What's My Motivation to Be a Truck Driver?

This week I had a slightly odd but overall, a fairly typical encounter with another truck driver.  It was around 6am and Richie and I were about to switch over so that I could begin my shift.  We were at a Flying J (or was it Pilot..?) and I needed to use the restroom.  As I was walking toward the store, the conversation with this driver went something like this:

Him: Hey, you looking for a partner?

Me: No, I have one.

Him: He must be a lucky guy.

Me: He's my husband.

Him: I've been trying to get my wife to come drive with me.

Me: She's not interested?

Him: Nope.

So this was odd because it seemed that for him, any wife would do - be it me or his actual wife.  However, that aside, he did really want to be doing this job with his wife. She, it seemed, was not having any of it. I wonder now what he said to try to convince her to come on the truck with him.  Whatever it was obviously didn't work.

It got me to thinking: what keeps me here in this truck, relentlessly traversing the great US of A over and over and over again?  What makes me willing to do something that the majority of women wouldn't even consider? After all, there's nothing special about me.  I consider myself a fairly typical female.

At first glance, I thought it could be the money.  We were making more per week team trucking than we were making in a whole month working in the UK.  That's a big incentive.  After all, there are endless stories on the news about people in crippling debt, unable to find a job that pays a livable wage, young people who can't afford to move out of their parents' homes after college.

I also thought it could be the fact that Richie and I were working together, supporting each other and going through everything together.  That's something that not many people get in their jobs.

While it would sound nice and pretty to say that these two things are what keeps me in the job, sadly, they are not.  For me, when I'm going through one of those "get me out of here" moments, there is something that keeps me here and keeps me calm and carrying on.

I think of the future, of what we'll be able to get out of this that, had we returned to normal lives and normal jobs, would never in a million years ever be possible.

Here is why I stay trucking:

1.  If we put in a total of 10-12 years, we'll never ever have to work again.

2.  This means that when we retire, I'll be 48 or 49.  I imagine how many people that age are fully retired, never having to work for "The Man" again if they don't want to.  I don't think there are many at all.

3.  These days, retirement age seems to be at LEAST 65, perhaps even later.  So, by giving 10-12 years of my life to trucking, I am receiving at least 17 years of freedom before I turn 65 that I would have otherwise had to work.  That's a pretty good investment return!

4.  Because we won't need to be working, we'll have the freedom and choice to live anywhere we want.  Most people are limited by job opportunities and are stuck in either cities or in cookie-cutter suburbs.  Not us.

5.  Because of Reason #4, I know that by our late 40's, if we wanted, we could be living in a chateau-style log cabin in the North Georgia mountains.  Endless views of trees and mountains, an outdoor fireplace, verandas on every level.  I imagine us sitting outside on the veranda, watching the sun set over the mountains each evening, sipping a nice Pinot Noir.  This can be our daily reality if I stay in this job for another 9 years.  This is something we would never be able to have if I was not trucking with Richie.

So there you have it.  This is my personal motivation and what keeps me going.

I think if a guy wants to convince his wife/partner to come trucking with him, they need to discuss their own personal dreams and ask this question:

"What could we have if we did team trucking for xx years that would be an impossibility to have otherwise?"

Perhaps you're a young couple in your mid 20's.  Team drive for 10 years and retire.  You'll be young enough to start a family and never have to work.  How many parents get to do that?   How cool would it be to finish lunch on a Tuesday afternoon, put down your fork and declare "Hey, let's go camping for the rest of the week!"

For us, every week that we're here driving this truck gets us that bit closer to Financial Freedom.  It's not about becoming monetarily wealthy.  It's about being able to wake up one day, any day, and instead of saying "I have to do this..." it's being able to say "Hey, let's do this!"

Team trucking is giving us at least 17 extra years of "Hey, let's do this!" days.