Describe the OTR lifestyle

Actually a lot of people do buy an airplane before they know how to fly because in some cases it can cut the cost of getting their pilots license by as much as in half. The reason for this is if you want to work commercially you have to have a lot of hours, like 500+ in many cases upwards of 1,000

Renting an airplane can cost 175.00-200.00 an hour.

I almost bought a helicopter for this reason a couple of years ago, but the bank backed out at the last minute. Was going to get a little bell 206

 

Mr Beast said it right. Best job you will ever hate. I like the freedom. Feel like taking a personal day? No problem freight will be there tomorrow. In my old job, boom you are replaced. The bad economy got me into this but turns out I should have done it years ago.

Not hard to maneuver the tractor and trailer-- you live and work in the thing 24 hours a day it becomes part of you. You instinctively know how far to swing out to miss objects. I liken it to looking a sidewalk with debris and snails etc-- you preplan your steps and walk along looking up and never step on that crap-- same thing with the truck, you swing out wide to miss that telephone pole on your sharp turn and look in the mirrors to make sure and yep, missed it just like you planned to.
Yes work out. After a year out here my butt has turned into pure flab. Got a little beer belly happening. Legs can be a little wobbly from lack of walking. I got my dog on the truck so now I have to stop the truck every 3 or so hours to walk her which is good for me too.

Anyway, great job, if you're on time, no tickets, no accidents, your boss will pretty much just leave you alone.

 

AWESOME psot I like it

 

Another great post thank you..

 

Speak it brother, when I walked away from the Florida Prison system this past January I knew that I was finished watching grown men rape and assualt each other. 15 years of constant fights, throat cuttings, suicide attempts, TCU inmates and (the worse of all) "gunning" of the female staff was enogh for me. I gave 1 year to the road and 15 years to the prison. I paid my dues in LE and will now prefer to drove the country, see the sights and get paid as much STARTING at .28 CPM as I was making running a 1600 bed facility with 80 Officersa under my authority. I am now only responsible for my own actions and not that of 1700 others.

 

What happened to Sheriff John....he disappeared?

 

When she is coming down 287 into Oklahoma past Kit Karson and everything is champing at the bit with a day early to go before delivery anything is possible in life. This was back in the days of the old air breathing engines where there is music when fuel, air and so forth (Compression etc) is working at optimium cruise. It will literally be music instead of a roar or that modern weed eater whine of the computer engines.

Now, if you are 90 miles from say Sheridan WY in the Bitterroots in the teeth of a winter storm at 09 mph breaking loose from the foot thick split ice here and there fighting the long 4 mile grades trying to nurse your transmission for traction any way you can (Not necessarily shifting down and easing up, it sometimes means shifting UP and holding torque) and it's going to be about 10 hours outside of your logs at the current rate of advance and 50 gallons of fuel left in your rapidly thirstier tanks..... life is not so great. You are in battle. Problems accumulate.

That seperates real truckers from the cribabies.

I can go on but I think that's enough for now.

 

I am not sure if I fit in this thread. I am an old codger who started the OTR life in 1960 (DOT pulled my CDL in 2013) with Trans America. This post will hit a memory bank or two with the older road jockeys. I was only twenty years old at the time and thought a LD truck driving job would be a gift from the Gods. It didn’t take me long to learn that it wasn’t a gift. Back in those days, most highway tractors were cab overs (COE ) with a vastly under powered motor, a sleeper about the size of a wooden box. Many truckers referred to those sleepers as “The Coffin”. It took one return haul from Boston to LA and back to find out that an OTR meant learning to sleep with the stacks roaring in your ears, being bounced around on a bunk that had a mattress that was built for an insole in a shoe, and trying to find fuel at three in the morning. Remember those days, you old timers?

Most of the drivers had a cash box with $800.00 - $900.00 to buy fuel because there was no such thing as fuel cards or credit cards back then. (more than one farmer saved my butt) The fuel source was usually at a thing called a bulk station. Many of those bulk stations didn’t have room for a tractor & trailer to turn around so we either backed into the tanks or pulled in, then back out. Thankfully, most of the trailers were 45 – 48 footers at that time. Not to mention that most of those bulk plants didn’t have yard lighting.

Also, in those days, though there were the old paper discs, 95% of drivers learned to use two sets of logs because we were habituated into ( if we drove single) driving 24 – 30 hours at a shot. Remember the old cliché, “Benny was doing the driving”? The old guys will know what that phrase means.

The modern OTR? A pleasant walk in the park. Beautiful cabs and sleepers. Air ride seats. Windshield wipers that don’t cut out when step on the fuel pedal, lots of places to sleep and has food handy. All trucks have power steering and brakes. Lots of engine power and 13 – 15 speed trannies that shift as smooth as a slicing butter with a hot knife. If you are driving team, the sleeper is well insulated to cut out the road noise. All rigs have AC and half decent heaters. Best of all, you get time off. I was on the road for 93 days none stop back in the early seventies.

Remember those days boys.

 

My first two rigs ran off clocks driven by paper discs. Some of the habits and rules we had were a holdover from that time period. My uncle survived red ball in the war hauling gasoline cans... Luftwaffe almost got him a couple times. He earned fame hauling quite a number beyond authroized load. He also survived a runaway gasoline tanker on Big Savage west of Cumberland. Hopped a train home to quit. And there I came along in the 70s where we had a 76 down the road growing up. 95 was just built as a giant bypass and everything died. So, the interstate was both a boon and a killer of local economies.