Hauling wood

Logs are about as rough on equipment as you can get... Your going to have punctured tires.. sticks right through the sidewall.. (You'll probably never see a new set of tires on a log truck..)

The cab will be filthy, muddy dirty.ect. You WILL get stuck and have to hitch your own truck up to the skidder or loader whatever yourself and unhitch it after your outa the muck...

It's challenging.. your usually always overweight. (Heck you get paid by the weight so the more you haul the more $$ u make)

Good luck... it's a job definately not for the squeemish.. You'll be working hard for a paycheck! No lounging down the road in a large car Pete.. with the cruise control on tapping your foot to the beat...

More like cussing and swearing at the bugs and mosquitoes, mad that the A/C doesn't work...... Going round and round in circles all day..

 

We have a few drivers with A/C, and quite a few without.

Our heat index has been 105-110, definetly NOT enjoyable !!!!!

 

jtrnr1951, see where you live in Palatka. I am in Hastings, been trucking all my life.Who do you drive for ?
And to the fella looking to haul logs, it ain't easy from what I know about it. Takes a certain type of driver.

 

the industry is very slow in my area. i think maybe 1 out of 5 mills are still operating. also where im from you'll never see a newer truck pulling logs, usually mid to early 90's, that says something right there.

 

Hauling logs builds character! You have to be resourcefull, which is something that is lacking in the trucking world. Amazes me just how many guys are driving trucks with no mech knowledge what so ever to fix even the simplest things.

Log haulers aren't "truck drivers" there workers, that get a break while going down the road. The "truck drivers" that try to work for a logging outfit seldomly last a week. The cry about the mud, dust, heat, cold or having to do some other type of work while waiting for their truck to get loaded. Thats why the boss RARELY hires an OTR driver, school grads forget about it! Rather hire an 18 yr old kid & teach him ourselves, that is if their teachable which few these days are.

Nothin I love more when I see a driver asleep while I'm loading him is to shake the ever loving **** out of the truck!. I don't get a nap while the trucks are gone so they sure aren't getting one on my deck! Get out grease that truck, go help another driver strap down, do something, just dont sit there & sleep in front of me!

 

You'll be driving in places where there aren't any places either. You'll come off the blacktop to a muddy little goat path where you'd think a fat rabbit wouldn't fit and that's your loading site..... 5 miles in.

Oh yeah, and you're gonna watch every step of it for loaded trucks coming out and they can't move over for you.

Besides which you'll be up and rolling in the wee hours 'cause they start loading at the faintest suggestion of sunup. The goal is to be the first truck at the mill.

Loghauling is trucking with the hair on.