Choice RGN

Does he work for you?

 

I understand that, it's hard to comment without seeming like your blowing your own horn so I'll leave it at I understand.

 

JD,

Solo was just trying to give him an opportunity. Sounds like he's disappointed that someone he was trying to help blew a great opportunity.

I was just telling my wife this morning about how lucky I am to be in my career. Most people who want to get into hauling equipment need 3-5 Yeats experience before they get a sniff. I have 3 years total driving experience and I'very already had the opportunity to pull 14' wide loads, 130 000 lbs loads and stretched loads.

It all happened because I stumbled on a company and I went for a road test in broken down truck with a 76 year old black man named Smitty. It wouldn't shift right, it actually was the truck, not my inexperience. But I didn't know t
It was faulty, he asked me how much experience I had, I told him 3 weeks.

He said a lot of people would have lied, I appreciate your honesty, this truck needs to go in the shop. He said, I like you, I will go to bat for you with Matt.

And I was hired. I travelled 2 hours a day from Lufkin to Baytown the first week, stayed in the Houston Hostel and got bit up by bed bugs the 2nd week. I didn't realize at the time how good of an opportunity I had, it was just the work ethic that was ingrained in me that gave me the tools to succeed.

The point is, without people like solo, people like me, wouldn't be where we are today and I'm thankful for the brethren that have helped me succeed.

Almost every driver I've met has helped me, that's pretty rare to find in other industries.

 

Yeah I understand now, solo explained it pretty good. I was thrown by part of the wording for a minute but I'm up to speed. I started 17 years ago with the company I work for now, I had no real lowboy or heavy haul experience to speak of. I had hauled combines and farm tractors which are wide and awkward but not heavy. The guy I work for now took a chance on a 22 year old kid and I appreciated it. He threw me to the wolves but had enough faith in me I guess to trust me. We had at that time an older driver with a lot of experience, his load securement would make you guys cringe but he was a good driver and he knew a lot. However most of my learning is from experience and trial and error. I was commenting to solo about understanding the situation, I've tried to help others along the way, some seem receptive other not so much. I'm not a braggart so I watch what is say, that like sarcasm can be hard to pick up on in the written word. Like solo I'm no where near perfect (ask my wife) nor do I know everything, but when it comes to this work I just have a knack for it I'm not sure how else to put it. That's like the shimming thing, most people can't seem to grasp the concept to me it just makes sense. You try to explain it and most guys will claim "yeah yeah I got it" but in the end they don't. A lot of people think it's doesn't really matter, I mean how could a 1/4" piece of steel stuck there make a difference? That being said I take every chance I get to ask questions and learn, if I see a truck and load somewhere that intrigues me I talk to the driver, when I worked for the other two companies I was exposed to a more diverse environment and I was always bugging someone. But it is a neat feeling when people start calling you to ask questions and I'm glad to help. You've done pretty good from what I've seen so keep it up.

 

Now I feel really old. According to my math I'm a year older than you. Either that or I misread and I'm drunk

 

I'm 39 (will be in July)

 

Confirmed old