to apply for a trucking job?

not really. Some companies might require it, but most dont.
Now, that doesnt mean if some young person is reading this board, they should drop out because truck driving doesnt require a high school diploma. Having an education is ALWAYS better than NOT having an education. I can just see some 15 year old kid reading this, then going to his parents and saying, I dont need to go to school, the internet people said I could be a truck driver. Although ive seen many drivers who didnt graduate do very well in this industry (Hell, JB Hunt himself only had a 7th grade education), Ive noticed that quite a few people who dont have an education have a history of quiting things and end up being job and career hoppers. One of the great advantages of education (besides learning things), is that it shows people, employers and even yourself that you are committed to finishing things you start. In other words, that you arent a quiter.

In my opinion, all a post-secondary education proves is that you can finish what you start, similar to holding a job for three or four years. It just tells a potential employer that you're fairly stable; it doesn't gurantee that you're qualified for a particular job, or even that you're particularly intelligent.
With the amount of regulation and paperwork now facing drivers, the job is far more difficult than when I started in 1973. All we had to do was have a receiver sign the bills and keep our log books (all three versions :lol: ) up to date.
Education of any kind is probably helpful to new drivers, and I have no experience with truck driving schools, although it must be easier than how I started. The boss said since I was a farm kid and could drive a tractor and wagon, I could figure out the truck!! (A twin-stick Mack with a 40' reefer trailer sure as hell wasn't like my Farmall A and a load of cukes.)
Prof

After.I lost all my old friends when I started trucking. Impossible to hang out when your life is completely unpredictable. All my new friends only know me as a truck driver, so I guess they think that's fine. I'd trade all of the new ones for one of the old ones though. I miss those guys. Losing them was probably the hardest thing for me. (I guess I ought to start digging around now that I'm home every night. There's a positive thought to lighten a somber mood.)

My kids can't really remember anything else, so they just accept it as the way things are, but I think they'd have more respect for me if I did something else for a living, or at least if we could afford an SUV like Mr. Landreth has. I get sick of being compared to Mr. Landreth.

My wife... She's glad we're making it, but she'd much rather I were doing something better to brag about in front of her fat little friends.

My extended family wouldn't like me no matter what I did for a living, so they can all kiss my ass. My parents seem disappointed that this is the best I could manage to do with their $40,000 or whatever in tuition money, but they're glad I'm standing on my own two feet, and not living in their basement.

I have a BA in Spanish, French, and Latin. I'm not certified to teach high school, and can't become so without two years of grad school I can't afford, and don't have time for. I'm a native English speaker, so the only translation work I can get hired for is Spanish or French to English, which is almost non-existent. I can be a court interpreter, but the list is full of names like Ulloa and Martinez, and I don't see the point in paying the money to get certified for what it pays, and how unlikely it is I would find steady work. I can move to any of the big cities that are always talking about how desperate they are for Spanish speakers, but what they really mean is Taco Bell really needs a manager who can speak Spanish to the help, or whatever. I spent a couple of months combing the want ads in several major cities I considered relocating to, and there's nothing there to justify pulling up stakes.

So my degree in of itself is really pretty damn useless, I'm afraid. Though I'm a richer and more culturally literate person for having it.

Oh, and I did have a plan. I was going to be a professor. That's why I didn't get certified to teach high school. When I got my girlfriend pregnant my senior year, that was that for my plans of grad school. I barely managed to finish out my undergraduate degree while working three jobs.
Hell no. Are you kidding?

No, I've become a chameleon. I blend in, and I have almost completely subverted my true personality, and my true accent. Some days I don't even know who I am anymore, because I have to live so much of my life pretending to be a poorly educated hick just to get along smoothly.

I could just be me, but I don't like friction. I just blend in, and get along. I do it exceedingly well, and it's deeply, deeply ironic. All my pet peeves, those are the things I do on purpose every day, like making sure to conjugate verbs badly, use adverbs incorrectly, pick the wrong case for pronouns, etc.
I primarily find driving a truck attractive because it is a viable choice, given my circumstances. Beyond that, I can only speculate.

I'm 35. I've been trucking since I was 25. This is all I know, other than being an entry level nobody at Wal-Mart, and various minimum wage dreck jobs not even worth remembering. This is my entire professional life.

Unless you count my stupid little book, which marginally entitles me to call myself a professional author too. There is little doubt which of my professions has more realistically attainable income potential. To break into writing for a living on any kind of viable scale, you just about have to have a spouse with a good job.

But I guess that pretty much hits the nail on the head as far as what do I want to do when I grow up. Quit driving the damn truck, and write for dollars.

Oh yeah.

Maybe when my kids are grown and gone. Should be only about 10 more years. I'll be 45. It could work.

Before I started driving I decided I wanted to work in a Bank some where. Looked like an easy job :roll: and you get to wear nice clothes each day .. well, I went to college - graduated with a 4.0 ... then spent a very short time in the banking world. My professor told me they could see me in a few years being the President of a Bank. But I quickly realized that I didn't like the office games I had to play. ...

I always dreamed of being a trucker but never thought I'd actually be doing it. Thanks to a friend of mine in the early 90's encouraged me and the rest is history. .....

I've met several people with college degrees ... I met a gentleman one night that was in training with Swift ... and he had just retired from being an High School Principal. ... So we range from one extreme to another. :wink:

But two years of college (Univ not community). Was SEO for an internet based company for a year and ran my own business as a programmer et al before that. I'm an intellectual with a very high iq.

When in truck driving school i met three people in the field, two were network engineers. I think the education level of new truck drivers is a lot higher than the image. To do this job WELL you have to be intelligent. To hold a steering wheel (50% of drivers imho) not so much.

As to 'hiding" your intellect among drivers.. i dont get why you would. As to hiding your profession to others including college educated friends etc. Well im actually proud to be a trucker. People look at you differently when they find out. A sortof combination of fear, respect and curiousity. In my experience 99% of people are extraordinarily friendly when they find out what you do and also seem to have a little pity (in a positive way) as they know some of what you give up.

As far as intellect to be honest i think even the intentionally ignorant and uneducated out there end up turning themselves into intellectuals. Because the one thing we have time for is to think.

I'd like to start by thanking everyone for the honest responses. People, in and out of the trucking industry, should understand that post-secondary education 'doesn't make you smarter' and isn't a barrier to driving a truck.
I have to be honest, I usually lie on my trucking apps about my education and white-collar experience, and vice versa when I'm applying for desk jobs. I have the advantage of claiming to have been farming the years I wasn't in a truck and nobody challenges that in my area.
And in the white collar arena, I can claim self-employment of some sort instead of saying I was hauling frieght.

(Quote from cdreid)
When in truck driving school i met three people in the field, two were network engineers. I think the education level of new truck drivers is a lot higher than the image. To do this job WELL you have to be intelligent. To hold a steering wheel (50% of drivers imho) not so much.

With the increase in regulation and paperwork, I don't know how some truckers manage it all. I find it a huge headache, and God knows I handled tons of paperwork in an office. I agree that truckers today have to use different skills than when I started, but I met plenty of drivers - today or 30 years ago - who could have been successful in other fields but for a variety of reasons chose trucking.

silvan
Thank you for a very honest reply but I'm sorry to see that you're so unhappy as a driver and with your life in general. Having started out a 'hick' - to use your terms - I never feel uncomfortable being around drivers. It's a relief, for the most part, to be around people who share similar interests and experiences. As for language, it's a bit ironic that you mention your degree and desire to be a professional writer. I spent 15 years in the communications industry (print journalist, government communications) and don't really feel the pressure to 'dumb it down' when talking to truckers. I may chose not to initiate a discussion on macro economics or political unrest in the Balkans but that doesn't mean I have to 'subvert my true personality', I just discuss more relative subjects that face most of us: jobs, spouses, family and the fact the Maple Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup since '67.
If you ever want to discuss writing in depth, send me a PM. I'd love to discuss your outline for the next Great American Novel.

3? :P