How long have you been with your current employer?

I've held several jobs across several sectors (OTR, local/regional, straight local, miles/stops, hourly, what have you) over the course of my 14+-year career with a CDL. All but the past three years of that was flatbed, with one of those years overlapping with dry van (since that company transported its product on noth flatbed and dry van—oh, and you can toss my time as a DOT courier with FedEx in there, as well.) I also did local home/business delivery with piggyback forklifts (think ABC Supply or Lowe's/Home Depot).The longest I stayed with one company was the one I started with, TMC, for four years.

Now I'm into mobile medical imaging, a segment that a/ doesn't get talked about much in these parts and b/ doesn't really fit neatly into any particular category. I'm sorta glad this topic came up, because it gives me a chance to talk about this still mostly unknown segment of the biz. Anyway, here's an example of what I work with these days:











For those who've never seen/know nothing about this (and I used to be one until my current job found me), just know that these types of jobs are out there, most if not all pay hourly (which is RARE in this business), but it does involve a lot of work, and in my case I also assist with patient care in addition to moving these things around. So yeah...this kind of stuff exists out here.

 

Do you deal with pets most times or livestock?

 

Seems to me like I used to see those imaging trailers all the time in the mid 2000’s, I bet I haven’t seen one in 5 or so years though lately.

 

I see them at most hospitals in my area.

 

I don’t deal with pets, livestock, or any animals at all...though I have seen some of these units parked outside vet clinics. (I know of one parked next to a small vet office in the north part of Oklahoma City right now.) I have no idea what equipment is inside of those, though.

PET in these cases stands for Positron Emission Tomography, which is a fancy way of describing the way in which the camera captures the images of the body. Its often used alongside computed tomography, or CT, which is why just about every PET unit out there is labeled PET/CT.

Without getting way too deep into detail, PET and CT are two ways of capturing images of internal organs (and in the case of CT, bones, muscles, and tissues) in the body. CT is basically a digital x-ray, while a PET uses radioactive tracers injected into the body to send signals back to the camera. Both modalities create 3D images of the body. PET (or at least the units my company deploys) scans mostly for cancer diagnoses. Magnetic resonance uses high-frequency radio waves to create images...and yes, those magnets possess more than enough power to kill you if you're not careful.

Speaking of which, in this line of work, one really needs to know what he or she is doing with these trailers. They are different beasts. Though there are several different styles and types, the one thing they all have in common is the $500K to nearly $2M of medial equipment and supplies inside (and in the case of the MRIs, about $30K worth of liquid helium). Then there's the nearly $25K generators and the 480 volts of electricity running underneath and through these units that will instantly flash-fry you if you mishandle the power couplings (or back into a power plug-in station...and it has happened before). Add all that to the shell (the trailers) that all this is packed into—and the lead shielding that protects the outside world from the frequency waves going on onside them—and that can easily be $3.5 if not $4 million dollars worth of trailer dragging around behind you back there. And, these things handle way differently, especially for those not used to spead axles or low ground clearance, as most travel between 8 and 12 inches from the ground, and just due to the nature of some of these hospital sites (mostly rural, not exactly optimally designed to handle these big beast), we perform some of THE most jacked-up turning and backing maneuvers you can think of just to get these things positioned right at some of these sites...I'm talking backing jobs that will break even the most seasoned of veterans. (I should show you a site in downtown LA Crosse WI someday...yeesh!)

But, with all that said...the thing I like most about this segment of work is that it is completely independent of the freight market. Of course, it requires more fuel thanks to the generators, so if we ever go through another fuel crisis it could cause a problem. But overall, it's a good gig for one who's willing to do the work....and for one with a good bedside manner, because at the end of the day, this stuff exists to take care of patients who need these services but don't live anywhere near a facility that has this stuff in-house (which is why most of the time these things service mostly rural areas and some smaller cities).

 

That’s pretty cool, thanks for the information, must be good to know you’re helping a lot of folks out with that stuff

 

Current employer 3 years, will be my last stop. Plan to go to retirement where I’m at. If anything happens between now, and then, I will not go back into trucking. I will do something else. Not going back to the garbage that’s out there. And getting worse. So it’s where I’m at until the end or I’ll be doing something else.

None of us can predict the future, and I don’t know if I’ll make it another 12 years in this industry. Something can happen at any given moment out here. And this entire industry needs an overhaul or it’s about to go under.

 

6.5 years. It’s the longest I’ve stayed at any job.

 

10 years this month with the carrier I am leased to. 4 companies in the 28 years prior to this gig and I only left 2 of them Consolidated Freightways and Allied Automotive Group because they went out of business. I left UPS after 10 years of night work and no end in sight to nights or weekends.