Trucking career?

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I'm now three days post ASD diagnosis and am now looking at career options. I'm thinking of driving a truck. It seems to be the only career where I might be able to just come in, do my job, and leave. I can't stomach the thought of working in some large corporate IT department. Most IT jobs require teamwork. The idea of driving a truck is appealing because I have my own space. I can drive stick shift and I think I could learn to work with a trailer. Anyone out there a trucker? I got my state's CDL manual and began reading. The salary doesn't seem too bad and I get to travel.

I know a number of people who drive trucks.

For something where you come in, do your job, and then leave, I suspect that would be more applicable to local haulers. Not much travel there. For example, one guy I grew up with hauls grain to a feed lot from whatever grain elevator he is told.

Another hauls oil from oil wells to pipeline sites where they can put the oil in the pipeline. I see people do this quite often since there is such a site on my way home.

I know one guy who has a lucrative contract to haul grain to hog houses. He's self employed with his own trucks and basically does like the first guy above.

One thing you might like even in a relatively small town is hauling trash. Many of the trash trucks these days merely dump dumpsters in the back. Working for a municipality may get you better benefits.

My mom worked as a long-haul truck driver during the summer when we were kids (we'd be off with my dad's side of the family). She really enjoyed it. Long hours in the truck, listening to music and sometimes audio books (ha, back when they were on tape), seeing lots of the country. And, yeah, it paid well enough to catch up on bills and buy our fall school supplies, etc.

One note on the IT side, though... I do work for big companies, because of the benefits, but, not in the IT department itself, as tech support in a smaller department (facilities). Get to support work of being good stewards of resources, but, don't have to be a part of a huge team that I constantly have to communicate with. I suss out what is wanted and I go off and do it. It's been stressful on occasion, but, overall, I really like it.

Hmmmmm. That's interesting. I've never thought of working for a facilities department. I had always that IT handled those things as well. By steward of resources, do you mean things like AV, equipment?

I hadn't either. I was actually tipped off by my friend's dad about an opening in the engineering department of the facilities group. I worked there for over 13 years... the offices were almost always in a nice, quiet basement somewhere.

Now, I'm still in facilities, but, for a financial services company, so, no basement, a brightly lit cube farm, but, as we're not one of the money-making departments, it's much quieter and smaller than others.

And by being a good steward of resources, it's making sure our equipment is being maintained when it should, that we're utilizing our space to the best capacity, managing energy resources, etc. Every piece of building material we don't waste is godo for the company's budget, but, also for the evironment. Obviously, being IT, I'm not managing the construction projects or doing the moves or maintenance, but, I help make it easy for the rest of the department to do.

The hospital had more complex building systems and much more equipment to manage than my current office-space only company does, but, a university or airport or anything would have a department like the ones I've worked in. Being in a 'support' department can be difficult budget-wise, but, you're never really in the public eye with the pressures that come with it.

I'll bet some accounting or legal departments could have a single IT support (doing more specific IT roles than the IT department would normally support because it's too specialized). At the hospital I started out managing the CAD program(s) (AutoCAD, then AutoCAD MEP, then Revit MEP) and moved on to other things like being involved in the Work Order and Space Management type software. Your average desktop support tech would have no idea about things that specific to a workflow.

I worked as a long haul trucker for a year.

You do still have to deal with your dispatcher and clients, but most of the time you do work in isolation.

The hours are long, and the pay never seems to be as much as you expect. I was extremely bored most of the time, but some people love it.

You will have to get training in a big truck, and it can be expensive. Driving stick is a good start, but shifting a semi is not the same as shifting regular car. None of it is that hard to learn.

I got trained through a company that financed the training and worked with a few trucking companies to make sure you had a job lined up as soon as you finish. That company has since gone out of business.

If you really want to do it, go for it. Don't feel like you have to just because you're on the spectrum. Trucking might isolate you more than you want. It's usually fairly low stress, but there isn't much support if you do ever develop any coping issues.

How was learning how to back a tractor trailer up? Thanks.

Backing with a trailer takes a little patience. Some people really struggle to learn it, a few even washed out of the training program I was in because that just couldn't do it. It seems like the ones that couldn't get it were the same ones that had trouble managing frustration if things didn't go right. They'd do it almost right on the first attempt, then get all worked up and go downhill from there.

If you can keep your cool and keep thinking clearly when learning something difficult, you should be fine.

When in doubt, set the brake, get out and look. It annoys people when a big truck takes a long time to do something, but far better to take to long than to hit something.

Patience is a huge part of trucking. Ignore other people's impatience. Take as long as you need to safely dock, slow way down when going down a steep mountain road to manage your brakes. There will be plenty of honking horns and raised middle fingers, but it's the only way to do it right.

That's good advice! Have you got any tricks for using mirrors or any other little tricks that make things easier? Do you look for lines or other stationary objects to guide yourself by? I can back a small moving truck up if I have some frame of reference. I guess like anything, it takes practice and patience. I was pretty stoic about learning to parallel park. I just kept doing it over and over until I got it.

You really just have to get in a vehicle that big and do it to get a feel for it. It will be a lot longer than anything you're used to driving so it responds differently. I could give you more specifics but it's kind of pointless, you'll have to get training, and you'll hear it all again.

It sounds like you have enough relevant driving experience that you'll pick it up easily enough, it's just a matter of whether or not it's what you want.

If you go for it, plan to commit to doing it for one full year. That will give you enough time to pay off the training, and it's the minimum amount of experience you should have if you want to go do something else but retain the option of driving again.

Thank you for all of your input. I'm not ready to take the plunge and do it just yet but its a strong consideration. I hear some companies even have automatic transmission trucks too.