Comments By Skar Hed

Put it behind you and apply somewhere else. I failed a drug test from the first trucking job I was hired by, like you it took me a week to find out. I was way the f#!* out in Wyoming trainer and had to spend three days in the top bunk kicking myself just to get home. But I had another job within 10 days, and kept it. The lab may not have reported the results to anyone but the company, as mine didn't. If you still have the sheet from the lab, call them up and ask them.

The percentage of automatics is steadily increasing and will continue to, but old ways and habits die hard, even when there is no rational justification for continuing them. Manual transmission should go the way of the crank start. If holding a phone to my ear for ten seconds is 'distracted driving', what is having to shift a couple hundred times in a day ? No matter how good you are at it, it requires some attention, and for those not so proficient, it requires A LOT of attention.

A.) A woman is at no inherent disadvantage to a man in this job.

b.) Would I do it again...become a truck driver ? That depends. If I was 22 or 32 I definitely would have gone into something else...something with more pay, chance for advancement, intellectual challenge, etc. But I was in my mid forties when I started this and most doors have closed to you by that age. I did the right thing. I do all right financially, 52k aint what it used to be but my bills are about zero because I stay out 6 weeks at a time minimum and rent my house out, and while I won't say I love the job, I almost never hate it, which for me is just as good.

I dreaded making deliveries for about the first month I was on my own because I was NOT good at backing and was drawing some really tough spots. After 4 to 6 weeks it got a lot better. Two things that helped me were a.) Understeer rather than oversteer. b.) I don't know if others will agree with this , but I would always set my tandems all the way to the rear for anything other than a wide open space. Getting rid of that trailer overhang helped me more than anything. You get the wheels in straight right away and you know you are home free.

First of all, are you under age 40 ? Preferably well under ? Because few things look goofier than an old man wearing a backpack.

Cigarettes. Blow Pops. 350 watt inverter. Laptop. Cheap used books. Powerade.

I do fine without a microwave, fridge or cooler.

You weren't out of line at all until ''I have taken these crappy runs''. That sort of message really isn't going to help you. Save your complaints for situations like the previous ones you mentioned, when you really do have something to complain about. There will probably be plenty of them.

I 'know someone' who failed a pre employment drug test, maybe even two, and was still able to get hired on at a large carrier within a year. If you still have the paperwork from your drug test, call the lab up and ask them if they reported their results. Just because you took a DOT drug test, unless you were employed and driving at the time it may not have been reported to anyone but the company you applied to.