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Archive of posts tagged life on the road

My First Year as a Truck Driver

Wow, it’s hard to believe, but I’ve been at my current employer for 1 year as of today. I began Truck Driving School in January of 2009, completed that in February of 2009, and was hired on in March of 2009. This post will simply serve as some observations that I’ve made as my first year of a truck driver.

Not Much Help For The Drivers

The Qualcomm system at most companies have directions to customers listed, but a lot of the time the directions are wrong. Unfortunately, even when dispatchers and customers know the directions are wrong nobody seems to care enough to do anything about it. Here’s an example of the mess it can cause.

Truck Driving Down Donner Pass

Until recently, I had never actually been on Donner’s Pass in California. Donners Pass is usually touted as one of the more dangerous areas for truck drivers and is the site of many fatal accidents. It’s quite an experience! I had the pleasure of going through it at night. I would have liked to take it during the day so I could see some of the scenery around me, but I’m sure I’ll get that chance in the future. I was still able to make some key observations though…

Is Trucking In Your Blood?

Would you drive a truck if the trucking company you worked for only paid you enough to cover your bills at home and your meals, but nothing more after that? For me the answer would be yes. I love driving and I would do it for free. Trucking is in my blood. Do you love driving a truck? Really love it? If so, then trucking is in your blood. To me, there is a difference between liking your job and loving it. Liking your job means you enjoy going to work, you enjoy the people you work with, you enjoy doing your job. Loving your job means you would do it for free! For me, trucking fits the bill.

A New Era For The Knights Of The Road

In the past, truckers were known as “Knights of the Road”. Those days are long forgotten, though, and through time the truckers and their rigs have lost their knightly reputation. Truckers are no longer depicted in a positive light and the situation looks like it may be getting worse for a number of reasons, including our own (lack of) pride and personal discipline, attitude, driving skills, and factors outside of our control including the media, more dangers on the highway, and recent waves of terrorism. Is there anything we can do to improve our reputations? Oh indeed there is plenty we can do.

Randy’s Home Time During Training – Part 1

I LOVE “normal” life.  We got lots of errands done, I sold some stuff on Craigslist and Randy had a little pinstriping job – we made more money today than his last paycheck.  ;)   He keeps saying how nice it is to be home, and I keep telling him how nice it is to have him here.  Home will soon be somewhere else, and we’re going to start moving tomorrow.

Inside Trucking Part 3: Life On The Road

With all the fuel that drivers purchase, it’s wise to get the driver payback cards from the truck stops that offer them. Its free, and it’s a way of saying thank you to the professional driver. For each gallon of fuel purchased, you get 1 cent/point put on the card. You can use these points [...]

Truck Driving in Winter Weather

Before I became a truck driver, there was nothing better than a good snow storm in the winter. Sliding around in my 4-wheeler, sledding, snowball fights, snowmen, hearing the scrape of the snowplow as is passes by, and the beautiful sight it leaves. That was then, and this is now!

Inside Trucking Part 2: Understanding Company Expenses

If you are the type of driver that thinks about the cost of doing business for your employer or the trucking industry in general, you are in the minority. If you’re not thinking about it, you should be – it has a major effect on your paycheck.

Randy’s Phase 1 CDL Training – Part 9 – He’s Done!

I talked to Randy sooo much today.  We discussed EVERYTHING about trucking, the school, our experience so far, every aspect of our future, and how we’ve both been sort of “cracking under the pressure” lately.

Randy’s Phase 1 Training – Part 8

I keep reading that the 2 most important factors for a successful marriage, especially in OTR trucking, are trust and communication…this week, we had neither one.  I suppose the added stress of all this didn’t help, and we both had a major thinking/behavior relapse.  This career truly does test a relationship, and any weakness that existed before WILL be magnified 1000 times. 

Another Night Of Driving And A Very Close Call

Even when you’re just cruising along, minding your own business, and doing everything right, you never know when someone is going to do something incredibly dangerous right in front of you, and this was one of those times.

Randy’s Phase 1 CDL Training – Part 6

We’re about half way through with CDL training and Randy is hardly making anything out on the road with his trainer. He can’t wait to get done with training. He’s been through a lot already but unfortunately there’s still a good ways to go.

Randy’s Phase 1 CDL Training – Part 5

Another day stuck at the school, another interesting story…don’t know if it’s true, but it’s interesting. Supposedly, a student took a bottle of liquor on the truck while with an instructor and other students. They got 30 miles away at a truck stop, the safety manager and cops were called, and he got a D.U.I. If it really happened, it’s incredibly stupid! A lot of odd things happen at that school.

Randy’s Phase 1 CDL Training – Part 4

So, Randy has been acting very strangely and I can hardly get him to talk to me at all. Two days ago he was all happy, now he seems really uncomfortable again…something is going on in that truck. I suppose I won’t find out until he has some “alone time” again.