Location:
Cordes Junction, AZ
Driving Status:
Experienced Driver
Social Link:
I joined this profession after 28 years in another profession. Knew it was getting time to retire, and started a skills assessment. What did I do daily that I could do when I grew up? Well, sarcasm and profanity aren't really marketable skills in the private sector, but DRIVING? That I did pretty much all day, every day. Didn't hurt that I had a brother doing this for over a decade that said "Hey, you could always drive a truck. I mean, if I can do it... "
Worked about a year and a half doing OTR regional, home every weekend for 32 hours (add in one hour each way to terminal). Learned. A lot. Missed my family. A lot. Got paid by the mile, NOT a lot. Ended up finding a gig with a company that hired me for local driving, home every day, paid by the hour, tractor and trailer shop on site for prompt and effective repairs. Jumped at the chance and haven't looked back. After two years of local work, I climbed back into a sleeper, and am running OTR Regional Midwest pulling intermodal and dry van loads. Happy as a clam again.
I do dabble a bit in training drivers that come over to our company, as a polisher / finisher for folks that need some extra one on one training time to get them fully smoothed out and ready for solo.
The outfit I work for is G&D Integrated, based in Morton, IL with terminals in Joliet, Morton, Champaign, Decatur, and Montgomery, Illinois, with additional footprints in Georgia, Indiana, and South Carolina. No job or outfit is perfect, but I've been with these folks for long enough to know it's where I will finish out my career, as they're a good outfit.
After about 8 years in the driver seat, I was forced to retire from driving. Three titanium spacers where disks used to rest and a sensitivity to vertical vibration resulting in gradually increasing nerve pain in the left arm resulted in my Neurosurgeon telling me I should find something else to do, as the vibration was going to hasten the degeneration of the other disks in my cervical spine. Paralyzed / lack of control of the arms vs. doing what I really like to do? I opted to give Mrs. Curmudgeon her due - and not intentionally cause injury to myself so that I could keep driving.
We moved out of Illinois to Arizona, and are happy living in the country.
Posted: 6 days, 4 hours ago
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Mylar label not squarely on the misshapen metal tab it was adhered to. 7 of the 17 vin digits / characters are missing. Headed into San Bernardino, CA by way of the I-10, including Banning scale routing. I opted to NOT pull it since it is an incomplete VIN tag. Thoughts?
Posted: 2 months, 1 week ago
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Talking Shop: The Just Talking Thread
Nothingwrong with thatkind of recognition from your outfit. Becoming a professional driver is a journey, one that I have been on for a decade now, and still have days where the "ah-hah!" moments happen.
Congrats on the safe driverof the week award, and kudos to you for gritting it out and staying with the career. It never gets "easy", but it does get "easier". If it was easy, it wouldnt be as much fun!
Posted: 2 months, 3 weeks ago
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Pretrip for doubles. Rough night and some good news
Well done. And THANK YOU for being a driver willing to do what is needed to keep rolling (carrying parts / tools / attitude allowing repairs to be made in the field rather than waiting for mobile service to get there, or worse yet "pulling and rolling" (rolling the dice).
I've never seen an air line bubble like that, gives me pause to dive deeper into my pre/post trips. Thanks!
Posted: 2 months, 3 weeks ago
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Trucking employment is contracting the fastest on record this century
Not sure what is driving the recent set of Ring messages from CEO, but our outfit's benefits are contracting effective Jan 1.
401(k) match going away. Guaranteed 40hr pay if three days are worked going away. Picking up the tax on the $50/night road life per diem. $50 weekly safety bonus. No guaranteed overtime (THAT is a benefit I was not aware of, and suspect it is something grandfathered in for local drivers).
The last two are not huge, but the top one is effectively a 6% pay cut - they did a 6% match, and all of my money was Roth. Being over that certain age, that one is kinda stout.
Not sure how to react to this stuff. She has a company meeting scheduled late January, I'll withhold judgement until then in the event that I may have missed something or misinterpreted the message.
Posted: 2 months, 4 weeks ago
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Company that hires new CDL holders but doesn't do follicle tests
BK, initially it was serious, but then I realized the humorous component as well.
Absent the medical diagnosis of alopetia (i think thats the condition) - anyone that has no available hair for a follicle test through shaving or dipilatory use is making a lifestyle choice. Pornstar, swimmer, matters not. It is a choice. Just like smoking weed, using coke, smoking meth, spiking H.
So, yank that nose hair. No sympathy from me.
Hurts like the bejeezeez i would think...
Posted: 3 months ago
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Sounds like another Todd post. Doesn't make any sense and too far fetched to be truthful.
THIS Todd?
Posted: 3 months ago
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Axle seal leaks. How much is TOO much?
Watching the goings on in the fulfillment centers that I have been in, I constantly see the spotter drivers hook, lift and then drag the trailer several feet forward before hooking the air lines. I wonder if this could be causing the frequency of seal leaks. The dock pads look like the starting line at Great Lakes Dragway (where the great ones run-run-run-run!)
I was with my previous outfit for about seven years, and in that time can only think of three or four leaking inboard axle seals on trailers. (Rail Pool IM chassis dont count, those are a "high percentage stop" in the lingo of my first career)
Any mechanic experience here that can comment?
Posted: 3 months ago
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Company that hires new CDL holders but doesn't do follicle tests
Can they pull a nose hair for a follicle test?
I guess i am confused about your dissatisfaction. In one statement you are critiquing a rigid training system designed by those whom you say have no experience driving a CMV, then you follow that up with the fact that you will be training drivers, when you yourself acknowledge your two weeks of driver training. Is there a reason you can't do both with them, drive and also do the training tasks?
Posted: 3 months ago
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Many drivers think GOAL only applies whem backing. ANY tight quarters situation is the PERFECT place to get out and look.
As we move into winter, another consideration is those "lumps of snow" in parking lots. Voice of experience - sometimes they are rocks. BMF rocks.
Posted: 4 days, 21 hours ago
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Would you pull this trailer?
Arejay, I did 28yrs of pushing a squad, and was reputed to be "that guy" when it came to knowing the nuances of how to legally provide extra loving to someone what needed it. My immmediate thought was "Oh, HELL no, I aint pulling a crappy vin retag stolen trailer through the PRC". Liley a valid explanation, but when the first third is missing, and I dont know where the confidential numbers are on a semi trailer to verify against the registration....
Oh, the people from Amazon said thay it was OK to pull. I submitted a DVIR and made it unsafe to pull so that HAVE to give it attention... axle seals, brakes, registrations, and now VIN tags. I am pleased to hear that Im not the only ine that's looking at the paper registrations... i am constantly stunned by the huge level of grab and go with pool trailers...