Getting back into trucking...and hello

Hi all,

After running as an o/o for North American Van Lines from 1993 through 1996, I left to pursue other interests (I became a partner in a boat dealership). Now I'm 60, the kids are all out on their own and my wife is retired, so I'm ready for a change again and looking forward to getting back on the road (with my wife). Well, that is, in a semi-tractor. We build new boats and I can't seem to stay away from delivering some of them myself so I've had a few PNW to the East Coast runs (one to Nova Scotia), which have been quick (7 days out and back with a boat delivery thrown in for good measure) and fun. We just got back from a 6,900 mile round trip to South Carolina and North Carolina and back to the upper left corner of the country.

Thanks for all the great information everyone keeps posting, it's been very helpful.

Les

 

Hi Chinatown,

Thanks for the reply!

NAVL was an interesting gig. I had lots of friends there that made really good money but unless you were very lucky you had to be there a fair number of years before that happened. For myself I did okay but not great. I paid the bills and paid myself but there wasn't usually much left over. I found waiting times to be the biggest killer, that and having to haul into areas where there just wasn't any freight coming out. The most fun I had was with a crane trailer (the tracks were up near the ceiling, two arms swung out the back; the crane rolled horizontally on the tracks and out onto the arms). I delivered a lot of Otis elevators and a lot of telephone sub-station equipment. Fun but the deliveries (usually 3 to 5 on a load) took a fair amount of time. Running a condo Freightliner with a 48' trailer up a posh hill in Vail, CO covered with multi-million dollar homes to deliver an elevator system to the new condo at the top of the hill was worth it all. They plowed the road (of course this had to be in winter) and then closed it off to other traffic for me (and I could still barely make the tight turns)...talk about getting the royal treatment! Almost makes up for the 6 months I ran for C.R. England after I sold my truck and left NAVL; running there was quite an error in judgement on my part (and a big part of the reason I took the offer at the boat dealership).

I'm starting from scratch again in the trucking industry, my experience being so long ago it doesn't count for anything with regard to a new driving position (and that's probably a good thing). I've got some emails and phone calls in to a few companies so we'll see how it goes.

My boat delivery "career" has been towing our boats (21-1/2 footers), one-at-a-time, on its own trailer (and a 25-footer back from Nova Scotia) behind my Ford F350 crew cab dually. Not exactly like moving 80,000 pounds down the road! On the other hand, with our boats I'm 52' long and with the 25-footer I was a bit over 60' so my earlier stint driving OTR really did help (folks are always amazed at what I can maneuver through and how well I can back...without hitting anything even!).