Another redundant newbie question thread..........

Only driven a commercial truck when I worked for a moving company at about 19 or so. I'm 45 now, have worked as a locomotive engineer and conductor for Union Pacific, and San Joaquin railroads running trains up and down the Tehachipi's and Cajon pass , and all over the valley and Mojave desert. Not the same as I didn't have to stear the trains or deal with other drivers, but can hopefully pick up trucking as well, lol.

 

Back in the day, I worked one month for CRST and quit.

I got a job with a mom-n-pop tanker outfit hauling corn syrup.

So it's possible to dive right in to tanker work. You just need to pound the bricks old school style.

If tanker is what you want, go get it.

 

There is a company out of Rapid City, SD. Small company. Main business is hauling liquid fertilizer to farming. Was siding refer. But too ridiculous of demands by shippers. He’s looking for other side work. Not the greatest pay or anything. But not bad. He is setting up in Visalia for fertilizer. Wants permanent locals.
The company name is; Valley Transport.
It’s new and not easy to find. He has owned another trucking company. Sold out for profit. If nothing else. Can definitely find contact through Western Dakota Tech. Truck Driving program in Rapid City.

 

Gemini also has dry vans.

 

Thank you! I'll definitely check into that, it's about a 45 min. drive up the 99 from me.

 

just out of curiousity, how did you get into driving trains. I've always wondered about it. Is it a college thing or more of a training school like trucking? How was/is the pay and how is the home/work days work out?

 

I was in another line of work and got sent to a customers home that worked for U.P. and he told me they were hiring. Put in the app, got called about a month later. If you get through the hiring process, they train you as a conductor, all paid. To become an engineer, they will open up bidding, then they select the ones they want out of those bids. It's all union/seniority based, so it depends on what boards your seniority will hold as far as work/hometime. At the time the conductor extra board was a guaranteed $72,000 a year if you stayed marked up/available, all on call, so depending how long or short the extra board was dictated how much you worked, lol. If not for the perfect storm of #### happening all at once, all out of my control, I'd still be there now.

 

I have 20 plus years in trucking (dry vans) and have recently gone over to tanker trucks. There are some differences every driver has to be careful with with tanks. But for a newbie EVERYTHING is new and it's as easy to learn tanks and any other if you are willing to follow directions. If you learnt to drive, shift, corner, and back a tanker you are supremely able to do those things in any other sort of driving. My HazMat tanks take me to places where I do more blind-side backing than I ever did with dry van. Hardly any customer facility is less than 50 years old. But my tank is only 48 feet and has no tail-swing or overhang past the tandems. This makes parking at a truck stop simple and easy. I'm required to blind-side back onto the scale to get loaded. I just use my electric mirrors, and get out and look when necessary.

Think about babies learning to speak. It's just as easy for a baby to learn Chinese as another baby to learn Icelandic. They know nothing, they want to learn, they have no other job but to learn. I'm not saying it's easy for a middle-aged American English speaker to learn Chinese as it is to learn Spanish. I'm saying if you don't already have experience driving one big truck it's just as foreign learning to drive a tank as a dry van.

FYI having switched to tanks, the surge is a lot less than I was worried about. You do have to change the way you drive but the worst "surge events" for a careful driver are starting to roll. If you slam the throttle to start moving from a stop you really do feel like a freight train has rear-ended you. exit-ramps and on-ramps are just places you never ever jerk the wheel or speed, but it's not walking a tight-rope or solving a Rubik's cube in the dark.

Anyone can learn it, if they want to learn it.

 

Good to hear, and encouraging! Thank you. That's kinda been my thought process through out making this leap. I ultimately want to drive tanks or flatbed, so why waste time pulling a box and bumping docks? I will if no other options present themself, but shoot for what you really want from the get go I say.