10 Reasons Why Trucking is Cool!

I'll be the first to admit - getting used to this trucking lifestyle hasn't been easy. During my first year especially, I longed for the normality of, well, NORMAL life - with a home that stayed in one place, a 9-5 job, weekends, shopping, restaurant choices other than Denny's and Country Pride, friends, family, nature walks, and lazy Saturday mornings involving pancakes and pots of tea. When I was feeling down, I could think of practically a billion things I missed about my old life.

"Trying without success to fit in!"

Slowly, however, over the past year, my mindset began to change, almost without me even realizing what was going on. I would find myself thinking less and less about my old life and focusing more and more on making this life as good and pleasant as possible for ourselves.

That is not to say I no longer miss normal life and that this life is a bed of roses. We're just like any other truck drivers and sometimes things happen which can be incredibly frustrating (how about being sent 100 miles each way out of your way for an empty trailer at 2am?). At times like that, I think to myself (and say loudly to Richie) "Are we insane for putting ourselves through this?"

For better or for worse though, that's just the nature of the job of trucking. It's a kind of "take it or leave it" deal we're in.

I have no doubt that if you do a quick internet search, you'll find a gazillion reasons why this job is tough and unpleasant and for those reasons, people tend to respond to us when they find out what we do with "Ugh, I could never do that job or live in a truck!"

So I'm going to turn things around a little bit here and give you 10 of my reasons why trucking can be pretty cool in comparison to the regular 9-5 life that most of us lead.

1. We're able to save WAY more money than probably everybody who's not in trucking. After just 2 years, we've saved enough to buy a house outright if we so choose. We're paid well but mostly, we have no cost of living other than our food and phone. I read somewhere that Americans spend up to 60% of their salaries just to keep a roof over their heads. When you think that we've got a free roof over our heads, well, living in a truck doesn't seem so bad! 

"I would SO love this adorable tiny house!"

2. Most normal people have to deal with a boss on a daily basis. Bosses can be controlling, demanding, moody, unfair, and unappreciative. I have certainly had my fair share of these! But in trucking, there are no bosses like that. As long as we get the loads to the customer safely and on time and communicate, no one cares when we take our breaks or how we choose to work our schedules. If someone in the Covenant office is in a bad mood, we'll never know about it.

3. In a normal job, people have to always look busy, even if there's not enough work to do. In my old job, I found times like that stressful and exhausting. Here, if you're not working, you just chill out! If you're at a customer's getting loaded, it's their job to load you. You, as the driver, in the meantime, can have a nap, eat some food, chat, whatever.

4. For most people, during work time, you have to look and act a certain way to conform to the accepted norm. Where I used to work, eating breakfast at one's desk during working hours was frowned upon and I would be harshly judged if I were to do so. In trucking though, you look and do as you like. I eat my breakfast while driving and don't care how I look if I happen to shove a huge piece of food into my mouth in unladylike fashion. I can chat to my heart's content or even have an animated conversation with myself without fear of how others will perceive me.

5. Lunch in normal working life is often quite restrictive. Where I worked, there was a small kitchen with a few tables. If the weather was decent, I could take my lunch into the park and hope to find a free bench. However, there was no place for privacy and proper relaxation. Here, I have my freshly cooked lunch in the comfort of my truck. I always have my breaks at a rest area so I get views of greenery. After lunch, I often hop into bed for a snooze. Who in normal life can do that?

"Lunchtime!"

6. When there's standstill traffic for whatever reason and traffic is stopped for ages, I always feel bad for non truckers because it must be pretty uncomfortable for them as all they want is to just get where they're going.  They have few, if any, amenities with them. We truck drivers tend to have all we need in the truck. Whether we're in a rest area or stuck on the interstate, we're home!

7. I seriously don't know of any other job where I can do this: drive along, drink my coffee or bottled water, snack on almonds (wasabi and soy sauce are my new favorite!), not have to speak to anyone or please anybody and listen to whatever audio book I happen to be listening to at the time (Gone With the Wind, in case you're wondering). Before I know it, hours have gone by and Scarlett is still angry with Rhett. That's my working day.

8. When normal people go to fuel up, they pay for gas and that's what they get. As company drivers, we don't pay to fuel. However, we have a rewards card which entitles us to free showers. We also get points for each gallon we fuel which we use like money, either in the truck stop or at the restaurant. Also, because we fuel so much, we are entitled to a free soda or coffee of any size if we fuel 75 gallons (an easy thing to do) which means we never ever need to pay for coffee or soda!

9. In most jobs, people work for 35-40 years before retiring. In this job, if you save well and invest sensibly, you only need to work for about 10 years or so before retiring. A sensible young couple could get into trucking at age 25, do it for 10 years, and retire at 35. They can settle down, start a family if they wish and never have to work again. We came into the job later than that, but we'll still be forever finished with work in our late 40's!

10. In most jobs, people can struggle with their coworkers. Cliques exist, there's the whole "fitting in" thing to deal with, it's impossible to like everyone you have to work with. In this job, my only coworker is Richie - my husband and best friend!

I hope you enjoyed my list of reasons why trucking is cool. I enjoyed writing it and it helps to remind me that whatever we choose in life will have its own set of ups and downs. I think people tend to focus on the negatives of trucking and neglect the positives and so I hope I have started to redress that balance, even if just a bit.