{"id":2414,"date":"2017-10-30T16:26:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T20:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/?p=2414"},"modified":"2018-04-05T15:35:21","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T19:35:21","slug":"truck-driver-appreciation-week-2017-i-deliver-sweepstakes-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/truck-driver-appreciation-week-2017-i-deliver-sweepstakes-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Truck Driver Appreciation Week 2017 | I Deliver Sweepstakes Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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During 2017’s Truck Driver Appreciation Week, AllTruckJobs.com put together the \u2018I Deliver Campaign\u2019 aimed at showing our appreciation for drivers all across America<\/a>! After two weeks of entries,\u00a0BigRigBanter<\/a> and AllTruckJobs.com are happy to announce our winner, Pete Sheaffer! Working as a driver for over 6 years, Pete hauls live animals from farms to their next destination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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It\u2019s always interesting to learn why a certain career path calls out to someone. No matter the reason, trucking is something that takes a special type of professional to excel and honoring that is what Truck Driver Appreciation Week is all about. Some people may not plan for a commercial driving career, although many who join in are hooked! We asked Pete about what made him really decide to pursue a trucking career.<\/p>\n

Recently we had the chance to sit down and interview Pete about his experience in the industry during Truck Driver Appreciation Week and learn about his trucking career. Here\u2019s that interview:<\/p>\n

Truck Driver Appreciation\u00a0Week\u00a0 – Interview with Pete Sheaffer<\/h2>\n

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What made you want to start driving?<\/h3>\n

\u201cI was laid off, and I had a lot of responsibilities and bills and family, and stuff like that. I have a college degree actually, believe it or not. I was laid off with that because of the economy. Pretty much it was personally and financially because of the economy. I mean, trucking is just booming right now as far as what you can make a year and start out. That\u2019s kind of what drove me, I mean I like to drive, although it wasn\u2019t like I was born behind the wheel.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jokingly, we\u2019re glad Pete wasn\u2019t born in a truck, but he sure seems to have taken on the job for great reasons. If one thing is certain, trucking is a profession that will provide solid income and great\u00a0work experience for each and every driver. With 6 years under his belt, we wanted to know just how the industry has changed during that time.<\/p>\n

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How has the industry changed?<\/h3>\n

\u201cI mean, a lot of things have changed and are continuing to change. There\u2019s so many rules and regulations. It\u2019s like the only job in America where you can be at work and we have to abide by a bunch of rules and regulations that normal people don\u2019t. Whatever it may be, with the job or on a personal level when you\u2019re at home\u2026 I still have to abide by different rules than a regular driver.<\/p>\n

As far as what I\u2019ve seen, I\u2019m only on my second company. There\u2019s just so much that has changed whether it\u2019s with a company or the government.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Speaking to something we hear often in the trucking community, regulations just seem to keep cropping up whether drivers are onboard with them or not. Things like sleep apnea screening<\/a>, hours of services requirements, and now the ELD mandate have a lot of drivers talking and planning their careers accordingly. It can, unfortunately, put a damper on things at times. When asked about whether regulations affect his enjoyment of the job, here’s what Pete said.<\/p>\n

Do regulations affect how much you enjoy trucking?<\/h3>\n

\u201cWell I mean, it does, it can affect income and time away from family. Like now I\u2019m working a lot longer, I\u2019m working more during the day for less money. You know, it depends on what you haul and what you drive. There\u2019re all kinds of different driving jobs. Mine is different because not too many drive farm to farm and haul live animals.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, while it\u2019s not the most uncommon type of cargo here in Pennsylvania, hauling living chickens has got to have its interesting aspects.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why people are so amazed to see that many chickens on a trailer like they\u2019ve never seen a chicken, but we typically cover them up. They take pictures and even police are really interested like they never saw something like this. And sometimes you\u2019ll pull into an area or a weigh station and a lot of the time, the cops don\u2019t really want anything to do with you cause they don\u2019t wanna get shit on. So, that\u2019s kind of cool.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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While chickens are certainly rare and exotic beasts, this example does outline just how diverse the trucking industry is in terms of the types of loads out there for drivers! No matter what you haul, there are lots of reasons that trucking is one of the most solid career paths out there. We asked Pete what he thought the best and worst aspects of the job were.<\/p>\n

What are the best and worst parts about the job?<\/h3>\n

\u201cThe best part is just the freedom, and that\u2019s depending on who you work for and what you haul. For me, I just have a lot of freedom. I mean I have a schedule and what I need to do, but it\u2019s not like I have somebody sitting beside me saying, ‘well that\u2019s not a good idea,’ or ‘this is what you need to do.’<\/p>\n

I gotta take it upon myself to make the best decision possible to keep my career moving forward. And as far as the worst thing, the rules and the regulations are just crazy. Like they\u2019re trying to get everybody to do the e-logs now. And I just think it\u2019s crazy for a machine to tell you when you should sleep and when you shouldn\u2019t. Because a lot the time a machine\u2019s wrong and when you should be sleeping you\u2019re not tired and then your times up where now you gotta drive and you don\u2019t wanna drive. But, you have to go because the machine only gives you so long to go.<\/p>\n

I came from Tyson foods and they were all e-logs so I learned a lot from that. And now I use paper logs and it\u2019s just a lot different.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What would you tell drivers who are just starting out in this career? Any advice?<\/h3>\n

\u201cI just really think that doing the research on the company<\/a> is very important. There\u2019s so much stuff out there that seems so good as far as incentives. But, the biggest thing I\u2019d tell somebody is that if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. You really wanna figure out why they are paying so much money just to get somebody in the door, and there\u2019s trucking jobs out there where you don\u2019t even know how to drive a truck. It\u2019s like we\u2019ll train you, we\u2019ll put you in a seat and that\u2019s scary stuff because you don\u2019t even know the paper work you\u2019re signing, but you could be signing stuff that you\u2019re going to be giving up so much income or you’re contracted to this job.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"truck<\/p>\n

With all the new companies coming out with self-driving trucks, what is your perspective?<\/h3>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty concerned. My mom actually worked for an engineering firm. I know robotics have taken over a lot of jobs in the American industry which is kind of scary. I think all the self-parking cars, but the whole things with the trucks I don\u2019t know \u2014 it\u2019s a little too freaky.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As something we\u2019ve been covering closely, this is an issue we hear time and time again. Drivers and industry professionals are no strangers to the interesting future posed by autonomous trucking<\/a> and that\u2019s becoming more evident each day.<\/p>\n

For now, we\u2019ll do what we can to celebrate drivers who keep the United States running smoothly day in and day out! Another thanks to all who entered the I Deliver Campaign during Truck Driver Appreciation Week and congratulations to this year’s winner, Pete Sheaffer!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What did you do to celebrate Truck Driver Appreciation Week? Let us know in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During 2017’s Truck Driver Appreciation Week, AllTruckJobs.com put together the \u2018I Deliver Campaign\u2019 aimed at showing our appreciation for drivers all across America! After two weeks of entries,\u00a0BigRigBanter and AllTruckJobs.com are happy to announce our winner, Pete Sheaffer! Working as a driver for over 6 years, Pete hauls live animals from farms to their next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[578],"tags":[395,621,37,622],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2414"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2931,"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions\/2931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alltruckjobs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}