Must be Burn-Out.

Filed Under (Trucking)

After a really rough couple of weeks of not being able to work as much as we wanted, then some really dumb decisions on my part, then problems at the border and now not working as much again… Maybe the adventure is over and it’s time to find a job. Still trucking, but maybe something where the freight is more consistent. Maybe something dedicated, or at
least so we can get home more and have predictable money and time off. We have the experience as a team, but we really don’t want to have to drive 5000 or 6000 miles a week to make the same amount of money we do now driving half that. We hate not being able to make appointments with anyone because our office can’t be depended on to get us home on time. If we’re home too early, we don’t leave again because we may not make it back in time for whatever we have planned.

I’m tired of getting lost in a maze of “No Truck” signs, and trying to get a big 53′ trailer into places that are too small for a pick-up truck. Dealing with small minded shippers that freak-out over nothing. If we went terminal to terminal, no more shippers, just drop and hook and there’s a terminal in Vegas. Even if the pay per mile was less and the driving more, it would be the same amount of money on average but more miles would wear the truck out
sooner.

Or maybe I just need a vacation! It’s getting close to the time for us to leave and I don’t want to cut it too close. My office would have us unloading the same day we have to catch a plane and think they did a good job at getting us back. It’s too soon for us to go cross country
and have time to wait for another load to get back in the general area of Las Vegas.

So far the choices I have are spend a lot money to paint the truck and add equipment to the trailer or get our Hazmat endorsements and fix my Canada problem (again) and do something with the trailer. Probably won’t do anything till after January when we have two really good trips already planned.

Originally posted 2006-11-24 23:52:24.

(2) Comments Read More

Comments

Jeffro #

Of course there is no easy answer. I’d say you are suffering from burn out, but you don’t want to make any lasting decisions when you are upset – far too easy to overlook flaws in a new job. Pressure from the holidays doesn’t help, either. Less money doesn’t always mean less problems, but a lot of jobs are geared that way. No amount of money is worth going beyond your stress capabilities.

I used to work for the Postal Service. Ten years, good money, great benefits. However, the stress of working there caused me quite a few health problems – a heart attack was just one. Now I work twice as many hours for half the hourly wage driving a truck, and apparently I’m pretty healthy. I make about two thirds of my old PO wages, but I’m betting I’ll last longer!

Y’all strike me as very intelligent people. You’ll make the right choices – just give yourself some time. Just be sure you keep your plans with your family – that is the most important thing. It keeps you strong.

OINK #

My wife & I drove to work on I 70 for years; we became interested in trucking & got a big coffee-table ‘truckers book’ from the library. It had a picture of the driver & his rig, and allowed the guy (or gal) to tell his own story.

I especially recall the fellow that said he would slam on the brakes and try to miss you if you pulled out in from of him. BUT if he drove into the ditch with a load of rebar behind him he was dead — and he wasn’t going to do that for some damn foool man or woman. The only way he’d commit suicide was for a kid.

Sounded right to me — still does.