Do You Have What It Takes To Become A Truck Driver?

As a nation, we depend on the transport system to survive. Many people hate those trucks that travel along our highways, yet we would soon run into difficulties if they were suddenly banned. Trucks transport food, produce, and those every day requirements in life. Even fuel used in heating and to operate our vehicles require trucks for transport. Love them or hate them – we need them, and the drivers as well. The question is, do you have what it takes to become a truck driver?

Anyone can gain a commercial drivers license (CDL). All it takes is a truck driver training course and the ability to pass the tests associated with that license. However, having a CDL doesn’t make you a truck driver – it just gives you the legal right to drive trucks. While driving skills are obviously important, a truck driver needs attributes that often exceed those required in other occupations. Do you possess these attributes?

• Patience – Truck drivers need loads of patience. You know how busy roads can become, and you know there are a lot of crazy drivers around. Truck drivers need patience to navigate through traffic jams and away from crazy car drivers. Truck drivers also need patience when dealing with officials, both law enforcement and Department of Transport. Getting loud and abusive to either is never going to be a good career move.
• Reliability – Businesses that employ truck drivers need to rely on the reliability of those drivers. Reliability is required in several areas including turning up for work on time, getting your load delivered on time, and maintaining important areas of the job such as log books, paperwork, and the truck itself.
• Compliant – Most truck drivers hate documents such as a log book, yet it is an important part of truck driver’s working day. Compliance comes through in several areas ranging from following road rules, even though they may seem outdated, to following requirements set down by the Department of Transport. You must also be willing to comply with the various rules that trucking companies place on their employees, even if they too seem to be outdated. That doesn’t mean you cannot seek to have any of these rules (road, DOT, and employer) changed – you just need to comply with them until they are changed.

If you are reliable, have plenty of patience, and you’re willing to follow the rules, then you’d most likely make a great truck driver. All you need now is the training and the commercial drivers license. If you’re ready, then so are we. Call us to find out when our next truck driver training program starts.