Get Trucking Again - Getting a CDL ... again, and Rejoining the Gearjammers

Ok, so here I sit, waiting. Waiting is the usual for a driver, but I'm not a driver again just yet. This past week I got my Health Certificate ... only 90 days due to some minor issues. I've seen this before on here ... at 6'2.5" and 376lbs they want me to have a sleep study for sleep apnea.

To catch up, the wife and I are still together ... we've relocated to the Harrisonburg, Virginia area ... and I'm working on getting the Class A back. At least this time it's happening in a somewhat more sane state.

Tomorrow I am going to the DMV in Harrisonburg to take the written exams for my CDL Permit (for the second time in my life) and my endorsements. Though I've taken them before, in Maine, I'm still nervous. This time I've been taking the practice tests on this site for quite some time. I'll be doing them all over again over the next few hours.

There are definitely more trucking opportunities the further south you get. And in this area it seems that home time will be less of a hassle ... still a hassle, but less of one surely.

 

Yesterday was a step in the correct direction. I once again have my CDL Permit, this time from the State of Virginia. I have a local contact here with a friend of the family that is supposed to help me shake the rust off and prepare for the actual CDL road test and so on, but so far I have been unable to reach him. Worry not, should this option fall through I can always take the Swift route and go through their training in Richmond, VA.

So I'm on my way to rolling again, and for anyone that is actually checking out this long dormant thread I'll keep you updated as things progress.

 

Big week this week. My first time behind the wheel of a Big Rig in 6 years!

I've been working with a local OO to, as he puts it, "shake the rust off" and prepare to take the test to get my Class-A back. Thursday was the first day.

After catching a ride with my brother-in-law to the firehouse he works at, my trainer met me bob tail in his Peterbilt 587. It's a 2008 with nearly 1 mil miles ... but she's a good puller. He hopped down from the driver's seat and to introduce himself ... this was our first meeting ... and at the same time tossed me the keys. And it became obvious that I was going to be driving for the better part of the day.

Our first task was to drive from Madison, VA to Culpeper, VA to retrieve his trailer from a repair shop where it was getting a new airbag installed. Now, I had not hooked a trailer since July of 2008 and I have never hooked a flat. I was able to get it on the second try and we were off. A realization dawned on my as we were exiting the repair shop's yard. I can't believe how much I have missed this.

All my previous experience with Stevens Transport was with Refers ( not the ones popular in Colorado and Washington ). This kind soul runs a flatbed. On this day we had two loads in the local area surrounding Culpeper, VA. Our pickups were from the same location, a landscaping supply / nursery in Dulles, VA. The loads were each twenty 1 ton contractor bags of landscape stone & like products.

We drove north to Dulles, VA and were shortly loaded with our first job of the day. This load went to a smaller nursery in Manassas, VA. The roads from Dulles to Manassas were lousy with construction. Lanes were narrow and snaking all across the road bed to facilitate the widening of the road. The complex myriad of turns and timing required to get through the construction alone came back to me like I was driving only yesterday. And being loaded with 40k I took to moving through the dense traffic of the Washington DC metroplex like a fish to water.

Now I won't lie to any of you and say that my driving was perfect. It was in that I didn't kill anyone and the truck remained scratch free, but I found that I have to work on my shifting. I had some issues grinding while double clutching and while floating.

We got unloaded and started back to Dulles to get loaded again. On the way back he tested me by routing me along much skinnier country roads with curves, hills, speed changes and unprotected intersections. I think I handled it well, and he said that I was driving amazingly well for someone that had been out of the seat of almost 6 years.

We got our second 40k+ load and headed off to our second drop in Fredericksburg, VA. We made it there without a scratch and delivered our load. My driving day ended at that point and he drove back to put the truck to bed back in Culpeper. It is amazing to realize just how much endurance is needed to drive a Big Rig through small towns and the like for an eight hour shift.

When we returned the truck to it nightly resting place he let me back it in place. Driving a flatbed it seems like there aren't nearly the number of backing opportunities as there are in dry van and refer. I also noticed that standard tandems offtrack a lot more than split tandems like on his trailer, but maybe that's just my imagination kicking into gear. At any rate, I had to pull up once but I got it in the hole.

At the end of the day, as he was giving me a lift home, he told me that if I had two years of experience he would have hired me on the spot. The problem is that in this world where insurance companies rule to roost he can't really do what he wants regardless of how well the potential employee drives. I can understand that.

So, once I have the CDL in hand I'll be looking for a starter company to get on board with once again. I think I will apply at Stevens again ... but who knows how they'd feel about rehiring me. There are other options, now that I live in Virginia ... Swift, Werner, Roehl, Prime and a few others. I would likely try Swift first because they have a terminal about 2.5 hrs away from the house. A starter company will be easier to deal with this time knowing I have a local job waiting for me when I have two years of recent experience.

 

Flatbedding Experience

This week was a doozy! For someone like me whose only experience with flatbed trucking is parking along side them at a truck stop, this weeks experience with my friend Pete was eye opening.

For those that are unsure, flatbedding is one of the most physically intensive segments of the trucking industry. I can honestly say that it sincerely kicked my over-sized backside. Now, I've been driving with Pete for the past few weeks in order to, as he puts it, knock the rust off and get ready for my CDL test. The first time I went on a run with Pete it was local and he handled the loading and unloading because he wanted me to concentrate of driving and shifting. This trip out was a different story, mostly because I wanted to learn about flatbed trucking.

On Sunday Pete picked me up at 5:00am and we drove the hour or so to where he keeps his truck. (For those that don't know, Pete is a true Owner Operator) There was a load of PT (Pressure Treated) Lumber already loaded on the trailer. We did a complete Pre-Trip (something the CDL testers here in Virginia are very particular about with good reason), and Pete took the first shift and we were off to a delivery point in a small town just south of Elkhart, Indiana.

Pete was kind enough to provide me with a paper log and I spend some time getting used to filling one out again after six years. It was nice to ride as a passenger again as we traveled along I-66 west of Washington DC. I enjoyed the conversation, mostly about trucking, and the scenery. We moved north along Interstate 81 and joined I-70 westbound in Hagerstown, Maryland. The interstate follows along the border of West Virginia and the western Potomac River until it turns right at Hancock, Maryland and dives into Pennsylvania.

We continued along I-70 passing the numerous Phantom Fireworks outlets and ultimately joined the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Breezewood, PA. From there we journeyed west into Ohio, all the while I was taking in the scenery that I had missed these long few years.

We joined the Ohio Turnpike and at New Springfield Pete and I switched places. From there I drove the remainder of the Ohio Pike and on into Indiana passing through Cleveland, and Toledo along the way. We exited the "big road" at Elkhart where we stopped for the night intent on making or delivery in the morning on Monday.

We stayed overnight at the Super 8, which has truck parking ... but I'd recommend avoiding staying there unless you don't mind non-existent water pressure, hair in the tub and toilets that are dubiously secured to the floor. At least that was my experience. We had dinner at the local Cracker Barrel in town. The folks are very friendly there and the food was spectacular.

The next morning we enjoyed the continental breakfast at the Super 8, but I was a little disappointed. Not in the food, that was good, but the family that runs the place must live there too because I distinctly smelled the wonderful aroma of breakfast sausage only to be greeted by the standard fair of cereal, waffles (self made), and dry or imitation flavored pastries with the unfortunate absence of said sausages.

After checking out we headed on to our deliver point at lumber yard about twenty minutes to the south of Elkhart along country roads with Pete once again doing the driving. We found the delivery easily enough and were greeted by some nice laid-back folks. This is where the flatbedding experience began. As Pete released the straps that secured our load I began rolling the sections of fire-hose that Pete used to protect the straps from the edges of the lumber. Before long the edge protection was stowed and the straps were secure. The unloading was over quickly and while the work I did wasn't particularly difficult I did get very dirty. It's not like I mind being dirty after doing work, but I was take aback by the realization that I had made some judgement about some drivers in my time without even realizing it. Usually it was while waiting for a shower at a truckstop, these guys were dirty and tired looking like they had taken a bad turn on the back of a Bull or a Bronco at a rodeo rather than driving a truck. It dawned on me that I now understood why these urchins appeared the way they did. In fact they weren't urchins at all, they were flatbedders. I had previously thought that these were the fabled pigpens of the open road ... those who do not shower. My sincere apologies to all concerned.

We dusted off as best we could and headed on to our pick up at a near by steel recycling (remanufacturing if you will) plant. As we checked in we passed between these large towers which were radiation detectors. I had never considered that a possibility in this job until now. We weighed in and eventually found our way to the commercial truck staging area to wait for the call that our steel was ready to be loaded.

We waited, and waited, and ... you get the idea. After about four hours Pete walked back to the guard shack to be sure that they hadn't forgotten us ... something that I've had happen to me at grocery warehouses but didn't expect it to be a problem at a steel plant, not sure why I thought that. Anyway, Pete came back and said that it was explained to him that our loader was, "a bit slow". With the plethora of human examples of slow I wasn't sure what to think. A few minutes later and we were finally called to load. Once we pulled up we found out that by slow they meant new ... not deficient or damaged just unproficient.

It took about a half hour for our load to be placed on the trailer, twenty 50' long I-beams. We made our way back to the staging area to secure the load and in 90 degree heat this fat trucker became a dirty sweaty mess. I can definitely say that should I go into flatbedding it wouldn't take long until I was either in shape or just plain dead.

We finished securing our load, scaled out and began our journey back to Virginia. We joined US 6 and traveled east through Fort Wayne, and Defiance. As Pete's hours were waning we decided to stop for a shower, a meal, and a nap at the Petro 2 in Napoleon, Ohio. We had a decent meal after a shower in the fairly clean facilities there. It was decided that I would be taking the next shift in the over-night hours so I crawled into the sleeper to crash.

I slept well, but woke up stiff and sore. It was almost the same feeling that I got after the first two-a-day football practice in High School. Anyway, I dragged myself into the restaurant and grabbed a Pepsi and a coffee for the road. Once Pete was set I headed off east on US 6 towards Perrysburg, OH. After a while US 6 split off and turned south as I continued to I-475 along US 24 ultimately joining the Ohio Turnpike shortly there after. I drove east while Pete slept. Before long Interstate 90 departed and I-76 joined followed closely by the departure of I-80 as I followed the pike to the Eastgate and on into Pennsylvania.

The steel rode well and actually felt lighter than the PT Lumber we had on the previous day. I continued into Pennsylvania and was amazed at how my mountain driving skills seemed to come back to me without much trouble ... not that the mountains along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in south western PA are all that steep I was still pleased that the skill was there just under the surface. Pete woke after completing his break and we switch places at the travel plaza in Everett, PA.

From there I went back into the sleeper to finish what turned out to be a very extended split break while Pete drove towards our drop at another steel facility in Petersburg, Virginia. When I woke and took the passenger seat to rejoin Pete we were nearly in Richmond, VA. Once again sore and stiff I was happy for a little time to stretch and refresh before arriving at our destination and having to unstrap, unchain (lever type chain binders are a bit scary by the way ... a lot like a bear trap), and stow everything again in the heat of a Virginia summers day.

Before long we arrived, as we were prepping for the unloading process Pete and I noticed that one of his trailer tires was almost as bald as a NASCAR racing slick. He explained to me that his other driver had blown a tire on that side of that axle a few weeks prior and the tire the road service had replaced it with was larger than the remaining tire. When that happens the new tire spins normally but the older tire, being smaller in overall diameter due to regular wear, spins slower than the speed of the road traveling under it causing the tire to wear at an accelerated rate. Since the newer tire was an odd size, Pete decided that we needed to replace both tires. It was a sound decision in my book, but Pete is an independent Owner Op and would need to find a way to pay the costs.

Once the truck was in position to be unloaded Pete began to call his usual brokers to find a short load that would cover the cost of paying his relief driver to deliver it and that of the tires. He found one and once we were unloaded we were off to Kenbridge, Virginia for a load of wood pellets, our third load in as many days. He said that we would go ahead and get loaded before we had the tires done and that I would drive the final leg back to the barn.

We arrived at the manufacturer and I got the fun, at least to me, task of backing the truck into a warehouse to be loaded. The heat here was amazing, but even at 365lbs I continued to plug along and do my part. This time I would be tightening the straps to secure the pallets of pellets. Securing the load wasn't the hardest part, that would be tarping. Of the three loads this was the only one with that requirement (if you have any experience with wood pellets you will understand that they turn into a horrible mush if they get wet). Pete decided to handle that part since I did the strapping. I was only too happy to let him as I was just about at the end of my rope energy wise at this point.

Once that was done and our paperwork was in order we headed off towards the Love's Tire Center on I-85 in South Hill, VA. Along the way we ran into an almost biblical torrent of rain. Had we come out of the shipper just ten minutes later than we had our load might have been ruined because they required that the tarping be done on property, but outside the warehouse. Luckily we got it done because the rain reminded me of a strong typhoon, or hurricane. It was beyond a tropical downpour and approaching a full on monsoon. Those of you in the area of South Hill, VA on July 15th can give witness to this. It was amazing.

It took a couple hours for us to get the tires replaced and by that time Pete's clock had been well run out. After we had a quick dinner I drove the last uneventful leg of our journey to home base near Culpepper, Virginia.

I sit here roughly 24 hours after getting those tires replaced and I have to say that I feel like I've been run over by a train. I have always known that working a flatbed truck is a lot of work, but until now I had never experienced it really though my uncle Don ran one for years. Something you wouldn't expect though is that I'm actually considering choosing flatbed as a career choice once I have my CDL back. What a great way to stay in shape while out on the road. But then, who knows...

 

Things are going well. After finding out the the insurance companies have a strangle hold on trucking as well I found that I either needed to have two years of recent experience or I needed to go back to school. After applying to several places I found that Swift was the only training company interested in me with my having been out if work for nearly two years. So I took the chance and went to the Richmond academy ... there's a thread for that experience out there as well ... And now two weeks later I have graduated and I test at the DMV this Wednesday.