This 36-year-old mom of 2 brings in $144,000 a year as a professional truck driver

Clarissa Rankin is challenging stereotypes.

The 36-year-old, Charlotte, North Carolina, nonmigratory is simply a nonrecreational motortruck operator hauling an array of goods from diapers to TVs to canned goods crossed the East Coast.

"People ever person this representation successful their caput of a motortruck operator being a antheral with a large aged stomach, large aged beard and wearing overalls," she says, adding that, "I emotion to get that look connected people's faces like, 'Can you truly thrust that?' And I'm like, 'Yes, I got this honey.'"

Rankin loves her job, and her trucking institution brought successful $144,208 past year. But getting determination wasn't easy. Here's however she built her palmy career, and however she's changing people's minds astir what trucking tin truly be.

Rankin, who's joined with 2 children, went to schoolhouse for transgression justness but couldn't find enactment successful the field. Instead, she took a occupation arsenic a substitute teacher making $1,900 per month. That wasn't capable to assistance enactment her family.

Rankin's hubby had worked successful the trucking manufacture himself and encouraged her to marque the pivot. She recovered she loved driving a motortruck immediately. The occupation was outdoors, acold preferable to an bureau occupation that would support her indoors each day.

During the trial to get her motortruck driving license, "I showed him however I tin maneuver that large aged thing," she says astir the instructor, "and I got the licence the precise archetypal time."

She yet got hired aft her sixth interview, but was making little than $50,000 per year, and felt that, too, wasn't enough.

Instead, she decided to commencement her ain trucking business: JC Rankins Transport.

Rankin's institution has present been successful concern for 4 years.

She works sporadically passim the week, depending connected the frequence with which she finds jobs connected apps similar TruckLoads, which shows pickup and driblet disconnected jobs passim the state that assorted companies request done. She's driven arsenic acold northbound arsenic Massachusetts and arsenic acold southbound arsenic Florida. "Having your ain motortruck comes with a batch of freedom," she says.

There are costs, though: In 2021, her motortruck lease was $49,200. Maintenance was $2,665. Fuel was $19,336. But, ultimately, her instrumentality location wage was $73,007, considerably much than she's made connected different jobs.

Plus, Rankin present makes wealth documenting her trucker beingness connected societal media. She has astir 2 cardinal followers connected TikTok and was capable to marque an further $36,000 successful 2021 from promotional videos and advertising.