Is a Career in Trucking Right for You?

Have you ever heard the phrase “if you bought it, a truck brought it?” Well, that’s because trucking is the main driving force behind America’s economy! 70% of everything you buy has traveled on a truck at some point. In the year 2006, trucks transported over 10 billion tons of freight, and the trucking industry was a 645 billion dollar business! Here are some things that you’re going to want to know if you intend to take on truck driving jobs as a career.

Truck drivers are generally excellent behind the wheel- they spend a lot of time there! They are involved in traffic collisions less than half as often as passenger car drivers are. However, truck driving jobs do present its own unique set of challenges: the hours are long and lead to fatigue, the profession can be very lonely, and there are significant health and safety challenges. Drivers are also subject to strict Federal regulations and must submit to random drug tests, as well.

Consider the following:

Truck drivers experience 10% of ALL the workplace fatalities in the US and 8% of all workplace musculoskeletal injuries. It has even been suggested (with strong empirical evidence to back it up) that a long-term career as a trucker can reduce the average person’s life span from 10 to 12 years! That may be why the industry experiences such a high rate of turnover- 136% in the 4^th quarter of 2005. That means that for every 100 people that took a trucking job during that time frame, 136 of them quit!

Knowing some of the industry rules may help you decide if you want to pursue a career in trucking or not. Legally, truckers can drive for 11 hours at a time, with a 10-hour break immediately afterwards. Also, truckers MUST take a 10 hour break after their 14^th hour of the day, independent of the number of miles driven. Truckers may drive up to 70 hours per week, but are not paid overtime after working the standard 40 hour week. A trucker has to be 21 years of age to drive cross-country and 18 years of age to drive a truck within their home state. Many carriers are hesitant to hire young drivers and will not hire you unless you are at least 23 years old- 25 years old, in some extreme cases.

Truckers are usually paid by the mile, so a trucker has to drive a lot to bring in a good paycheck. When a driver isn’t driving (if they are sitting waiting for freight to get loaded or in traffic, for example), they aren’t making any money- this leads some drivers to bend the federally mandated rules about drive times in order to ensure their pay is good. A trucker averages from between 19 to 44 cents a mile. It’s tough to narrow down “how much a trucker makes” because incomes from $300 a week to $1200 a week are frequently reported.

Trucking is keeping pace with the Internet, as now almost the entire industry is computerized. Most trucks are equipped with a Qualcomm Satellite System, which tracks where the truck is down to a three-block radius. In the past, truck drivers were tied to the telephone to know when and where to get their next load, but now, the trucking company’s dispatcher simply sends out a message over the Qualcomm- this message includes directions, location, distance- everything the trucker needs to handle the load.

Now that you’re armed with a little more knowledge, get out there and get yourself your CDL and your first truck driving jobs. You’ll be hauling freight in no time, and helping to keep our economy moving!