i couple years ago i quit my job at driving for bst to drive for an owner operator. he told me i could have my choice of loads and could go wherever i wanted. as it turned out my choices only took me about 350 miles and took a whole day of calling agents who didn't care if you ran or not too get them. it was allot of busting my ass and sitting around in truckstops a few hundred miles away from home with no fuel to go anywhere. after about 5 weeks of this i gave the guy who owned the truck an ultimatum. he either changed companies or i would have to seek employment elsewhere. i suggested he lease the truck on with pacer. i was really good friends with an agent and i could get some good paying loads. he lied to me and said he would do it then sold the truck.
my friend at pacer hooked me up with a company down in dallas. they bought me a bus ticket from columbus to dallas and after 24 hours of being cramped up on 5 different buses i arrived in dallas and walked miles to the motel. i could either get a cab or eat. i was a broke ass yankee walking down the road in dallas in the middle of the night in my old black boots pulling my suitcase. next day they picked me up and took me to the terminal. they gave me a nice big late model peterbilt outfitted with chains, tarps, straps, 2 big yellow beacons on some oversized banners. i started hauling oversized loads. windmill parts, big excavating equipment. 16' wide 15' tall. i'll chain 'er down and get it there. i was making $3000 evry 2 weeks. i was going from california to connecticut to utah to texas to washington to florida. i was officially a big time truck driver and i made it home about every 2 weeks for about 2 or 3 days.
freight steadily slowed down till after 9 months i was making about $700 every 2 weeks and after every run id spend about 4 or 5 days in the truckstop and was away from home about 5 to 6 weeks at a time.
then i quit that job to haul cars. a guy picked me up in dallas and i came back to ohio. i hauled cars till that dried up then i went back to flatbed for the same guy.
didn't get much flatbed freight we parked the flatbed and started to pull a van for petsmart. after the load went through 3 brokers and got to me it paid about $100 a night. one night i fell off a dock in cleveland walking around behind a store looking for the manager and i twisted my knee real bad. i laid there on the dark concrete for about 15 minutes before i could get up. then i limped over to what i thought was the petsmart door and beat the shit out of it. i got somebodies attention and they got me unloaded. i had one more stop to make then i headed toward home. i stopped about 2 hours away from home and went to bed. my knee was killing me. when i woke up it toke everything i had to get into the drivers seat. i couldn't even pull my leg up over the gearshift to get it lined up with the fuel pedal. i sat there for a minute and i called my mom. (shit is bad when i have to call mom) then i sat there in the drivers seat facing the passengers side and i cried.
i realized no matter how tough i was or how much knowledge i had or who i knew did not matter at that point. trucking had officially kicked my ass. a buddy of mine came out and drove the truck back to columbus dropped the trailer and parked the truck at moms.
around this time i met a guy who drove for conway. he said they were hiring so i limped on in and filled out an app. i tool one last flatbed load out to phoenix and called them every 3 days. when i got back the job was mine. no more sleepers. no more agents. just drive the truck and come home everyday. 5 12 hour days home everyday and every weekend. another month i'll be getting medical benefits, stock options, 401k and a pension plan.
i dunno what you might get out of this story but try to be optimistic. i'm not sure how soon things will get better but they will get better. hang tough