Comments By ambrose_johnson

As Clint Eastwood once said, a man (or woman) has to know his/her limitations. More than how much money you can make, you have to know what your physical, mental and spiritial limits are. A good thing to know is the exact lifting requirements of the job. How many pounds is a local shipping container driver, for example, supposed to lift (using body mechanics) on a regular basis besides his own body weight up into the cab seat? This question is dead serious. A driver on some other web source claimed that delivering fuel to a gas station was "not that labor-intensive". The hose supposedly weighed 15 pounds. Gravity does most of the work.

You say you're an experienced driver and a rail road buff, but you don't know the answers to these simple questions?

In the spirit of trucking truth and helping the lurkers, no, shipping containers do not move on straight trucks.

Drivers do not put on or pull off containers, but they are responsible for securing them to a chassis.

Experienced in the army. Mostly straight trucks. Very minimal tractor trailer work. No shipping container experience. I don't know all the answers and that is why questions are asked here. It is now looking apparent that trailer trucks might be the way to go for couch potatoes. The less I touch the goods in back, the better.

So I have a job where I drive straight trucks some days and big trucks other days. I make the same amount of money (hourly) either way. The straight truck is very labor intensive where as the most I do during the day on the big truck is getting in and out of the truck. Both are hauling fuel but the straight trucks are for small commercial stops and home deliveries where my semi is only used to haul product around town. It really depends on the type of work you’re looking for and what you want to do. I’ve had jobs both local and OTR delivering beer, milk, general freight, building materials and now fuel that have been very labor intensive but I’ve also had to hand unload a 53’ dry van by hand a few times. If you just want to drive and not do much else, drive a dump truck.

What I have in mind is "no-touch" loads, but I'm now gathering that doesn't seem to exist much in straight truck work. Probably, driving shipping container trucks, including the trailer and tractor types, locally is "the easy chair of the trucking world". Do they even make straight trucks for shipping containers? Flatbed straight trucks for containers? What driver labor could be involved in putting on or pulling off a steel 20, 30 or 40' intermodal container? Don't they use big machines for that? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

What am I missing here?

I have holding a steering wheel in mind inside a climate controlled cab, not sweaty hard labor. I also have a 40-48 hour work week in mind. I will simplify it. I have hauling FREIGHT in mind. Both commodities and finished goods. Forget about cement mixers and such. This freight could be food, grain, gasoline, milk, livestock, shipping container, coal, lumber or Samsung SmartTVs. Is some type of CDL still prudent to have for those pursuing a career as a paid driver, employed by somebody else, of a non-trailer truck for commercially hauling freight? A non-trailer freight vehicle has a number of advantages. Easier to park, back and maneuver. No labor-intensive trailer to hook up and inspect. Some places are just too small and impractical to try to get a trailer truck into to serve customers. Non-trailer trucks have their place in our economy. Hard labor? No forklifts?

Are there some local professional drivers driving trucks sans trailers that make as much as, if not more than, 18-wheeler drivers do?

I'm confused....sans means without, so what kind of trucks are you talking about? Box trucks?

That's exactly what I mean. Trucks without trailers hooked up to them. When you say "box truck" do you mean something like a moving van? There are many kinds of commercial trucks without trailers. Cement mixers. Dump trucks. Moving vans. Flatbeds. Grain trucks.

What does a local trailer truck driver typically make in comparison with a "box truck" driver? Do CDL drivers get paid more than non-CDL drivers?

I would refuse to drive more than 100 miles bobtail on good weather days; but none at all for snow. It's too dangerous on snow covered roads and too rough a ride in general. There's no lack of trailers at Marten Transport that I know of.

Mr Rat, is it true that tractors with advanced/modern airbag suspensions will handle snow better and ride not so much like a wheelbarrow while driving in bobtail mode? Can ride softeness be dialed in on these rigs?

Are there some local professional drivers driving trucks sans trailers that make as much as, if not more than, 18-wheeler drivers do?