I have been a truck driver for the last eight years. It seems that when I became a truck driver I stepped over some kind of divide. On one side I was a respectable legal secretary and on the other side I became this low life truck driver.

My husband and I have been married for over 16 years. He began trying to talk me into becoming a truck driver almost from the very beginning of our married life. It took him eight years to succeed. What really tipped the scale in his favor was the very low wages I earned working as a legal secretary near the border. Since I wasn't bi-lingual, many higher paying positions were not available to me.

Let me tell you, learning how to drive that big rig was no easy feat. I think that I was terrified almost the entire first two years. And then there was my husband. He has been driving for over 25 years. For the first time in our marriage he was the boss (out on the road). That made for some interesting conversations while I trained under him.

There are many things that I don't like about trucking. For one, I don't like being away from home for so long a period of time. I also don't like having to wait for hours to get loaded and unloaded. We don't get paid for waiting. The thing that I hate most is how we are compensated: by the mile. But, overall it's a good job. My husband and I feel that we are doing a service for our country. I smile every time I go to a Walmart store. I know that if it weren't for people like me, the store shelves would be empty.

You won't catch me smiling while I am waiting to get unloaded at a Walmart store. They have very strict requirements. For example, you cannot arrive any earlier than one hour before your load or unload time. Also, they charge you to unload their own products. Finally, you can spend up to 12 hours waiting to get loaded/unloaded at one of their distributorships. You do not get paid for the wait. By the way, Walmart isn't the only store that does this.

What I really love about being a truck driver is the freedom. I think that it is one of the only professions remaining where you don't have someone watching your every move. Also, every day out on the road is casual Friday! I guess that we are the last of the cowboys.

I wish that the compensation methods were changed. You can't pay a person by the mile and then jump all over them when they try and get as many miles as they can. We are forced to waste hours waiting to get loaded and unloaded. We are not paid for our actual miles run. If people really wanted truck drivers to slow down, they would change some of the rules we work under. Oh, I almost forgot, most of the time it is not us the drivers that are in a rush, it is our companies that are in a rush. They have to keep that contract. Trying being late on a load more than a time or two and you will not have that job or you will not get the good runs!

We are so regulated (i.e. drug screens and back ground checks) that I don't know how they can find any fit drivers at all. Did you know that we have to be drug tested within hours of any accident whether it was our fault or not? We also have to be drug tested prior to any employment with a carrier. Then there are the DOT phyical requirements.

The drivers that we know are all aware of the awesome responsibility that we carry. We all try very hard to be safe and courteous to others out on the road. We report irresponsible drivers. Almost to a person, we love our jobs. Even now, when I'm driving down the road and I look out of my sideview mirrors and see that big old trailer, I have to smile to myself. I am driving a big rig!