Semi Driver?

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I am thinking of being a semi driver, there is a school about 30 min away that offers $1000 off for the training which seems like a good deal...so instead of being 4.5k to 5k it would be around 3.5k

Has anyone had success being a semi driver?

Driving is something I do pretty well and enjoy doing.

I love seeing different places/roads and listening to music as I drive.

From what i've seen most radios have satelite radio so a lot of sations to listen to.

Likely start with SWIFT since they are the most likely to employ seems like.

Then switch to a better company since swift seems like they do not treat employees well.

Any advice? Is this a good choice for an aspie?

I read somewhere that trucking will decrease your life span- is this true?

Talking from the European situation, about the experience from two friends of mine:
Semi drivers are a underpaid group of people. Long hours, not too much pay. When you find a good employer, try to stay with him... because they are difficult to find.

Life span is shorter, that has a number of reasons. The most important ones are the lack of movement and the bad eating. Truck drivers eat a lot in restaurants next to the road and a lot of them serve fast food. When you do enough sports and watch what you eat the life expectancy should not be too much of a problem.

All true, but also keep in mind the seats are usually on a air suspension for the driver because of the rustling/movement of the truck. Back problems are quite common and chances you'll develop a problem with a arm or other muscle are common because of the repetitious nature of things. My father was working 16 hour days for a little under 200 dollars, and they decided to pay less. Also keep in mind from a aspie perspective truckers are easy to get along with because they a lot of the times mind their own business/seem accepting.

But the downsides from what I've seen are.
- Low pay.
- Ergonomic problems.
- Deaths are quite common, cars don't respect semi's space, dart in front of them.
- Police won't be your friend.
- Chances of you flipping your bed on your cab and bursting into flames go up (this has happened to my dad's co-worker, and no... it wasn't a gas truck).
- Swift usually has people drive in teams/has a governor for 65 mph on all their trucks.

Good points.
- Calm, quiet, and its a standard course usually.
- Working by yourself.
- You know the rest.

Overall if you enjoy driving.. go for it.

Driving for hire or just out on my own, there is just about nothing I have ever enjoyed more. But in working for hire, I doubt any new driver is ever going to get the kind of long-haul runs that keep him or her from doing a lot of loading and unloading cargo. Then, the short or local runs new drivers are likely going to get are probably going to include a lot of looking for stops to either pick stuff up or drop it off, and that means a lot of maneuvering in unfamiliar places with traffic all around. But then even out on the road doing long hauls, it only takes a few trips for all the "scenery" to become quite familiar ... and of course, most commercial highways all begin looking the same after a while, and most of the wildlife to be viewed will only be road kill.

Please do not let me discourage you, but please do be careful about knowing what is really ahead -- whatever that might be -- before placing your money on the table without knowing for sure you are really going to enjoy the actual work required while scanning for non-crackly radio stations and earning it back.

just bouncing it around in my head for now, main reason I am interested is I spend a lot of time driving anyways.

if I do go into it I refuse to work a team route.

also 12.50 an hour is not very good, atleast not in my state but I believe we have the highest or atleast one of the highest minimum wages here. Was kind of wondering if I get to work for a company from here if they would pay more because of this?

swift just seems like a bad comapny, I once followed a swift truck through oregon and california once which is partly why I was interested in the company but most people who have worked for them have bad experiences. But seems to be the highest employer of new semi drivers.

I would doubt a company would pay in proportion to a local minimum wage, but it would not surprise me to learn a company actually paid less (closer to minimum) than elsewhere when paying within an area with a high minimum.

I think owning one's own tractor and possibly even being independent (as opposed to contracted for just one company) might be best all-around, but I have never actually done that myself and I could have never afforded the capital investment.