Comments By Chuck S.

I'm with you on the overweight, I picked up a load of ash for a friend how normally does this one particular run not knowing he was only permitted 105,000 lbs. My normal runs in Nevada were usually 129,000 lbs. So when they were loading me in NM I told the loader to fill it up to 129,000 lbs. He said "are you sure" and I said yea ... I carry it all the time in NV.

I was young and dumb at the time, but somehow all the scales where closed that day.

Boss just gave me that look over the top of his glasses and said "UM don't ever do that again"

I got lucky that day....

We're permitted to 105,500. Every trip is in the 95k to 98k range. I screwed up once and loaded myself to about 112,000. I had some explaining to do for that one. The DOT didn't catch me and I absolutely didn't intend to do it.

no you are not crazy you will go through a huge adjustment with regards to income... so if that's an issue you need to come to terms with it before you quit. You have the potential of earning that and more if you are willing to work for it. Good luck

I’m 51 and have a decent 5 day work week making $26 per hour. It’s mostly a desk job with some on the floor supervising. I’m getting fed up with the stress and politics. If this company went out of business I don’t think I could easily get the same job for the same pay. I am seriously considering getting into the trucking industry. I’m single and my kid is grown, nothing to tie me down. I’m ok with not being home most of the time. I feel like trucking would give me better job security and the flexibility to move anywhere in the country. Hopefully I could also make a lot more money eventually. How much of a pay cut would I be taking at first? Could I eventually earn $80k or more per year?

I grew up in the midwest... for years when people would ask me where I grew up i would say "in the basement of my home in the midwest" we started out with dozens of trees on our property growing up and ended up with only a few when we moved away... lost a couple of cars from trees falling on them. so move forward to 2011 on a stormy night in Kansas ... like that never happens... I had just turned westbound onto I 40 with what looked like a big nasty storm ahead... 10pm ... student in the back ... she had been sleeping for about 4 hrs... after about an hour this storm just kept getting stronger, and off to the right every time the lighting light up the sky I could see this low cloud off to my right which kept getting closer and bigger.

it wasn't long before my student from Oakland ( who never really experienced any big storms like this) woke up and asked me if we should be driving in this... and my response was " hell no" ... I stopped at the next bridge overpass and putt on my flashers... a couple of big trucks passed along with a couple of trucks pulling travel trailers... after about 20 minutes the storm passed and we got headed west... and it didn't take long to find all those trucks that had passed on their sides.

I would of been in the same boat...

Park under a bridge to get shelter if you ever find yourself in that situation again...

It wasn't long after that I was in the safety office and the safety manager handed me a picture of one of our company trucks laying on it side in a ditch... and he asked me a simple question.... "what's wrong with this picture"

I replied ... "there are no tire tracks behind the truck.... must of been a hell of a ride.

He didn't stop and the tornado lifted the entire loaded truck and he ended up out in the field ...

... note... stop ... find shelter... and live to talk about it another day

This is why I learned to make my own meals. it only takes getting sick once to learn a valuable lesson.

Most ... not all... scales will give you 300 lbs... I was1000 lbs over on my tandems and the scale officer took 300lbs off and wrote the ticket for 700 still cost me 182.00 bucks...

How far is your destination? Scales are usually closed late at night and on weekends.

I have literally ran some loads that were overweight to save time, when they weren't going far.

Took my chances and even got the bypass on some open scales!

For the love of God Jamie! I once made a shipper rework my load cause it was 34,040! I'm not risking my DAC or my wallet for nobody! Even if you guaranteed me all the scales would be closed, I still wouldn't risk my clean record for no one.

I had several cousins in the trucking business back in the 60's and 70's that drove all the way to retirement, so I had plenty of help with advise from most of them. One I called the most always took my calls, always had good advice, never judged me when I called and told him I screwed up and didn't listen to something he had told me. After he died I asked his wife if he was ever annoyed at me calling him so often (something I never ask him) and she said no... he actually would say something to her when I didn't call for a period of time.... concerned if I was ok...

Listening to old timers from this site, or old timers sitting at a truck stop killing time, most of us are more then happy to throw in our 2 cents worth.

Here is an example of what I am writing about...

Asked an older driver sitting outside a Flying J in Utah... How did you manage to do this job for 47 years... Quote "I learned to stay in the right lane and stay out of everybody's way"

Listening to old experience is a start.

I didn't realize how stupid people get around big trucks... seriously.. I was in complete disbelief...

Old school ranger 10 meter, self calibrating, 30w output... range is 6 to 15 miles ...

and plenty of us that were born there and got the heck out....

Remember most of the loonies you associate with California are actually born in other states and moved to California.

We wouldn’t look so crazy if y’all would stop exporting your village idiots.

I was a boss in the casinos here in Vegas... my uniform was a suit, I ate in all my meals restaurants, not in the employee dining rooms, hung out with all the big shots, had a corporate credit card, made a crap load of money, and every day thought how nice it would of been if I had just stayed an hourly employee free of all the headaches.

30 plus years it took me to find out I should of never taken that first promotion...

lessons learned