Profile For Bush Country

"I’m just not quite understanding how you can drive for two weeks straight and only get two days off. In reality it should be drive two weeks straight and get one full week off to rest, then go back on the road."

FWIW there are jobs like this available with decent pay:

Schlumberger Oilfield Concrete Driving

The guy that started that thread hasn't been back around on TT since he went to work for SLB

A normal schedule for this type of job would be 14 days on / 7 days off. There are a very few service companies that offer a 14/14 schedule. These are hourly jobs and start at somewhere around $60k a year. One advantage of this schedule is you can live anywhere you want, but travel time is done on your own time. In other words, if it takes a day to get to work and a day to get home, then you would be home for 5 days.

But (there's always a "but") the cementing side of the business is pretty much the only part that offers the 14/7 schedule that involves much driving. The cement is delivered to well sites in pneumatic bulk trucks. The cement pumps are driven to location for the cementing jobs, which is cementing casing into oil & gas wells. The normal career progression would be: bulk truck driver/operator, cement pump driver/operator, then cementing supervisor (driving an F250 or something similar).

On the hydraulic fracturing, or frac, side of the business a lot of companies use contract drivers to move equipment from well site to well site and the equipment operators hardly drive at all. Some service companies no longer require the operators to have a CDL. The reason for this is that, once the equipment is on location, it is typically there for about a month depending on the number of wells and number of frac stages per well.

Hauling frac sand and fuel delivery are both more like regular local driving jobs.

First: Led Zeppelin, March 1975

Most recent: ZZ Top, Raw Whiskey Tour, a couple of months ago.

Two way tie for best: Black Sabbath, August 1975, the night before I started my senior year in high school, and The Who, February 1976.

I never saw Stevie Ray Vaughn, but sure wish I had.

I wish I still had my list of concerts, but I threw it away: Black Sabbath twice, second time was when Ronnie James Dio replaced Ozzie. The Who twice. Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Robin Trower (with Van Halen as the warm up). Frank Marino (with Journey and Van Halen as warm up). Kiss in 1975 or early 1976. The first two Texas Jams - too many bands to remember. Willie Nelson. John Prine - my favorite singer-songwriter. George Jones (with Tracy Lawrence and John Anderson as warm up).

I also used to play bluegrass, but no big venues.

Jason Bateman in Ozark and Arrested Development.

Edie Falco in The Sopranos and Nurse Jackie.

Dennis Weaver...trucking..... anyone remember "Duel"? It was Steven Spielberg's first professional movie. Also, it was apparently one of Weaver's favorites.

Which opens the can of worms about trucking movies - White Line Fever, High Ballin', Movin' On, etc.

There is no trick to it. I tested in Texas in 2021 and passed the second time after failing the Section 14 portion the first time, since I foolishly did not study that section.

With the exception of Section 14 "Special Requirements for Texas Commercial Motor Vehicles" everything is covered in the High Road Online CDL training on this web site. Work through that as well as the CDL Practice Tests. Then reset scores and repeat. Multiple times. For about a month before I went to take my written tests I went through the practice test on here at least once on a daily basis.

Until you get your CDL, you do not need to worry about the HazMat or (if I remember correctly) doubles & triples, since you cannot get these endorsements (in Texas) until you have your CDL. You can get the tanker endorsement when you do the written for the CDLP.

As for the examiner not telling you what you missed - they may not know. The test is computerized and I don't remember if the examiner has access to your test questions/answers. They just know if you passed or failed.

If someone reading this has tested in Texas since May, 2021, please correct any misinformation written above.

Remember that the parts are right there in front of you, so you have a cue as to what you need to be talking about.

As others have said - flash cards. Once you write them out and review them, get either a blank set of cards or a piece of paper and write it all out again. I used abbreviations that made sense to me to get through this faster. Every night I would go through the pre-trip at least three times, visualizing and writing it out each time, then checking against the script to be sure I was not leaving anything out.

Reading something and reviewing it helps, but writing it out will make it stick. Plus it gives you a written record to grade so you can see what you've left out.

Also - it helped me to go through it all in reverse order. When I was in school, we started at the front of the truck, did the engine compartment, in-cab, driver's side, rear, and passenger side ending at the front of the truck. So I'd start with the front passenger side and work around in the opposite direction.

And finally, if you can, team up with two or three other students that are motivated to learn, and test each other. It helps to get feedback and it also makes one less self-conscious about performing in front of others - since that has to be done on test day.

The founder of Autio was on Shark Tank last Friday night. Not sure if it was a new episode or a re-run. He did not mention anything about AI, but did say that they had snippets about 9,000 different locations around the US recorded. He did not get a deal with any Sharks because he wanted too much for a share of the company and would not back down on it. He was probably on the show just to get the PR from being there.

My personal view of the app is that it would be a waste of money. How many times does one want to hear the same information about a place they've been through before? I'm thinking it would get old pretty quick.

I was in Schofield last night and in Plymouth today. Are you still hanging around up here?

Nalee, I delivered a load yesterday to Cargill in Butler, WI. I bet you’ve been there. While there I met another ASL driver and had a brief conversation. He told me his name but I already have forgotten. Small world. (Don’t take that personally, lol)

No, it was too cold in WI. I headed south after picking up another load and am almost to Memphis for my 10 hr. break. Deliver in Cleburne, TX tomorrow.

Cleburne, Texas - my home town. Always surprised to see it come up in the news.... or in a trucking forum.

Thank you for all the replies. I will order a pair of the 3m safety glasses and try them. if that don't work, I will keep trying others that you people suggested.

I have bought them at both Lowe's and Home Depot. Sometimes 3M, sometimes Dewalt, depending on what's in stock.

If you poke around enough. There are a few companies that offer CDL instruction and training without a contract. As with anything, there is a give and take with it.

You should really stay with your first company at least a year even if you're not contracted to. As was said, we're in a recession and freight volume is low right now. Companies may be a bit more tight on hiring right now.

Davy - we didn't sign a contract with Knight. We signed a promissory note that is payed back to them over the course of a year. One could go there for the school without a commitment to Knight, as one of my classmates did. We also had one guy in our Top Gun class that got his CDL elsewhere.