Comments By Suicide Jockey

I am local as well. To add to Bobcats post, real truckers pull 2 trailers, sometimes 3😁😁😁.

But seriously, going local as a rookie is tough, I know cause I’m doing it. You will be on tight roads with lots of stop and go traffic and also have to back the trailer many times per day into some pretty tight docks and off the street sometimes. I had 25+ years of driving with and backing utility and dump trailers in the landscaping field before getting my CDL. I truly believe that my prior experience and understanding of how trailers react and move in reverse is what made it possible

Harumph I say! Real truckers fully load and unload their own trailers multiple time a day. They also pull tankers full of liquids that go kaboom when mishandled!

Of course I'm just playing.

I started out OTR and now haul fuel "locally". (I drive more miles locally than I did OTR...)

Most people start out OTR but there are drivers from many parts of the industry here to answer questions and give perspective.

First full year in fuel hauling. Working nights and weekends. Had a couple weeks unpaid time off. Finished the year grossing $106,437.

As a former OTR driver and current local driver I can confirm most of what Kearsy says. I'm home every day, but I don't see much of my wife and kids on workdays. Since I work nights I end up sleeping away half on my first day off. But I'm also home every day to help my wife with things she can't handle on her own, whereas OTR whenever she really needed my help I was usually 2000 miles away.

OTR it was often a shock how much my kids had changed in the month or two I was away, and I felt like I was missing so much. Now as a local driver I may not see them that much, but I usually see them briefly every day. The flip side to that is as an OTR driver I was able to take many longer stints of time off and turn them into family trips. I can't do that nearly as often as a local driver.

I've never worked a 6th workday as a local driver. By the end of my 5th day I usually only have 5 hours remaining on my 70, not worth coming in another day for that. But I did very well even without working any extra. I grossed 106k this my first full year hauling fuel, and thats considerably more than I was making OTR, but I worked my tail off to earn it.

I think the "quality" time versus "quantity" time is something to truly consider. Many of my friends say they felt like they had more time with family as OTR than home weekends/daily.

Already at work before kids go to school, just getting home as they are headed to bed. Working a 6th day to make up more money, then wanting to sleep on the 7th. Or home on Fri night and exhausted after driving 600 miles. Go to bed, then stay up all day Saturday and and Saturday night so you can sleep late Sunday to leave at 3pm Sunday. Not much quality time. As OTR your entire home time is concentrated on family.

One thing to consider with Roehl, the home time offers sound great, but you need to take the $ into account. The more home time, the less pay. One of Roehl's drivers came in here complaining he only made $35,000 his first year. BUT... He did 7 days on 7 days off. So if he actually worked a whole year, rather than 6 months of the year, he would have made $70,000. But somehow Roehl was evil for his "low pay". 😂

Anyone remember that guy?

Amarillo one of the easier cities in the country to find a cat scale.

This was a couple seconds on the Trucker Path app. Most truck gps and even the Cat scale app would locate the just as quickly.

Ouch someone had a mix. Happens more often than you'd think. Many tanker companies have started not hauling gas and diesel at the same time to try and reduce these errors, but they still happen. I know we have a couple of trailers of mixed product on our yard, and our headquarters has a huge storage tank for it as well.

As long as the driver reported it immediately, didn't violate any other company policy, and doesn't have a bad history they'll likely keep their job. But with the demand for drivers as it is, they could be driving for another fuel hauler next week if they were let go.

We had a new guy who was fired for multiple mishaps, the final of which was dropping dyed diesel in a 93 conventional tank. He is now hauling fuel for CIrcleK.

Wow. Forgot to empty compartment 1 AND forgot to check landing gear before detaching? Bad day.

At least the driver could get some pull ups in on one of the rear axles while waiting for the manager to finish setting up for the termination meeting.

The landing gear are down, but these tanks are so front heavy with product in compartment 1 only that they'll nose stand anyway.

. I'll be one of the only "team" day cab crews (training) in a company truck that sounds like "beagle."

Beagle eh?

Suddenly I have the image of an excited tanker wagging their tail in the air.

Getting a little hard to find tonight. All but one of our suppliers was out of ULSD allocation at KM. There was a Loves driver that had hit every terminal in Selma looking for ULSD to bring down to their Dillion SC location. Apparently they had zero allocation remaining and he was being sent to Charlotte to try again.

Short answer: Yes, if you're up to it.

I have no experience with Roehl. I started out with Prime over the road and exceeded that pay figure my first year, but I busted my butt to do it. Pay in this industry is most heavily affected by the individual driver, not the position they hold. In my current job hauling fuel we have drivers who make under 50k and drivers that make over 100k+ that do the exact same job on the same pay rate. The only difference is the drivers work ethic.

You feed yourself so the diet is 100% on you. I stocked my trucks refrigerator with weeks worth of food every time I went home. A regional position should make it easier to keep to a preferred diet.

Daily exercise is also 100% on you. Some drivers will run around the perimeter of a truck stop, or do pushups and jumping jacks next to their truck. Some keep resistance bands or weights in their truck to work out with. Others will even bring a bicycle with them. Your only limitation is you.

I haul fuel out of Selma NC. We been pulling a lot of diesel to top our stores off in anticipation of shortage. So far Kinder Morgan and Marathon have still had diesel available. My second load tonight has diesel on it. Fingers crossed KM will still have it...

Your driver's sure don't wave much up here in VA! Just got diesel from BP tho today.

I found loading two loads with ( 2800 and 1k ) and shorting another customer 1k regular was the only way to get two orders without requesting too much to upset anyone .

Yea we have a fair amount of cranky drivers that won't even wave to our own trucks, never mind anyone else.

I've only taken one load of fuel up to VA. Greensboro apparently didn't have any 93conv available that day, so they dispatched me out of Selma to split a full load of it between a couple stores around South Boston VA. Most of my time is spent from Raleigh NC east to the beach, from the Outer Banks NC down to Myrtle Beach and Georgetown SC.

I've never had anyone get upset that I loaded to much of a product. As long as it fits at customer of course...

This summer when gas was getting scarce I was about to start loading at Kinder Morgan and the screen displayed, "Low Allocation Warning, 89 gallons remaining". So I quickly loaded 9000 gallons lol. I told my dispatcher and they just laughed, "Good! You got the last drop of allocation and then some!"