Best way to move forward?

Then you will be fine. I am machine minded myself. Sometimes I think they are more human than some of never mind...

I am not that good on forklift believe it or not. I can load or unload a trailer but it's blindly obvious to anyone that it's not my usual. But if you want to have some fun, I can break out the wheeled CAT 936 loader and see about 7 yards of your stone or sand soemewhere eh?

 

We Used to be able to work holiday OT at the sawmill, which often included cleaning up the ground floor around the conveyors with a bobcat. Very smooth concrete floor, what a riot!

When I was at the planer, we had this really old front end loader that we used for utility cleanup. That thing was older than dirt. The body wasn't articulated, the entire rear end turned, it was a gas.

I also got to play in a Cat fe loader, I think it was a 930? That was a blast. Moving chips at the MDF plant. I backed over a warning post near a fire hydrant. Close call.

That was all in the early 80's.

 

I wouldn't sweat it too much. You gained some good experience and learned from your mistakes from the sound of it. That puts you ahead of most newbies out here that dont take ownership of anything. Keep your head up, a good attitude and work ethic, you'll go where you want to be.

 

Check with Meadow Gold Dairy in Kalispell. I worked for them in a different location for a long time. It was very little driving and lots of pushing a handcart if that would work for you .

 

I'm 56. I'll try to find lots of driving and very little handcart pushing, if possible.

 

Good plan! I did it for 21 years and quit when I was 58. My knees and shoulders thank me.

 

Service failure is two words I do not wanna hear from any one in that Dispatch office. That means they put the blame for being late on me. And potentially can authroize payroll to deduct god only knows how much that late will cost everyone and then add that little incident to a folder under the DM's desk that has my name on it.

When enough sin fills that folder against a company I run for. I am fired and the folder's contents dumped into DAC where it hurts most.

That was then.

Fast forward to my later years running loads as assigned or sometimes by choice it has to be there. Everything is documented. So that if someone has questions about something 3 months ago that was actually a problem, out comes the big journal book and we go over that trip just like it all is there.

If we did not have that Journal and documentation of that particular trip, all we can do is sit there and parrot um, er. you see, but, if.. as a one way conversation is delivered to us showing us the door. You follow me?

This industry is really fast in putting someone in the seat of that 18 wheeler. So fast they do not take a #### minute to teach the possibilities should something get screwed up down the road. I say enough is enough.

 

As stated before. There's NO clutch in driving stick. UNLESS you're stopped.

 

So. I pulled my PSP (what does that acronym stand for?)

It show all my inspections.
It shows my CA bridge violation (no citation. Those CHP were super cool. I took full responsibility. I explained what happened, made no excuses, and explained how I'd avoid a repeat. Those guys were really cool. It was the inspection station just NE of Santa Clara. Not sure the hwy, 486?)

What was NOT on there but I was sweating, was a preventable collision with no citations and no injuries.

 

You should be fine then. Nothing to worry about. Hope you find what you are looking for.