Getting Started in Line Haul!

So here is my story...

I am 22 years old. Almost finished college, and have been 100% independent since I was 17. Have an amazing girlfriend and have had a pretty steady and healthy lifestyle over the last few years!

I worked Performance Years/Pypes Exhaust for the last 4.5 years. While I was there, I got my CDL to drive our Performance Years 48" trailer out to car shows and swap meets .

Unfortunately, this company is pretty well established... but is not exactly a growing company. I have always been one to push to move forward in everything, especially a job! Since it wasn't a growing company, I came to the conclusion that I was at a dead end, and that I wanted to move on.

I decided to try auto sales... I like it, I really do. But the pay is unsteady to a degree that I would rather not deal with.

So, I decided to check with a local carrier which I will keep confidential as they discourage including them in blogs. I filled out my application for a Line Haul position on Monday, and I took my road test today in a Tractor Trailer.

Up until today, I had never driven an actual Tractor Trailer! but yet, I did my pre-trip, hopped in the truck, and did very well on my driving course. The shifting will take a little getting used to... I was grinding some gears, but its the first time driving a non-synchronized transmission for me.

I will be starting in about two weeks! I am pretty excited, and this is a huge pay raise for me!


Just thought I'd share

 

rl carriers

 

Its been a little over a month, but I have finally got the ball rolling in Line Haul. I started Monday night. As mentioned above, I do not have a ton of driving experience with tractor trailers, so they asked me to start by working the docks for a couple weeks to get to know the trucks better and so on. I have started out by jockeying the trucks around the lot, loading freight, and unloading freight.

Monday - Went in at 9pm, filled out some paperwork, and started right away as a truck jockey around the hub. Got home around 3am

Tuesday - Went in at 8pm, unloaded some trucks and learned how to check the manifests. Drove a forklift for a while (which I had done an extensive amount of at Performance Years)... Around 12am I hopped in a truck and made some moves until about 2am and wrapped it up from there.

Wednesday - Went i at 8pm, made moves the whole night until 2am. I think I hooked and dropped close to 40 trailers. (A mixture of pups and vans) It gets to be very physically demanding since the yard horse has been broken.

Going in tonight at 8... Ill keep you guys updated on how this goes. Just like americantrucker said, there isn't much info on here about Line haul Driving, so Ill keep everyone informed from my end.

 

Friday - Went in at 8pm. It was definitely a crappy night. It rained a lot and the hub doesn't have gutters so I got soaked by rain running off the roof while hooking up each trailer. Other than that it was a pretty standard night.

Heading in at 8pm tonight. They said to expect Mondays to be extra busy, so I guess we will see!

 

Line haul. I will be driving in early January