J&R Schugel New Ulm, MN

Dude, how did you know?? Lol

No but seriously, the company is called copper boss LLC

 

So, you're one of the 2 accidents that happened yesterday as told via Qualcomm message! lol.

 

Lol yeah I guess so. The accident wasn't my fault though, so no skin off my nose.

 

Hello! I really have to tell you that I've been very much entertained and just as much informed by following all of the posts you guys have been submitting. I'm being totally honest when I say that following along with you guys throughout your days was like reading a good book. Now I'm new here as far as posting so let me try to entertain you all. I'm 50 years old and I started driving big trucks back in 1983. I always dreamed of being a truck driver throughout the late 70s probably being inspired by the movies of that era like Convoy and Smokey & the Bandit but in reality it was a childhood dream. I graduated high school and kept the job I had pumping gas at a full service gas station ( a thing of the past ) for the summers of 82 and 83. During this time I was fortunate enough to work on weekends for a local trucking company (small private owned) greasing dump trucks and doing the old split rim tire changes. Rather than pay, the owner who is or was a relative of my Aunt agreed to let me ride along everyday with a driver while I had my (at that time) class 3 license permit. This was long before the C.D.L. Then that fall I successfully took and passed my drivers test which was a breeze compared to the testing today. There were no pre-trip inspections, no endorsements. You just went out for a ride in a rural area with a trooper/examiner and either passed or failed. The day I passed I was also offered a job at the same company as a driver locally. So in the late summer of 83 I became a trucker. I wont bore you with all the details of the 4 jobs I've had over all these years but I will tell you that I've driven tri-axle dump trucks hauling coal, sand, and asphalt. Then I drove a concrete mixer truck for over 9 years. My last job was driving over the road for Smith Transport out of Roaring Spring, PA. I live 20 miles from their main terminal so it was a good fit for the time. I was treated well there being that I worked there for 6 years and was on my 3rd new Pete when I left in October of 2011. I had the typical frustrations of really terrible dispatchers and yes the shop was terrible sending me out with the exact same problems I supposedly had fixed. (After doing 3 years of research on most of these large companies) let me tell you guys those things are being experienced by drivers of every other company as well. Its just an ugly part of having this type of career. Id never leave a great company like J&R Schugel because believe me, the grass will probably be a lot browner on the other side. The guy on here looking to go to the tanker company GOOO because those jobs aren't available in most places and if they do exist you better be a relative or somebody whose been knocking on the door for many years. Guys don't leave those types of jobs. The only thing Id fear is the economy swings and can small companies hold on in times of bad? But you have something very valuable to fall back on which I doubt it will happen anyway. Yes go driver you have a young kid and a wife. Now more about me. Here's the not fun part for me. I am also married and have 1 kid. I'm married 30 years now to the same girl whose put up with me this long. We have a 23 year old daughter on her last year of college to be a journalist. I drove all local jobs until I was 41 years old. I've ALWAYS wanted to drive long haul long since before I was even married but always fell into these really good local jobs. I had what most guys want but I wanted what most guys have!! Makes no sense does it? But whatever, finally at 41 I was driving the concrete mixer truck and we had the slowest summer ever so it gave me the chance to chase my dream. I went up to the Smith Transport terminal and applied as a regional driver. I was hired but had to ride with a trainer for 3 weeks due to not having over the road experience. I had a lot of tractor trailer experience but it was all local pulling 48' frameless dumps. SCARY in the wind!! My wife was cool with it because she has a part time job at the local school. So I went along with my trainer Rob. He was a really cool guy. Much younger than me but very experienced over the road having been an independent for some time before the government ate him up. The very first time we left the terminal he said you drive. I was surprised as I expected some ride time first. I guess he knew I had previous trailer experience so he let me drive out on day 1. We weren't 40 miles from home base when he said hell man, this is stupid you don't need this. Although I did because I never ran under logs or ever really drove through the large cities. Sure I had experience but it was all in rural areas no more than 200 miles from home. So I was glad to have the training. I would have been totally shocked if it weren't for the 3 weeks with him. At Smith we ran all states East of the Mississippi river. Way TOO MUCH New England for me but being a PA company that's understandable. Sorry to the dude who lives in MA but I never felt good driving up there. CRAZY 4 wheelers up there! ME, VT, and NH weren't bad but MA, NJ, CT, and NYC not my cup of tea lol. Upstate NY was really nice. I really don't care where I go as long as I'm getting good miles but I sure LOVED those loads down South and out to KS. Well in 2010 it all went bad for me. I was still lucky enough to have my parents at 45 years old but my Mother got really sick and died within 2 months of diagnosis of liver failure. She never had so much as a sip of alcohol, breathing meds ruined her liver. So that was kind of hard to be away when that happened but I made it home for the funeral and left pre-planned out 2 days later. That very day that she died I swear a black cloud formed over my head. As weird as this sounds I had NOTHING but BAD LUCK since that day in June of 2011. That very same year my Dads health changed. They say that when one goes sometimes the other follows shortly after. Now being an only son my Dad is my Buddy. he even rode along on trips with me a few times. I had no choice but to ask Smith for a leave of absence to take care of my Dad. I really never meant to leave the company but I really needed to be close to home. Not that I really wanted to be but I had to be. I couldn't afford home nursing or expect my wife to take care of him. It was hard living here during time. My wife clears a little over $600 a month after taxes. I still had good insurance on us so we really just lived. Not good but survived. I kept in close touch with the company and they tried to work me into the shop as a parts person. That didn't happen so I decided to just look for another local job. I finally lucked into a job assembling hydraulic booms for industrial vacuum trucks. I had no intention of ever finding a job like this. All I've ever done was drive trucks all my life and every single job that I applied to (non trucking) I was either never contacted at all or just flat out turned down with each and every potential employer telling me that I had no background in whatever job it was that I was pursuing. I had high school vocational training in Auto Body repair and repainting but that was 80 to 83 so that's worthless today as EVERYTHING that I was taught has changed drastically since then. That was when cars were actually metal and shops bumped dents out. Now their panel changers. Even the painting is a world of difference since back then so that's ruled out. Besides who is really hiring 50 year olds with no experience of anything other than driving a truck? nobody! I kept my Class A CDL current over the years since I came off the road and I'm in the process of re- adding Hazmat. I had Hazmat back in the 90s when I worked for FedEx for 6 years but dropped it when I took the quarry job. Now here's the BIG problem I'm having. Last spring (March of 2014) I was trained in assembling hydraulics and worked that job for exactly 5 months. Life was GREAT! Until one day when I woke up on a Saturday and stood up out of bed and fell to the floor in incredible pain. I'm talking broken leg type of pain! I was like WTF?? I went to bed with no problems whatsoever and woke up with a dead leg! A trip to the ER doc, 3 MRIs, and 2 Ultrasounds showed a large mass had formed behind my knee and extended down into the calf. My leg swelled like a football at the calf. Not an exaggeration. I couldn't pull my jeans over my calf. Many tests and weeks of Dr visits from where I live to all over Pittsburgh showed that I had what they diagnosed as a large infected cyst. I had to have major leg surgery to clean the infection out and had to have a drain inserted. I was at home sitting on I.V. therapy for 2 weeks. Things looked good. Then one day I felt pain again. The swelling returned. Now they are telling me that what they thought was a cyst is a large tumor. So I'm in the process of having a biopsy done on Tuesday. They are 90% sure its NON cancerous but want to check to be sure. Then it will be removed with yet another surgery. (still healing the 9" cut from the first) Now guys let me be honest. I'm terrified of all that medical stuff. Needles, knives, all that stuff freaks me wayyy out! So this isn't cool for me. The ONLY thing I have to look forward to is what your doing right now! I NEED to get back on the road just as soon as I possibly can. The thought of going back to work on the road is what makes me want to even wake up tomorrow. My wife is taking great care of me right now but I really need to give her the monetary support that every husband should. She don't deserve living from day to day like this calling bill collectors to reschedule payments and all that. I wont mention different companies names here as maybe I shouldn't but I've contacted 3 major carriers and guess what? I'm not hirable! NOT HIRABLE after 29 years of verifiable driving experience in every size and shape of truck on the road! They tell me I need recent experience and God help me I've been away from trucking for 3 years!! A person who just graduated a school with 00000 commercial driving experience can get hired but not me! I've been away too long! The big orange company told me to check back in 7 years!! YES at 57 years old! Heck I'm only 50 and very healthy other than this leg thing that's being taken care of as I type this. I will tell you guys something. I have nothing to do but research these forums on a lot of different sites and J&R Schugel sounds like the BEST! Hands down! Could any of you please help me by giving me advice or asking your dispatchers about my situation. I've called different recruiters (not there) but they all seem so disinterested in me. I'm not hiding anything either. I have a clean driving record, no accidents, no tickets, no nothing for 4 plus years. I'm even willing to go take a refresher course at MY expense for a good job like J&R. I feel as though I need and want it. I'm not a super trucker saying give me the keys. I feel as though a refresher would be good with how all the regs change constantly. I'm older, I have no young kids, my marriage is rock solid so home time is not an issue. I don't care how long I'm out as long as I'm earning this special woman a good living that she deserves. Please help me... And oh by the way Dad is doing fine now. Forgot to mention that.

 

Hello motocross66, welcome to the forum! First off, I'm glad to hear your father is doing well. That's quite a story you've shared with us! The best advice I can give to you is to have a chat with our recruiter about a job here. She's honest and upfront with you, just explain to her your current situation. We do hire from all of Pennsylvania, and we just recently started hiring students, so they may be willing to give you a shot.. If not, you should try working for a company that has their own school, Millis transfer comes to mind. Good luck and god bless.

 

Hello! Thank you guys for the replies. I appreciate being welcomed on here with you. I've been reading your posts for awhile now and tonight I just felt like I wanted to dump all my drama on you all because everybody here (my wife) is tired of me complaining about it lol. She calls me the broken record lol. But anyway, it is frustrating to have them tell me that I've been away from the road for too long. 3 years? I am the first to admit that I'm not a super trucker. I have a good clean record, good CSA when I left and I don't expect to have a company just pass me through orientation then just throw me a set of keys. I understand 3 years is enough time for many changes in the trucking industry but really I'm pretty sure with over 7 digit miles under my belt I think I can still drive. I started out really young, 19. Actually 18 counting the time spent learning to drive but it was much different back then. I started out in a 76 Brockway (Mack with a square steel hood and a mutt dog instead of a bulldog) hood emblem. Ugly truck really! They went out of business that same year I believe but it had a 270 Cummins and a 13 speed Roadranger. A real dinosaur lol. So I'm glad you welcome me and I will call your recruiter to see what's up. Thanks for the advice. Truckem safe. Windy and raining temp dropping like a rock 80 miles East of Pittsburgh.

 

Hey motocross I have a little advice for you. Hit the enter key once in awhile to make a paragraph. I'm honestly not criticizing you just trying to help you get more responses to your posts. A lot of people here will skip over posts that are so hard to read.

Good luck to you.

 

Ok advice taken and appreciated. I'm really not good with typing. That's why I usually read rather than contribute to forum posts but I had to get in here with you guys. I mean I can do it as you saw in the novel I typed above lol but it took quite awhile. I will do that and I never knew that. See your already giving me good advice! Thanks again and be safe out there.

 

There, I hope that works. Now that I was able to read the whole post I understand everything you had to say. Here's a suggestion, call any company you might be interested in, explain your driving history, not your medical condition you are involved with right now. To me, it sounds as though you need a refresher. The company I work for has a refresher course. I train at my company, my last trainee that was with me for 5 weeks was a refresher with less time behind the wheel then what you say you have. He's now out on the road himself doing his deal.

I'm not going to hijack this thread with my companies info, if you want more info send me a PM and I'll talk with you. If you can't PM just go through one of the mods and they'll forward it to me. My name doesn't matter, I am not doing this for any referral fee, we need Qualified drivers, and it seems you are with the info you told us.