misinformation you will hear....

It's ARCO which is almost all gone now. Tear,Tear.

 

we use the standard system of teaching that, in fact, at both my schools we use(d) whatever was supplied to us. how, what, when, where, why any "rights/permissions" are needed is the schools responsibility. i never heard of needing permission, maybe that's because in a school it is all set up, rather than a trucking company needing permission....as the drivers are being "updated" or "refreshed" on safety procedures..???? i don't know, but i do not worry about what the school(s) provide.

 

Arco used to haul gasoline all over houston,

it paid a driver more 20 years ago than they make today !!!

 

That's still true out west. Back in the 70's ARCO sold all their assests east of CA,NV,AZ,OR,and WA. They took the idea of just retailing the west coast and did a great job of it. When they only had 5 states they were the 7th largest oil company in the country. Mostly due to all their holdings in AK.

Their marketing strategy was high volume low cost. And they kicked ##### in the 80's and 90's. They could do the high volume low cost because they owned the oil in the ground, a percentage of the pipeline, the ships to take the crude to the refineries, the refineries, the trucks to haul the finished product, and a lot of the stores that sold it.

Then came BP and the hungry top executives sold out. They got the gold mine and everyone else got the shaft. They still operate in CA,AZ,OR, and WA but a lot has changed. Plus the last I read from the company was BP is selling their downstream operations. I know the Carson refinery is up for sale but I'm not sure about the truck operations. Carson is in LA and supplies 25% of the gasoline to the public. The truck operation at Vinvale is the best facility around and is known as the fastest rack in the west. Sometimes progress is not so great.

 

We were told that the system is trademarked and you can not make any profit from it without them getting theirs.

 

These towel heads have it all wrong then. Instead of blowing themselves up and killing dozens, apparently (According to this guy) all they have to do is drive a truck and they can do the same amount of damage as an ICBM hitting a packed football stadium. With all due respect sir, that's almost as dumb as someone saying Obama is a good president.

And for the record the definition for missile is as follows;

Missile, noun:

1. An object that is forcibly propelled at a target, by hand or mechanically.

2. A self-propelled or remote-controlled weapon that carries a conventional or nuclear explosive.

They didn't list a Commercial Motor Vehicle in that list. But I digress.

Also, the fact that more than half of these people have no clue what it takes to operate a truck can tell us how to do our job and what we should or shouldn't do when faced with an all but avoidable situation in a split second is absurd.

I love my job, I hate what gov't d-bags have done to our industry all because moronic cry babies who can't even control their tiny, tree huggin' smart cars cause more accident with big trucks than we do with anyone else. Then turn around and say "I didn't see the truck" or "I rear ended him because I was hammered and didn't know what those red lights were".

 

Being new to the industry I hear a constant barrage of info from trainers and program admins to the long time truckers that see me step out of a school truck. All I can say is that there are good people and bad people of all ages and all levels of driving experience.

Normally, I stick to what I've been taught nearly 100% of the time because if crap hits the fan I've got the rules/regs/laws on my side. That isn't to say I follow it blindly, nor does it mean that what is in those books is always what my instructors teach, and I've found in other careers and hobbies that experience doesn't mean you are doing everything right.

Now granted, I'm a newb. Ask me in a couple years and my opinions may have changed.

 

My instructors scold us if we are out of gear for more than a second. Don't understand it myself, I can't see being out of gear any worse than being in the wrong gear, but again, I'm a newb.

 

You must be one of those steering wheel holders that think you are driving a truck and "pulling" a trailer,, the ones that always think that the trailer will go where the truck goes,, the ones that always hit something ,,the ones that curb the tires on the trailer(only later to have them blow out),,the ones that hit those poles at truck stops, the ones that hit someones trailer while they are parked and think,,wasn't my fault your trailer was in my way.

I have and will ALWAYS drive my trailer,,I may use the truck to pull it around,,but " I DRIVE MY TRAILER"

And the term " DRIVING MY TRAILER" is a REAL drivers way of saying , "I'm a Truck Driver" and not a steering wheel holder.

 

Ok I need help here having never been killed in a wreck yet, what do I put in my log book if I get killed in a wreck, on duty not driving, or off duty not driving?¿.
The book says never block a intersection at anytime and never shift gears while going threw said intersection, so do I just set at the white line and wait dor a cop to escort me threw it?.
If the book is my bible and I follow to the letter I would never leave the yard, don't float gears you mignt learn to drive that way god forbind,i wish I was still fresh out of achool and knew all thete was to know about driving, oh wait I never went to truck driving school I learned by driving yet my mvr is sppotless so far,yes I said so far cause it does happen, just not to me yet, and I hope it never does, new drivers are just ike kids oh wait most new drivers are kids, they know more about driving then i'll ever know about whinning, and I know a few that will tell you they learned to drive in their living room p aying, racing games on x box or psp3,while their parents worked their tails off to spoil them, I wish it were 1970 again whete kids learned to do things by paying attention to those who did the actual job and not some guy that teaches from a book and has never done the job at all.
So come on all you brand new book learned drivers get in here and teach me how to drive my rig so I can be as smart as you got reading a book and listening to some collage kid telling you how to end up dead and still have your log book filled out correctly and up to date 15 minutes after youre cold .
I hope I didn't use to many mediphors or miss spelled words here I didn't have a truck school or collage classes to go by when I began driving, but I do have a high school diploma somewhete that I've never been able to use to find work. Happy trails to all, keep your eyes on the road and out,of,those books and you might drive to be called a cranky old fart too.