Hi guys, So today I was thinking, thinking about my first time out in the truck and my first experiences as a commercial truck driver out on the interstate. My first job was working for a beer distributor, but it wasn't what you would think ha-ha! They made us work through our training and trust me nobody gave me anything I earned all of it. It was well terrifying, but I said there's no going back I'll have to survive through this, it's all I can do that's what I remember thinking to my self. When I first started working in this industry they made me do a couple real ugly things the first one was Great Lakes OTR which was this real boring tedious shuttle run from the beer companies warehouse to Great Lakes Brewing Company's brewery in Ohio City. That was for a new guy a terrifying run it was 5 runs a day all drop and hook. They had two 53' that they would load and they had a few 48' that they would load as well. Usually you pulled the 48' more the 53' only went out and came back once a day. It was back and fourth. Well for a new guy who couldn't back very well and was terrible at driving stick and had a management group that well ehhh never mind... Anyhow it was terrifying yet I survived. The dock for the brewery the main one was on a busy side street and you had to ally dock into the dock and of course cars would try to cut around you and it was a big scary thing, yet somehow I survived. Anyhow that was a long scary week and I was glad when it was over. I remember taking my road test for the beer company gosh that still brings back bad memories scared to death didn't know to well what I was doing made it through though, heck I even passed it, but it wasn't pretty. I remember coming home from work that day with a splitting headache. Anyhow yeah it was all ugly and all scary, but things change times change attitudes and jobs change and for some it gets worse and others it gets better. It's just how it goes I guess.
i think my very first run was to be urgent airfreight running to NYC, but it got cancelled. So, then i got a run going down south to a recycling plant in South Carolina. Scary, but exciting!. i think, so far, my best gigs have been: NEMF Overnite/UPS freight Auto truck transport P.S. First assigned truck was an International 9300 conventional with 48" sleeper. Not a bad truck, but they were governed to 65.
I'm trying to remember my first solo run, now a days and it's funny how times have changed, I used to be scared to death to go solo in the beginning now I just do solo runs all the time no problem.
P.S. Is the fact that ALL those jobs i listed as being the best i've ever had were also UNION a coincidence? i would hope not, but so far any unionized job i've had has been a winner.
My first run was 10' wide into a residential neighborhood. There was a right turn that I had to make and as I am attempting to make the turn, the guy in the pickup in the left turn lane actually leaned out his window to see how close my bumper was to him. I made the turn just fine but it is funny looking back at it now. The next most memorable was just last month. I was hauling a 113' long concrete bridge beam and going through this town a kid was coming out of the side street with his head down, he rounded the corner and just before my front bumper pulled up even with him he looked up and his jaw hit the sidewalk. That was the most classic amazed look and I will never forget that one.
