Comments By Fatsquatch

Lemme tell you a little story. Once upon a time, I drove for a company that had many, many International ProStars in their fleet. They had bought a glut of them because they were much cheaper up front than the Volvos and Freightliners and Peterbilts they had been buying.

At first, things were fine. And then, mysteriously, about 18 months later, the company's maintenance and breakdown expenses started rapidly increasing. It took them a little while to figure out what was happening, but it eventually fell into place. All of those wonderfully inexpensive Internationals were suffering frequent breakdowns. Parts were failing prematurely at an alarming rate. Sensors, turbos, bearings, fan hubs, compressors, you name it. In just 24 months, maintenance and repair costs had gone up 25%, and it was all the Internationals.

They went away as fast as the company could unload them after that.

The moral of the story is, when it comes to an International, don't walk away. Run. Run fast. Run far.

Part2: Electric Boogaloo

As far as challenges medically, that's never been a huge issue for me. I've simply scheduled my doctor's visits for my home time, and take my medication on the road with me. I used to do my injections when I'd go in for a shower, but now I just yank the curtain and do it in the sleeper. Being solo helps, but even someone running teams could just stick their supplies in their shower bag like I used to. The biggest medical challenge would be a medical emergency, but that would be a challenge even without trucking. I will say that I've had a few instances where I've been on the road and needed to visit an urgent care clinic and had to disclose to the providers there, but aside from the *pause* *blink blink* *head tilt* "Okay then..." reaction I always get, it's never been an issue.

I can't really say definitively one way or the other whether any one person should absolutely wait to start training until a certain point. Everyone is different, everyone's ability to cope with stress and not get overwhelmed is different. I would say that it's probably going to be a bit easier once someone has been on HRT for a few months and their levels are more or less stable. But let's face it, there are a buttload of cisgender people with perfectly stable hormone levels who don't make it, so there are no guarantees.

I dont know of any resources specifically geared towards transgendered people in trucking. I know there are a few trans subreddits, so that might be a place to look. All the old Livejournal communities I belong to are basically dead, and I don't do Facebook at all, so I have no idea if there would be anything there.

For me personally, the biggest thing that helped in the beginning, and continues to help, is a strong support system at home. I'm extremely lucky, in that I have an amazingly supportive family and group of friends at home whose attitude when I came out as trans was "Um, DUH." Many many many MANY trans people have the exact opposite experience, so I'm beyond grateful for that.

So, um, yeah. Now that I've written The Great American Novel here...

Fatsquatch, can you please.post some informative links? i just looked and most statistic articles are a few years old and some dont have dates.

several mimicked the same stat that transgenders are 3 to 4 times more likely to suffer depression and said this about suicide.. (National Assoc on Mental Illness)...

"Suicide The LGBTQ community is at a higher risk for suicide because we lack peer support and face harassment, mental health conditions and substance abuse. For LGBTQ people aged 10–24, suicide is one of the leading causes of death. LGBTQ youth are 4 times more likely and questioning youth are 3 times more likely to attempt suicide, experience suicidal thoughts or engage in self-harm than straight people. Between 38-65% of transgender individuals experience suicidal ideation "

Those are really scary and sad statistics. So my honest and non judgmental question to you is this:

What advice would.you give a transgender entering trucking? Would it be more benficial to wait until after the hormone levels even out or one is fully transitioned? What challenges medically would someone face while OTR as far as shots, doctors visits etc? Are there any trucking articles/resources that could help prepare one mentally so that they can adjust to both training and transitioning?

just my two cents... i hate the term transgender. once someone transitions they should be man or woman. otherwise it seems as though they are continuing to stigmatized themselves which one article called an internal discrimination. the person struggled for years and decades to be the opposite sex once there, the term transgender deprives them of their accomplishment.

thanks in advance for.answering any of the above.

I have a whole bunch of links to various studies done in recent years by universities in different parts of the world, on everything ranging from quality of life pre/post transition to actual brain scans measuring brain structures of trans people versus cisgender people, but they're all on my laptop and my phone's version of Chrome doesn't remember them. Le sigh. Technology's GREAT...when it works.

Generally speaking, the overwhelming majority of cases of depression and suicidal ideation in trans people is experienced pre-transition and is largely related to social stigma and ostracization (or fear of it) from friends and family. Discrimination in employment and housing are also major hurdles faced by a huge number of trans folks. Those who are, for whatever reason, prevented from accessing resources to transition are most at risk of depressive and suicidal behaviors, and in particular access to HRT is hugely beneficial to trans people's stability and mood. Hormones are funny things. It's amazing just how much they control our mood and general outlook. Just look at what happens to women during PMS or after childbirth. Post-partum depression and post-partum psychosis are entirely caused by the sudden and dramatic changes in hormone levels in new mothers. But I digress. There have been a couple of studies recently that have focused on physical brain structures in trans people that have shown key parts of the brain more closely matching their gender identity than their biological sex, and it's believed that HRT stimulates these areas of the brain. Obviously more research is needed and ongoing, but science is learning more and more towards Gender Dysphoria being a physical trait in line with intersexed conditions than a psychological condition.

As far as advice? Whoo...um...that's a toughie. Obviously it can be done. I did it, others before me have done it. I guess the biggest obstacles would be how far into transition someone is and/or how well they "pass" (god I hate that term) as their "preferred" gender (that one too), and how thick their skin is. If someone is very early in transition and is frequently misgendered, they're going to catch a lot more grief than someone like me who is many many years post-transition. And being able to, when called out, say "Chuck you, Farley. If you're so smucking fart go in your own jack yard and back off!" is not always easy, especially without someone to back you up. Self-confidence helps too.

To be continued (hitting the character limit)...

Completely agree with G-Town on this one. You have some things to work out first.

But I don't agree that you'll get better when you're "done". Statistics prove otherwise actually.

You seem to go back and forth a lot, I can almost feel the pain and insecurity through the text.

Either way theres an underlying issue here and I don't think any feeble attempt to change your gender will solve it.

I wish you the very best!

This is far and away the most grossly offensive, ignorant, and uninformed comment I've read on this entire forum in the 7 years I've been a member. You very clearly have zero knowledge about what it means to be transgendered, or what numerous studies have shown regarding the well-being of transpeople who have transitioned versus those who are unable to. I would strongly encourage you to do a little research on the subject from reputable sources such as the AMA and APA...but somehow I doubt you will.

As a trans man myself, I can understand his apprehension about sharing a confined space with a complete stranger 24/7. I was extremely nervous about going out with a trainer I'd never met before and had zero knowledge about. I'm fortunate enough that I had been on testosterone for 6 1/2 years by that point, and nobody challenged or questioned my gender. Even so, the whole 5 weeks I was on my trainer's truck all my antannae were up and at full power, looking for the first sign that this guy could present a danger if he were to discover what was or was not in my pants. Training by itself is exhausting, especially with a trainer who believes his trainer should do all the night driving. Training while on permanent Yellow Alert? I'm amazed I survived.

So yeah, I get why he's hoping for a co-driver who's at least LGBTQ friendly, if not ***** themselves, especially with the current political climate. Why he got super defensive and bailed? That I don't get.

Never ignore pain. Pain means one of two things:

You are doing/have done something you're not supposed to.

Something is wrong.

Either way, pain is your body's way of saying "um, excuse me, but please stop this."

Okay, I think it's time for the big reveal. Here's how I do this thing.

First off, approaching the gate.

Two reasons for coming in this way. One, you have to wait in the street for someone inside to open the gate, so staging in the suicide lane means you're not blocking the universe waiting for what can be upwards of 10 minutes. Two, turning left into the gate gives you a wider turn and more room to maneuver.

Once the gate opens, the real fun begins.

First off, you're going to want your tandems all the way up for all of this. You want as tight a turning radius as possible because there just isn't much room to maneuver in here.

Step 1: once the gate opens and you get a hole in oncoming traffic, pull in as close to the right side (top in the image) of the gate as you can. As soon as your tandems clear the gate, turn hard left and go about 15 or 20 feet down into the empty space at the bottom, then crank it back hard right to bring yourself back around and straighten out by pulling up as close as you can to the break area at the top.

This is usually a good time to pull the brake and track down the guy with the clipboard to get checked in. Once you're cleared to back in, on to step 2.

Step 2: straight back as close as you can get to the pallets and dumpsters at the other end of the lot, aiming for just left of center.

Step 3: pull forward and to the left until the nose of the truck is just at the edge of the wall, and then crank it hard right and pull up to the gate. Once it opens (which it does by itself from the inside) and there's a break in traffic, pull out into the street just enough to get straightened out again, and proceed to the last step.

Step 4: straight back to the door. Stop and open your trailer once you've gotten back far enough to allow the gate to close, and aim for the door closest to the alley.

The biggest key to all of this is to go S L O W. Not only will this allow you to stop and makes corrections/adjustments as needed, but there's a lot of foot and fork truck traffic in there, and the last thing you want to do is squitch somebody whose face is buried in their phone on the way to the can.

I'll usually do both, actually. I'll put a strip of gorilla tape (maybe two, depending on how loose the connection is) on the underside of the plug, and then zip tie the sucker together. Putting tape on the plug is also a good quick fix when the problem isnt the socket, but a worn plug that doesn't like to make a good connection on it's own. That'll get you through as many loads as you need it to before you can get to the shop and have it replaced.

Are we still doing "rookies only"?

I think at this point it's safe to open it as a free for all.

TBH Heavy, I was thinking same thing. Rather back in off the street and tee off the locals then get myself stuck in a bad situation. Then again I can care less if I tee off a bunch of 4 wheelers. They can sit there honking their horns and letting me know I am number 1. They will just have to wait.

From the question, I assumed that wasn't allowed. That was my first thought as well.

Two problems with that plan of attack:

One, Chambers Way is a busy 2 lane arterial with a suicide lane, and finding a hole in traffic in both directions big enough to block out your path would be nearly impossible.

Two, the gate isn't left open during business hours. Someone has to trigger it from the inside, and by the time you got yourself set up, it'd be closed again.

So no, you're going to have to pull into the lot to do your setup and back.