Not saying that you should drive trucks, but I think doing something else -- something completely unrelated to dev work -- might be of help.
Another was how many skills overlap the two fields. Driving the big rig is an exercise in resource management and planning, so you can do things like ensure that by the time you need more fuel, you're in a place where the fuel costs are lower.
Yeah, I can see the resource planning overlaps. I’m glad it worked out for your friend!
There is one stereotype that he confirmed, though: it's common for drivers to keep two sets of driving logs, one real and one doctored, in order to be able to drive longer at a time than is legally allowed without getting caught.
This was quite a number of years ago, though. It's entirely possible that GPS is used to mitigate this these days. I don't know.