The standard shift is M-F rotating 3rd,2nd,1st with weekends off. However, they can tell you at anytime of any shift that you need to work 12 hours instead of 8. Also they have weekend overtime that is mandatory if you're scheduled. Could be 8 or 12 hours and could be any shift. You find out thursday afternoon what you work that weekend so not much notice. Hard to plan anything in advance.
I've considered truck driving. There are a few things that have held me back. When I owned a manual transmission vehicle I got a sore left knee if in heavy traffic. I'm assuming it'll only be worse with a semi. When I drove from Wisconsin to Florida without stopping to sleep I got a very sore lower back. Also probably not good if i'm going to be driving a truck for 10 hours per day. Another thing is i'm reluctant to fork over several thousand upfront for training when I don't know if I can do the job. The other thing is that I hate driving on the highway in winter. I'm guessing you don't have a lot of options as a truck driver to wait out a storm. You have a place you need to be and not much time to get there.
Your schedule would be horrible for me. My schedule as a truck driver is better, believe it or not. Because it is generally the same every day, since I drive "local".
You
might stilll consider trucking. The sore knee thing. I had that during my training because they make you use the clutch. In reality, truckers only use the clutch for first gear, usually, then shift without it, by matching engine rpm and gear, etc. My sore knee went away after I stopped using the clutch so much.
The sore back thing. I have had a sore back once in a while, but it goes away. 99 percent of the time, no sore back. I do have a sore neck currently, but I'm using a neck roll thing which is helping.
I do not have to load or unload anything.
About the huge ripoff of truck driving school. Yes, it is way overpriced. I was able tio get my CDL for free, since I was on unemployment, and there was a state program which paid for it!!
About winter driving. The dispatchers want you to just drive through the storm, but if you say it's too dangerous, they will let you get a hotel, and they will pay for it. It sets your schedule back, and you make less money for the week, possibly, but you don't have to risk your life and others.
I actually had had a longstanding desire to be a truck driver. You may not. I like the independence, and the concept of actually completing your task every minute you are driving, as opposed to worrying in an office about how some other person is going to ruin your work efforts (change what you do, when it is due, how you do it, etc)
I must admit I was a complete Zombie for about the whole first year and a half, due to the schedule, which used to be 5 pm to 5 am. Going to sleep after the sun came up was a real killer. And I must admit, unfortunately, that I have aged about 10 years in the 6 years I have been driving.
My excuse for continuing is that my current schedule lets me get to sleep around 2 am to 3 am, so I can get some night sleep in, which is much easier on the body, I find. Aging less quickly now, I hope.
I was lucky too get a local job right out of trucking school. There are lots of poor bas##rds who are working over the road, aren't home much, and are only making $35,000 per year !!
You might want to get trained to operate heavy machinery, as another poster mentioned. Backhoe, bulldozer, etc. Daytime hours, and big bucks, from what I hear.
JG3
", I wor*ked a normal dayshift, but every other week, I was "required" to fill in for 3rd shift on a Friday night/Saturday moring.
