Comments By Davy A.

When I started, knight made us do a physical agility and strength test. I haven't had to do one since.

The last physical I did for my dot at their doctor almost didn't pass me for being colorblind. He asked me how I got a card passed. I replied that he himself did it. He refused to believe me and sign off until he verified his own signature...if build back better was a Dr's office.

Sometimes the world just fights you. No reason, stuff just happens. Like in the original Poltergiest when the indian says "Your car, it is angry at you." Perhaps some loads just dont want to be delivered.

Im in a loaner truck, my beloved Edna decided that she didnt really like her drag link assembly and wanted a new one. The loaner truck was behaving reasonablly well for an Intertrashinal. Then I got dispatched on a Sams load to Rapid city. Theres a winter storm coming in that will mostly be a wind event, no problem, I should be up and back before it hits, just in time to get Edna from the doctors office with her new hardware on.

The trailer situation, its like the Bonnie situation in Pulp Fiction. Its one of our vintage trailers, a charming antique. Its DOT inspection is out of date, the mud flaps are hanging on by zip ties and the landing gear is begging for the three pound sledge-o-matic. I get the inspection resolved (it was done and tagged wrong), get the mudlaps secured and beat the landing gear into submission. Nothing bothering me, for some reason, im just ok with it all.

Of course, our contract is up for renewal an so its critical that we dont have a failure on this load. Of course they moved the rigid delivery time to 0400 , cant be early, that counts as a failure. I get the load with just enough time to be a day early but just late enough to be late for the butcrack of dawn delivery time if they move it up a day. So, Ill take a day of layover on isle 5, Bob. of course that puts my favorite load of empty granola bar boxes back down through the Wind Tunnel state (Wyoming) right infront of the gale force winds.

So the cornbinder with a seat thinks there is water in its fuel system. I call dispatch to let them know. We schedule a visit for her to the Dr too. Turns out there really is water in the fuel, It starts shaking like a drunk on the first morning at the Salvation Army rehab clinic under load. Im already committed, so Ill just make the best of it. I call my dispatch again, tell them that Ill get the load delivered even if I have to have it towed there first, make arrangements to dtich the loaner bucket at a dealer and take a rental car back to Denver after. At least Ill get out of hauling a 4000 pouind load in high winds.

Ive been in a really good mood through all of this, nothing bothering me. So out in the no mans land of Wyoming and South Dakota, far outside where normal people and cell phone coverage travel, I stopped at a local watering hole and fed the bulbous cow of a loaner beater some deisel treatment in the hopes of curing her water problem, no effect. Coming down a little 6 percent grade, the Jake brakes decide to take a break. They must have figured that with the water in the fuel, they shouldnt have to work so hard as well. I have 42k in the box, the sphincter tightened a bit to say the least. I kept it in control though, both the truck and that.

No problem, Im within striking distance of the reciever, almost 12 hours early, but close nonetheless. And then the incessent dinging starts from the dash. That peircing discordant musical tone that screams "Turn off engine now, service DPF system". Yeah....Thats not going to happen with 53 miles to go. I call breakdown, explain the situation and ask if its going to derate. They say "Youll know if it does, you have our blessings to keep driving it." So, I drive the remaining 53 miles of rolling hills at about 15 mph up hill and playing Russian Roulette with the wounded Jakes and spoungy service brakes on the downhills alll while listening to the greatist hits of continous alarm buzzers dinging. The Check engine lights, service engine now and DPF warning lights make a lovely blinding display at night.

I made it to the reciever, Ill do my arrival call at 0400 and my empty call. Then bobtail over to the Intertrashinal dealer and drop off this poor ole girl. She did go the distance after all. Ironically, I picked her up from the dealer, apparently they might have missed a few things.

So sometimes that load might not want to get delivered, but I just take it all in stride, laugh about it and make it work.

As was said, we recommend company provided school and training. If you are worried about a contract, which as you probably should have already read many times over here, you shouldnt be, but nonetheless, a few carriers are no contract. I know Knight is no contract, but its highly recommended to stay at least a year with which ever company you go to. Im not necessarilly pushing any one company over another, do your research in the links that others posted, read the CDL diaries and keep in mind that all carriers serve to function the same, they just have differences in how they go about it. The deciding factor is how you go about it.

If you and your wifes living situation will tolerate you being gone a lot, and you have experience with that, life will be easier. Im in a similar position in that my gal is close to retiring, but that in its ownself is a challange. I can tell you from personal experience, that even though I thought our relationship was OTR proof, its taken a tremendous amount of work to keep it in balance.

Speaking of balance, assuming you successfully complete getting your CDL, complete training and make a year accident and incident free, theres a good chance that you probably have a high work ethic and tendency to push hard. Those qualities can make a great driver but place a toll on your home life. Learning to ballance the two early on is valuable. But keep in mind, that the foundation of your career, even if its your retirement career is laid in the beginning. It takes being away from home mentally as well as physically to develop the good habbits.

Obviously, teaming is not recommended to start, it brings up many complications and you likely will find the easiest most direct path is the one to take. If you and the wife get along traveling and living in a compartment smaller than a walk in closet, which magnifies any annoying behavior, after you get established, then start taking her along, but thats a bit down the path for now. My gal and I travel really well together, we frequently go to Europe for weeks at a time, we road trip well and Ive taken her for a week or two at a time on the truck. We tested it gradually and found what works and doesnt. Even then, my truck is my cave and my sanctuary, there are times where I just dont want anyone else there no matter how close they are in my heart.

Good that you got your money back. We highly recommend company provided training here for many reasons. If you're serious about starting a career in this industry I'd recommend posting in the general section, being open minded to advice from highly successful drivers here and following the advice.

• Truck Driver's Career Guide
• Brett's Book: The Raw Truth About Trucking (free online version)
• High Road CDL Training Program
• CDL Practice Tests

Paid CDL Training ProgramsTruck Driver's Career Guide

I'm glad he wasn't injured. In a way though, he handed the company the gun, ammo, cleaned it for them and shot himself in the foot with it.

From a financial standpoint, the company is paying him yearly cost increases, bonuses and a ton of other perks, equivocally paying a lot more per mile than a driver in the 3 to 5 year experience bracket. Drivers reach peak efficiency after a few years, we're limited by our hos as to how many miles we can run, after a certain point, the company is just paying more without getting any more benefit. It's good image and marking to new drivers to have long term drivers, but year after year of cost increases, plus impending retirement, the company got away lucky. They have insurance, which will minimize their exposure. I don't forsee them hiring him back.

I'm not saying they're a bad company, it's just business, and if it's a sizable corporation, the profit margin outweighs the compassion. If there is a person he can get through to, perhaps.

That being said, We tend to focus on the mechanics of driving in a situation as drivers, but the problem is the decision to be on the road in the first place.

After 35 years in the industry, it's expected that he should be able to recognize weather patterns and not be on road at all. I have a hunch that the companies decision to let him go is rooted in the decision making process that he not only chose to drive, knowing there was hazardous weather, but chose to drive at the speed limit, assuming he's not governed, being 75 mph there.

The lines get blurred when you're out on the road, dispatch wants you to perform and there's always a subtle dance of manipulation as to weather or not you really need to shut down, as well as we get complacent after enough times of defying the laws of winter and physics, but in the end, it's the drivers life and career on the line.

It serves as a powerful reminder to us to slow down and to shut down, not push that limit. I'm guilty of it too.

Tp or tissue, bulk gypsum, ketchup, boxes, groceries and furniture, bottled water, cabinets, lockers, some high value stuff that I think was electronics, hay, paint, car batteries, grain, bulk and bagged, clothes, building materials, kenworth parts, some really nice toyo performance tires, recycled tires, underwear, diapers (not used), wood chips, bulk and bagged, bulk salt, pallets, anything that will go in a dry van and some stuff that shouldn't.

Happy Easter. Read through the CDL diaries section. There are many from various carriers in there. It may give you a more realistic view of it. Also of the reality that most of them aren't here, much less trucking at all.

Basically, if you have a medical condition that is severe or requires certain medication and or has certain symptoms such as seizures, strokes, etc, it may limit you from obtaining a med card and thus CDL. That needs to be addressed first. Check with the FMCSA to see if you're even eligible to get a CDL.

Next, I'd concentrate on the path to getting your license and training accomplished, then worry about the other stuff. You're assuming that you get through getting your CDL and training. Most people don't. There are a ton assumptions that this is an easy lifestyle and entry-level candidates are often baffled and confused months later as to why they washed out.

Different companies have slightly different takes on their policies, but as stated, most will require you to turn in the truck if off for extended periods, especially in the beginning.

A new driver doesn't bring much to the table expect potential liability. It takes a year or so to begin to develop efficiency and a reputation for delivering on time and safely. It takes a while to establish a relationship with your office that you can be trusted and are easy to work with. Once you do, however, if you're a reliable high performing driver that is safe and easy to work with, you may find added perks such as bending some of the policies. My terminal manager makes it a point to keep me in my truck and I've taken 3 weeks off at a time.

Worrying about how many miles and how long you can stay out on the road when you've never even driven a cmv is putting the cart before the horse. You'll be lucky to complete 2000 to 2500 miles a week for a while in the beginning, until you develop an understanding of your clocks, managing your time, flow at shippers and recievers and your dispatch trusts you enough to hand you miles. It's a process we all went through.

I've been spending considerable time thinking about this, basically a representative based structure that is made up of drivers. The organization would have a set of guidelines similar to the function of the constitution. Leadership would be elected with term limits so that the organization remains by drivers for drivers.

I thought about 3 levels of certification based upon safety, productivity and skills. In order to run for office so to speak, a candidate would have to be at the highest level of certification, meaning no preventables, 0 csa score, demonstrated ability to be productive and on time. And a less tangible one that is the ability to be diplomatic and work with carriers.

Such an organization, that had a focus on education, and fostering top tier drivers would justify the higher labor rates paid to drivers. The carriers would be able to do more with less. It's actually a much higher ROI for them. Walmart obviously has figured this out. It would behoove us to bargain rather than simply attempting to force rates higher. In turn, the carriers would be getting something substantial for the expense.

I envision an organization that works with carriers and authorities to foster safe professional drivers and practices. The certification standards and process would carry weight. Again its a win for both parties. Carriers would be more profitable with a certified safe workforce that was accountable.

The benefit to drivers is obviously higher wages, a sense of pride, numerous studies and companies have borne this out over time. Resources, we could help drivers become better drivers that are struggling but motivated. Drivers would be motivated to attain higher certification because it would mean higher pay, psychologically higher status and respect. It's the very definition of performance dictates pay.

I don't think we could effectively influence driver wages without the ability to collective bargain, but I have very little knowledge of that, much less the process of how it works. It's something that I will dive into because I think it will become necessary to accomplish objectives. Diplomacy with force.

I don't claim to have all the answers, just things that I've been thinking on. I have several areas I don't know, such as, worst case scenario, how does the organization provide for workers in the event that a bargain can't be reached? How is the organization set up, ie 501 c3, non profit, etc? How do we handle growth if happens rapidly especially? It's a mammoth concept to undertake.

Why do existing unions hold pension funds in this day and age of 401k and other retirement plans? I believe it is feasible to leave the pension out of the equation but bargain for more favorable retirement and health care plans to the drivers.

In a broad sense I have a vision of drivers being a professional highly trained group that are known to tbe the good guys again. We were once called the Knights of the highway. A living that were proud to be a part of. There will always be those who don't care, but there are enough of us that do care that I believe change can be fostered.

Again, gun control laws and regulations are overwhelmingly liberal based. It's not political, it's just the platform of the left.

The actual odds of a child being shot and killed on any given day, based on the number of children attending school in the country is approximately 1 in 614 billion. Courtesy of pew research. It's a microscopic sector of crime.

The odds of a minor getting shot in gangland shootings in Chicago, the city with the most restricted gun access is 1 in 3. One third of all minors are subject to being shot. Chicago has a higher shooting victim and death rate by gun than Iraq. Where is the emotional urge to fix that problem? There isn't one. It's OK for inner city youth to kill each other.

Your emotional response and fear of your child being harmed does not justify you voting for officials who's agenda is to infringe upon my God given right to defend myself both personally and as a society.

The only reason that we are not taxed at 90 percent (which the late Feinstein was quoted as saying an unarmed public could be taxed to 90 percent) is the threat of an unruly armed citizenry.

And in response to the upcoming argument of " the government will just use tanks and bombs", virtually every civil conflict globally has been won by small actors with small arms and improvised explosives since the advent of the kalishnakov rifle in 1947. According to Stanford University professors studying how the face of warfare has changed.

But the overriding principle is just one word. NO. You will not infringe the right any further.

So while you state that you're apolitical, you're actually very political, you're just unaware that you are. The left refers to their base as "useful idiots". Their words, not mine. I think you're actually a very intelligent person, and you owe it to yourself to examine the manipulation that has taken place over decades.

The solution is armed teachers, retires military and police in the schools. But you are gently pushed away from that line of thinking. It's unsavory and the picture that's sold by the very authoritarian left is that of a peaceful unarmed society living in utopia and harmony.

Mankind is violent by nature, we are opportunistic and share only with certain canines, the propensity to kill members of our own species for sport, not instinctual drive. Rest assured, force must be matched to deter a threat.

You can, our eld(zonar)won't show your clocks accurately on the second split until after the final break is complete. It can be unnerving because you know you have hours but it will show you in violation. With ours, you really have to know your clocks.