YouTube Instagram TikTok How it works FAQ

The fastest way to turn talking videos into clean, searchable text. Free, private and no account required.

About

Built by Rishav Raj with one goal: free transcripts for everyone.

rishav@yttotranscript.com

Transcribe

YouTube to text
YouTube with timestamps
Instagram Reels
TikTok videos

Learn

How it works
FAQ
YouTube transcripts guide

More

Chrome extension
Contact
Privacy policy
Terms of service

© 2026 YTtoTranscript. Made for creators & researchers.

Not affiliated with YouTube, Instagram or TikTok. Respect creators’ copyright.

Trucking Lets You See America—But There's a Catch — Transcript · YTtoTranscript

Home/Transcripts/YouTube

YouTube Transcript

Trucking Lets You See America—But There's a Catch

Trucking Truth with James · 2,757 words · 14 min read · EN-ORIG

Watch on YouTube

Share X LinkedIn WhatsApp

Below is the complete, readable transcript of Trucking Lets You See America—But There's a Catch by Trucking Truth with James on YouTube. Read the full text, copy any part you need, or generate a transcript for any video with our free tool.

So, how many people wanted to get into trucking because they want to travel? I did a recent poll and one of the answers was travel. And 11% of the people actually answered they want to get into trucking cuz they want to travel. Maybe you're thinking about you're going to be on the open highways, you're going to

see mountains, sunsets, sunrises, all kinds of freedom. You're going to see the all the 48 states. Is that what you're wanting to get into trucking for? Is the travel. In this video, I'm going to go over how you should have realistic expectations as far as travel because it's not all that simple. So, a lot of

people think that they're going to get paid to to see the country. And yes, you're going to get paid to see the country. You're going to see it really fast most of the time. You're going to be going down the interstate, you know, 60, 65 mph, 70, whatever it may be, and you're going to go from point A to point

B in a hurry. Seeing new places every day. Yes, you're going to see new places every day. As I just said, in a hurry. Exploring the cities? Most time not. I have been through several cities, uh a lot of cities in 30 years, you know, Chicago, I've been through Detroit, LA, New York City. I've even been down in

the Manhattan in a truck. But as far as exploring the cities, I've never explored one. I've never been able to spend much time there. You go in, you unload, or load, and you leave. And say you're going into Chicago and you're like, "Hey, I'm going to go into Chicago and pick a load up." You're not going into

the city, you're going to be on the outskirts of the city most of the time, where they make the stuff so you can pick up or deliver to there, and then they put them on smaller trucks to either deliver them or smaller trucks to bring them to where you're going to pick it up. You're not always going to

Transcribe another video

Paste any YouTube, Instagram or TikTok link to get a free transcript.

Free · No sign-up · Unlimited

Add to Chrome — transcribe in one click

go in the cities to so you can be able to see the sights and all this stuff. I understand social media or trucking commercials or recruiters, especially, you know, school trucking school recruiters, they might be telling you "Yeah, you're going to be able to see the world." There was one guy that it

was funny. It was hilarious. I I was like, "Really?" He was trying to go with get me to go to work for them and he was like, "Yeah, they use the the natural gas and liquid whatever gas as far as the natural ta- I was like, "Okay, I don't want to work here."

"Well, a lot of guys like fueling them and they say it's like fueling an airplane." I said, "I don't care what you fuel it like." Why do I give a crap how you fuel the truck long as it goes down the road? That made no sense to me, but that's the type of stuff that they will tell you

just to get you in the stinking truck. So, a lot of these places are telling you that you're going to be able to travel and see the country and then get paid paid for it. You're going to be able to travel. You're going to see the country in a hurry and you will get paid for it. But, most of the

time you're not going to be in a place long enough so you can kind of explore. You're going to be on the interstate. You're going to be in the truck stop. You're going to be in warehouses loading or unloading or whatever. You're going to be in distribution centers, you know, uh say a Walmart or or

Kroger or whatever it may be. You're going to be loading or unloading. You're going to go out in in a field where there's a cooler where they have, you know, harvested lettuce and you're going to load it up on the refrigerated trailer and take it to where it goes. That's what you're going to do. That's

how you're going to see the country for the most part. Shipping yards. You're going to go to ports where there's ships come in and bring the products from other countries and you can pick those up and then go out with those. As far as seeing the country, yes, you're going to see it.

You're not going to unless you have of say you're going to take a 34-hour break or what have you somewhere. If you get close to something you want to say, say you want to go to the Grand Canyon and you're in Flagstaff, you have a 34-hour break. You can get a tour to go to the Grand Canyon. You can

get, you know, you're in Buffalo, New York. You can get a tour to go see Niagara Falls. But it's not going to be while you're driving a truck. You're going to have to get out of the truck and have time off to do this. And you have to regulate how much time off

you're going to be because you have schedules to keep. Places want to you to pick up at a certain time. Place wants you to deliver at a certain time. Uh you have to look at your logbooks. You have to look all of the scheduling and make it work so you can actually see

the country the way most of these people say you're going to see it. You're not going to see it exactly like a lot of people think. I thought you could. Whenever I started, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to travel. I'm going to drive across country and I'll be great. You know, the first trip I took across

country, I was 17. I drove my little S10 pickup from Alabama to Sacramento, California, live with my uncle for a while. That's the first time I drove across country. And it was in my pickup truck, but I did it in a hurry. I saw how fast I could get across country and then how fast I could get back. It's

just, you know, was it I guess in my blood to to drive even at a younger age. I've done a lot of traveling um even when I was younger. One of my other uncles, you know, I I went on the road with him, you know, as far as like construction while I was teenager. I was

really young, you know, I did a lot of work with him. So I've always traveled. It It's just It's just natural to me to go from here to there as far as moving around. But don't expect to be able to go to all of these wonderful places all of the time because it's not going to

happen. You're going to be regulated by where you can go. A a of it, you know, you can't even go to in a truck, you know. I did one time. Um It's been a long time ago. I used to run into Florida a lot. I dropped my trailer at a place where I could, and I

bobtailed into um Disney World. Took a friend with me, you know, we went and hung out at Disney World for the day. I mean, that was pretty neat. I actually got to park where the buses parked. It was a higher rate, but it was right at the gate. So, I just walked in.

I didn't have to walk way across the parking lot. So, but that was great. But there's things that you can do. Just be realistic about it. And it's not going to happen all all of the time. Look at it like this. Whenever you're going down the road, you're like, "Well, I want to

go to this place. I want to go to that place." And what have you. The next thing you know, you're trying to plan your trip out so you can make money. Because that's the biggest reason most people get into driving a truck is to make money. Then you're you're thinking about where do I fuel at? Where am I going to park

at? Oh, wow, this city up here is going to have a lot of traffic or this area this has got a lot of construction going. You know, you're going to have a delivery times that you have to meet or pick up times you have to meet. You have you you just get all of this going in your mind,

and then the travel to just see the country kind of goes uh you know, second hand or so the travel to see the country is not nearly as important once you actually get into this career than it is whenever you think about it. You're going to be able to see things, like I said, but they're usually going

to be in a hurry, and you're going to have to regulate where you go and when you go to these places. So, as far as trucking goes and the travel side, there's good things and there's bad things. Good things, you're going to see sunrises and sunsets in a lot of different states and a lot of different

weather, and it's it's beautiful. I can remember one time not even sent that, but uh I was going down the road to Kenny I think it's an hour or something, but I'm going down this road and the the sun was coming up on the east, and it was snow-covered field, and it come up

over it it was so pretty. I mean, it's just one of those things. I didn't get a picture. I didn't care. I mean, I I remember what it looked like. I don't even remember where I was at, but I remember that scene. That's what you're going to see. You're going to see mountains.

You're going to see deserts. You're going to see oceans. I've driven pretty close to the ocean before. Out around uh San Diego area, right up the coast. You go up Interstate 101, you're going to be right next to the ocean driving in California. You're going to get into some small towns that are pretty neat, you know,

that you've never been in, you know, the old old style towns. That's what you're going to see. Most of the time you're just going to drive through. You're going to see it. Major cities, you're going to be in and out of those. As far as exploring, most of the time you're not going to be able to explore,

unless you decide to go there. One of the small towns just popped in my head that I I've been [snorts] wanting to go to and see and just spend, you know, maybe a week there or what have you is Moab, Moab, Utah, where all of the arches are. Arches Arches National Park is there.

That would be pretty awesome for me to go see and spend a lot little time there, but I've been through there so many times and never been able to stop. You're going to have more memorable shots as you go past these places than actual member remembering, "Oh, I stopped there and spent a a few hours or uh few days

there." Most of the time it's not going to happen. The bad side of the trucking and the travel is for you to be able to do this and it's bad for some and not bad for others. You're going to be away from home a lot. You're going to miss your family events a lot. You're going to miss holidays.

You're going to miss birthdays. You're going to miss all kinds of stuff as far as family goes and friends go. Is that something you want to deal with? There's going to be long days. There's going to be weather you have to deal with. You're going to be driving through snow. You're going to be driving

through, you know, storms, hailstorms. There's one one summer or spring, I think I drove through six different hailstorms in that spring. It was ridiculous. Every time I would turn around I was going through a hailstorm. But then you have traffic you got to deal with. You're going to be running the same places sometimes for quite a while and

it's going to get boring. You're going to be same customers, the same truck stops. You're going to learn all of these areas because you're like, well, I've gone through there so many times now I know, hey, that tree has grown or hey, they trimmed that tree or hey, they're putting a new building up

for whatever. And it's just it just becomes normal to you. Instead of just the travel to see the country, you're going to get tired of seeing the same part of the country at times. So a lot of people actually love this part. The travel side of it. They love the independence. They love

the solving the problems as you're going through your trucking career. They love being left alone. Just leave us alone. We want to go. Most of the people that are kind of introverted are more successful than people that are more outgoing or or want to be in a large group all of the time.

You like to manage your own day, do what you want to do, get up whenever you want, go where you want to go. You like to have the sense of an an accomplishment. That's how That's the biggest thing that most drivers that are successful in this industry do. A lot of drivers come because of the

travel, they think. But then they stay because of the lifestyle. A lot of people enjoy this lifestyle. A lot of people like the solitude and the being able to do what they want when they want. So, here's a good fit and a not-so-good fit. A good fit is independent people, flexible personalities, people comfortable being alone,

and people who enjoy driving. A not-so-good fit or a tough fit is people who need constant social interaction, people expecting a permanent vacation. It's not a permanent vacation by no means. And people who struggle being away from home. So, if those last part of that is you, you need to figure out or decide whether

trucking's good for you. And maybe you need to go local. Maybe you need to try local. Local is possible with no experience. I've seen several people do it. So, trucking does let you see the United States. But it's not tourism. You might as well get that out of your mind. If that's what you're thinking, you're going to be

a tourist and just see this place and that place whenever you want and go when you want and everything, that that's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. You're not getting paid to travel. You're getting paid to move freight from point A to point B in a timely manner. It's that simple. And the

journey that you take from point A to point B is what you get a little extra of. You get to see some places as you go through them. Most of the time, you're not able to stop and smell the roses for lack of better words. So, before you got interested in trucking, what did you think

life on the road would be? Did you think it was all travel and just get paid or just sit there and drive? Or what did you think it was? For drivers that are already in the trucking, what is your biggest surprise that you have found since you've got into trucking? If you would, leave a comment below. I

really appreciate them and a lot of other people read them and they appreciate your comments, especially your experienced drivers. Thank you very much for all of your comments on all of my videos. But anyway, I appreciate you watching and if you would, share this, like this, and subscribe if you're interested in this type of content. And I'll see you

in the next video.