Comments By mountain girl

Thanks, Bruce.

You probably weren't around here when I was a rookie driver, but I went through two companies in my first-year and a half, myself. The first company had a brand new training program, although it is a big organization. I had arrived there with a new CDL, but when I didn't pass their test after their 6-week course, they didn't quite know what to do with me. Looking back, they could have easily trained me one more week and re-tested me but the trainer was not going to have any of that. Back then, he kinda' "made sure" I didn't pass. I learned later that some time after that, he got busted with a DUI, lost his trainer position, and ended up on the dock, there. Karma got him.

The second company I worked for turned out to be just as bad, if not, worse. I was a p/d and (occasional) longhaul driver. A combination driver. Of the females they hired to be drivers there, the only ones who didn't get set up for failure were the ones who were married to drivers already working there. Out of 120 drivers, seven were females, and all 5 of us single, female drivers were fired, eventually --all having been given multiple delivery routes into mountain switchbacks, tiny city docks, and any situation possible, that was too difficult for a new driver --just so that we would end up with enough accidents that we'd be fired.. I can say from experience, if you were female, blonde, and single, Old Dominion was NOT the place for you.

Regardless, Old School is referring to situations inside the norm, where if you made yourself useful and indepensible, by your willingness to hustle, you would naturally get more runs from the dispatcher and make more money than the common complainer, for sure.

Old School, your timing could not have been more impeccable, for me.

There's not a whole lot I can change about my manager, or the company I'm with, but I can look at my own performance. I'm on a dedicated route with a set weekly schedule, so it's not as though speeding up my turnaround time would put me back on the road sooner. The only difference getting back to the yard sooner brings me, is more time home between runs. So in that sense, yeah, the sooner I get home the more I have made for myself hourly.

In that regard, I have sort of maxed out the possibilities of this job. It served its purpose. I needed something boring, and ordinary and somewhat predictable so that I could clean up my record and get a few years between my last company and the present. We have had a couple of raises, and that's been good, but as far as my particular job is concerned, I can't do much more. I don't get bonuses for safety, and yet I am one of the few drivers out of the 22 here who has been completely accident-free. and when the roads are closed in Wyoming, if another driver going in same direction has chosen to drive that route, however in our dangerous, somehow I'm the bad guy for choosing not to.

Blech. Could I run a little harder sometimes? Absolutely. But I think it's safe to say that I am burned out with this guy and this run and probably have been for 6 to 12 months. Sometimes I even get excited when there's foul weather and it's dangerous, just because it's more of a challenge for me.

At the very least, I've driven this route each way, 700 + times, 450,000 miles. I admit, there are nights when I couldn't give a crap, as long as I get there safely.

Sometimes I actually get a little worried that I'm too casual about this route because I know it so well.

And come to think of it, it's not so much the money today. If I got paid the same or even a little bit less, I'd be happy to do something else. For that reason alone, although there are many others, I need to find a new job and a new company.

-mountain girl

Old Schoooool!

What the HECK, man?! Last time I talked to you I was climbing Wolf Creek Pass!

Wow. I've driven in every storm this winter except the bomb cyclone. (Called in "sick"that day)

How the heck are ya!

Gotta roll again. I'll be back here tomorrow.

I'm alive, and I'm still truckin'.

That's great to hear!

I miss you all!

Hi Brett! Hi Everyone!

And we miss you! It's really great to hear from you! Also glad you weren't involved in that mess. Honestly, it did make me think about you. I'm glad you posted something. I often wonder about our friends that we just don't hear from very often, and it's always fun to have an old friend "pop in" on us.

I need to prooread before I hit submit. Sorry bout the spelling and grammar. You get the idea.

I70 east or west bound, is a lot of work and I avoid it as often as possible.

10 hours are up.

Gotta roll back to Denver.

I'm taking I-80.

-mountain girl

I've driven this route so many times that I can always pick out the drivers who've never driven these mountain corridors. They burn through there brakes and you can smell then coming down the hill. I saw a ton of smoke as he passed by that guy in the video.

Brake until you've asked down to 5mph below your chosen speed. Then let up until it reaches your chosen speed again. Going west on I70, west of Eisenhower Tunnel, truck speed limit is 35mph, all the way to Silverthorne.

But here, this was foothill territory. Steep, but deceiving because the view is vast ahead of you and it doesn't appear to be that bad.

-mountain girl

I've been driving this route for 3 years. I have over 400,000 miles on this route. I 70 is one of my options, but I usually take I-80. Every other night I drive from Denver to Salt Lake City, take my break and Salt Lake like I'm doing right now, and drive back to Denver that next night. I haven't done all of the math, but each way I've probably driven this 1300 times.

Clearly when he drove by he was smoking. I actually learned how to drive a semi on these foothills on my third day of training.

He was traveling East and this stretch of road is deceivingly steep. It's just that it's very, very long. There's a runaway ramp about 4 miles behind him. If you look at a map, almost all the way down the hill, we call it a hill but it's really a mountain, from Genesee all the way down to C470, the downgrades are 45 miles per hour for semis. The runaway truck ramp is so far away from where this happened that he could have easily picked up speed. From C 470 to the accident where the speed limit is back to 65, he could have easily picked up speed again and I myself have caught myself running 75 miles per hour without even trying on this stretch. But you have to pay attention.

Most of the time, if you're using manual. 7th or 8th gear is the highest I've ever gone and you have to use your brake preservation. Unless it's really slick on the road, my engine brake is always on.

I cannot imagine the terror he must have felt. He had a long time to know he was in trouble.

My air compressor died last fall and brake hoses replaced last night. So many things could have happened.

Do your pre-trip, Everyone.

-mountain girl

Yeah, I figured, LOL. I'm checking in to let everyone know it wasn't I, I'm alive, and I'm still truckin'.

-mountain girl

I miss you all!

Hi Brett! Hi Everyone!

-mountain girl

Hi everyone, I wasn't involved, but this is near where I live and 70's an optional part of my route.

-mountain girl

Glad to see you too, big Scott!

- mountain girl