Trucking—What a Fun Job! (Nope!)

Opportunity

We drive to get big checks, not to specifically have fun.

The work is hard. The hours are long. The road stretches forever. Everything takes longer than you think it’s going to take. The work involves standing in wind, rain, snow, and heat. You will be away from home for weeks at a time.

The reason we deal with all these things—to make serious money.

Easy Career To Start

The training period is short (2 months), and the cost of schooling is cheap ($3,000). Less than a year after you walk into a driving school, you can bring home $5,000 per month.

Information on driving schools can be found in this blog: “CDL School: What You Need to Know”.

Some Pay More

Generally speaking, you make more money doing difficult work in unpleasant places. This is key to determining which jobs pay more. This is generally true across all career paths and all job fields.

You make more money if you are:

• doing complicated work
• doing physically demanding work
• working in unpleasant places
• working in bad weather

Specific Examples

Right now (Spring of 2019):

• Work in the oil fields is paying the best. The work is hard, dirty, and dangerous; driving on roads of dirt and mud. There is a lot of physical labor involved. Oil fields are located where there is crushing heat in summer and/or bitter cold in winter.
• Over The Road (OTR) work is easier and involves less physical labor. The pay is lower.
• Local delivery jobs get you home every night. The pay is lower than OTR.

For numbers on pay rates, please read “What CDL jobs Pay the Most?”

A Job Well Done

The work can be vastly satisfying. You can have a sense of accomplishment, doing a difficult job well. There is a sense of pride—standing in harsh weather, doing work that most people are unable to do.

But, the real reason we do such difficult work is: to get the big checks.

For advice on how to get your first driving job, please read ”Aspiring Truckers: How to Get “Six Months of Experience”.