Questions About Truck Driving: How To Protect Your Freight And Get Enough Sleep

Hi



I am thinking about getting my CDL and becoming a truck driver. How safe is truck driving from the stand point of getting enough rest? How do you keep your loads safe from people who may hurt you and steal the load? What do you do when you are extremely tired and your manager wants that you keep driving? Please tell me about all the obstacles and challenges that you have, so I can see if truck driving is the right career for me.



Sincerely,



Mansour

Answer:

Hi Mansour



You have some excellent questions. First, there are a lot of materials on my website that cover some of these exact questions, and my book covers every one of them.



Here are a few articles that you'll find very helpful:



Becoming A Truck Driver Part 3: How Do I Know If Trucking Is For Me?



Becoming A Truck Driver Part 5: Will I Enjoy Life On The Road?



Truck Driving Story From Phoenix, AZ



Truck Driving Story From New York, NY



The first two explain a lot about what life on the road is like. The last two are stories of mine from the road to give you some examples of some of the stuff you will find out there.



Now I'll answer your questions directly.



How safe is driving from the aspect of getting enough sleep?



As far as safety concerns with getting enough rest - there will be times when getting enough sleep is very tough or nearly impossible. The hours are very inconsistent.
Sometimes you might pick up a load at 2:00 in the afternoon, sometimes 2:00 at night. Sometimes you have to run odd hours because of traffic concerns. Say for instance
you have a delivery at 8:00 in the morning in Chicago. Well, you sure can't go strolling into Chicago at 7:30 and expect to get there on time. You'll be stuck in traffic and
you'll be late. So you go in about 4:30 in the morning, arrive at the customer, take a nap for a few hours, and your day begins again. So there is no way that you will always
get enough sleep. Time will teach you how to schedule your runs the best way you can - but more than anything else you will learn to get by sometimes on 3 hours of
sleep sometimes. That is just the reality of life on the road. It's not a nine to five schedule.



How do you keep your loads safe?



Really, this is very rarely a problem. If you put a super heavy duty lock on the trailer, that is usually all you will ever need. I've driven for 15 years, rarely locked the trailer, and
never once had anything stolen. Now here is something to look out for - sometimes you will pick up valuable loads - say a load of computers. What will happen is there are
thieves that will drive around in vans. They know the company you picked up at has just given you a load of computers. So what they will do is secretly follow you, hoping you
stop somewhere soon down the road to get something to eat at a truckstop or take a nap in a rest area. When they get their chance they'll open up the trailer, grab a bunch of
computers, load them in the van, and be gone in a matter of minutes. That's if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, you'll go in the truckstop to get something to eat and when you
come back outside, your truck is gone. The best thing to do when you get a load like that is leave the shipper and drive for at least 200 miles. They will only follow you for so
long and then they'll turn back and wait on the next truck to leave the warehouse. 200 miles without stopping and you should be fine. The other obvious point is don't sleep
overnight in a bad part of a city. It isn't always avoidable, but usually it is. But I wouldn't be too concerned with this. Theft does happen, but it's pretty rare overall. Common sense
will usually keep you out of trouble.



What if you're really tired and they want you to keep driving?



See, this is a fine line you have to walk. If once in a while you're just too tired to get somewhere on time, most companies will let that go. But if you do it too often, they simply
won't give you very many good loads. You'll be sitting a lot and all of the good loads will go to the guys who are consistently on time. Again, after a while you will learn to
schedule your runs in a way that you can get the job done safely. But no matter how long you've been driving, sometimes you're going to be tired and it comes down to a decision
you have to make - can I grab a nice big cup of coffee to stay awake safely for a couple more hours or do I have to shut down for the night and be late with this load?
You have to know your own limits and always put safety first. Your manager will never, ever actually say you have to keep running even though you are tired. He will start
giving you less miles though if you can't seem to get the job done as well as other drivers. It's kind of an 'unwritten rule' that the guys who are willing to run the hardest will
get the most miles and the best loads. The guys who can't seem to get the job done wind up sitting an awful lot.



The articles and my answers will give you a good start. If you're really, really serious about becoming a truck driver and you really want to know all the information you can
get before making a decision, my book is the way to go. It's very inexpensive and it is packed with every detail I could think of from 15 years on the road. Here is the link
to my book about becoming a truck driver.



I sure hope this helped!



Best of luck,



Brett Aquila

Becoming a Truck Driver: How I Got Started In Trucking

I don't believe there is anyone in America, or a multitude of other countries for that matter, who hasn't considered becoming a truck driver. We've all wondered from time to time what life would be like traveling the highways day in and day out ... living on the road, seeing the sites, meeting people from far and wide, and watching the sunrise and set from one coast to the other...what would it be like?



I did exactly that for the better part of fifteen years and I can tell you one thing - I wouldn't trade my time on the road for anything in the world. I was blessed with the ability to do any number of other things. Becoming a truck driver was never any goal or consideration of mine, and I never knew anyone who had done it. I simply came across it by chance once upon a time on a hot summer day in Atlanta....and everything changed in my life from that day on.



Working for $5.50/hr in a warehouse as a 21 year old man-child I arrived at work one day to find a Ryder truck parked in the lot. I was told we had to haul some pallets of literature downtown and exchange them for yet another group of pallets to bring back. It was the largest straight truck that Ryder offered....and I had never even seen the inside of one. But I was determined to be the one to make the trip in it. So how was I going to convince them to let me do it? The only way I could - I was gonna lie my brains out. I told the boss my aunt had moved twice and my grandma had moved once and all three times I drove the truck...same size truck as the one out in the lot.



Amazingly enough they gave me the OK to take it downtown. What were they thinking???? So away I went. The trip went perfectly and I did what I was supposed to do. I went downtown, they unloaded me, reloaded the truck (after their lunch break of course), and I returned safe and sound. Upon arrival I immediately went to my best friend and joyously exclaimed that not only was that a lot of fun, but I didn't even have to do any work that day...."all I did was drive" - and the light bulb came on.



I went home and looked up the only trucking company I knew of and found out that I would start at $40,000/year. I was making $15,000 at the time...including overtime!  Becoming a truck driver was exactly what I was going to do....and a month later I was in trucking school.



I graduated, got hired with a great company on graduation day, and had an awesome career. I made excellent money, met thousands of people, saw many of the most famous sites in America, and many others that were just as beautiful but mostly unknown.  It's not an easy life - but if you're the right type of person for it there is no other job like it in the world. You'll learn so much about yourself, your country, and the people you share it with. You'll experience the differences in culture from city to city and region to region. You'll make very good money, have a ton of fun, and have a career that keeps our economy moving and makes you feel like you've accomplished something worthwhile....and you have.



The moral of the story? Lie. Lie like crazy! No, I'm just kidding. The real moral of the story is that sometimes you have to take chances in life. If you ever want to get anywhere worth going it will take risk, courage, and faith in yourself to get there.



I'll be writing about a lot of issues regarding the trucking industry and life as a truck driver in the coming weeks and months. I've already written a book about becoming a truck driver that has tons and tons of stories from my years on the road and advice to anyone considering a career as a truck driver. I also have a website with tons of free content - it's at www.truckingtruth.com, which has truck driving stories from my years on the road, links to trucking schools and recruiters, advice about becoming a truck driver, and some excerpts from my book. You'll like the site...there's a lot of helpful information there.



I'd love to hear from you and answer any questions you might have. Email me from my website at www.truckingtruth.com and I'll be sure to get back to you.



Til next time.....take care.