How to Be an Ice Road Trucker

The popularity of the History Channel reality show "Ice Road Truckers" has many viewers wondering: "Could I do that?" By "that," haul 70-ton rigs over a road of two-foot thick ice. This requires a reality check. What looks like an experience of a lifetime is actually life-threatening and only for a select few.

Instructions

1. Know what you are getting into. Familiarize yourself with the ice roads and its risks: temps dipping below negative 40 degrees, polar bears farther up North, and multi-ton and sometimes explosive cargo. Never mind the tedium of creeping along at 15 miles an hour for three hours as the ice groans and creaks continuously underneath you.

2. Assess your motivation. Daredevils need not apply. Yes, it requires nerves of impenetrable ice in this case to drive harrowing loads on harrowing roads with the ice consistently cracking beneath you. If you are simply doing this for the thrill, you are in the wrong place and won't make the cut anyway. The money is good enough reason to give it a go (drivers can make $40,000 during the three-month season), but know your risks.

3. Evaluate your limitations. If you don't think you can emotionally, mentally and physically perform driving critical loads in the worst Mother Nature has to offer with little sleep and poor nourishment, you should stick with the regular old roads. The demand on your body and mind is as extreme as the road itself. Know if you can perform, otherwise you might end up underneath the ice as opposed to crawling on top of it in your rig.

4. Know your skills. You must be a certified trucker with at least two years of winter driving experience. You should have experience in taxing situations and feel comfortable driving in the elements, under stress, with cumbersome and unusually heavy loads. Just being a good driver isn't enough. This is a whole new category of shipping.

5. Consult with your family. This job is not only taxing on you, but on your family. Are the financial benefits really worth the risk to you and, ultimately, your family's well-being? If they lost you, what would they do? What plan is in place if the worst happens? These considerations must not be ignored.

6. Be aware of the proper paperwork. If you are applying from outside of Canada, you will need a work visa. You will also need a job offer from the trucking company. This can require jumping through time-consuming and tedious bureaucratic hoops.

Tips & Warnings

• At the time of this writing, positions for the 2009 season were closed and trucking companies were not taking applications from outside Canada. Companies have asked that they not be contacted directly about upcoming opportunities at this time.