I am a truck driver.
I drive a truck. Specifically, I drive an 18 wheeler. A semi. This is the job that earns me money and allows me to take a leave and travel.
The last adventure back in 2014 I was working for the same “starter” company that trained me to have a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). That company is considered the largest trucking company in the United States. Some would consider it the Walmart of trucking. Sure, they didn’t pay me a ton of money. Sure, they have a reputation in the trucking industry as employing those that take down light poles, traffic lights, governed at 62 mph clogging up the interstates. It was the one they considered to be employing those most worthy of inside trucking jokes. But, let me tell you. Those two years driving from them was such a life experience and something I wouldn’t give up for anything in the world.
When I got into trucking I was struggling. I mean, I was really struggling. I was recently divorced. Not my idea. I was kicked to the curb and forced to leave the house I was living in with my ex. I had lost my full time job some years earlier and I was mostly temping, getting some photography gigs and working for Google online. But, for the most part, I had sold everything I owned to stay afloat and found myself at the 40+ year old mark living in a house on the east side of Tacoma, Washington renting a bedroom from a buddy, sleeping on an air mattress that liked to deflate in the middle of the night. There was another roommate, Jason, that kept to himself and mostly spent his time on his computer playing computer games. He was probably about the same age as me. So, three 40+ year old guys living in a house in a rough, east side Tacoma house and the primary roommate supported himself with a sketchy hustle. We will leave it at that. In my little rented room I only had a laptop and box of clothes, and I possessed a storage unit containing about 1000 books, some motorcycle gear and an old timey desk that my parents gave me. I didn’t have shit and it was a bad situation. Then I pulled this card that had sat in my mental back pocket for some years. What about driving a truck? I started researching trucking on an online forum and starting making some preparations.
I settled on this largest trucking company due to their size and opportunities. They set me up for a physical, I went to the DMV to get my CDL driver’s permit and made arrangements to start their CDL school in Lewiston, Idaho. I was off. This was going to be another of life’s adventures - me, a Jersey guy born and raised, heading off to Idaho to sleep in some motel while spending my days training to be a trucker. Weird.
Say what you want about this trucking company but they are alright in my book. With almost no money I was sent on a bus to their training facility in Lewiston, Idaho for three weeks of CDL school. The way it works is that they pay for the hotel up front (you don’t have to pay this back, even if you don’t pass) and they front the costs of their in-house CDL school up front. The school costs about $3500 US dollars. If you pass (you don’t pay them if you don’t pass) then over the next year driving for them you pay them back weekly out of your paycheck. If you stay with them a second year (I did) they start paying you back for the trucking school. I was with them for about 2.5 years so my training was free.
And guess what? Despite a sordid reputation, they treated me right. I never had to drive when I felt it wasn’t safe and I turned down loads when I felt it was needed to do so. While driving for them I felt I needed an extended break to take a motorcycle adventure. I asked if they would have me back and rehire me when I returned and they stated the affirmative. So, I terminated myself, went on my trip, returned, reapplied and I was in a truck again within a couple of weeks.
So, how did I do that first adventure? Well, although I had an address to have on my license and receive mail, I mostly lived in my truck comfortably. I had almost no overhead while I was driving that truck. The only bill I had monthly was for my law school loan that never seems to decrease and for a cellphone. That was it. No rent. No mortgage, No utility bills. Nothing. But, this was at the cost of not having a real home. Good luck in meeting girls. It was tough.
For those unfamiliar with semi trucks and their corresponding sleeper cabs, basically it works like this: The front of the truck is where you work - your workspace, if you will. Lots of switches, a big shifter stick, lots of windows and where you make your money. Take off those boots and leave them up front, step a few feet into the back and this is your living quarters. You keep this area clean. You don’t wear your shoes or boots back here as this is your home. You can slide the curtains closed across the windshield and side windows at night and the whole cabin becomes your mini-home. My truck, an International Prostar, had a bottom and top bunk. You can fold the top bunk up to provide more room but I didn’t need it. It’s tall enough back here (I’m 5’10”) whereby I can barely touch the extended ceiling in the sleeping area. I used the top bunk for storage of boxes - additional clothes, my hat collection, an emergency sleeping bag, extra food, etc. It was neat and orderly and basically a supply closet. The lower bunk had an improved, pillowtop mattress (super comfortable), the highest thread count sheets I could find along with the most comfortable comforter, a slow cooker, a quick cooker lunch box, a refrigerator, an 39” Vizio tv, a PS4, bluray player, cabinets with hangers to hand my everyday clothes, storage under my bunk, another cabinet for food, a slide-out desk top for my laptop and separate climate control. Honestly, with the exception of a missing bathroom, I had everything I could need and I was comfortable. Truly, on those snowy, windy or rainy nights if was comfy as can be watching The Big Bang Theory as I fell asleep comfortably. I can’t tell you how many times I posted on Facebook my disbelief that I was actually getting paid to do this job.
My work history before this trucking gig was in retail (Lowes management as a Safety, HazMat and Loss Prevention Manager) and in the legal field as a Legal Assistant in Corporate Law and Regulatory Law. With trucking, I was in heaven and in those 2.5 years I visited all of the lower 48 states delivering and picking up from everywhere including an underground cave system in Missouri (Springfield Underground) and a maximum security prison in Georgia. I saw every kind of weather including tornados and ice storms and slept near downtown Nashville (where I walked from the TA truckstop to downtown to take photos and take in the atmosphere) or weathering out a blizzard near Elk Mountain in Wyoming . Heaven. This job is the tits.
Currently I drive for a company that is exclusively contracted to deliver the in-house bread for the largest supermarkets in New Jersey. The job is physical requiring me to use a hand truck to deliver the bread to the receiving areas of stores. Think of basically a professional CDL truck driver but with a physical aspect. It’s pretty much a great job that has paid me more money than I have ever made, I have a great boss that I love, great coworkers, with a New Jersey slant on things. Life is good and my job is good. But, regardless, it is time to take this trip because if not now, when?
So I put in my two weeks notice, told my boss and coworkers about this adventure and I’m hoping that my job will have me back in some capacity when I return. Speaking to my boss, it seems promising. The funny and convenient thing about this trucking thing I do is that it’s not really a tenured position. My money is made on the route that I do, not on the number of years I have contributed. So, unlike a lot of jobs out there, I can basically leave and come back to the same thing if it’s available. Most jobs are not like that and, for that, I’m fortunate.