Comments By Little Debby

Wellll,,,, I just felt the need to post a little FYI for all of you gals. It seems difficult to find enough industry related knowledge these days. Truly, it's in our best interest, as women, to continually seek and find it, as it may relate to our particular life situations. Where can you go to get the nuts & bolts backstory you need to make sound judgements? That is why I like this website so much; it allows us to share.

I was a cement dry bulk hauler for 6 months after I graduated with my CDL last year. I switched to Readymix trucking for 3 months. Now I'm preparing to move to aggregate hauling; (super solo or doubles rock hauler.)

But: A note about the world of Readymix trucking, (in case you're noticing all the job vacancies for it right now)...

1. It pays very well but is highly seasonal. 2. Even in 'the season', the job sites, scheduling, and dispatching change on a DIME. 3. When it's cold, raining, rainy, or even too hot, no one pours concrete. You might not work. 4. Every day concrete splatters all over your rig and you only have so much time to rinse it off before it becomes...guess what? ;p 5. Once it becomes THAT, the only way to remove it is by spraying it down with acid, chipping and scraping it with a paint scraper, or flat out hammering it off with a hammer. 6. Setting up your chutes to offload is easy. Hanging your chutes back up on their rack is also easy if you are tall. If not, you compensate like me by guiding each chute up onto the rack with one thigh. I've acquired an impressive collection of black and blue hematomas across both thighs from doing this. Not good. 7. If you're 5'4" or shorter, it's going to be hard to scrape your chute, clean your rear videocam, rinse, scrape, or hammer your hopper, jam a steel 'candycane' hose into your water tank, and just plain pop the hood with no front step on the bumper.

Not saying these things can't be done because there is always a way. Just saying you're in for some extra work.

Cheers! ;D

Congratulations Glam Girl! Your Class A CDL will take good care of you now. ^-^

Yeah I'm with Starcar on the private schooling idea. They definitely would see to it you passed...and you would have had a lot more opportunity for independent decision making regarding your next steps. But Redgator is right; every trucker has their own individual needs and wishes. And you have sooo much ahead of you now...but you'll figure it out quickly now that you're out the door and on your way.

Not to switch gears on this but just wanted to share with you ladies that I accepted the job offer from Knife River last week. I'm watching the training videos this week and trying to comprehend running a ready mix truck. Quite intimidating!! I'll still be a local trucker but this is going to be so different. The upside; after training, 20.60/hr and 30.90/hr o/t after 8! They pay all your dental & vision and give you a work cell phone. I'm sure there's more but already I'm pleased! This company also has dry bulk double sets and double dump sets. So there will be even more to learn in the future if I don't mind moving around to different yards/towns...

I don't know anything about PAM either. But congratulations GlamGirl! I hope Prime takes you where you want to get! Exciting!!

OK Starcar I promise to keep you informed! If anyone wants to ask me about the world of the local, heavy haul driver, I can try to answer. One thing that is very different about driving local; you've truly got to be up to the task. The fishbowl you're working in is invisible, but it's definitely there. The other drivers are wonderful advisers! But they see you everywhere, they might be opening hatches on one side of a facility cat walk while you're locking down hatches on the other side, they pass you on the area freeways, they talk to the cement batchers at the yards you unload at and they know your truck number. Also, the dispatchers are running you in circles all day, and everyone can hear your response on their radios. So everyone is watching you and timing you. Dry bulk hauling can be filthy work too. My method of dealing with all of this is simple; bring it on. I know if I can handle one year of this, I'm totally good to go. BTW: There is already a possible job running a ready mix truck for 2014...with O/T after 8!?! (Yes please!) I'll keep you posted!

OK here's an update for Starcar. I just hit the 6 month marker, driving the 2005 Pete with the double set of dry bulk trailers around the city. The winter in Portland was unusually mild so I had a lot of work through the season until now. I've had a few new job offers already, for the upcoming 2014 construction season. That is a nice thing to have happen! One thing about trucking; it's an exclusive club. Once you take a job, doors WILL open for you. Keep that in mind ladies; when you accept your first job, it doesn't have to be forever!! ;D

Silly wabbit you should have topped the tank off quarterly! So if you're going the VA route you must be military which means they will pack & unpack your HHG for you. Don't sweat the small stuff. When I got back from my DOD job in Japan, I did the same; went to shack up with a relative near a school. I hope you can stay with your mom in IL because that'd save you a bundle and give you time to relax and focus. The schools are intense as Brett would agree because they pack so much info into the short time span. Really. And it won't matter much which school you pick just as long as you are ready to test for the CDL and have the hours logged in that the state of your choice requires. Then; either a company hires rookies or it doesn't. Don't sweat that either, just accept it as fact. Take what's offered and stick to it 1 year. Then you're set. I hope you follow through! I retired early from the Fed at 56 because I despised officework. Trucking is so different from that. I really hope you like it as much as I.

Once again you guys have delivered well on how to handle this. I shall subsist on "Deli-Llama" Ramen (haaaa) and chase it with organic, locally sourced, artisanal beer (it is Portland OR after all). Good times. *burp*. And to stave off boredom I'll check out 'Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey via SNL' which I'm already sure I'll love. And to keep my hand in things, I can work 1 or 2 days/week at the job and watch my thin pencil line of seniority ascend, according to the dispatch office. The paltry offering of the OR unemployment will cover the beer and ramen. (All other overhead is covered by gov pension & my newly named "slumlord rental" i.e. my old house not close to ANY job ) This is worth sharing because this might be the common reality of many really sweet local jobs that require those 4 months of real pain during that first year. That first year that you guys do NOT want to quit on. I know that the senior drivers are working, so there is hope for the future. Stay flexible my friends! Sounds like that guy on the Dos Equis ad.... ^-^

Ahhh, the witch of November! The month where many construction related trucking jobs go dormant. Since I'm a new (again) driver with less than 1 year (recent) experience, my question is this;

To work, or not to work, that is the question: Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer *Top Ramen for 4 months~ The Slings and Arrows of outrageous *non-Fortune,*as per Oregon Unemployment checks~ Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles *like Netflix Silverlight & WIN8~ And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep, *or go drive all 48 for peanuts until March.

What doest thou recommend?

When are you going to start school, Steven?