Driving trucks is great fun IMO if the equipment is good. $150,000 incl super is essentially what they earn driving long haul at say 52cpk and doing 4500-5000 km per week. But if your not doing overnight express, you’ll do 15 hour days with loading and unloading probably wasting 3-5 hours per day, and yes, you will have to strap freight down and manage tautliner curtains. Can get physical.
By the time you park up somewhere, do your paperwork, have a shower and dinner, there’s probably 7 hours left before the alarm goes off. It’s basically eat sleep and repeat for 6 days a week and if you get home every weekend, you’re doing great. If you’re doing overnight express, it’s depot to depot work which is nice and 12 hour days but all back of clock.
Compliance is a bullsh#t word, most companies want you to break rules, that’s why their driver ads usually require a ‘can do attitude’! These guys are the hardest working men and women I’ve ever met and severely underpaid. It’s silly to compare that role to pilots who are spoon fed by comparison. Most experienced airline pilots are not shaped and prepared for long haul trucking and would not last long in the job if they had to drive on a fulltime permanent basis. That I’m certain of.