After Three Years of Truck Driving, Do I have any regrets?

after three years of tracking do I have any regrets hey everyone my name is Yusuf it has been three years since I've gotten my CDL and in today's video I will share my thoughts with you on tracking and give you some tips that I have learned from the past three years just a little bit of backstory I went to school just like everyone else I did the community college for two years with an intention to transfer over to a four-year school so I could become an engineer when I transferred over to a uh a four-year School the courses got extremely harder and at that time I was not into getting finishing a bachelor's degree so I could get a I get it to get and get a job I was just enjoying the process of studying and solving math equations and solving physics equations but when I transferred over to a four-year school things just just changed and I was thinking why would I just waste all these years and fail at the end or why would I spent another two years in getting a degree and get a job that I don't that I'm not gonna last in because I did not enjoy being an employee for someone else so I decided school was not for me so I dropped out of the school in my junior year and at that time I was working at a hotel so I went back to the hotel well I went back to hotel really full time because I was working 40 to 45 hours a week when I was in school but when I dropped out of school it was seven days a week 16 hours a day and I I managed a Motel 6 for about seven years and when I say managed I was pretty much the maintenance guy the friend this guy the uh the guy that you could yell at the guy who did all these repairs and so that that's what I call management okay not not necessarily having a a suit and tie and just sit in the back office and tell everybody to do their job so after working there for seven years I saved some money but I wanted to have some Freedom so I started traveling I took some time off and traveled for uh two months and then I worked for more obviously when I was traveling I was remotely managing the motel just making sure that all the inventories are being bought all the employees are being hired and in the whole nine yard right and when I came back I worked more and I wanted to take another trip for about a month and the owner said hey hey hey hey you can't do that anymore he did that once we let you do it now you cannot do that often because I understand they don't allow you to take more times off so I decided that maybe I want to find something else that will give me the freedom of traveling guess what I found Trucking so I went and got my CDL at the beginning I was really scared of getting uh getting my my CDL I remember you know how the first time you get you go to a a trucking school a CDL school and they give you the truck and you just do a straight back right so they have cones on the right hand side and they have cones on the left hand side and you just make sure you get out of that hole without hitting and any cones from the left or from the right as long as the truck gets out of the the truck and trailer gets out of it even though your trailer is crooked they consider that as a good start so I Remember by the time my tractor was at the end of the hole my trailer was like 45 degrees and I was thinking dude this is not for you why would you ever ever do something why would you ever get into a uh a job where you can't even keep a truck and trailer straight and now and at that time I had the feeling of just like giving up and just going home but then since I was the first person to try and all the other three students were next and I was like you know what let me let me see how other people will perform at least that will give me an idea of how bad I am the second person jumps in and by the time he is literally like 10 15 feet within the hall he runs all the cones and ends up like almost jackknifing the truck so I that kind of made me feel a little better because I did I did this I did decent when I uh when I was back in compared to the others so I continued getting uh continued with the school and got my CDL after I got my CDL I still was afraid of driving a semi truck with the trailer so I started doing hot shot for a company for about three uh three months and then I got my own hot shot setup did that for about six months after that I got this truck and I've been Trucking since then my entire CDL career I have driven over 440 000 miles so that's a good good mileage to do within the within three years or a little bit over 30 years honestly this is what I would say if you are really new and about to get your CDL get your CDL and then that first month on the road please disregard all your feelings whether you feel all good whether you feel all bad and you miss your family you are scared of being on the road you're scared of parking at a truck stop and sleeping somewhere that you don't know just disregard that feeling for about a month and honestly you'll be fine because I have helped a lot of people get their CDL and they get their CDL and they get on the road whether their trainer is not friendly or whether their feelings are ups and downs they are scared of driving a semi truck they're scared of a lot of things that goes on the road they end up quitting at the first week I have had this guy call me and said hey Yusuf I I went and got my CDL now and I am with this trainer but honestly I do not enjoy this at all and I was trying to make him a little more comfortable comfortable because I know that that feeling will dissipate after a while as long as you continue for like three four weeks and you get to you get used to taking a shower at the truck stops sleeping when when I reefer is is next to you or wearing like a really old truck is idling next to you if you just passed that one month I think you'll be fine a lot of people obviously get scared of being on the road because that's something that you probably have never done unless unless you've been traveling around going to different places for work so I would say disregard your feelings for the first month and you'll be okay if you have a bad trainer obviously call your company right away and have them switch you over to a different truck that way you don't end up going back to your old life most people get into Trucking when they're flat out broke and start as a driver so if that is you you might start with like 40 to 45 cents and then you start seeing 12 to 1600 a week and you're like oh my God that's good and what what would you do you start increasing your spendings with it and a year or two years later you find yourself in a situation where you've been Trucking for two or three years and you still don't have any money so I would highly recommend that you don't increase you're spending as your income increases so that is that goes for drivers and that goes for owner operators and I know a lot of owner operators as well where they just live off of Gross thinking that the gross money is actually like a really good and they start spending all this money and then they end up uh filing a bankruptcy but anyways and also remember that this job doesn't pay well because it's an extremely hard job that nobody nobody can achieve it pays well well you could get your CDL within like four weeks and you can get a week a month training then you you'll be on your own that's not a problem see that's not a hard thing anything that you could learn in two months it's not hard the reason that Trucking pays well for the most part it is not because the difficulties of getting the CDL the difficulties of learning how to drive and back up a truck it's that's all easy you could get a CDL and within four weeks you could get a month training and you could get be on your own within two months of experience that's not a that's not the the reason it's because this job is least desired by so many people and that's because you'll you leave everything behind you leave your family you live the social life you leave the comfort of your home you leave the good food you leave all that just so that you could get 50 to maybe sometimes 50 to 100 depending if you're a driver or owner operator 50 increase on your income so please do not treat this as a job where you could do for like 30 years and just live paycheck to paycheck because the only reason that you are able to put 50 more on your income or put 100 more more on your income because you have a a license that you could work with if you lose that license if you get a ticket if you get a speeding ticket so many times and if you get a violation so many times that could hurt your license and you end up you end up losing a job or you'll probably end up losing the license so please make use of your time save your money with the money that you save invested in a business invested in in buying your own truck and trailer that way you could get into the truck and do 10 to 15 years and have a lot of money saved up maybe buy a farm start start doing a business outside of trucking that could bring you income without you being on the road a little contrary because a lot of people think that Trucking is not stressful and it's freedom and being away from from all this nonsense that goes on in the world and that is not true because it could be a really stressful job dealing with four-wheelers dealing with other truck drivers dealing with shippers and receivers and Brokers and stuff like that but you need to be able to handle the pressure Okay so just don't go crazy don't take your anger out of someone else on the road because I don't know they had you held up at a shipper for eight hours uh straight and then they did they said that the load was not gonna be ready until two days from from your appointment date so don't do that but if you have an intention to become your own boss in the future and have your own truck and trailer and you haven't you have something in mind let's say you want to become a flatbed truck driver if that's you then start with a company that is doing flatbed don't go to a company that does only only driving and you end up with them for three three years and you have no no flatbed experience and all of a sudden you want to buy a flatbed and get on the road and and cause a lot of travel travel for yourself and for other people don't do that and if if you won't do reefer just work with a company that does a temperature control units or refrigerator trailers that way you have experience on how to like set the temperatures and stuff like that recommendation number 655 would be have some sort of cooking setup where you could cook for a few days at a time that way you don't spend all your money eating outside even even if you eat like a a fast food restaurant if you eat like twice a day and that's like 10 bucks or 15 bucks a meal you you are you end up spending a thirty dollars per day for just your food and there's times that by 30 that's like 900 just for your food so if you have some sort of cooking setup where you could cook something for a few days and usually if you do that then do it on your 34 hour reset that way you could probably cook for the entire week and never eat outside you you might save like 90 of the cost maybe 400 bucks or 150 bucks you would have you would have food for the next 15 days or so so what I personally do is that I eat once a day nothing else and that started before I even got into Trucking I started skipping breakfast then having late lunch and to forget about having dinner so if you do that your life will get easier you get healthier and also you avoid getting weight so you avoid being obese and in this job you you need to be careful as much as possible because most people would drive I don't know 10 hours a day or be on clock for 10 hours a day when you're done driving your tire you just want to go go to sleep talking about health you need to at least do some sort of exercise if you can run just go ahead and walk at least do like a few Laps on the truck stop that way you're you're moving around I see I see a lot of uh trucks maybe like 100 trucks at a truck stop I only see like one or two guys walking around like all the other truckers just just sitting in their truck and not doing anything so don't let that be you and just work out a little bit have some dumbbells with you do a little squats and do a little push-ups and you'll be fine after three years of tracking do I have any regrets honestly this is a conversation that I have had with my dad numerous times because at the beginning he did not want me to become a truck driver thinking that truck driving is dangerous and obviously it is because a normal person drives 10 to 12 000 miles a a year and a truck driver drives 100 to 150 000 miles a year making you 10 times more susceptible to get into an accident so you're more likely to get an accident 10 times than a person that drives a four-wheeler so because of that I did not get my get into Trucking when I was 21 22 I had I had the opportunity at that time because one of my friends got into Trucking at that time and I was scared and I talked to my dad and I was discouraged but my only regret is that I did not start Trucking earlier honestly and I and anytime I talk to my dad about it is that he says well you never know like you could have had a different mentality back then maybe you would have ended up being a company driver for two or three years and you hated your life and you would have not been where you are now so that is true and I'm really happy where I am uh although a little regretful that I did not start earlier keep in mind like this although I am telling you a lot of positive side of trucking keep in mind the rates will go up and down the diesel prices will go up and down the good times don't last the bad times don't last so keep that all that in mind when you're watching this video and don't think that that just because my experience seems to be positive for the most part that your experience will be positive just because I love being on the road that doesn't mean you love being on the road keep in mind I am not married I don't have kids I have parents I have I have brothers and sisters I have lots of niece and nephews I miss them all but imagine having your own kid having having a wife and not being able to see I think if I was married and have that kids I do not think I would be as as happy as I am now because who doesn't want to see their wife who doesn't want to see you their their kids right so please keep in mind when you're when you are considering getting into Trucking and one more thing I want to say is that before you get into Trucking evaluate your such your situation because recently I've been getting a lot of inquiries about getting into Trucking and I usually ask them okay how much you make how many times uh how many days out of the week do you work and whether you do 40 hours a week or you do overtime and one of the craziest things that I have heard is that there is this gentleman he operates and no names mentioned maybe he he still watches my videos I appreciate that he operates cranes and he makes eighty four thousand dollars a year working five days a week having the having Saturday and Sunday off and making eighty four thousand dollars a week he wants to risk that and get into Hot Shot where you probably make ninety thousand dollars a year but that requires that you be on the road 10 10 months out of the year so evaluate your situation if you're making anything above 50 000 and you have you work five days a week and you don't do any any overtime or anything like that then I think you are in a good condition good spot but if you want to to double your income or at least put like 50 on your income and your your okay with taking the risk of not seeing your family then maybe get into Trucking but otherwise I sometimes you have to think is is making 90 000 versus making ninety thousand dollars a year and stay 10 months out of the on the road versus making 60 and be home every night and only work five days a week eight hours a day and half Saturday and Sunday off and enjoy your time with your family which one is better to me if I had family and if I had kids and I and I did not want to have like Get Rich or anything like that then I would just be okay with making sixty thousand dollars a year and maybe like save some money and have a different business doesn't have to be you driving a truck you can maybe like oh own a truck in the future not now is not a good time to to be hiring drivers and putting putting them on the road but like have another business maybe like uh buy a farm and raise animals and grow something you know but anyways this will do for this video I hope your experience is as positive as mine I hope if you haven't gotten your CDL I hope you would succeed in trucking and and I hope you would like it to the fullest and be successful thank you so much for watching if you like this video please make sure you give it a thumbs up adios

Channel: On The Road

Views: 98,558

Keywords:

Id: 5XtbWuLA7Kg

Length: 19min 10sec (1150 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 13 2023