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Thinking about Trucking and Long Hauling as a Career
NotoriusBEN
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm starting to get fed up with my current job. I like it, I get to travel around the world on the company dime, but it's not paying enough to make a living on anymore. In 2013, I had 4 months where I felt I had enough hours put in to actually save money. As for the travel aspect, I've gotten sick of airports and sitting in the tiny little chairs that they cram me into along with 300 other people, but I *do* enjoy traveling when I am driving. Maybe its because I feel I am in control on the road. I've driven for hours on end for this job across the states, so I think I have the mental endurance to sit on the road for 8 to 10 hours a day.
I'd like to start up a new career in trucking and eventually long hauling. I'm aware that I need to get a CDL license, and there are companies in Washington State that are willing to help me get my CDL class A so that I can at least start getting Over the Road experience. After that, I can train for my Class C and Hazmat licenses if I decide to go that route. I figure now is as good of time as any to apply since a large majority of truckers are approaching retirement so demand for bodies to do these jobs is only going to increase.
So that brings me to my questions/concerns/'what have you'. This is mainly for the lower 48 United States as far as laws and all that are concerned.
I'd like to know what sort of pitfalls to avoid for employment, what kind of questions to ask and just getting the perspective of other people here that are truckers.
I might be naive, but what I am looking for is something that pays salary, and that I have a company card to pay for gas, and that the rig I drive belongs to the company, so they take care of most maintenance, or at least pay for it. The other thing is making sure that *I* don't load the truck, that's the job for the people in shipping/receiving.
I'm aware that many companies are not like this with paying cents per mile and such, but as I said, I'm looking for advice and insight for someone who is literally new to this kind of work.
Thanks in advance, peeps.
I'd like to start up a new career in trucking and eventually long hauling. I'm aware that I need to get a CDL license, and there are companies in Washington State that are willing to help me get my CDL class A so that I can at least start getting Over the Road experience. After that, I can train for my Class C and Hazmat licenses if I decide to go that route. I figure now is as good of time as any to apply since a large majority of truckers are approaching retirement so demand for bodies to do these jobs is only going to increase.
So that brings me to my questions/concerns/'what have you'. This is mainly for the lower 48 United States as far as laws and all that are concerned.
I'd like to know what sort of pitfalls to avoid for employment, what kind of questions to ask and just getting the perspective of other people here that are truckers.
I might be naive, but what I am looking for is something that pays salary, and that I have a company card to pay for gas, and that the rig I drive belongs to the company, so they take care of most maintenance, or at least pay for it. The other thing is making sure that *I* don't load the truck, that's the job for the people in shipping/receiving.
I'm aware that many companies are not like this with paying cents per mile and such, but as I said, I'm looking for advice and insight for someone who is literally new to this kind of work.
Thanks in advance, peeps.
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As a comparison a coworker of mine was a forklift operator at Dell about 10 years ago and making good money with overtime. Those jobs are gone and have been completely automated for years now.
There may be employment available in the near term, but it seems inevitable the number of people required to ship freight will only go down and that if you want to stay in this field long term you will want to watch for opportunities to be apart of what's coming since what currently predominates will inevitably be disrupted.
You're looking at times when you'll get home around midnight only to leave the next afternoon on another 2 day driving trip. Sleeping in the cab of your truck is not the most comfortable thing, and neither is eating on the road. You're also in charge of keeping maintance and cleaning your truck.
Also Djeet is right. In the past 5 years he has had to switch jobs twice. The money is good, but it's ALOT of work. It's going to kill your social life which may be something to think about depending on how old you are/where you are in your life.
but srysly
I am not a trucker but I have had family members who were and actually went to college with a guy who basically had the same notion of "fuck it, I'm drivin a big rig"
What I know if the profession is that while demand is indeed high and projected to increase, it's only modestly paying and it is a somewhat rigorous thing to do in that it is very schedule oriented, there are a lot of mandates about when and where you can drive, for how long, and having to make that fit into your delivery deadlines, etc.
I think that trucking conjures up the imagery of the open road and a life of relative freedom for many people, but everything I have heard is that it's quite the opposite.
Plus, that kind of work lends itself so some health problems like deep vein thrombosis... if I were you, I think that it would be a good idea so long as you use all that time on the road to do something like online school to switch into another career after a few years.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
keep it coming folks, any other tidbits of wisdom?
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we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
I'll let you all know what's up with me in a month.
thanks for all your inputs everyone, and also for the toaster story, that's a good one.
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im signing on with Swift/central and they'll garnish my schooling from my paycheck, but at the 13month mark, i get it all back.
like i said before, im gonna do this for a couple years, see what happens and at the end of it, i got my cdla, im not gonna worry about not having a job.
lots of windshield time, maybe ill learn a couple languages from brute force audio and a dvd player
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As the husband of a pharmacist situated on an interstate so she has a high number of long haul truck drivers as customers, let me recommend really planning out your diet and exercise regimen. You DO NOT want some of the ailments that permeates the drivers I've heard about.
Also, be safe! If you are driving through Wyoming on I80 ever, allow me to impart my first hand knowledge of the dangers there. Go slow, actually arrive at your destination.
And crazy as it sounds, truck driving is were I'm gonna be able to get fitter and healthy. My current job has me travelling all over and horrible job start time switching.
With trucking, ill be able to start and keep habits. Up at 6, exercise til 7, make eat breakfast, start driving at 8, etc.
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Hate to be so negative but I've seen the worse case scenario occur every other week, good weather or bad, for the past twenty years around here.
Just make sure to keep it in your log book.
You guys in the states have log books still right?
More and more they're all being computerized. They have a couple different clocks they have to deal with that can be kinda complicated but the electronic stuff just handles it.
When their were physical log books they were infamous for being mostly fiction at a lot of companies.
Volvos seem to be a good truck. Oh and you can use them for exercise as well.
I wouldn't mind driving a truck and I was a bit peeved that I wasn't sent to get a CDL liscense; but I don't think my knee to can take the daily stress (I have a torn meniscus).
Not terribly useful but there are retrofits for people who have trouble operating pedals like a clutch. I had an Aunt who had one because of her bad hip but it was for brake/gas and was fairly expensive. Can't imagine it'd make getting into the industry very easy though.
Of course, if you get stuck driving some cobbled-together bastard of a truck (chassis from one company, engine from another, gearbox from a third company and diffs from a fourth, not to mention the cab built by yet another), then best of luck to you...
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You can buy brand-new trucks like that - White, Freightliner, International, Kenworth, Peterbilt, Western Star... Thankfully Volvo bought Mack and are transitioning all their new models over to what amounts to repainted Volvo drivetrains.
Writing a resignation is probably one of the single hardest things I've done as well as pressing the send button on that email. (The company I work for is rather spread out, so I figured email was more preferred than paper.) I've been stressing about 'what ifs' from the reply that my boss would give me, but we talked on the phone for a little bit, it was all very cordial and he said I always had a place back at the company if I ever wanted to come back, so that's good news.
I've heard horror stories about bad blood with resignations and all that, so that's what was eating me. Thankfully it wasn't the case...
Now... accelerated time schedule. I got a shit load of stuff to do, 90% of it is hauling all the shit in my apartment into a storage unit. (@_@);;
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You want my stuff? You can have it! I left everything...
in One Piece Place.
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Please, for the love of God, put a plank of wood down before you unhitch the frue. Somebody did us the pleasure of dropping off a frue on the ground and it sank 2 feet before anyone noticed. If OSHA saw what we did to get that up high enough get a tractor underneath it.....
If you want to travel that's a definite benefit, but it's not the travel you're used to. You'll see plenty of cool places, but odds are you'll spend the majority of your time on an interstate. You want to be a company driver because it means you're using a company truck, which means they're paying for everything (maintenance, emergency repairs, and especially fuel).
To me, the best way to be a trucker would be to do it while you're young, and sell everything you own (or store it somewhere without cost, like a family member's basement or something along those lines), and live in your truck full time, saving up everything you make. Crash with friends or family every now and again to get a real homecooked meal instead of Flying J hamburgers and a cleaner shower, but don't spend money on renting a place you'll be away from most of the time. After two or three years of this you would have a nice little package saved up that you could use as a down payment on a house.
Once you've done that, you can either get out of trucking, or you can use your experience to find a local trucking job that has you home every night.
One thing I can tell you is that drivers are fucking suicidal when it comes to trucks. They'll drive a foot behind your trailer to take advantage of your draft, they'll cut you off constantly, stop short right in front of you, and just generally forget that you're a truck that is 5-7 times as heavy as they are hauling a trailer that can be up to twenty times as heavy as they are. Still though, it's a solid career if you want it to be. People give truckers a lot of grief sometimes but if you look around your house and envision every single thing you own, unless it was manufactured in its entirety less than 20 miles from the place you bought it from it (or a part that comprises it) has ridden on a truck at some point.
I just passed my DOT drive test for Washington state today. So I am now licensed to drive an 80000 lbs, 70ft long death machine on USA roads.
The attrition in my class was real.
10 students on day 1. 2 out on medical reasons on day 2. 1 more failed on day 4, straight line backing. 1 more on the weekend just quit due to nerves.
6 students in week 2. 1 failed on pretrip inspection, 1 failed on offtack and 90* backing tests. Those 2 held back for a week.
4 students in week 3. All pass the street test by second testing.
School is done, time for DOT official testing. All of us fail first time, so 100$ each down the drain. 1 student made performed a dangerous action, got a ticket and was 86'd for a year. The rest retest Monday (today).
I'm the only one to pass today as far as I know. I was shipped back to the hotel and got a car rental where I am at now.
Yeah, get to go home and make it rain those trucker dollars.
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Grats on passing NotoriusBEN, hope you enjoy driving that war rig.
seems kinda
@Knuckle Dragger might get a kick out of this. Keep this in mind for you normal people out there with time logs.
This is federally mandated and as much as I wanted to run farther and get this done, it was for the best because... yea, I'd have been way too tired and shit.
Time Log Rules.
Off Duty. This is time that you are not responsible for the vehicle or load. When you go to the bathroom or get food you are off duty. Resting and going on vaction is also be off duty
Sleeper Berth. This is time that you spend in the sleeper. You are not responsible for the vehicle and you should be resting (sleeping).
Driving. This is time you are driving the vehicle. Pure drive time.
On-Duty. this is all the crap you do for work that is not driving. Picking up, dropping off loads, inspections, general crap to keep the truck in working order and ready to roll.
You have 4 clocks to work with:
-an 8hour clock. as soon as you go on-duty or drive, you MUST take a 30min break in that period.
-an 11hour clock. You can only DRIVE 11 hours total in a work period. This is pure drive time.
-a 14hour clock. You can only DRIVE within a 14hour window from the moment you go on-duty or drive. You can keep doing On-Duty work like getting the truck taken care of or working with dispatch to take care of appointments, etc. but you CANNOT DRIVE when this time is up.
-a 70hour clock. This is cumulative on-duty and drive time for 8 days. You can only perform 70hours of on-duty/drive time within an 8 day period.
How do you regain time?
You reset your 8hour clock by taking 30minutes
You reset your 11hour clock by taking 10 consecutive hours Off-Duty/Sleeper (interchangeable, but only those two lines).
You reset your 14hour clock by taking 10 consecutive hours Off-Duty/Sleeper (interchangeable, but only those two lines).
The 70hour clock is a little different, but not tricky.
--Whatever you did for On-Duty or Driving on the 8th day is regained at Midnight (Home Terminal Time) on the 9th day.
--You can take a 34hour break, combination Off-Duty/Sleeper and reset your entire 70hour clock
Those are the basics, but there are some other rules that are allowed that are basically timesheet witchcraft to get shit done and received/delivered on time.
I got done with my mentorship relatively easy. it boiled down to getting more drive time under my belt with understanding what to do when certain situations arose.
I was all ready to go solo on 8/14, Friday night, after I got the truck setup in the shop and double checked that everything was in working order. I even had a load to pick up on Saturday for a nice run to Nebraska by Monday. Perfect for getting a quick cash injection for PAX. Load gets taken from me. New load on Sunday. Ok, fine, its to Wisconsin, little bit farther, still doable. Get to the shipper, they canceled like 1hr before my appointment. SONOVABICH! Yo! Dispatch get me a load that will get me some money for PAX and pay some of these bills you're charging me weekly. Ok, do a quick 20mile haul, unload it in 2hrs, pick up a run to Illinois, even farther still. It will be tight but damn, 2000 miles aint bad.
That fucking 20mile haul man. It took the lumpers 9HOURS!! to unload my trailer. Then, they damaged some of the product and left it in the trailer "sorry there is some broke stuff in there." No shit. It looks like you hit it with a forklift. I can see the stab marks and oh gee, it's the *EXACT* width and height level your jack is capable of. So now I gotta do a claim which takes another 2hours to sort. Ok, take it back to the terminal and get another trailer to get th-FUCK!! random UA!?. take another couple hours to get that sorted. Keep in mind I'm like 13hours late to pick up that Illinois load.
Luckily I had to presence of mind to go on sleeper berth for that unload and just sleep for 8hrs (time log witchcraft rules to conserve your hours for the day and your 70hour line). Basically, I go on 8hours sleeper, I don't technically spend all that time with those fucking lumpers, and I can get to the shipper and still have like 7hours to drive.
Still, I should have refused that Illinois load because of all this BS, I didn't realize how much time I had left to deliver.
Cue, me stomping on the gas and going as fast as I am legally allowed to go (because fuck getting a $2000 trucker speeding ticket). For four days, all I do is drive and sleep, getting whatever bit of food I buy at truckstops. (Seriously, its like mining the miners, fuck these people). I'm at a serious low point because the entire time, I'm racing the delivery time and I'm worried about getting back for PAX.
About 10hours from my delivery, and talking with some Planners and Drive managers (of course my Drive manager is on vacation THIS week) I get a transfer call to a drop yard about 20miles from the delivery. Just drop it and get an empty trailer and stuff the paperwork in the trailer box for another guy to do on Monday. We know you need to get home, we got a load going to Colorado tomorrow.
Okay... cool... I'm finally done with this thing... and I was. Dropped it, got an empty no prob, a decent Truck Stop is a few miles away, get a shower, and a decent cooked meal. (I just about cried because all I recall eating was water, gatorade, a couple pepsi's, and some roller food for four days. It was a short order, but the cook made it like it was home cooked) I'm damn near shell shocked. Just go to bed and get this Colorado load in the morning... its heading back west. Hey more good news, the shipper is across the street from the stop you are in. Its partway there, you can figure out the rest of the way home, when you get to Colorado...
Wake up this morning. its 8/22. My Colorado load has been pushed to 8/23 to be picked up. I wont make it to PAX with this time management, because I needed to take my 34 in Colorado to have a shot at this. I only have 22 hours left on my 70 clock and it would take longer to regain hours on the 9th day.
I walk over to the shippers to see if anything can be done.
"No. Sorry, this load isn't even loaded yet, all I have left are a couple loads to Grand Rapids and Boise-"
"Wait, Boise?! Is the trailer loaded?"
"Yes, its in the yard waiting to be picked up, but its due on 8/24."
"Hang on for like 10 minutes."
Proceed to make a flurry of phone calls and plotting a course to Boise from Chicago. Holy shit... this is doable if...
"Yo, Planner. This load for Boise has been waiting since 8/21 to be picked up and sent. I can pick it up at Midnight, tonight. Yes, its for 8/24 delivery, but its just gonna get there later because you have no one. I can do it at Midnight because it will be 34hours since I went on sleeper and I will have the hours to get to Boise the morning of 8/25. Cool... Good... Dispatch me on this load. NOW." *Me running back to the shipper.* "Yo, I've been dispatched on that Boise load."
"Hmm... yep, here it is on my computer, here's your paperwork, trailer is in the yard."
No one is taking this from me, come hell or high water.
Getting to Boise means I'm within 10hours of drive time to my home terminal and I can go on vacation and get to PAX, hopefully on 8/26 or 8/27.
Still a lot of variables to get past, and I know that 'Hope is the first step on the road to Disappointment' but its the only thing getting me up in the morning at this point...
Tune in next time for:
"Its a PAXmas Miracle, NotoriusBEN!"
-or-
" 'All According to Plan' produced and directed by Tzeentch"
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This is me on 8/14.
This is me today, 8/22.
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