Advice Please
by
Phil Madsen
(Written January 15, 2003. Edited March 11, 2007 for publication on SuccessfulExpediters.com.)
Note to Readers: The following is the first online inquiry we made about trucking. It was posted in a trucking news group. People researching the industry should not infer much from this piece, except that we were more enthusiastic than informed about trucking. The inquiry was written before we knew expedited freight transport existed as a specialty within the larger trucking industry.
We are a married couple; no kids, little debt, above-average pre-tax household income, good jobs (she is an attorney, he is a computer professional). He is 48. She is 41.
A friend gave us a ride in his Freightliner a few weeks ago. The bug bit and we have not stopped thinking about trucking since. We have been visiting truck stops on the weekends, reading everything we can about trucking, looking into training, buying study guides, scheduling our next vacation to attend a big trucking trade show, and looking at every negative trucking opinion we can dig up; especially the negative reports on the www.realdrivers.com web site. Yet the lure of the life persists.
We would be a team with little need to be home. We would probably start out driving for a company for a year to make sure we like it, and then buy our own rig (paid in full up front). We would work hard, hoping to drive 250,000 miles a year, and would hope to do some tourist things along the way, especially after the first year. We will not drive unsafe. We will not drive illegal.
We also have mechanical background. Years ago he graduated from a technical school auto mechanics program and worked that trade for a couple years. He still has all his tools.
We are thinking that between runs we could park the rig at a terminal or truck stop, rent a car, change out of blue jeans and into slacks to go to the theaters, art institutes, museums, and other tourist attractions nationwide.
The way we figure it, people work hard all their life so they can buy a fancy motor home to travel the country when they retire. Doing so, they spend a lot of money to be on the road. As a trucking team, we would make money. The cab would be our hotel. We would see more country than any motor home retirees could ever dream of. And we could start now, instead of waiting to reach retirement age.
With our house and rig paid off, we would save most of the money we made. In a sense, our career on the road would be our first retirement (from our current jobs and finally free from our mortgage). Our second retirement would come whenever we got tired of driving.
Adding to the appeal is the cell phone and Internet access now available in a truck. You can now earn a masters degree from a state university via the internet. He could run his technology business from his laptop computer. While one drives, the other can study and/or do computer business online. We are just a phone call or e-mail message away from our clients, friends, and family, just like now. In fact, we might spend more time with them than we do now, because we would make the effort to meet for coffee when we are passing through town. We are both book lovers and can happily pass huge blocks of time by reading.
Regarding the creature comforts of a house, we spend our vacations wilderness camping in a small tent; no running water, no bathrooms. A refrigerator in a cab and flush toilets just a rest stop away would be a step up! And if the cab starts feeling a bit too familiar, we can spend a day or two in a hotel or head back to the house for a few days.
The one variable that we can't predict is our health, but that is the case no matter what kind of job we have.
We submit ourselves to the voices of experience here. Are we nuts to give up our jobs for a life on the road? What are we not seeing? Are our expectations for an occasional tourist diversion realistic?
Note that the name and the e-mail address used in this message are phony. We don't need to identify ourselves to post this inquiry and personal info. The rest of the message is true.
Our inquiry is sincere. Your advice and insights will be much appreciated.