using a lowboy

Lets put it this way, I wouldn't hire him or his truck to haul anything OD/OW until he gets some experience.
Let him practice on some else's equipment, mine is too expensive.
Shippers take it for granted - and they should - that we won't damage their equipment.
He doesn't realize how much he doesn't know but when he starts paying for some of his screw-ups he'll get educated real quick.

 

I would guess based on the pay and job description he would be working for a construction company so customers shouldn’t be problem.

 

That's true but if he damages the equipment and it can't work and the construction company either rents a replacement machine or shuts down our would-be lowbed driver is still in a world of hurt.
Most construction jobs run on a pretty thin profit margin. Delays of any kind really hurt the bottom line.

 

I understand completely it’s what I do for a living. I started with a construction company with little experience, the other thing to keep in mind is the people hiring and training him probably care a lot about their machines exactly because the reasons you just gave. He hasn’t told us much, they may have 10 drivers and he’ll start out hauling parts and small loads to assist the senior guys, it’s a good way to learn. Plus if it company equipment then usually someone is familiar with it and can help if needed, operator on the job, other driver, foreman, etc.

 

Very true. One thing for sure, he's going to be in for a learning experience.

 

True that. I can't imagine not taking on new challenges in my career. It's a big step, but if he is going on with an outfit that will train him up, it's a good step.

 

Very true; I started out the same way and had some good cantankerous old curmudgeons help me along the way. You didn't often forget the mistakes that you made because they wouldn't let you, but you learned of how it should be done. This included operating as well as hauling equipment.

 

We'll hope that he doesn't get a curb & gutter machine for awhile.
One of our drivers went to move one of the big ones last year and he called me to come help. I wasn't much help. That thing had four wheel independent steering, tilts, squats, ups, downs, sideways, diagonals, feeds, discharges, and about a hundred other features.
I'd never seen a machine that would move in so many directions at once with absolutely none of them being the way we wanted it to go.
The problem was, all the functions were controlled with toggle switches, about four rows of them, and none of them were marked. One row was spring loaded, the rest were a mix. The only thing that having me there did was to make two of us who were confused and frustrated instead of just the driver. We figured we were about one toggle switch away from disaster.
We finally gave up and called the owner. He was really great about it. He sent an operator out. It turns out that the machine had had a fire a couple of years before and their shop had rewired it themselves. The operator knew what all the switches were so nothing got labled. There were also some switches in odd places that were necessary to making the machine go.
The next time we moved that monster we had a better handle on what to do and when to do it without breaking anything expensive.
And the switches never did get marked.

 

That's a funny story right there!

 

It is now but that day we just weren't doing much laughing. It was late on a Friday and everybody wanted to go home. You know how that goes.
It had a good ending.