So I started CDL (trucking, Semi, Tractor trailer, 18 wheeler, Lorry ect) school. So far I'm doing wayy better than I ever though I could.
My dad did that for his midlife crisis during the 2008 recession. After a could of years he realized it's an awful line of work. Between taxes and fuel and maintenance there was almost no money in it left to support a family, and only being home one day a week wasn't helping either. So he sold the Freightliner and got back into his old business. Last year he got his hazmat permits for that, which was his retirement plan. Then a doctor botched an eye surgery and his vision dipped below what's required to keep the license. So there are my words of encouragement. =P For reference, his routes were generally food products between NY, Texas, and Florida.
The thing is this. There is currently Nov 2019 a major shortage of truck drivers in the US. I don't have any serious expenses and your father went with this own truck which is not the best thing to start off with since owning your own truck makes things much tougher than working for a company. But he was smart for doing mostly food products since even with a recession food will always need to be transported.
He started working for a small company for a couple of years, after that he started his own transportation business but it made far less than the construction business he owned and eventually restarted. If your lifestyle allows such a job then go for it, especially if you can score a local route at a nice time of day. I noticed a lot of companies have people hauling doubles at weird times of the morning for local food stores, I'm sure that's a great gig. No traffic and minimal if any weight stations, sleep in your own bed, haul a decently valuable freight just due to the sheer amount of cargo. A word of warning, when my dad was hauling food stuffs a lot of the plant workers were generally obnoxious about schedules and where to park and would not accept even a slightly damaged box. We once got half a truckload of Burger King dessert pies because they each had a tiny dent in the boxes. Sadly the beer companies were less picky than the farmers...
