So you want to be a GayTrucker?
Saturday, March 29th, 2008Let me start by saying that I love my job. The life they lead is for me. I do what I do for many reasons, but the most important thing is that I love what I do! Therefore, if this sounds like me complaining, I am not, this is just the way it is.
For me there is nothing better than a full moon night, with some heat lightning off in the distance on a road that is all to myself. On a night like this I will sit down and listen to the rhythm of the tyres on the road, solve some problems in my mind, write a song, and really enjoy what I do. For me this is why I drive a truck, and nothing else! Sound romantic? I suppose it does, but there is much more than that. .
My average time on the road is six weeks. When I go home, I will take one week off and then back again. Now not all drivers drive this way, some of them are home once a week. The common practice is to be out about three weeks and then return home for a couple of days. The industry standard is that you get one day off per week out on the road. A job consists of seventy hours. There is no overtime, and once they see every hour that you do not receive payment, or manage to hide, their working environment is closer to ninety-one hundred hours a week! This is only working time, but remember that you do not get to go home every night, you get to eat, sleep, and trucking! The hours are long and very irregular. One day he was transport through the day, the next night. You can deliver at 3:00 AM or 10:00 PM. There is no such thing as a set schedule when you are a cross-country truck driver.
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