Congratulations! You’ve joined an elite brotherhood with over a hundred years of rich and colorful history. The world of professional driving is an exciting one; filled with adventure, confusion, glory, frustration, difficulty, and triumph. Welcome to the club, you’re one of us now! (one of us, one of us…)
So instead of waiting until the end of the article to give you the best advice, I’m going to put it right up front.
The secret to a long, successful, and profitable driving career is simple – don’t be this person:
Alrighty, then – that takes care of that. Good luck in your new career, and remember: keep it between the ditches!
Just kidding.
I’m sure by now that newly minted CDL is burning a hole in your wallet, and you’re probably itching to get behind the wheel of your very own truck. However, it’s probably best if you have a seat and prepare yourself because you’re in for a bit of a surprise. First up:
You Didn’t Learn Anything at Driving Academy
You’ve spent the last few weeks studying endless class notes to prepare for your written exam. You’ve got maneuvering between cones down to a science. And you’re still trying to fathom a possible scenario where you will ever need to use those parallel parking skills you’ve been mastering (trust me, you’ll need them). You graduated from your driving academy with excellent scores, you’ve passed your exam, and you’re now a duly-certified driver.
And now you know absolutely nothing.
Sure, there’s plenty of valuable information you’ll learn at a driving school. Log books are complicated. Hours of service rules are almost maliciously convoluted. And that little green book of federal carrier regulations? Read it. Seriously. Stop whatever you’re doing right now and go read it. It could potentially save your career one day.
Driving academy is a bit like ground school for your pilot’s certificate. You need to know the rules and regulations, but you’re not going to learn how to fly a plane from a book. The only way you’re going to learn to drive a commercial motor vehicle is with practice – lots of it. And the only way you’re going to get experience is to get to work at your first trucking job, which brings me to my next point…
You’re Probably Going to Pick the Wrong Company
By choosing to work in the trucking industry, you’re about to walk head-first into the most interesting experience of your life: driver recruiting. Now, I’ve written a bit about this topic in the past, but before you take away the impression that I hate recruiters (which you shouldn’t), you need to take a moment to understand a bit more about how the process works.
First and foremost: this is one of the only industries where the company you work for isn’t going to pick you – you’re going to pick them. Here’s a condensed version of how the whole thing works:
Call a trucking company’s recruiting line.
Speak with a recruiter, who will tell you everything you’d like to know about pay, home time, benefits, equipment, and answer any other questions you may have. (Be sure to come prepared with several.)
Fill out an application for the company which will ask questions about everything you’ve done in your life, ever.
Your recruiter calls you back to let you know you’re approved.
You let the recruiter know when you’d like to start work.
Congratulations! You’re employed. (Assuming you make it through orientation)
That’s it. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever experienced if you’re not a C-level executive. Have a great safety record and a good work history? R.I.P. your cell phone; you’re a hot commodity, and you’re going to get to know a lot of recruiters.
Because of how driver-centered the process is, you’re probably going to have quite a few choices of where to work whenever you graduate driving academy. Because of the overwhelming amount of information you’re going to be bombarded with, coupled with your lack of industry experience, it means one thing: you’re probably going to make a mistake. If you don’t, you’re a lucky soul. You should probably write advice articles to new drivers, or something like that.
If you pick the wrong company? It’s okay. If you do, you’re in a small crowd of millions. Tough it out, get your time in, and move on to better things. Your newfound experience will make the second go around much easier.
You Might Not Make it Through Orientation
Once you’ve cleared all of the background checks, the motor vehicle reports, the reference checks, and the employment verification (Life Pro Tip: never lie on a trucking job application. They verify literally everything), it’s time to show up for your first day of work. Orientation! This is, by far and without a doubt, the most fun you will ever have in your entire life (no sarcasm here whatsoever).
And here’s your first taste of how things can go terribly wrong in this industry. Lied on your criminal history report? They’ll find it, and you’re gone. Think you can partake in some illicit substances before you leave your buddies to hit the open road? They’ll find it, and you’re gone. Didn’t disclose that speeding ticket you had when you were 16? They’ll find it, and you’re gone. Put down a fake job or reference to cover for a period of unemployment? They’ll find it, and…you get the idea.
Just because you’ve been “hired” doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. Several companies don’t verify employment history and background information until you arrive at orientation (this is to save money; lots of drivers will schedule a start date for a new company and then never show up). It’s always in your best interest to tell the truth, be as honest as possible, and be prepared for the worst. Oh, and don’t try to cheat the drug test. The federal government is pretty serious about that one.
Let’s assume that you’re in the clear there and that your background, employment, and driving history won’t be a problem. Time to get behind the wheel and make some money, right? Sort of…
You’re Probably Going to Hate Your Trainer (and His Farts, Too)
You’ve made it through the meat grinder that is orientation, you’ve passed your driving test, you’ve shown them your skills. It’s the moment you’ve dreamed about since your first day of academy: it’s time to hit the highway. Congratulations! You’re ready to meet your trainer.
Be prepared: this is going to be the longest three months of your life. You will be assigned to live, eat, and bunk with another driver in the same truck for the next several weeks with no actual determining criteria other than “smoking or non”. Unless you luck out and your trainer happens to live within driving distance of your house, you’ll be bunking in a hotel room while he goes home. You’ll learn to drive the way he wants because technically, it is his truck. You’ll abide by his rules, no matter how absurd or illogical. Is your trainer a nice guy who you share many things in common with and conversation comes easy? Good for you. Enjoy it. Is he a complete jerk who makes life hard on you for his own enjoyment? Suck it up, buttercup. You’re in for a long ride.
You’re going to spend 24/7 together. You’re going to run out of conversation. You’re going to have lots of awkward silences. You’re going to hate his music. You’re going to hate the lack of privacy. Most of all, you’re going to hate the smell of his farts. And he’s going to hate the smell of yours.
Everything Will Go Wrong On Your First Solo Run
So, you’ve made it through orientation, you’ve survived living with your trainer, you’ve passed your company-issued driving test, and you’ve been assigned your very own truck. Hooray! You’ve already accomplished more than many of your driving peers. Driver wash-out statistics are hard to come by, but some industry sources estimate a failure rate of a bit over 50%.
But you’re not one of them. You’ve worked hard, paid your dues, and stuck with it. And now that you’ve got your own truck, you’re ready for your first load! That means the hard part is over, right? Wouldn’t that be nice? Murphy’s law must’ve been conjured with solo OTR drivers in mind, because the age old adage of “if it can go wrong, it will” applies here more than ever. Be prepared for the most frustrating moment of your career so far. There’s no experienced trainer to guide you, very little support system to hold your hand (your dispatcher is a busy, overworked individual; you’re probably one of 50 drivers he has to contend with), and there’s no cheat sheet for dealing with common problems. Shippers will run behind, tires will go flat, mechanical problems will manifest themselves, delivery windows will be too short, and fuel cards will be declined.
Long story short, you’ll have to deal with everything the highway can throw at you. If you persevere and maintain your cool, you’ll do just fine. After all, you’ve just spent months of basking in cigarette smoke and terrible flatulence for this very moment, right?
If You Tough It Out and Stick with It, It Will All Be Worth It
Two years. That’s the magic number. The first two years of your driving career are going to be the worst years of your working life. You’ll be taken advantage of by unscrupulous vendors who can smell the green behind your ears. You’ll bounce around between starter companies who won’t pay your what your time is really worth. You’ll fall for stupid schemes that promise more pay and more miles for less work (trust me, they don’t). You might even become a victim of the dreaded “fleece-purchase”. The first two years are going to be fraught with hardship, defeat, and heartache. You’re going to want to throw in the towel. You’re going to be homesick. You’re going to miss real food (and you’re really going to hate Subway). You’re going to miss your family. And it’s going to suck, hard.
Tough it out and suck it up, driver. Once you make it through the first two years and pay your dues, opportunities will abound that will make it all worth the effort. Local home daily jobs that pay more than your peers make with their master’s degrees (and no student debt for you). The ability to never have to worry about unemployment again, ever. The ability to find work in any city in any state, anywhere in the country. Those two years of heartache, struggle, and fastidious hard work will pay off immensely, and you’ll be glad you made the decision to put up with the smell of another man’s gas.
Timothy Bradford is former owner-operator who is now a Web Developer and Managing Partner at Silicon Digital. You can follow him on twitter here, or you email him at [email protected]