The only unemployed truck or bus driver is the one that wants to be unemployed.

Trucking | Consider a Career as a Truck or Bus Driver

Updated Jan 2021

Introduction

Following are eight reasons that you might want to consider a career in trucking.

The first reason: every truck driver, every kid knows what that means - pull the air horn.

There's nothing cooler when you're a kid then pulln' the air horn.

One time in the nineteen nineties, I was driving back through Toledo, Ohio on Interstate seventy-five, heading northbound, went past a school bus of kids, not one kid on that bus was doing this.

It was kinda of a disappointment.

With the right job for you, there is a lot of pride in working as a truck driver.

Drive up the interstate another ten miles or so I drive past another school bus, look over every kid on that school buses is going like this.

I held that air horn down for a good three minutes.

I tell ya, gives you a sort of a real sense of pride about what you're doing as a truck driver.

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A Great Job With Pride - #1

One of the reasons that you might want to consider a career in trucking - it's cool.

Every one of us who drive truck grew up on Smokey and the Bandit, BJ & the Bear, and other related movies that made trucking romantic, made it a great job.

As I talked about as well every kid knows the sound of an air horn and gets really chuffed when a driver pulls that horn.

Always Employed - #2

The second reason - number two.

The only unemployed truck driver is a truck driver that wants to be unemployed.

There's always work as a truck driver and I'll tell you my own story.

With a CDL license, you will always be employed. Time as shown that truck driving is both recession and COVID proof.

I spent a lot of years in the early 2000 going to university.

All through that university career I drove bus, I drove truck.

That was what supported my university career.

And today I'm still involved in the industry I'm teaching other people how to get jobs as truck drivers have careers, as truck drivers, and make money.

It's a good job and if it doesn't work as your primary job it's a great backup job because you can always always always find employment as a truck driver.

So the second reason to find...to get a job as a truck driver - you're never unemployed.

Variety And Job Options - #3

The third reason you might want to consider a job in trucking is the options, the sheer number of options that are available to you.

Van, reefer, & flat deck: those are the top three types of units that you can operate in the trucking industry.

Vans are just the square trailers they're not temperature control at all.

They haul general freight, so there's lots of work in that area whether regional, local, or long haul kind of work.

With a CDL licence, there are a lot of different job opportunities available to those that are open to new experiences.

Reefer is temperature controlled units trailers that heat or cool hauling grocery lots of work like that.

There's a guy here in Vernon I know he runs back and forth between Calgary and delivers to all the local stores.

So there's lots of refrigeration work because grocery stores always need groceries.

The last one that's very popular here in British Columbia is flat deck work - throwing tarps and chains if you want a bit of exercise and doing a bit extra.

Flat deck work!

Long Haul, Regional, or Local Work - #4

The fourth reason you might consider a career in trucking dovetails with number three in terms of the options that you have available for different types of equipment.

You also have options for the kind of work that you want to do whether you want to run long haul, you wanna run regional, you want to run local - lots of general freight hauling on vans and reefers and flat deck running long haul, especially here in Western Canada or you can run regional.

Many vocational truck driving jobs will have you home every day.

There's one guy in town, as I mentioned in number three who runs to Calgary and back he's gone a couple of days and home every two or three days delivering groceries.

Or if you want to do local work there's lots of that delivering general freight in 5 ton trucks driving local transit buses or hauling gravel trucks, cement trucks - those kinds of things so there's lots of options in terms of how far you want to be away, how many times you want to be home, and the types of equipment.

So three and four provides a really good options for you to consider being a truck driver.

Truck Driving is Challenging - #5

The fifth reason you might want to consider a career in trucking is the challenge.

Truck driving never has a day where there isn't something you gotta figure out, whether it's the mud, the snow, the rain, the ice.

There's always something interesting! Getting a load strapped down, load securement there's always something interesting.

There's a saying in truck driving: shit happens and CYA! Cover your ass! What we mean by cover your ass is always put habits in place that will protect you when you get tired when you get in a hurry or you get pushed because all those things are going to happen in the trucking industry.

Truck driving is challenging and owing to the challenges of driving, no two days are the same.

So one of the other reasons the career is challenging and like I said in three and four - different kinds of equipment different kinds of work so if you get tired of something you can go and do something else and present yourself with a new challenge so that doesn't get old and it doesn't get stale.

Autonomy & Self Direction #6

The sixth reasons why you might consider a career in trucking is the autonomy.

The self direction of the job.

You don't have a boss looking over your shoulder as if you're working in a plant or working in an office.

They tell you when the load needs to be there you figure out when you need to show up get the truck down the road get the bus down the road on schedule and there's a sense of satisfaction because you did the work you fulfilled what you were supposed to do and at the end of the day it's all good you're safe, and you'rre home with your family.

So autonomy - sense of self-direction - self-governance driving the truck.

In the summer, for example, during the construction season, dump truck drivers can work longer hours thus making more money.

Not a 9 to 5 Job - #7

Number seven: it's not a nine-to-five job! There's lots of opportunity to get some variation in your work day you don't have to show up every morning at nine o'clock and work until five or six at night or work afternoons, or work days - there's lots of variation about when you're going to work in the daytime.

So that provides some stimulus for a lot of people who are kind of - don't want to do that 9-to-5 grind.

Truck driving is a great job to not work nine-to-five.

Earn Good Money $$ - #8

Reason number 8 for considering a job in trucking: money, the money in trucking is good! Most local drivers make about $27, $28 dollars an hour depending on what kind of work they're doing: gravel truck drivers make make a little bit less: twenty, twenty dollars an hour.

Most over the roaders make between 42¬¢ and 47¬¢ cents a mile.

If you're making 42¢, 47¢ cents a mile - most drivers are running 2,500 to 3,000 miles week - that's a thousand to $1500 a week.

So you're making a pretty good paycheck.

Long haul truck driving has improved in the last few decades. And for the most part, these drivers make good money.

For the amount of education you need, for the amount of schooling you need to go to truck driving school and get your license the return on investment is great.

The money that you invested to get your license - you're gonna get it back in a few months.

So there isn't any problem - As I said at point number two employment - the only unemployed truck driver is the truck driver that wants to be unemployed.

So you're always going to be employed and the money in the industry is good.

Conclusion

• In conclusion, the reasons that you should consider a career in trucking number one it's cool every kid knows the sound of an air horn and every truck driver loves pulling the air horn for kids who do with this.

• Number two, employment the only unemployed truck driver is the truck driver that wants to be unemployed.

There is a lot of farm work too for CDL drivers that will see them home everyday. And pride soars when you're driving a beautiful Peterbilt truck.

• Number three the variation in the industry the kind of equipment that you own or operate there's all kinds of options about what kind of equipment you want to operate.

• Number four: what kind of work do you want to do? Do you want to run local, regional, long haul? Lots of options in terms of what you want to do and the kind of work you want to do.

• Number five: the work is challenging there's never a day goes by that there isn't a different challenge that you gotta meet in the trucking industry - weather, traffic, the roads, getting the load strapped down, getting it there safely, getting it there on time!

• Number six: autonomy.

There's no boss looking over your shoulder.

There's a sense of pride in doing the job and doing it well according to your own rules.

• Number seven - not a nine-to-five job! Lots of variation about what the hours you work to get the job done.

• And the last one: the money in the trucking industry is good.

Local drivers are going to make between eighteen and twenty seven dollars an hour - some are even gonna make more than that if you go up north northern Alberta or long haul are going to make between 40¢ and 50¢ cents a mile depending on what kind of work you're doing.

If you're making flat deck, you're probably gonna make a little bit more those guys running vans.