Any truckers here today...

Any truckers here today? Long-haul driving is my dream job and I am ready to enroll in a four month driver training program, but I am worried that the occupation will be obsolete in a few years due to automation. Is this a legit concern or just a meme? I want a long-term career, 30+ years, and would like to be an owner-operator sooner rather than later.

bump as i long for a good answer to this desu

As long as you are operating Interstate you are fine. Automated trucks can't handle hard conditions like steep grades on a rainy day or hazards, so while inner cities might have a auto truck company to drive 2 hours to go 10 miles in traffic. Long distance interstate is safe.

If you are lucky you might actually get to drive a self driving truck, nothing right now is even fully automated. It's entirely possible to earn a good wage playing games in a sleeper while the truck just coasts on the highway for a couple hours a day.

It won't ever be obsolete, do not listen to the shills.

There is too much needed for trucking, and even if the driving becomes automated there will still be someone behind the wheel. Tractor trailers have too much going on compared to a normal straight truck or car.

Its an ok career, it kind of sucks. You live out of a truck not even bigger than a bedroom. You will be un healthy unless you really try hard to be healthy.

Carriers suck and will fuck you over, like schnieder where they dont have apu's and you can't run the truck at night in for AC in august in florida.

Dispatchers at your pick ups are rude as fuck and douchebags for no reason whatsoever.

People are idiots on the road and will take advantage of you and try to make you crash into them so they can sue, the government hates you, and local police and state boys like to ticket it you in po dunk towns because they have no other revenue.

Its not bad, but i would only do it for a few years to save the money and invest it and move onto a line haul and home every night instead of long haul.

If you have a friend or are willing to team there is a lot more money in it.

Also owner operator sucks dick, stick with a good carrier. IC requires you to play with the fucking brokerage system, and the time you have off your scheduling all the maintenance for your tractor, and then carriers bitch about you eating up trailer brakes, or give you trailers with fucked up brakes and shit.

Its more hassle then its worth, yea it looks good because you make more money, but you have more fees and bullshit to construe and probably make just a little over someone that is in the field working for a carrier.

>Is this a legit concern or just a meme?

It's a meme at the moment. Think more of a cruise control, or auto pilot.

Driving down a road is not hard, a computer can do that easily. All the shit that can and does happen while driving down a road however is very hard to program computers to deal with. Something simple like identifying an empty jug of oil you can crush and identifying a child in a car seat you must not run over is very difficult for computers.

Emulating the visual cortex of humans and their decision making capability is something that is currently a pipe dream. Ignorant people are jumping on the automation bandwagon right now in an attempt give universal basic income legs when in reality is it just Marxist shit in a new package.

Been a trucker for 6 years, owner operator for almost 3. It's not a legitimate concern. At least not for me. I drive fork lift and do spot market. It'll probably be another 5 years or so before truck manufacturers start releasing level 3 autonomous trucks. Driverless level 5 trucks probably won't come out in my lifetime. At least that's not the motive of the engineers I know in Freightliner and Volvo. They aren't trying to replace drivers, they just want safer emissions and driving technology, mostly for subsidies and tax credits. It'll take more than a driverless truck to put a trucker out of behind the wheel.

Get your CDL at a community college or private schools. Don't fall for company cuck meme. Then go to a flatbed carrier. Save to buy a truck in cash used for ~$30K and start O/O at Mercer. They're good guys.

>very difficult
nah man it's not the main hang up is getting it approved by the government and that's hard because traditional truck makers don't want to switch to automated systems yet.

>fork lift

Flatbed. Don't mind the fork lift. Just had a jackass put a hole in my trailer bed with a fork lift and it's been on my mind.

>nah man

Was that supposed to convince me there has been some great leap forward in AI this week I am unaware of?

All it's doing is making me think you spend too much time on reddit, everyone I know who goes there thinks the process of distinguishing objects is simple because they are ignorant to the limitations of computers and the complexity of biological life.

We can't create the most basic forms of life but yea I'm sure we are just a stones throw away from an artificial human brain.

Also these so smart brains have killed people because they can't see in the sun light. Just drive me straight into a tractor trailer senpai fuck my shit up

>I want a long-term career, 30+ years
Just don't get fucking diabetes and you'll be golden. If you do get diabetes, then you're screwed.

Or overweight. Doctors will make you pay 5000 for a sleep study that you don't really need so insurance won't cover it.

Very true.
The whole sitting for extended periods with ready access to unhealthy foods doesn't help either, honestly.

>sitting for extended periods with ready access to unhealthy foods

Sounds like an excuse to me. I don't see how it's any different if you work at a desk all day and then go home and sit on the couch. If I were driving long haul I would make sure to get out of the truck and get some exercise when possible, and keep a cooler stocked with fruit, vegetables, and sandwich shit.

KEK

US trucks are fucking alpha compared to yuropoor ones.
Atleast Russia has alot of them.

Uk fuel tanker driver here... ask me anything

Many truckers do eat healthy and exercise but they seem to be the exception to the rule.

Truckers have it rough because it's like having popups on their desktops for fast food every 15 minutes. Plus a desk worker won't be forced out of their job if they do develop diabetes.

Even if only 25% of trucking jobs are automated in the next 10 years, that's still a huge glut of labor that you're going to compete with. These will be competitors with decades more experience and skill, and who are desperate to stay in the industry and not have to start over in another career.

I think it's obvious you don't want to deal with that.

hey, do you drive during week days only, and come home for weekend or do you always drive?
Is the pay good enough?

99% of the industry are

Good question. I don't mind being gone for a week or two but at some point I want some time off at home, not necessarily weekends but something reasonable.

I know in EU, long haulers are away from home for a few weeks straight, its a tough job and the pay is not so good, but i'm interested to know what is the situation like in UK, and tankers don't really run long trips?

Would a DUI from a year ago stop me from getting hired?

Now that republicans control government you're going to get a lot of deregulate so I think it's very realistic you could self-driving vehicle all over the roads in the next 5 years even if they are extremely buggy and unsafe

>Emulating the visual cortex of humans and their decision making capability is something that is currently a pipe dream.
You don't need to emulate a human visual cortex, it's just an issue of pattern recognition, you don't need general purpose sci-fi A.I. just specialized algorithms which are very realistic today

Yes, because it would cost too much to insure you. Eventually it will be off your driving record, check your local DMV to find out how long exactly but it will most definitely be longer than one year.