4 Ways a Commercial Truck Career Can Give You Culture Shock

Driving a commercial truck is a rewarding career that many find themselves suited to do. However, even if you love the idea of long-haul trucking, you may still find yourself shocked by some of the challenges this job presents. After all, trucking, like any other career, has its own unique world with different habits, lingo, and environments than you’re probably used to in your everyday life. This guide will help you to navigate some of the initial culture shock you might experience in your first days and weeks as a truck driver.

Peculiar Habits

Are you used to entering businesses with “no smoking” signs on the door? Well, as a trucker, you may find many small towns where smoking indoors at the bar is no big deal. Unaccustomed to gun ownership? You might be surprised to spot open carriers of guns in some areas. These are just a few of the many ways that habits might diverge from what you’re accustomed to when you’re on the open road.

Dietary Differences

Used to eating a strict vegetarian diet? Your pickings may be slim in many states, especially where barbeque is the primary local cuisine. Fresh fruits and vegetables may be harder to come by on the road, and you’ll have to get used to eating more fast food and convenience items. It’s perfectly possible to stick to your diet while trucking; it may just be more difficult and require more legwork on your part to find restaurants and diners that cater to your needs.

Religious & Political Divides

If you’re driving across the United States or Canada, you’re going to go through many different regions with different cultural mores and customs that may surprise you. For example, if you’re from a liberal city in the north, the religious conservatism found in areas of the South might be very startling, and vice-versa. The Midwest is much more strict than the laid-back West Coast, too.

Wild Weather

Finally, you may also find the weather varies wildly when you’re driving through every climate zone. Frigid, snowy winters in the Northeast and Midwest, rainy springs in the Pacific Northwest, muggy heat waves in the South, and dry and hot summers in the Southwest. Not only that, but you’ll have to learn how to handle hurricane warnings, tornado warnings, storm watches, high winds, and other weather emergencies.

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