Here Are The Hardest Jobs That Involve Driving

This. When my dad got out of the service, he had a CDL and looking for work took a job as a school bus driver. Made it three stops and just got out and let the old-timer showing him the route take back the wheel.

(Good discussion here throughout, spurred on by a classic from Cheech Marin.)

Submitted by: Kahlessj, Panhandlinpaul, TheWalrus, Locksmith-of-Love, among many others

My father-in-law was a car hauler for nearly 20 years. I would argue that is one of the most challenging road transport driving jobs as you are dealing with high-value cargo (brand-new vehicles) all exposed and not enclosed.

In addition to the transport, he also had to load the vehicles in the right order/sequence to allow for maximum volume. Truly a challenge when you are walking around a wet trailer in winter loading King Ranch F-150s in the same haul as Ford Escapes. You have to navigate the puzzle pieces, secure each load perfectly - then start the drive. Respect to all the men and women in the trade.

Submitted by: Sector 7G-Wagen

I like the school bus suggestion - but there’s also this:

[...]

Every weather condition.

Arriving early at some of the most horrific scenes a person can have to see.

Peoples lives on the line - so incredible distractions behind you, while knowing that delays could mean death for some poor person in the back.

Driving well faster than the traffic in everything from rush hour to those wonderful early morning DUI hours.

Dealing with other sub-moronic nit-wits behind the wheel who either (a) don’t see you or (b) have no idea how to react.

Etc. etc.

On top of all that - insultingly low pay.

Submitted by: The Walrus

CDL licensed Crane Operator. You drive the crane to the site... basically maneuvering a behemoth that weighs 92k lbs with no suspension, sitting in a cab over the front axle in many instances. A bouncy ride is putting it mildly. You’re lucky to get to highway speed ever.

When you get to the job you usually have to maneuver it into some impossible location, or end up trying to get your stabilizers and counterweights out on the least optimal of surface. At least people get out of your way because they have no goddamn choice.

Then you operate the crane for the duration of the job, drive it back to the shop or off to the next job wherever in the state. So you are the driver, operator, and usually set up and tear down crew all in one.

Tower Crane operators have it worse because they have to crap in buckets.

Submitted by: Markoff8585

Armored car, but not for the reasons you think.

1) The trucks are all steaming piles. All the trucks are re-bodied. The truck may have a new chassis under it but the body is over 20 years old and been on at lest four prior chassises. Think of all the hackery that goes into re-bodying a vehicle, now compound that over decades of half assed “do what you need and only what you need to get it out the door” repairs. If you’re lucky the company you work for does the minimum required maintenance to keep the truck on the road. More likely they’ll wait until it breaks or starts getting citations.

2) The coworkers are mostly terrible. It’s a shitty job, with shitty pay, and shitty hours. Anyone with skills, social or job, leave within a year. Most of the people you see in armored cars fall into two camps: Law Enforcement adjacent and people who have given up. If you’re lucky you get stuck with retired cops, they’re assholes but assholes who give 0 fucks. Then you have the bootlicking want-to-be cops who are doing armored car for “experience” (the only thing LE and AC have in common are uniforms and guns) . The vast majority of the bootlickers should never ever ever ever EVER be cops. The given up crowd has been beaten down by by the full weight of the universe. Every factory they’ve ever worked at has been shipped over seas, every business they’ve started got sued out of existence, every lover they’ve ever had has left them for their best friend, etc. They’re like abused dogs that stay loyal to their abuser because it’s all they know how to do.

Submitted by: the Oldsmobile 5.7 diesel wasn’t nearly as bad as you’ve heard

Delivering medication to seniors. All the usual hazards of delivery driving, plus they all have heartbreaking stories they want to tell you at length at the door when you hand the medications to them. You will be stressed, heartbroken, a little bored and annoyed, always late on the route, and sometimes you’ll see a corpse through a window. I had a friend who used to do that gig for a while, they couldn’t wait to leave it.

Submitted by: skeffles

Reader 4jim pasted this video without comment. It speaks for itself (It can’t be easy to drive those wind turbine blades around!):

Submitted by: 4jim

Urban concrete truck drivers, specifically the ones in and around NYC and the boroughs, have one of the hardest driving jobs in the world. They have only an hour or two to get a truck full of concrete in nearby NJ or one of the boroughs to Manhattan or a denser part of one of the other boroughs. Regular rush hour and daytime traffic can often turn a 6 mile trip into a 2-3 hour journey so these trucks have to haul ass in a vehicle that is extremely wide and heavy and shoot gaps that are inches wider than the truck. I have an old friend who used to drive one of these trucks and he used to tell me stories about weaving through traffic and changing courses to make that delivery. At one point, he may have even dinged one of Vin Diesel’s side mirrors but was very cool about the whole experience.

The risk of wastage is not really about the cost, since a truck of concrete is only around $1,500 (peanuts compared to the total construction cost in the tens or hundreds of millions) but rather to the production process of the construction project. Concrete slab-pouring crews are well-oiled machines that run around the clock during working shifts and any sort of downtime, even the loss of a truck or two of concrete, can throw off their pace of work and due to the incredibly high overhead cost, cut into their profits significantly. These drivers definitely have a significant amount of pressure to deliver their goods very quickly!

Submitted by: oddseth

Flying. Does that count? Driving an airplane? :p

(If we are counting airplanes as cars, then yes. Planes taxi, after all)

Submitted by: dogisbadob, skeffles, Harry

It’s gotta be driving for Haas.

(There’s no denying that there’s a lot of danger in motorsport.)

Submitted by: theart