Comments By ravenswood_65

Oh, here is a dog climbing up and DOWN a TALL ladder onto a roof!

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrTccGaJxhZFmcAgDMPxQt.?p=dog+climbing+ability&fr=yhs-itm-001&fr2=piv-web&hspart=itm&hsimp=yhs-001&type=wbf_ezdnldd_17_14_ssg01#id=15&vid=92423604d681a6e99db857eb9c34d074&action=view

So, I would think getting in and out of a semi should be a 'duck shoot' for him.

Can your larger dog climb into the cab on his own?

Is a trained German shepherd AGILE enough to climb into a typical Class 7 or 8 truck cab on his own?

Will the truck need any special equipment to accommodate a high-clambering hound?

Remember, some police dogs can scale a 12-foot high wall, I have been told.

Are there any videos of dogs actually getting in and out of truck cabs?

Which cab door does the dog usually get in?

Can large dogs typically negotiate the standard cab steps well?

Here is a video of a dog climbing over a 6-foot vertical chain-link fence so I figure getting into a semi with cab steps should be a no-brainer for this animal.

Can the animal get OUT of the truck as easily as he can get in?

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-itm-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=itm&p=german+shepherd+climbs+fence#id=2&vid=936bd7dfffe971d112901b66523aa87e&action=click

My last reply on this thread.

Ok, my mind is made up. I will only drive if I can get a LOCAL position, perhaps that is a very small IF, or I will not drive at all. Period.

If I need a greater food supply for the road than what a Thermos lunch box can hold, then no, then this whole truck thing is definitely not my bag. Thank you good people here for helping me make up my cotton-pickin' mind. It may be a decade or more to come before this industry becomes very savory and appetizing for geeky yuppie Starbucks Coffee latte types through massive reforms on how this business is set up. Freight hauling has yet to become more city-slick, civilized and polished in its persona. How much do limousine drivers make?

I should otherwise consider being a machinist, an IT geek, a bookkeeper, a forest ranger or a fleet mechanic. I don't mind the grease so much on my hands as the grease from TS cooks to plug up my arteries. A diesel mechanic gets to wash his hands in highly-effective orange hand cleaner at shift's end and go home for the day. That's exactly what I did as an army motor pool mechanic when we were not in the field.

No more from me on this thread. Promise.

Ravenswood claims to be a thinker by writing this:

I tend to think of people who wear tatts as unclean.

Call me a dirty old man then... The above prejudice is an asinine statement having nothing to do with hygiene. Likely insulted half the people on this forum with that remark. I tend to think you are just another jerk having no clue about this job, even after many of us have sincerely tried (in vain) to help you better understand it. I have managed to eat healthy, maintain my weight and rarely eat truck stop food. Your point is a smoke-screen, a cop-out for a basic fear that you likely do not have what it takes to succeed at this. We see it all the time...nothing new, nothing special.

Is this here a promise?...

I am going to put my interest in driving as a career at the bottom of the barrel.

That's a great idea RW, you have our support. With your prejudiced, elitist attitude, a very wise decision.

I do have a clue about truck stops. Laymen who travel in cars tend to bad-mouth them a lot. As a motorist who has traveled through several states in a car, I have a very good idea of the roughness of such establishments. I can't say much positive about the bathrooms in Love's or about the cooks in T/A's.I only stopped at a Pilot for gas one time so I don't know much about their food or toilets.

I usually pack stuff for sandwiches in several coolers on the road. Motel 6's are grungy too these days. I prefer to pitch a tent at a campground with hot showers when I travel by car weather permitting but if is too hot or cold I have to settle for a fleabag with air conditioning or heat that hopefully works. I especially can't stand eating at places in the desert like Nevada or Arizona. The "gravy" one time at a Winnemucca joint had the taste of toothpaste, I swear. This makes me a little gun shy of OTR or even regional work.

Much of my understanding of trucking comes from TV shows, country-western songs and Hollywood movies. It is not a glamorous life.

Perhaps, I am just living in the WRONG times.

It is not just truck people, but these times. I see disheveled people in many trades these days.

The trouble with a long-haul transportation job is that I can't take along my clinical sterile living conditions, that only a dwelling on a fixed foundation provides, with me unless I were an airline pilot or cruise ship crewman. I'm sure cruise ship personnel live and work in sterling on-board conditions. A truck however is not a cruise ship or even a Winnebago for on-board living luxuries. With a LOCAL driving position, the personnel go home after work every evening after putting the typical banker's hours shift in. They can pack a lunch box for lunch on their shifts and can completely avoid unclean restaurants. I think OTR trucks should have more than just a sleeper berth but an entire enclosed living space the likes of a Class A motorhome: complete with living room, shower, commode, kitchen, stove, ice box and so on. When they start manufacturing Winnebagos or Fleetwoods to pull a semitrailer, I think the thought of OTR might be more appealing.

Well, Old School, I have to weed out possible future career considerations. Everything has to be carefully weighed out. I need to study and analyze everything before making any moves. I think like a champion chess player in that respect. I am a cautious man. It could be very well that the condition of establishments that truck drivers frequent could be the ultimate turn-off for me. I might just apply for LOCAL driving positions only. That way the truck stop issue is off the table for good. It is not just the paycheck size, but the overall quality of life for me. I won't eat at choke-n-pukes even to make $50,000 a year.

I am on disability right now and on the verge of recovering from it. I have about a year to go before getting back to work anyway.

So, nobody here can truly rate truck stops by name? I tend to think of people who wear tatts as unclean.

What I have heard is that things at truck stops are rather expensive as meals. I think there is no excuse with such high revenues that these establishments receive that there should be a shortage of janitorial service.

I went to a T/A restaurant in Boise, ID with a friend in 2005. The cook wore long hair and a beard. No hairnet or facial cover. It grossed me out.

I am going to put my interest in driving as a career at the bottom of the barrel.

I was an American soldier for seven years. I would appreciate a work, meal and living environment to be at least "military clean".

My grandfather was a union heavy equipment operator, an Operating Engineer on diesel tractors. Still, he always maintained a neat and gentlemanly appearance. Les Schwab Tires has a corporate policy that all male employees be clean-shaven and this is not even a business in food or healthcare. I wish federal law provided that for food handlers nationwide.

People in the military are clean cut and clean-shaven. Mustaches, if worn, must be trimmed neatly. Mess cooks must always wear a hat and clean white uniforms. Have you seen any truck stops where the cooks were at least clean-shaven? I find it appalling and gross wherever I see male employees in beards handling a customer's food. I worked at a national chain hamburger joint back in 1985. The owner was very tight on males' being clean shaven. I once showed up for work with a slight five o'clock shadow and was given a cheap Bic razor to go into the men's room. Even the owner told the manager to shave off his mustache.

Are there any true ladies and gentlemen who drive trucks in America for a living and look the part in their demeanor and dress?

Yes, it is a blue collar thing to "put the hammer down", but at $50,000+ per year, it is not like an unskilled peon, an ex-con, with a shovel at a construction site.

"Truck stop" can be any establishment that has provisions for a tractor-trailer (at least a single semitrailer) to legally park to do business as a patron for meals, showers, exercise equipment and showers.

Usually these places are chains.

I am a germ freak and seek the absolute CLEANEST places on the map to eat especially. I don't want to see cooks in restaurants unshaven and/or covered in tatts.

Is truck driving a career for germ freaks?

I don't believe having blue-collar employment means one has to look and dress like a slob.

Well, I won't worry about autotrucks taking away opportunities from me. I am age 52.

I don't know if I trust 401Ks and IRAs.

I think it is much safer to keep my money in the bank, my trusty service-fee-free credit union, and invest future money into a piece of real estate, new construction with a long maintenance warranty . A home that can draw monthly rent revenue from room boarders in my old age.

But you don't fear human drivers will be replaced by high-tech anytime soon?

I have seen a sign posted at a major UP train yard in Roseville, CA not long ago. It said diesel-electric locomotives can drive around the yard unmanned. The sign warned of trespassing on RR property and that trains can move about unmanned. Still, I have often observed crewmen on those locomotives in that same yard as a train-watcher. They had vests and flashlights at night. They would step on and off the engines to throw switches as needed.