Diary of a New Tanker Driver - Comcar CTL

Week three of training is in the books. I went to Atlanta for pump training, but we only did one. However, it's similar enough to airing off that it shouldn't be a problem.

The problem I AM having is backing. Since this requires some spatial thinking and visualization, skills that I am very poor at, I will always probably have some trouble with this. I'm just amazed at how skillful the experienced truckers are at this. I saw a guy at one place basically turn his dry van on a 90° dime and then put it in the slot like it was nothing. For me it's oversteer, pull up; understeer, pull up; get the angle totally wrong, try again from the beginning...etc...etc...

Another thing that concerns me is my trepidation in walking the catwalk atop the tanker to check the washout caps. Why didn't they make this thing wider? It's not like I have severe anxiety about it, but there's a healthy concern of walking the thing that I do fear fear a misstep. I do NOT like this part about the job at all. Will it be enough to get me to leave tankers? I have to be honest - maybe.

I'm still not a big fan of putting on the hazmat suit and wrestling with hoses, but I signed up for tanker to do something more than just sit and drive, and to make more money. I'm trying to find ways to make it more interesting and enjoyable, and one thing I'm going to do is re-read my friend's book he wrote, Full Throttle (Dr. Gregg Steinberg) about strategies to make this happen (free plug for Gregg there).

I have one more week of training to go and then they tell me I'm getting my truck and starting over the road. However, we ran into another tanker driver unloading in Atlanta (Mackenzie) and he said OTR sucks (he did it for nine years). My trainers so far are all local guys and they didn't like OTR either. I'll see if it's that bad, but for me, I'm used to being away from home and need to make as much money as I can. One thing that might delay this is I'm coming down with a cold and I don't want to infect my trainer next week, so I might take a couple of days off to recover...and it might delay me going out on my own, which I can accept.

Oh, one other thing I've been forgetting to mention. Wearing contact lenses is no problem at CTL. Schneider forbids them, for some reason, but safety at CTL says they have no idea why they would be banned. I also did some research on the matter and the most up-to-date information is that contacts not only are not a problem, but in most cases help prevent eye injuries from chemicals, fumes, etc. So it seems Schneider's policy is not based on sound science, but maybe they had a fluke case where a driver's contacts actually did create a problem.

 

Thanks for the help in backing. I'm learning a couple of tricks here and there from experienced drivers and that's another new one for me, so that's helpful.

As far as home time goes, I'm told I'll be out 10-14 days at a time, and my wife and I talked this over and we agreed to give this a try. My wife is not like many other females (emotional, plays games, speaks in code, etc.), so she'll handle this differently than most women. In fact, I'M the one who tends to be more emotional and sentimental about things. I did strongly consider McElroy flatbed as they guarantee weekend home time (confirmed by one of their truckers I talked to) along with pretty good miles and cpm, but in the end I believe tankers will give me the most earning potential. There are plenty of local jobs out of Savannah due to the port here, so if OTR winds up not being for me, I can probably find something else.

I'm currently home because, well, I'm sick as a dog. I don't know what the protocol in the trucking industry is for being sick, but I'm just not up to going into work the last two days. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow but what I've got is hard to shake. I'm loading up on the Cold-Eze in an effort to shorten it, and it usually works. My training will probably be extended for a week as a result, but also one of my motivations is that I don't want to get my trainer sick.