My Journey as a Truck Driver

It seems like the trucking industry is going through a shift again. Back in the 70's driving a truck seems to have been a respectable profession. The image of drivers I have of back then are jeans, boots, western shirts. Kids wanted to grow up being a truck driver. Whether because of deregulation, or cultural changes, whatever; the reputation of truckers declined significantly. Most of society looks down on truckers, it seems like truckers themselves haven't done a very good job of holding each other accountable . . . or maybe they have, but for whatever reasons, the image of a trucker is not generally a positive one.

For whatever negative things have come out of CSA2010, there does seem to be a shift occurring . . . and hopefully some of it is positive. For the most part it seems like most I've met form here are professional and care about the industry we're in. Hopefully I can be a positive contributor as well.

 

I've been training in the 8 speed t700. The interior looks good, has more storage than the Pete's 387's. I'm really interested in fuel mileage, don't really have a grasp on it. I haven't been overly impressed with the t700's fuel efficiency . . . averaging 6.8 over 13,000 + miles. But there is a lot of overnight idle in that, mostly 40,000 + loads, and a lot of mountain miles. I drove an '12 Cascadia 10 speed automatic for about 2000 miles and got 7.6. It had an electric APU though, and generally hauled around 20,000 pounds, and stayed between Illinois/Ohio/Minnesota. The t700 is governed at 65, Cascadia governed at 64.

Depending on how things go Monday, I may hit you up on your company.

 

Well, sorry again for the delay in posts. Trying to figure some things out, and I was advised to perhaps not write on here until then . . . but nothings really been resolved, so here I am.

Started the week in San Antonio while "Young Gun" had "home time" with a new girlfriend. Picked up a 2-stop load last Thursday, first delivery in Shertz, TX, north of San Antonio at 7am, then 2nd stop in Fort Worth next morning at 8 am . . . further north. Make the Shertz delivery, and assume we're headed up north. Nope, back to San Antonio, apparently Young Gun didn't close the deal all weekend, wants another shot at it. Drops me off at truck stop and comes back 5 hours later. I see condoms in truck and all of his stuff is on my bunk, so I assume the truck was the closer. While at truck stop, I talk to another JBS trainer, he hears my stories, finds out I'm left at truck stop, and makes some calls to Greeley. Not sure really what happened, but apparently all sorts of people get involved. Training Manager finally deigns to get involved, leaves me a voicemail and tells me we're being routed back to Greeley. Young Gun gets pretty nervous, starts trying to coach me on what to say when we get back. I'm really not sure what's going on, but I'm told that he's going to get fired. I don't really like the idea of anyone getting fired, but he definitely should not be a trainer.

Wednesday, make Fort Worth delivery. Deadhead to Cactus, TX pick up a load of beef headed to New York, but relaying the load to another driver in Kansas City. First time ever, we scale the load, good thing . . . turns out drive axles over. I think he did it only because the load was being relayed, or because he knows he's in trouble with Greeley.

Thursday, relay with another driver in Kansas City, deadhead to Van Buren, AR. Picking up a load headed to Aurora, CO for Monday night delivery. Truck is 5000 miles overdue for service, and we're supposed to meet with Training Manager and Operations Manager on Monday, so decide we'll go straight to Greeley.

Friday, massive snowstorm shuts down Denver, we leave Arkansas, know we'll hit storm somewhere on I-70. Most of you know that the route from Arkansas takes us through a lot of toll roads in Oklahoma and Kansas. Young Gun has no money for toll roads. First toll road he pays for with quarters. I ask if we need to leave the toll roads and go another route if he doesn't want to pay, or pull over and get cash. He has no money until Saturday, not to worry, toll booth will just give us a form to mail in later. Next toll booth attendant gives me a lecture and tells me we must leave the road or incur state police will ticket us. I pay the next two tolls myself. Mysteriously, as we stop for fuel, he buys chips, pizza, and drinks. By this time he's pretty nervous and Greeley, and decides he doesn't want to stick around until Monday. We run into heavy snow around Russell, KS. Hear I-70 is shut down further west, so we park at Ellis, KS for night.

Saturday, even though all signs and communications say that I-70 is still closed, Young Gun decides to leave Ellis, KS anyway. He wants to drop me off at terminal and leave ASAP. First 50 miles or so are snowy and icy, but roads clear up nicely after that and I-70 reopens. Find out though that he's driving under my Qualcomm ID. Get to Greeley, he talks Dispatch into giving him a load to Iowa, he drops off Aurora load at terminal. I'm told to go to hotel until Monday.

Total miles: About 2450, 6.7 mpg

Interesting location: Never been to panhandle of Texas . . . some real Zane Grey country there.