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I work in a freight company - not a driver, but I have had plenty of contact with drivers. Here are my thoughts, to add to those from other responses above.
Generally the drivers I have worked with enjoy the work, or at least they tell me that they enjoy it. The pay is good, but the hours can be long. Often working 12-14 hours per day. Main problem is you dont get any choice - very hard to arrange for one driver to have an early finish for any reason, especially during the busy pre christmas season. A lot of younger drivers have problems with relationships at home because they are away from the house for such long periods of time each day.
We have linehaul drivers which generally work over night and travel from city to city or from city to a midpoint and back.
We also have local delivery drivers who work during the day delivering and collecting freight within the metro area.
The semi drivers tend to just sit in the cabs quite a lot and don't get as much variety - but they do get more pay because they have to handle bigger vehicles.
The drivers of the smaller trucks (rigids) do get out of the cab, always opening the curtains, removing gates, waiting for customer to load, putting back gates, curtains etc then driving away. Obviously different companies would have different work, there are so many types of trucking work.
Definitely more job satisfaction and money than some other driving jobs - like taxi or courier. I suspect that we have a lot of drivers who give it a go and very quickly realise this is not what they want - so the ones that stay are the type that like this work.
Despite the job satisfaction, most freight companies are actually having difficulty attracting drivers. Most young people dont want this type of work.
These days we are getting a lot more technology in the vehicles, little computer screens with all the addresses to go to and for customers to sign when they receive freight. Not sure if this makes the job easier or harder. You dont have a boss looking over your shoulder, but they will know what you did each day and how long it took.
Every person is different and as mentioned by other posters - you need to try for yourself. Getting a license takes time and isnt cheap - so worth asking for comments before taking this commitment.
good luck.
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