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.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Career Help, Tips, Advice, Current State of the Trucking Industry, truck driving lifestyle.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, being a truck driver, dealing with the boss, driver responsibilities, First year on the road, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Stories of the Road, truck driving lifestyle, truck driving stories
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.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Cathy and Steve's Story, Great Stories, Stories of the Road.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Bad directions, Cathy and Steve's Story, dealing with the boss, driver responsibilities, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Qualcomm directions, truck driving lifestyle
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…
Posted by
Guyjax on
25 February 2010, 10:23 am
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.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, Career Help, Tips, Advice, truck driving lifestyle.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, driver responsibilities, Knights Of The Road, life on the road, truck driving career
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.
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.
Posted by
Rhonda on
20 January 2010, 3:00 pm
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 [...]
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Career Help, Tips, Advice, Great Stories, Stories of the Road, Women In Trucking, truck driving lifestyle.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, driver responsibilities, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Stories of the Road, truck driving lifestyle, truck driving stories, Women In Trucking
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!
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Career Help, Tips, Advice, First Solo Months On The Road, Great Stories, Safe Driving Tips.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, driver responsibilities, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Stories of the Road, truck driving stories
Posted by
Rhonda on
11 January 2010, 5:27 am
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.
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.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, Great Stories, Rhonda & Randy's Story.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, CDL training, getting your CDL, hard lessons learned, life on the road, Rhonda & Randy's Story, Stories of the Road, truck driver training
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.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, Career Help, Tips, Advice, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, getting your CDL, hard lessons learned, life on the road, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story, Stories of the Road, truck driver training
Posted by
Rhonda on
18 December 2009, 5:48 am
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.
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.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, CDL training, getting your CDL, life on the road, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story, truck driver training
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.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story, Stories of the Road.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, attending truck driving school, Becoming A Truck Driver, CDL training, getting your CDL, life on the road, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story, Stories of the Road, truck driver training, truck driving stories
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.
Filed under Advice and Opinions, Becoming A Truck Driver, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story.
Tagged Advice and Opinions, attending truck driving school, Becoming A Truck Driver, CDL training, life on the road, new drivers in a slow economy, On The Road In Training, Rhonda & Randy's Story, truck driver training