My journey to become a heavy haul driver

In April I got hired to be a rollback driver. At the time I had 6 months CDL experience mostly driving a straight truck doing expedite work. I went for a road test with a 76 year old old time heavy haul driver who is primarily a yard hand now. We drove an older rollback that had engine stalling problems, he asked me how much experience I had and I told him maybe 6 months. Well he went to bat for me with the owner and they hired me on and he was going to be my trainer.

I had one day of training with an experienced driver in a rollback but then after that there wasn't a truck for me. The truck I took the road test in had to go in to the shop and so for the first two weeks I mostly was a yard hand with him taking trucks to the shop and picking them up and not really doing much. Finally another driver in the other rollback hit a bridge and I had a truck.

My first day on my own, I set out for my first load, except I read the address wrong and I put in 3000 Main St into the GPS instead of 300 Main St. I ended up at the wrong end of Main St and on a non truck route and got pulled over and got a ticket. $300 later, I learnt to better check my addresses.

On that same Friday, I hauled my first OD load, it was a 11' wide construction disk that I picked up near the Mexican border.

I started off hauling a lot of forklifts and manlifts



I didn't realize how dangerous loading a back hoe can be



I tried adjusting the boom while I had the bed was still tilted and I almost tilted myself backwards. I didn't realize till 3 back hoe's later that you need to tie it down first and level it before you move the boom.

Then about 3 months ago, I got bumped up to a landoll. Here was one of my first loads



Then we got a more aggressive dispatcher and we started combining loads. This one paid real well. The dove tail on the landoll wouldn't lift up with the weight of the rear axles from the water truck. So I talked to the customer and they let me use their dozer so I could hook a chain and lift the dove tail. One thing I've learnt is that you got to learn to improvise and figure out a way to get the job done or lose out on money.



Now we have started getting a lot more crane work (not my load)



But I've been pulling more support loads



Now that we've gotten more crane loads, we leased 2 step decks and I've gotten to choose which trailers I want to pull, I chose the step decks for the experience.

Here is one of my first step deck loads, it was almost 10' wide boom going to a windfarm.





But not everything has been rosy. I've had my share of mistakes. I use to keep my chains on the top deck of my landoll and one day I tried a new way of putting them up there since I seen another driver do it. Well one of my hooks fell through the hole and it ended up grabbing the chrome fender. Luckily it happened while I was backing up at a customer's yard and not driving down the road. The customer was also helpful in helping me remove the fender.





All in all its been one of the best experiences of my life. I love my job. I enjoy going to work everyday. I like the challenge of hauling new equipment. I like that I've started at the bottom and worked my way up. I don't ever turn down loads and I'm constantly asking other drivers about things trying to absorb as much as I can. I'll often stay and help load / unload other drivers, especially when they are pulling something I've never loaded. I've built my reputation that I train the new drivers who have less heavy haul experience than I do. Its weird being sent out with a 20 year driver and making sure he knows proper securement. We've had some turnover in drivers and I've worked up so that I have the most seniority and choice of trailers among landolls & stepdecks and usually first pick of loads. I'm getting a new leased truck on Monday to pull the step deck but they are going to wet kit my truck so I can still pull the spare landoll or an RGN if I don't have a stepdeck load.

The members on this forum and especially the flatbed forum have been really helpful to me, I've learnt a lot from this place and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone and share my story.

ps special shout out to triplesix who helped give me some valuable advice when I was wanting to rush my learning curve and I was tempted to see if the grass was greener on the other side. I'm glad I stuck to my original plan when I joined this company and to stick it out for a year no matter what. Things have really worked out for me with this company. I'm getting to learn heavy haul and I sleep in my bed 6 nights a week and home with my family.

 

Not really. I was surprised he didn't say a word. I think I was more disappointed in myself than they were. A little while before another driver took his off to lighten his weight and since then he said he wants to get the individual plastic wheel covers. My wife gave me a lot more of a ribbing than I got at work (I use to brag to her that I was a professional driver etc...)

 

I pulled my first RGN load on Monday. I was pretty excited on Friday when the load was booked for me, we have an RGN driver but he refuses to get Hazmat, so we got a load for a fuel truck and so it was given to me. I've since changed companies since my earlier posting and we actually have a safety department and a good csa score and follow all the rules, so they sent someone with me to make sure I do it safe.

Well the safety guy took the controls when we did the load and had a bunch of snags. Well I took it to San Antonio and when I dropped it, I understood why the safety guy had problems and I avoided them all and I ended up dropping and unhooking in less than half hour. I had a few minor snags but I knew how to deal with them.

It was the perfect first RGN load for me because I've hauled probably 20 water trucks before so I knew what I was doing and focussed just on the difference between an RGN pony motor trailer and Landoll.

 

Fixed the image