Profile For Pete B.

There’s a rest area on I-65 south, first one after you enter Alabama, where I can easily see this scenario playing out. It’s very poorly designed. The first row of trucks have an easy in/out. But the second row, it’s a mishamash of trucks parking on the bumpers of the first row, or further back in the ‘official’ lined spots… which is where I parked several nights ago, along with several other trucks on either side of me. Sadly, the driver on my right decided he wanted to leave, at 3 o’clock in the morning. Of course the truck in front of him, in the first row, hadn’t left yet, and there wasn’t enough room to pull forward and turn left to exit. So backing up was his only option, except that my trailer was preventing him from swinging his cab around to reverse. So I got a knock on my door at 3 AM. It totally sucked getting woken up at that hour, but it never occurred to me to not help him out and pull forward to the bumper of the truck in front of me, to let him out. It’s just so easy to do the right thing; like tapping your brakes to let someone in, or waiting an extra five seconds to enter the passing lane when you’re not holding anyone up, rather than cutting someone off.

Sort of related, sort of not… I once read that many years ago a train derailed somewhere in Montana, spilling car loads of corn or some other feed grain. Bears were subsequently getting hit by trains for several years in that area, as they were coming onto the tracks helping clean up the spillage.

Well, dang. They must’ve screwed up my address, ‘cause I didn’t get the invite! Glad it was well attended, and congrats on getting your name on the poster. Knew you had skills. That’s a good looking family, the little one’s growing up fast! I hope you still have time for the wood carvings, you’re a master!

Dang, I was hoping I’d cross paths with you some day at a tank wash, most likely the Chicago Quala, but it wasn’t meant to be. Considering what your new freight is going to be, I’d rather we not cross paths. Kind of like meeting the grim reaper on the road, know what I mean? Best of luck to you, I am very glad you found your dream job!

There used to be a guy in the West Memphis area who would go on and on about ‘the real deal;’. “go to channel 11 for the real deal….” it was nonstop. I always wondered what that was about.

The ‘be safe on the highways and byways’ guy, also always tells us to ‘always be kind to one another.’ I don’t know what kind of equipment he’s using, but it’s pretty strong. I think he’s broadcasting out of New Mexico. One of his road reports seemed to be of the area I was passing through at one time.

Great job, way to persevere and see it through. Good luck with your new career; I hope you find this endeavor and lifestyle rewarding and satisfying.

In stark contrast, several years ago I pulled into a grocery store (probably Walmart) parking lot, where there was a guy panhandling at the entrance. It took me a minute to get my rig turned around and situated for an easy exit, by which time said panhandler had returned to his car for a smoke break. His car was a Prius.

Elmer’s School Glue. 44,000 lbs of it. Picked it up at the manufacturer and delivered it to a company in Memphis that was going to bottle it.

Operating that loader looks like a helluvalotta fun… Happy you found something with better hours that you will enjoy.

Schneider does have one of the best training programs out there… Once you complete their tanker training you will be able to offload chemicals better than what any other company can teach you, in my opinion. But when I suggest pulling dry vans for a year first, that’s got nothing to do with offloading chemicals, that’s all about driving the truck. For instance, when you crest a hill and start back down, momentum builds incredibly fast. It needs to be second nature knowing how to slow your truck down so that you don’t have to smoke the brakes to get it back to a safe speed. That’s just one scenario where tankers differ from hauling other types of freight; there are many others. I would like to see the behind-the-wheel-time extended for newbies fresh out of school. There’s just so many things to think about pulling tankers, with the offloading of the chemicals, pre-tripping the trailer, making sure all of the valves are closed and secured properly, that I think those things in addition to driving the rig draw attention away from one another, leading to many preventable accidents/incidents. If you entered the bulk training with a year of driving anything else already under your belt, that’s one less thing to think about.

I requested join the Facebook group that you referred me to. I'm just waiting for them to accept me.

Would you even advise a new driver to avoid going into liquid tanker hauling, even if they go through Schneider's 5-week training.

I just thought that I went into tanker/Hazmat as a new dtiver, it would be best to go to a company like Schneider, because they are self-insured, and I've heard people say that they have one of the best training programs out there.

I'm trying to get as much guidance as I can in the next couple weeks so I can make the best decision for me and my career.

Thank you.

Schneider does have one of the best training programs out there… Once you complete their tanker training you will be able to offload chemicals better than what any other company can teach you, in my opinion. But when I suggest pulling dry vans for a year first, that’s got nothing to do with offloading chemicals, that’s all about driving the truck. For instance, when you crest a hill and start back down, momentum builds incredibly fast. It needs to be second nature knowing how to slow your truck down so that you don’t have to smoke the brakes to get it back to a safe speed. That’s just one scenario where tankers differ from hauling other types of freight; there are many others. I would like to see the behind-the-wheel-time extended for newbies fresh out of school. There’s just so many things to think about pulling tankers, with the offloading of the chemicals, pre-tripping the trailer, making sure all of the valves are closed and secured properly, that I think those things in addition to driving the rig draw attention away from one another, leading to many preventable accidents/incidents. If you entered the bulk training with a year of driving anything else already under your belt, that’s one less thing to think about.

No, heavens no, you’re not just tossed the keys! You spend four or five days at the bulk academy driving with an instructor, for several hours each day. If you are a new driver, you then spend approx. two weeks driving with a TE (training engineer). That two week period is not hard and set; I was with my TE for nine days, only six of which I actually spent driving (our time together, which had been abbreviated by his schedule and time at home, also fell over a holiday weekend, where we sat without a load).

Alexander, consider pulling dry vans for at least a year before driving tankers. You already have an incredible amount to learn with driving a semi. Get a year’s experience under your belt, driving in all types of weather conditions and facing the multitude of scenarios that we do, before adding to all that the challenges of pulling a loaded tanker. You can pull dry vans for Schneider; they have excellent training, equipment, and facilities. I assure you the tanker jobs aren’t going anywhere; it would be very easy for you to switch divisions if you’d like after a year. Just give it some thought please.

There’s a Facebook group that can answer that question… Schneider National Bulk Carrier. It’s a private group, but they let anybody in, you just gotta request it. Ask the question there, and you’ll get plenty of informed responses.

I haul liquid chemicals, so I keep nothing, but I think it’s great that you donate some of your bounty to a local pantry. Good show!

I’ve noticed this, seeing a trailer going down the road in front of me all wobby-jawed… it definitely looks weird as heck. I asked someone about it once, and they told me it was because the trailer [axles] were out of alignment. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but it sounds reasonable.

Ivan, I don’t completely understand the result. Did you get fired/? Did you leave voluntarily?

I think what he meant was that he had an opportunity to correct his mistake earlier, he just didn’t take advantage of it; he continued on a course of action that led to his preventable accident, but if he could go back and start over, he would and this time, not get stuck.

I think my favorite request came from a car full of young adults… Looked like they were in their early-to-mid 20s. Reminded me that sometimes, in some cases, it’s OK not to grow up.

Yep, it’s a random drug test. I get the same vague request, when my name gets pulled out of the hat and I’m near an OC… Please come by to sign some papers. Now I like to mess with my handler, and just tell her to fax them on over to the tank wash where I usually am, and I’ll sign them and fax them back. Or to simply email me whatever it is I need to sign, and I’ll get it printed out, signed, and emailed back. I know what she wants, but I make her work for it!

I'm curious when Zoomer speak is gonna show up in work environments

"Fr fr no cap"

I had to Google this, I had no idea what any of it meant.