Driving from coast-to-coast?

When you could run 2 log books I am sure you could make a lot of money driving back and forth. Sounds like a lot of fun, wild times, big money, etc.

However, I'm happy to make the drive in 5 days for about $1000 as a company driver, do a restart, and turn around for another $1000. I listen to XM and audiobooks. I guess I'm part of the problem.

 

I've run coast to coast across Canada and most of the US, It was alright for a while but I started wanting to be home more often, since I own a home now. I used to do it all the time, but it gets tiring living in a truck for 2 weeks at a time, plus I make more money now being home every weekend than I did then.

there were not many loads coming back from western Canada, so we had to sit around for several days, which meant we spent all our money at the bar. One time I got to go to the Calgary Stampede. I have run loads from Toronto to Las Vegas, and spent up to five days there.

 

Prior to signin' up for Big truck truckin' school,
My friends and THEIR friends, convinced me that
Big truck truckin' was a 'job' I would hate in a short time, and would only bring me misery in the long run.
I took their advice, and learned how to ignore my call of the road. That call never went away completely though, and I found I still had a yearning to experience what I imagined to be the lifestyle of a Bttrucker.

I drove out to the local truck stops at least once a month, without my friends knowing, to pick up the latest issue of OverDrive Magazine to read the articles and look at all the Big truck truck photos contained therein.

While there, I bumped elbows with the drivers, and traded coffee for conversation. What I heard from them sounded like something I could handle and enjoy doin' it, and rather than for their descriptions to discourage me, their conversations caused to to dream about truckin' for about 2-weeks ----- after talkin' to them, -----
Which was about the same amount of time as it took me to read OverDrive from cover to cover, -----
And then I was lookin' for the first of the next month for the next issue of OverDrive Magazine to hit the news stands.
There weren't no computers or Internet back in them thar daze.

So, ....... to better handle my wannaBEe truckin' emotions, I decided I needed a hobby, ----- and I've always been good at buildin' models, and figured that would help me get my mind off truckin'. So off to the hobby shop I went, and headed straight to the isle with models.

I immediately found three models I wanted to build.
And makin' a choice of only one was a problem, so I wound up buyin' all three -----
And all the glue and paint and small camel-hair paint brushes to complete them all in fine form.

I chose black paint for the W-900 Kenworth.
Blue for the Peterbilt cab-over.
And basic white for the 48 scale feet dry van that either Big truck in my dream fleet could pull.

Then, I started buyin' certain kits, not for the kit and/or Big truck itself to be built, but rather for the accessories and engines and transmissions combinations , -----
All possibilities to enable me to customize my small 1/25the scale fleet of Big trucks, which was growin' by leaps and bounds.
And, for some reason, I felt more comfortable takin' the 4x4 transmission outta the W-900, and swappin' it for a 13-speed found, I think, in a Transtar model.
Later, the Cummins got replaced with a yellow motor, and that mighta come from a Western Star model.

Oh!
That cab-over Pete?
I bought another kit just like it, and combined the sleeper on one to twice the normal sleeper size.
But, I had to leave the Detroit in it 'cause I didn't have another Cat at the time.
Bummers.

By then, I had met others who shared my love affair with Big trucks, and we shared information and parts to construct our dream Big truck.
How cool is that?

Well, when my other friends who despised Big trucks, saw my small, small fleet, they just rolled their collective eyes and asked,

Are you thinkin' what we think you're thinkin' 'bout becomin' a Big truck truck driver, against our better judgement?

I admited the thought never really left my mind. I explained that I thought about Big truck truckin' all the time, and if the right situation arose, I just might seize the opportunity.

I think they were planin' to do an intervention to make me get the help they thought I desperately needed.
But when I told 'em that they were probably right about it all, they seemd to think I'd come to my senses, and they began to treat me like a person again instead of a wannaBee Big truck trucker in waiting.
Bein' typical 4-wheeler drivers, they'd already formed their opinions of those waskly Twuck Dwivers, -----
ALWAYS cloggin' the highways like a blue-nosed gopher out for a stroll with nuthin' better to do -----
While those 4-wheelers are out tryin' to do nuthin' better than the truckers do -----
Even if the truckers ain't doin' nuthin' -----
And are, instead, doin' SOMEthin'.

Those friends of mine and THEIR frends STILL think they want ALL Big trucks the HaiL off
THEIR highways, --- at least while they're usin' 'em.

Is that too much to ask?
They ask.

I told them that the BEST way to get Big trucks off the highways ----- is sooo simple that even a caveman could do it,
Explainin' -----
ALL they gotta do is refuse to buy ANYthing that was EVER shipped by a Big truck.
From raw materials to finished products, ------
Just REFUSE to buy that stuff.
And Big trucks should disappear from the scene almost immediately.

They thought about that for awhile, and just when I thought they'd say,
HeY!
WaiT!
That won't work --------

And, I thought they'd, perhaps, list a few reasons why not.
Instead, they decided I was onto somethin' thar.
They said,
Makes sense. :smt017
Supply and Demand.
And they agreed that would be a good way to achieve their goal of removing Big trucks from their way out thar on the highways.

I watched as they cut-down on certain purchases,
mostly when it was convenient for them to do. But they never stopped buyin' new cars, and the gas that make's their cars, ..... go.
And groceries and beer and furniture and they continued to use products in their office cubicles that were brought by a Big truck, ..... like computers, printer paper, water in the water cooler, coffee in the office pot, -----
Not to mention that their company shipped finished products on Big trucks to where ever those products were goin'.

My friends often laughed at some of the destinations their products were shipped to, -----
Adding that they couldn't even find those places on a map.
Once or twice, I thought about askin' 'em how they reckon those waskly Big twuck twuck dwivers managed to find those one-horse towns on a regular basis, as thought it twern't no big deal.
It just goes with the job and a job Big truck truckers do quite well, all thangs considered -----
But I decided against raisin' that logical question.
Instead, I just listened to Joe Average 4-wheeler
rantin' about necessary thangs, and stuff they had no control over. Just wild, hair-brained, illogical ideas, -----
To solve a problem that they, themselves, had created without the assistance of any Big truck truck drivers.
Truth be knowed, I suspect that a Big truck trucker probably assisted my friends in AVOIDIG a problem(s) -----
Out that on the highways.
My friends were just too jaded to take notice of thangs like that.

The way they drive their 4-wheelers is sorta like I imagine they do for a livin' at their excellent jobs up thar on the 20th-sumthin' floor of a tall, downtown building, -----
Worried about hangin' onto their jobs for fear some young-buck will come along and pull the carpet out from under their chair in the cubicle they call a workplace.

One told me that he never takes vacations because he worries that when he returns, he might be faced with a mountain of backed-up work assignments.
And he also worried that some (more) energetic company employee would recognize an opportunity to out-shine vacationing employees to make himself appear better to the boss --- (who looks over shoulders) --- and score a new job within the office.

My friend had been with that company for about 15 years, -----
And still worried that someone was out to take his job away from him. In ALL those years, it seems thangs remained the same.
Man-0-Man!
That right thar is HigH-RisE PRESSURE.

I instead, ..... Several years later with dream still alive, drove by a building here in town where they were puttin' up a new sign, ...... that read:
Big Truck Truck' Drivin' School.
Grand Opening!
Apply Today and Soon ---- You Too
Can Be Driving The Big Rigs Makin'
The Big Bucks.

EasY Financing
Learn Today ---
Pay Tomorrow.

Well, ...... I parked my car and went on in. They were just settin' up their offices, and encouraged me to return the next day, which I did before noon.

After talkin' for about an hour, I left, -----
Returnin' about 20 minutes later, with cash fresh drawn outta my bank account. I was their first student to sign up for classes beginning in about a week.

I was so excited, I felt like a kid again, and couldn't sleep due to my anticipation. I stopped by the truckin' school every day to see how thangs were comin' and got to know many of the instructors before classes began.
I even got to help out in the yard, unhookin' and hookin' up trailers as the instructors got set up.

If they had to go fuel a Big truck, I asked if I could tag along for the experience, and the instructors were more than willing to oblige my request.
Also, while I was just hangin' 'round -----
I met the mechanic and his helper, ..... and picked their brains, too. Man-0-Man!
Y'all can learn a LOT from mechanics.

On the first official day of classes, I felt right at home, and caught myself explainin' the truckin' school to some of the new, nervous, students who hadn't even seen the school yet. And most hadn't even been inside a Big truck.

Over the course of instruction for the next few weeks, other students and one or two of the instructors kept harpin' on findin' a truckin' company that'll get'cha home at LEAST every two weeks for two days at home. Those folks figured they'd put up with over-the-road truckin' for a year or two, and then go to work for the perfect, LOCAL truckin' gig.

It was explained to me that a local or dedicated truckin' gig is the dream of most Big truck truck drivers to aspire to.
And again, I was convinced.

The first truckin' company hired me after I did a LOT of research on them and their methods of runnin' the company. I outlined what I had heard others tell me, and was convinced that their Orange Big trucks would look good around me.
I was hired.
And, ...........

They DID, in fact, get me home every two weeks for two days off, -----
Like clockwork --- the ideal deal, I was told.
But'cha couldn't prove it by me.

Before too long, I was offered a dedicated team gig, runnin' 6,700 miles in 7 days. Then two days off and do it again.

WoW!
ONE week on and TWO days OFF?
Somebody pinch me!
Is that too perfect, ......... or WhaT?

Strange thang happened with me though.
Rather than just takin' my two days off, -----
I asked dispatch if there were any other drivers on that dedicated gig who were lookin' for a fill-in co-driver to make another 7 day run, ..... and we usually found one with a co-driver who wanted to take a week off.
Or they were goin' on vacation or for medical reasons, and they would be off duty for weeks, and I had rides, rackin' up miles and the money that goes with miles.
Team drivin' and coverin' 26,800 miles a month assured that the left door's hinges didn't wear out prematurely.

I was told that MOST of the other drivers didn't want that money makin' dedicated gig because there wasn't enough time to goof-off, and/or play those Cherry Master games at the truck stops.

In short, that dedicated gig was just TOO much like work for them. And work isn't what they signed on to do.
They considered themselves Big truck truck drivers ------
And EVERYone KNOWS that Bttdrivers don't
work. I mean, ......... how hard can drivin' a Big truck be?

So I just jumped outta one Big truck and into another ----- and another and another.
Learnin' all about pullin' pups (Double Trailers)
And did it all over again.
Learned it
Lived it
And loved it.

Which went against all the opinions and predictions I'd heard in the past from friends and friends of friends, with MY best interst in mind ---- mind you.

That discovery caused me to realize that I, Shakey AfterShock, do NOT like two days off every two weeks.
NopE!
Let me run for 6 to 10 weeks, and take more days off, ..... and get some REAL rest and have time to have some REAL fun.
Unfortunately, the orange company didn't offer that schedule. It seems, if a driver takes more than 2 days off ----- their Big truck becomes up for grabs if another driver (says they) needed it.

Now, ....... I keep my Big trucks clean and well inspected and repaired, and I darned well knew my ride would be gone when I returned for duty if it became up for grabs, so I kept on truckin' the orange way, two weeks on and two days off.

Then, I became a driver trainer after the dedicated gig came to an end.
Now THAT gig I thourogly enjoyed.
One of the most enjoyable positions I've had with ANY truckin' company.
But, While I was trainin' ----- one of those LOCAL gigs came up, and I remembered what I was told about what most Bttdriver's desire is to aspire to.
And here it was only 3 1/2 years after I began my drivin' career, and already, it seemed, I was movin' on up.
How could I turn a gig like that down?
I'd be nutz to do that.
It's a ADVANCEMENT, I hear.
Y'all CAN'T turn down an advancement.
What would my friends and their friends think
if they found out I turned down a 'promotion'?

So, rather than think clearly about it all, I didn't really think about it, ..... at all.
I figured that I had arrived at the elevated ranks of successful Big truck truck drivers just a tad earlier than I, or others, might have expected.
My ego was a tad overinflated right about then.

Sooo, I jumped right on that local gig.
They didn't have to ask me twice.
Told the company
I take de job.
When do I start?

Immediately!

And I immediately found out that prefect local drivin' gig drove me nuts in about two weeks.
Oh ------- Don't worry.
The others drivers assured me, ..........................

You'll get the hang of constant grocery warehouse deliveries soon enough.
The more you do it, the less aggravating it seems -----
And then it'll be much better.
Because we all get to go home to our own beds
every night, instead of havin' to sleep in a Big truck every night.

Hmmmmmmmm
Only problem was, I kinda liked sleepin' in a Big truck.
And, another thang I found strange.
A Lot of the other drivers who were doin' that local gig, liked to get together with each other on the weekends, to go
CAMPIN'!
HuH??!

YuP!
They all loved to go campin'.
And I do, too.
Drivin' over-the -road, to me, is like campin' out every night in a different place every night -----
While bein' paid to git-'er-done.
What's not to like?

For me?
It was runnin' by the house every two weeks for two days off while OTR drivin'.
Day one was restin' from the past two weeks, and day two is gettin' ready to leave for another 14 days.
Not to mention that two days is plenty of time to get sightly out of the OTR routine, and it took me about 3 to 4 days just to get back in the groove.

Then, just when I'm acclimated and ready to run -----
It's time to go home again, for two days, again, and screw up my truckin' routine, again.
I gotta tell y'all --- for me, two-weeks OTR then two days off, and/or drivin' a local gig in local Los Angeles traffic drove me LoCo NutZ .

And that right thar is when I went a-lookin' for what I thought would be a better fittin' gig -----
For ME.
But I realized that the Big truck probably wouldn't be orange.
I just had to look for the right color Big truck.

And I found it, too.

ALL white Big trucks with ALL white trailers.
No truckin' company name splashed all over in large to HUGE lettering on 'em either.
Very LoW-KeY.
Well, ........ except for the trade show crew who drove the show trucks.
They were pretty flashy and caught a lot of eyes.
And were durned cool to inherit as a company driver once the show trucks were retired from the shows.

Independant Contractors who leased their Big trucks to the company were told by the truckin' company owner that their Big trucks could be ANY color they wanted, -----
As long as their Big trucks were painted
white.
No exceptions.

But, the owner DID pay the bulk of the repaintin' costs
to make 'em white.
Or help 'em financially to get into a new Big truck.

It was a small, nitch truckin' company with great dispatchers who seemed willin' to work WITH their drivers ----- because they WERE former drivers with 30+ years experience for the head dispatcher, and his brother-in-law who had over 20 years behind a Big truck's big steerin' wheel.
Needless to say, they both knew the ropes as well as all the ins & outs associated with truckin'.
And all the dispatchers were required to have current CDL-A licenses, and sometimes did some drivin', too.
'Cause they liked to do that every now and then.

So, I asked 'em if I could stay out OTR for extended periods ----- like 6 to 8 weeks at a time and take more days off as a result?
And would I risk the chance of losin' my company Big truck if I decided to do that -----
If allowed?

No problem!
Was the answer I received.
And the explanation didn't end thar either.
NopE!
They assured me that, .......

.......This company gives a day and-a-half off for every 7 days out. Eight weeks out would give you 12 days off -----
In a row.
And you can take the tractor home with you.
If you want, .......
To keep it, ......... because this company assigns Big trucks to the individual drivers, -----
And the drivers are expected and required to keep their rides lookin' ever-so-fine and runnin' the same way, ..... all the time.

NO hand-holdin' though.
NO coddlin' neither or babying either.
As the driver, it's up to Y'ALL to inform us when PM's are due --- and anything mechanical or licensing and premitting that needs attention.
Once y'all tell us, it's up to us to git-'er-done.
This company expects their drivers to treat their company Big trucks as though they were their own.

Besides, as former drivers ourselves ..... this company doesn't believe in slip-seatin' -----
Or hiring lumpers -----
To drive the Big trucks.
NopE!

You're hired to DRIVE the dad-burned Big truck we assign y'all.
NoT unload the trailers you're pullin' either.
NopE.
That Ain't YOUR job.
Unless you want it, ....... but company policy is that y'all hire lumpers
when necessary.
The company will pay you back, as necessary.
But we won't pay a driver what the lumpers charge if any driver decides to get a little excercise by throwin' the load themselves, -----
If we pay a driver ANYthing at all for lumpin' their load.

Hmmmmmmmmmm
I took de job right then and thar in spite of all the hardships involved, that I didn't perceive to be hard at all -----
I'd be Drivin' all 48 states -----
Iregular Route, to places I didn't even know existed before.
And NO grocery warehouses.
They're places I prefer DIDN'T exist, anyway.
(In ALL my years of drivin' a Big truck, I can hosestly say that I have NEVER heard any Bttdrivers ever mention that they missed havin' to go to grocery warehouses.
I wonder why that is? :smt102

Now, y'all might be wonderin' about those friends of mine, ....... and their friends, who knew Big truck truckin' was a miserable job to be avoided.
They avoided truckin' on their way to the ToP ------ and went on to what they tell me is
Bigger and Better thangs.

Well, ...... except for bein' confined to a small, windowless cubicle in an office somewhere in a large, multi-story building located on or near one of California's many major faults.
I hear all about how excitin' their days are when they feel a moderate Earthquake up thar on the 20th something floor ----- with no windows.
Just objects fallin' all around.

Other who work similar 8 to 5 jobs often confess that they go stir crazy and can't wait to get off work and go outdoors to live like 'normal people'.
Hmmmmmmmm
"Normal"?

As a Big truck truck driver, I don't find myself becomin' stir-crazy, and I don't have to wait to get outdoors. I do that every day, and enjoy every day that I do it.
Am I "normal"?

In my Big truck, I have two windows and a windshield with constantly changin' scenery -----
Complte with an AM/FM radio, tape or CD player, and a CB radio to listen to and yak at.

Not photos tacked to a cubical wall, ....... or piped-in vinella elevator music designed to offend NO one.

The tension in an office environments can often be cut with sissors as the gossip flows faster than the water at the water cooler.
Bosses continually lookin' over their empoyee's shoulders and suggestin' they might want to pick-up their production just a tad because there's someone else in the office layin' in wait for their job -----
Who will do a lot better job at y'all's job than y'all do.
Git-'er-done.
If y'all don't -----
Well, ....... let's not go thar.

And on their way to and from work everyday, they get to deal with bumper-to-bumper big city traffic in a big way.
Everybody is in a hurry to get SOMEwhere, and goin' NOwhere ----- Fast.
I hear they call that "progress".

But if they can hang on through all that ----- their company gifts them with a vacation of a week off every year, ..... Or, if they've been workin' thar a few years, they might get a whole TWO weeks off.
And will probably go campin' to be outdoors, -----
Instead of cooped up in a tall building in their own, personal, small cubical ----- with their name plate on the outside of it.

I think that name plate is thar just in case their employees flip-out and forget who the HaiL they are. With a name tag, all they gotta do is step a couple of feet outside their cubical and get reintroduced to themselves.
How cool is that?


Yet, would ya'll believe that they're still tellin' me how horrible it is to be confined to a Big truck with a bunk in the back for sleepin' in instead of sleepin' at home?

ShuX HowdY!
They want to stay at a motel on their way campin' and another motel on their way back.
How they can sleep in a strange motel bed with possible kootie infestation makes me wonder where their heads are at?
And if the thought contained within their heads is ever listened to and questioned for accuracy?
Whatever my head said is what I have said?

They see me and think they see my misery.
I see them and think the same gol-danged thang.
Imagine that
and
Go figure.

 

I did that trek a few times when I was doing museum outreach a few years back.

My bf is doing a run from Atlanta, GA to Auburn, WA. As I type this I think he is somewhere near Rapid City, SD.

 

i think the longest run i've gotten so far(i'm not OTR anymore) was Charlotte NC. to Edmonton which has got to be at least 3700 miles but probably more.

The long runs are good, consistent money but for me, mentally, they were a strain. i think maybe it's because most of the long runs were places i never gone before and that brought some nervousness along with it. Back then, i prefered to drive at least 600 miles but no more than 1000miles and deliver. If i could get re-loaded quickly then everything was cool. It was mostly a mental thing; i can't really explain it.

i'm planning on going back to OTR in a few months and could probably handle the long runs much better now.

 

6,700 miles in 7 days? how did you do that legally?

 

The best solo run I've had at Swift was from Albany, OR to Cleveland, OH. Had six full days to get er there and it was a great run. Only other run of substance I've had was from Gary, IN to just south of Boise, ID.

I sure wish I could figure out how to get more east to west runs and back. Sure beats north n south runs on the dirty side. Just had a decent run from IN to FL but stuck here in FL for 2 days now, so it kinda voids the good run.

Most runs I get are in the 500 mile range and it does get old sometimes.

 

Yep agree with everyone here gravy, espically if you love to see the open road and the beautiful countryside, My betterhalf and I have so many pictures of our memories going cross country and the places we've stopped at. only come winter time it can really be a dumper like in Wy or Co or the mountains of Ca if they shut roads down in a blizzard and you have to sit. TRY it YOU'LL like it

 

Easy!
Two logbooks.
One for me and the other for my co-driver.
That was a team run.
And run we did.

 

NOT to mention the altitude change!! i once went to bed in albaquerque, NM with student driving. when i woke up in dallas, i could NOT hear! and when my ears popped, it was dang near painful!!