Rachelle Biggs is the owner and webmaster of the sucessful site: http://www.newbiedriver.com What I love and what I don't about trucking....
Tired of reading online forums, bulletin boards, etc because they seem so negative???
Wonder why drivers seem to complain so much, yet they do the job anyway?
Well, to my way of thinking, it's a Love / Hate Relationship ... this job of driving a truck.
This was a hard article to write because so often the things I love are also the things that I don't love!!!
| What I Love ...
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What I Don't... | ||
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| Family | When I'm home I can devote my time to them. I can support myself and my child -- no welfare. I can sometimes take them with me. | |
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| Some weeks are worse than others. When freight slows, so does my paycheck. Paycheck amounts are different every week when you're paid Per Mile. Road expenses can be pretty high and you have to watch that or it'll eat up your check. | ||
| I get to see such beautiful things...!
My picture probably does not even come close to doing this sunset justice.... | Travel | I don't get to stop & enjoy the sights any too often. Gotta keep truckin'. I never layover where I want to. It's some kind of "Murphy's Law" of Trucking that when thoust shall be laid over, it shall be in the most boring of places! | |
| Pretty often I can run it nearly like I want to, and as long as I'm on time and legal, no one fusses about the hours I want to run. I like working different hours - it doesn't get monotonous as fast as working 9-5. | Schedule | There's rarely a "happy medium" - you either hurry, hurry, rush, rush to make it or you have way too much time and are bored... | |
| Most of my fellow drivers are great, helpful and fantastic people. They'll do anything to help you when you hit trouble and you can learn a lot from them.
| My | Some drivers "know it all" and proceed to tell you about what they know... some like to show off.... some are just plain rude. | |
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| What I love, more than anything else, is to remain in my truck when being loaded or unloaded! You can call me lazy, I don't mind because it is true in this respect. | Loading & Unloading | Now, just to get this straight... I don't mind doing some restacking, or putting stickers on pallets or removing shrink-wrap... given a choice, I'd rather not, but I really don't fuss about that. Now, if you want me to carry big heavy boxes and restack pallets, I get a bit fussy. In fact, this clip-art could be a portrait of me when forced to unload the tough stuff... | |
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| I am having a tough time finding something to say that is positive about a dispatcher. (forgive me, good dispatchers of this world.) I have had good dispatchers in the past but I've also had very poor ones... and this can make a life pretty miserable. You won't get much closer to heaven on earth than if you get a good dispatcher. | Sitting on HOLD
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| Traffic Jams will at least give you shifting practice... ? (trying to be optimistic) | Traffic & | Parking can be a chore. Traffic is a pain. | |
I miss them very, very much. That can make it very difficult to stay gone -- especially if something happens at home & you feel you should be there.
Making it!!!! The money is good - particularly when the freight is...
Dispatchers who lie