You actually believe what the liar in chief says? lol
I know about the slow economy. I've been out of the truck since the first week of April this yr. Working what they call "property preservation" services on foreclosed housing. I am BUSY.
Railroad Train Carrying Only Truck Trailers?
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by daviddincau, Sep 13, 2009.
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If it was a container train it was most likely a Z train which has a lot of priority on the rails. They can get through pretty quick. If it was straight up trailers (TOFC) they can be Z's as well. They like to keep you thinking that we are getting amazing milage out of the locomotives. I mean.. unless you know how many gallons per hour these things are sucking down.. how would you be able to say different anyway? I have a list somewhere on what the smaller EMD V12's consume per hour from idle to notch 8. Idle is around 7-8 gallon per hour and it only goes up in big numbers from there. Thats a SMALL 2500hp motor.. I'll try to find the numbers on the 4500-6000hp motors.
That commecial you see about pulling a million tons of freight 100 miles on a drop of fuel is BS. In best case scenario... if they started on a hellacious hill and coasted for 100 miles they may get that kind of mileage.
Yeah the economy has hit us in a bad way. We are subject to idle rules now as well. New hours of service has killed any overtime I used to get. Running about 30 hours a week now. UP alone has 4500+ layed off or in furlough. Then you have all the other big carriers, NS, BNSF, CSX, CN, KCS and all the small railroads. All in all the logistics of this country are in a fubar beyond nightmare. I stopped driving to chase my american dream. To one day have something and retire. Thought I found that on the railroad but anymore I don't think it will be a possibility. For all I know I could be serving you guys fries with your shake at Mc D's next month the way we are running right now. -
I don't know the proper termage for the train that I saw today. But the tractor trailers that it was hauling had the rear wheels on 'em so I don't think they were just containers. And that train was friggin' long. About a half mile I'd guess...if not longer. I've just not noticed trailers with wheels being hauled on a train before. Perhaps I'm just more observant of such things now being that I"m getting into the trucking thing. As far as the idle rules are now.... how are you supposed to keep warm when it's 34 below zero? The company isn't gonna pay for your hotel room. Nor would you as a OO want to.
Would it help if a person had experience in hauling HAZMAT materials as far as getting jobs? I would think it would. Even though I'm not through school as of yet, I've got my HM and doubles/triples. I guess the trick from here on in is getting the driving experience in such areas. I'm looking forward to it but then again some of the things that I am reading make me think that I'd have better luck playing Pick-Up-Sticks with my butt cheeks than making it as a newb in this industry. -
Not currently a trucking O/O.
I am an independent contractor tho.
I answered a Craigslist ad and the rest is history.
I can't do any thing for you, I'm sorry!
I only pick up the pieces after the folks move out.
Lock changes, winterize, mow the lawns, board broken windows, clean up the trash left behind etc etc. -
That was a TOFC. That started way back in the 30's and got bigger through the 60's and 70's. Now its mostly intermodal with the containers. JB Hunt still does a lot of TOFC hauling with the CSX. As for the info on getting into the trucking industry now.. you'll have to rely on these other hands. I haven't driven a OTR company truck in years and haven't even been in a truck at all in about year. Getting into the rail industry right now is a lost cause. Iowa Interstate RR is hiring right now.. thats the only line I know of and they are a regional railroad. We're all being let go left and right and with all the people on hold... well hiring has been frozen. The last guys I knew that were hired on, went through all their training and got about a month OJT before they were layed off. -
Brick, if you don't mind shoot me a pm about this... I'm looking for a way out of transportation... -
I was thinking the same thing. -
Brickman Thanks this.
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