If your passion is travel and you’re stuck in a rut in your current career, consider a change of pace. Even if you’ve never thought about becoming a truck driver (or, better yet, owner-operator), there are more opportunities today than ever. It’s a job that lets you travel, has lots of benefits, and is a huge income opportunity.

Today’s CDL Hunter blog notes several reasons why it pays to be a trucker and offers insight on how to get started.

Why?

The real question here is: why not? As an OTR driver, expect to make anywhere from about $35,000 a year up to more than $90,000 per year. But, if you opt to own your own trucks, an owner-operator can easily break the $220,000 mark. As a trucker, you get to see the most beautiful parts of the United States, meet lots of great people, and try the food in tons of new cities. Perhaps most important is job stability. According to Vox, there’s a major shortage of truck drivers. And, considering that more than 70% of all freight in America is transported via truck, the need for qualified OTR drivers won’t decline anytime soon.

The Basics

Your first step is to determine if the trucker “lifestyle” is right for you. You likely won’t be home every night, and your rig will become an extension of you. If you’re good with this, your next steps are to:

• Get your CDL. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recommends first getting a CDL manual, then your permit, followed by entry-level training.

• Decide your employment status. If you’re going to work for another company, you don’t need a degree. However, if you plan to open up your own trucking company, it might make sense to earn a degree in business so that you can run your new company more efficiently. If you get this route, look for an accredited online school so you don’t have to quit your current job.

• Beef up your resume. All employers want to see that you have some sort of experience in the workplace and that you don’t have a habit of “hopping” from job to job. You can up your chances of getting the best trucking job by using a resume builder to customize a template to showcase the very best of you. Even if you don’t have a resume or design experience, you can add photos and images for a personalized resume that you can cater to each company you apply with.

• Browse listings. In trucking, as with all industries, no two jobs are exactly alike. Spend some time browsing through job listings to see what types of positions are available. You can pretty easily find jobs seeking recent graduates, teams, and owner-operators.

• Draft a business plan. Writing a business plan is a must when you want to own your own trucks. This is a draft (it can be as short as long as you want) that helps you outline the steps you must take to achieve the success you desire. Your business plan will lay out your business structure as well as if you plan to take on investors or finance your operation. It will also help you better manage your finances.

Your professional background doesn’t matter. If you want to become a truck driver, what matters is that you have passion and drive and you’re ready to take on a new lifestyle. As an OTR driver owner-operator, you make a respectable living, and you’ll get to see the great country you call home. Get started by making sure you’re qualified either through training or formal education and then follow the steps above to launch your over-the-road journey today.