The Realities of Trucking: Traffic Congestion, Lack of Safe Parking & Low Pay

Trucking can be a tough job. Take it from me with 100s of thousands of miles behind the wheel I can tell you first hand the things to expect out there over the road.

Traffic Congestion and Slowdowns in Every Major City

Navigating a truck in a jam packed 8 lane highway is no easy task especially when you are cruising at 65 or 70 MPH. One wrong move by any vehicle around you can cause a catastrophe of massive proportions. It is no wonder there are numerous traffic accidents around the country everyday involving a big rig. And if you do make it out of the city without hitting anything expect to be fatigued because heavy traffic will do that to any trucker.

The Lack of Legal and Safe Parking

While this problem is well known in the industry. Expect on most days to not have any idea if a parking spot awaits you at the end of your 14-hour shift. Your company will tell you to plan for this but in reality, this is not always so easy with delays and your own time constraints from having to keep the pedal to the metal in order to make suitable time. You could always reserve a parking spot at one of many truck stops but expect to pay upwards of $20 or more of your hard-earned cash everyday should you decide to go this route.

The Lack of Pay When Your Equipment Breaks Down

I sat in a hotel for over 2 weeks in LA when my 2022 Mack Anthem broke down and did not get paid one penny. In fact, money came out of my pocket for the hotel, food, transportation and so on. The company only reimbursed about half of this if even that. And to top this off I had to pay for my own flight home. Trucks and even trailers break down a lot. Expect to have some sort of problem that needs repaired monthly. Yes, every month at least one and usually more problems pop up. While some are minor others will bring you to a grinding halt. If you are lucky your company will offer you some type of break down pay if you ask nicely for it and even, then this is usually something to laugh at in the ballpark of around $80 a day and this amount varies widely per company.

The Noisy Truck Parked Five Feet Away From You is Keeping You Awake

That is right. Finding a peaceful parking spot at a truck stop is an art form itself. Many trucks are refrigerated, and these trailers are called reefers. In order to keep the trailer cold, they have a giant refrigerator located on the front of the trailer. They run on diesel, and they are loud. So loud in fact. I was never able to really get a good night’s sleep parked next to one. They will even rumble your entire truck sometimes with deep vibrations. Good luck getting any sleep next to one of these things.

Overpriced Food and Supplies at Truck Stops

We are not talking about a couple of dollars markup but in many cases things that you would normally buy at a store will be double or even triple the price at a truck stop. Want to eat some Frosted Flakes? Good luck with having to pay $8 for a small box of it. Also, every truck stop usually has a fast-food joint attached to it. Expect to pay quite a bit more for these meals as well.

Fumes Seeping Into Your Cab While You are Trying to Sleep

You will always be breathing some fumes in trucking. These simply is no way to get around it. Of course, you want to minimize this as much as possible. If you are not chocking on your own truck’s fumes in your cab expect the non-DEF truck next to you to be spewing out a toxic combination of fumes that is enough to kill a rat. Sadly, this noxious gas will seep right into your truck and there is little you can do about except try to filter some out with a portable air filter.

14-Hour Days and 70-Hour Work Weeks

Yes, you heard that right. Truckers are expected to work up to 70 hours a week and up to 14 hours a day 6 days a week. How can anyone have a life while working such a crazy schedule? I will tell you from personal experience. You cannot. The most time and energy you will have on your one day off a week and that is even if you are lucky to be home that week is to go to the store and spend all of that energy restocking for your next trip. Oh, you like to binge watch Netflix every night. Good luck having the time or energy to even keep your eyes open for 30 minutes after your shift is over. A hidden downside to trucking for newcomers is the fact that this profession will steal the vast majority of all your time and energy like no other job.

Low Pay by the Hour

So, you just started a job where your company advertises $1100 a week. Sounds great right? Hold your horses mister because let us do the math on that. Let’s say you put in 65 hours that week. That comes out to $16.90. Really? There are cashiers at Target that make this much. They are not required to live in a small box, risk their lives on the road every day and work such a crazy schedule. Oh, and did I mention that you will have extra costs living out of a truck stop that will eat into this. And there is no avoiding that unless you are eating hotdogs every night with your fuel points and who wants to do that?