Truckers are often faced with significant challenges. This can make your life stressful, boring, and even dangerous. Fortunately, there are ways for you to deal with these challenges more effectively.
A trucker needs to be an expert driver to keep the truck on the road and the cargo secure during travel. It’s not always easy being a professional driver when some obstacles have you running late or stranded along the way because of mechanical problems like breakdowns, or accidents while moving goods.
So what are the biggest challenges a trucker faces on the road?
1) Driving Large Loads
The tanker truck driver is one of the more challenging and risky driving jobs. The nature of the job is to drive a large and heavy load. Doing this safely can be difficult because of the weight you have to carry. For example, a fully-loaded 18-wheeler can weigh anywhere up to 80,000 pounds.
2) Finding Work Consistently
Being a professional truck driver is a tough job. It’s not easy to find steady employment, especially when you are starting out. Many truckers rely on https://www.shiply.com/us/shipping-jobs to find shipping work. Truckers are independent contractors and as such, they don’t get paid by the hour. They get paid by the mile or by the load depending on the type of freight they transport from one place to another.
3) Climbing Long Mountains
A long mountain range can certainly be intimidating for anyone driving a semi-trailer truck. Driving up a mountain in the middle of nowhere is difficult enough, and to do it in the dark of night can be even more challenging.
4) Long Drives
If you’re a long-haul trucker, driving for hours can become tedious. The roads are long and tiresome and when coupled with the length of time you spend on the road, it can be tiring as well.
5) Poor Weather
Heavy downpours can create dangerous road conditions. A truck on a slippery road is likely to damage its wheels, thus causing a breakdown or accident. Also, heavy rain usually leads to flooding which can cause delays as well. Floods could also make it impossible for drivers to reach their destination due to rising waters. Of course, if you’re the only driver of a truck, you could also damage it when the weather is challenging.
6) Getting Lost
Getting lost in vast terrain can be very dangerous. You don’t know where to go and so you simply drive wherever. In fact, driving in directions that you don’t know can also be risky because of poor road conditions.
7) Unpredictable Road Conditions
Driving a truck is not only challenging but also dangerous. Many drivers are faced with unexpected road conditions that put their lives and the lives of others at risk. Most of the time these road conditions occur in remote places and when no one else is present. If a driver fails to take precautionary measures due to poor weather, for example, he or she could end up losing control of the vehicle and crashing.
The above are just some of the challenges that a truck driver must deal with on the road. There are others like getting stuck in mud and becoming stranded. Even if you’re a great truck driver, if the conditions aren’t right, you may be faced with challenges that could lead to an accident.
