Career as a Truck Driver
Commercial truck driving is a secure and lucrative career these days. It is also one of the largest occupations, with more than 3.5 million men and women on the job.
Becoming a truck driver is something that millions of people have thought about at one time or another. Almost everyone has wondered if life on the open road would suit them better than the ordinary day-to-day lives they have always known. Hollywood has spurred the fantasy with many popular films. Trucking became a part of pop culture in the 1970s following the release of White Line Fever and Smokey and the Bandit, the hit song Convoy, and the TV series BJ and the Bear. The future of truck driving was explored in the 1996 film, Space Truckers, that had truckers transporting interplanetary loads. The fascination with trucking continues with an extremely popular show on the History Channel. Ice Road Truckers is a documentary style reality TV series following truck drivers as they drive across frozen lakes in mid-winter Canada, transporting equipment to the diamond mines in the Northwest Territories.
Truck drivers fall into two general categories: those who drive light trucks (under 26,000 pounds) and those who drive heavy trucks (more than 26,000 pounds). Light trucks are usually used for local routes. Their drivers work on regular routes within a precise area near home. They often spend as much time loading and unloading as they do driving. Heavy trucks are used to transport every imaginable type of raw materials and finished products. Their drivers may spend days or weeks on the road, frequently traveling the Interstate highway system to get cargo to their destinations. As trucks have become better equipped with ergo-nomically designed cabs and electronic delivery tracking systems, the physical demands of truck driving have decreased. For long distance truckers, amenities such as televisions, refrigerators, and beds have made many new trucks comfortable homes-away-from-¬home. But in spite of these improvements in basic driver comforts, the long driving hours and physical demands of unloading cargo can be quite tiring. For those with the necessary strength and stamina though, truck driving can be very rewarding. Most people get into the profession for the money. With little more than a high school diploma, truck drivers can start out earning an average salary of around $45,000 a year. With experience, they can earn double that amount. Most trucking companies also provide excellent benefits – something many employers are trying to downgrade.
Truck drivers also enjoy job security. Driving jobs can’t be exported to a foreign country. Here in the US, there is such a tremendous shortage – 80,000 jobs are currently unfilled – that employers are enticing new drivers with cash bonuses and other incentives.
It is relatively easy to get started in this career. A commercial driver’s license (CDL) is the basic qualification for most jobs. Forget any old stereotypes about truck drivers. While you don’t need to be a college graduate, not everyone can drive a truck. It takes skill and the appropriate training to become successful. Most employers search for graduates of a respected truck driving school when looking for new recruits. A good school can prepare drivers with the skills needed to safely maneuver heavy trucks within a month or two.
If you’re looking for a career that can take you all over the country, a job where you never have to sit behind a desk, then driving a truck might be right for you. Read on to see what it takes to get into this promising career.
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