Job hopping...let my experience be an example

Cab over? How long ago was that? I very seldom see any form of cab over, and then only with small time owner ops..... Certainly not a mega like jb hunt.

 

~~~~~~JB Hunt~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Swift~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~Schneider~~~~~~~~~~~

 

What!? Sounds like you are not safe driver. Back in the day cabovers were out here everywhere. I drove a 9670 International for 17 years..1.6k miles. Didn't take out cars, as you say, and didn't hurt myself physcialy.

 

I've been at this for 25 years and the longest I have ever worked for a single company has been the 28 months I currently have invested at my present employer. I guarantee you I'm not a quitter (been smoking since I was 16 ha ha), but sometimes life just happens.

I bounced around a lot in my first few years, basically because the companies I worked for sucked, worked for my dad a while, H.L. Stansell, Covenant, U.S. Express, Rocor and few others I can't even remember. When I finally found a great gig that was worth sticking around for, my ex wife decided to start smoking crack. The next 10 years were a nightmare.

I quit so many jobs to work local and be there for my kids, only to lose them back to the ex after she managed to pass a couple of drug tests. This happened about five times. I finally got all the kids permanently when they were all old enough to decide for themselves where they wanted to be. Wouldn't you know it, two years after I got the kids I injured my back and was laid up for 18 months.

What I learned through all of this (other than the fact that God is awesome) is that the larger companies do indeed discriminate against more experienced drivers, we cost more. But that smaller companies are always looking for experience, they may not be able to provide great benefits but more than make up for it with pay, equipment and flexibility, and they are so much easier to work with. ELD's, an amazing new wife, and brown trout, are putting an end to my OTR career, but if it weren't for these things I would probably stay with my current job another 10 years.

 

Not in cabovers for me. One of the problems was I took out cars in them.

Another problem was everyone had cabovers in those days during the 80's No one gave conventionals or had them outside of owner operators and certain fleets. The best you got in my time was maybe a Mack R model or even a Freightliner short nose day cab. There was a shift in the early 90's that made cabovers not that attractive to companies and people started running conventionals.

I had a flaw in the vision that is not covered by driving tests that when I am in a cabover in those days a car sitting under the spot mirrior would not be easily seen. It was not until 2009 that surgery implanted lens and found the problem with the retina in that area of the eyeball where no one really looks at. The reason it was looked at all was because I had several diagnoses that were specific and needed to be double checked by literally getting inside that eyeball and checking every thing inside of it. Way beyond a normal exam. They found some problems and they burned it out and boom I can not just see again, I can REALLY see parts of the vision that was flawed before.

Which is why I do not drive cabovers after 1994-1995 time period at all. It's all conventional or not at all. After 2009 I get back into cabovers and into RV's pretty happy that the risk of taking cars out from that particular specific "spot" where they can hide is gone. I'll see em.

Normally I don't go overboard trying to explain in ordinary english what my issues were too much, suffice to say that when I joined JBH and they handed me a Cabover against my strongly held belief never to take one again, despite my telling them straight up they can expect a car taken out within a month or two at most with that type of tractor and despite a few other converstations, I ended up taking out a vehicle up in St Louis that month. It was a bad situation which I knew was going to happen and it happened anyway.

This was back in 2001, after 9-11. Freight had pretty much bottomed out outside of beer, pills and drugs from mckesson and most foods and there was at that time no point in pursuing trucking for myself any further. I had by then developed and uncovered several additional medical issues that definitely were not DOT legal for the road anymore. So I got out. SS put me on the disability two years later permanently due to those issues.

Anyway that is there is the story somewhat in depth. I don't do cabovers and don't care for them. Ive already spent too many miles in the #### things anyway. Conventional is perfect for me.

 

The first trucking job I applied to in 1989 was J.B.Hunt with those cab overs. I wanted to drive it so bad. I went into the office in East Brunswick, the guy said " How old are ya kid?" I said 21. He said " come back when you're 23". I took my driving test in a 1979 Mac cabover. Back then it was still called a articulated license. CDL came to NJ in 91.

 

Howdy neighbor, same here. EFFORT PA.

 

LMAO... that’s hilarious.

I’ve got a friend like that. I swear there isn’t hardly a company you can name that he hasn’t drove for.