Sometimes people ask me what I earn as a trucker. I tell them I made slightly over $100K per year since 2022. At one point I was even making over $200K as a lease purchase contractor hauling freight from New York and other northeastern states.
Their jaws drop wide open. They ask how a trucker can possibly earn that much money. I shake my head because regular civilians, and even most truckers, don’t get it.
Even though there appears to be lots of truck drivers out there, people who can handle the job for prolonged time periods, and DO THE JOB WELL, are rare and valuable human beings.
Let’s look at the primary obstacles that lead to driver attrition:
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Social isolation. This gets to a lot of people after a few months or so. Most human beings aren’t willing or able to deal with this.
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Driving up to 11 hours in a 24 hour period, working about 70 hours per week, and working odd hours and random schedules. A lot of people can’t physically do this without falling asleep. And many more face burnout after six to twelve months of keeping this pace.
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Traffic accidents. Good defensive driving requires discipline that most people don’t have, and so many drivers get into career ending accidents.
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Drug use. Drivers are subject to random drug testing. If you can’t stay drug free you’ll get caught and be kicked out of trucking within 1–3 years. This obviously weeds out many people. And the tests are really accurate nowadays (think hair follicle drug tests).
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Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). Even a DWI in your personal vehicle, off duty, will take you out of trucking for roughly 5 years depending on the company you want to work for. This ends a lot of careers.
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Health problems. Staying physically fit on the road, again, requires discipline that most people don’t have. The obesity rate in trucking is BAD, and a lot of people have to quit over the resulting medical problems.
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Violations. Speeding tickets, vehicle maintenance violations, inspection failures, etc., go on a driver’s permanent record. Avoiding these takes discipline that most people don’t have. And getting too many points will make you unemployable.
In summary, a professional truck driver who can survive all those career snags above is obviously hard to find. And if you can pass this test for 1-2 years, you will have your pick of good trucking companies willing to pay you more.
You see. Trucking isn’t about going harder and faster. It’s a long term game of risk management. Learning to thrive in pain and suffering, having a high level of discipline, and not making dumb mistakes, will take you farther than anything else in this game.
And most people can’t do this game well. If you CAN, you will have almost zero competition.