Comments By Richard T.

Congratulations, you clearly had a valid complaint.

That said, and reading your earlier comments, I would take to heart every word of Brett's and Old School's advice. Print out those comments and put them on the back of your bathroom door so you can review them while you're sitting there contemplating life. I'm not a driver yet, but I've enjoyed two or three different careers in my 60+ years, and I can tell you their words are some of the best advice you'll ever receive for living life in general. That's just my advice, and its worth what you paid for it!

Best of luck in your driving career!

Here in Saudi Arabia that's pretty much all you see, 6-wheel cab-overs from Mercedes, Man, and Volvo. Most of them look like they're pulling over 80k and have been for years. I play mental games riding to work, trying to see how many DOT violations I can see. HOS is apparently nonexistent here, judging from the number of wrecked trucks I've seen going into curves, and lying on their sides in the middle of miles of perfectly straight road. Saufi Arabia is 5th highest in the world for highway fatalities, and unfortunately truckers here do their share.

Am I the only one who thought that was a lead in to a dirty joke?

Thats what I was looking for. . .

SAW THIS IN THE NEWS--HEADS UP, YOU GET THE VIOLATION EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW

U.S. Border Patrol is asking for the public's help to combat a new and dangerous method immigrants are using to get past checkpoints undetected.“Falfurrias checkpoint is one of the busiest checkpoints in the country with regard to seizures and apprehensions,” said Omar Zamora, the spokesperson for Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector. “In addition to that we also inspect more than 8,000 vehicles per day.”So far this year, the Border Patrol apprehended more than 7,000 immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally at the Falfurrias checkpoint.Agents are seeing more immigrants take bold and dangerous measures to travel undetected through checkpoints."We don’t want anybody to die or get hurt or seriously injured," Zamora said.Over the last couple days, there were five incidents where agents found people stashed away in the small upper air flow compartment of big rig trucks."I believe Tuesday (March) 31st, we had a group of seven immigrants which is quite a few illegal immigrants to be hiding in the back of some of these air dams. We've seen another four cases since then here at this checkpoint," said Zamora.Zamora explained they're starting to average two to three of the cases every day.The agency has cameras placed several feet off the ground to help detect any illegal activity in an effort to combat the problem.Zamora believes the majority of immigrants are camped out at local area trucks stops waiting for an unsuspecting truck driver."In many cases (truck drivers) may not know anything about it, but what they can do and what we’re asking them to do is check. It will only take a couple minutes," Zamora said.Border Patrol and the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office are requesting truck drivers check the air flow vents for people hiding inside.Whether or not the driver is aware of immigrants hiding out, the driver will get cited."When I got to the checkpoint, they told me I had two people up there, and I didn’t know about it. I was so shocked. I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know anything about it."Action 4 News spoke with a local truck driver, who we call “Sam” due to the driver wanting his identify concealed.Sam did not want to be identified because he now has a smear on his record."Now, when I go to Mexico with my passport, they check me. They put me there like I'm a criminal or something. They check my record and stuff," Sam said.It’s why Sam now always locks up and checks to ensure he has no surprise passengers onboard."If the driver is in on it (then) yes, lock him up and do what you got to do, but if he has no intention of doing anything like that I can’t see you citing him for it," said truck driver Walter Patrick.Anyone can report any suspicious activity they may see.

Talk to a CPA about forming a subchapter S corporation or an LLC. It helps offset self employment taxes etc. Used to be if you paid yourself out of the corporation and called it dividends you didn't have to pay social security & medicare taxes. Haven't talked to my CPA yet this year so I'm not sure if that is still true. I did this for about 13 years in my last career and it made things more, uh, comfortable.

I'd go with the independent contractor thing. Used to do some stuff requiring a big security clearance for the government, and even those background checks weren't much more than verification of dates and criminal record checks. Given this is your "dream job" I'd say go for it in a big way, any company that declines to hire you is in the losing side of the deal anyway. "If you love what you're doing, it ain't work!"

Thanks ChiefMac!!! I am grateful for all the words of encouragement I've foind here!! Thank you for being a firefighter too!! You guys rock!!!!

I think I'll just stay with the yellow dinosaurs. I hear next year they'll have APU's and automatic transmissions.

For those of us old farts who get up at 4am, its almost bedtime in Saudi Arabia.

Alright kid. One of the best bits of wisdom I've ever heard goes like this. "When you realize you're in a hole, the very first thing you do is stop digging."

I've never seen any of your other posts, but from what I see in this thread, I'm more than a little underwhelmed. Let me take a guess here. You've pretty much had your way for your entire life, and you have been the center of attention. Recently some things have changed at home and you decided to head out on your own, but you still expect to have things your way. It ain't gonna happen bud. You have done everything in your power to sabotage your own career, and you think by blaming ANYONE ELSE, you'll get your way. Again, it ain't happening. You want to blame someone, go stand in front of a mirror and take a long hard look. You are looking at the source of ALL your troubles, eye to eye. Keep looking for a long time, and if you look hard enough, you'll see the guy who's going to get your ass out of this sling. That guy is the only person in the universe who owes you anything. Will he pay up? Keep looking, and hoping. Right now what you should do in my opinion, which is worth almost what you paid for it, is get a job hanging off the back side of a garbage truck, and you should spend a year trying to be the best dude that ever hung off the back of a garbage truck. Each of the 365 days you spend doing that, you should also be hoping that the entire trucking industry forgets what you have shown them. THEY didn't decide you were a jerk until you acted like one. You wasted about 8 jobs doing your best to prove it to them.

Thats MY advice, take it along with the wisdom of others here who cared enough say something, and maybe after that year on the garbage truck you'll find the way to a life you can be proud of, or ignore us all, and keep on digging that hole.

Yeah, you're right Daniel, the part I was trying to hide though was that the trips to school were all uphill, both ways in the snow, all year long!