The OTR loneliness

Keep trying! You would be a better driver than many out here because you give a dang.

Good luck.

 

Wow! That was a good read. If you want to be part of the trucking industry you still can be without driving. Now I don't know what's around you and transportation but there are tons of jobs these guys need to to stay rolling. Me for instance...I'm a mechanic...they need dispatchers, parts people, service writers, etc. I know if you came into my shop and said what you typed here you would be learning to be a service writer tomorrow.....

 

What do you mean "Keep trying"?

Could you clarify?

 

Seizures Eh?

Ok... if there is somehow a ranch the size of a state on private land in need of a trucker and you are doing well... have at it eh? Its literally private land. No government anywhere. The owner will be your boss. I think there would be some form of check in to detect your seizures and remotely alert those who have the ability to help you, be it a ambulance service or what have you.

I grew up in a deaf school with two tiers of children. One tier is the Transitional group or to use a non PC word, Trainables and another that is censored here. They have some seizures and require shields, helments skull caps and various other protections to the body. And life by the rules which must be really opposite what most all Humans like in life whatever it is. It's all denied to them.

The other tier is normal children with deafness only. We are taught a language and then english where possible. Three were prone to occasional seizures. Believe it or not they all have licensing. HOWEVER I seriously doubt they will ever become full blooded commercial truck drivers under current CDL laws etc. ONE did run a dump truck for a outfit on private land with no licensing needed. I have a V8 Mack Superliner mack stored patiently waiting for me someday to return to the farm and fire it one bright morning. But it will not go onto a public road unless by some saving grace we get a CDL for that. (Im working on that, but it's too much for here)

Love of trucks can run deep. I feel that it is a form of warfare a battle to defeat nature, physics and many other dangers that can maybe kill you out there. Or someone else. And when that freight arrives in some city on a hill faraway and they enjoy the things you brought them due to a need. Medicines I find very fulfilling. I'll do that for free if you just bury me in food and drink. It's that deep of satisfaction. But all those sick people recieving the medicines don't know me. Don't know anything and don't care only that they get it right here right now from the Doc. they are in too much pain to even want to be in the body anymore that's crushed, shattered and ruined.

Im just happy that the medicines are there.

On the other hand I have no patience for pompous poobahs (The bear) who sit and drone endless and tired safety mantras and threaten to fire for a little heavy braking or some wild acceleration detected by the company sensors designed to weed out unsafe drivers who throw their trucks around. Safe drivers who run for years and then horse her to avoid a car with 4... they get fired. There is One Captian of the Ship and that's the driver you hired and then gave the keys of the truck and trailer plus a million in cargo.

Unfortunately those days of Kings of the Road is gone for some of old old enough to remember them. But I'll die a trucker. Maybe not a very good one, or a conforming one or someone who has been beaten into non confrontational compliance and unable to deal with stress, battle or the realties of getting across this God Given Nation with a land that must be seen and experienced to be felt and lived.

When you come out of say Wyoming with it's Big Sky they say... and sit here in a cookie cutter surburban street with no scenery at all it's really tiny and clasupohbic. That's one reason I left Maryland. The imposed lawns cut this high and the tiny land paved over with concrete and black top to where there is no joy in looking at it. What it was once is long gone. I can almost tell you this few acres of marshland once was a major 76 truckstop that throbbed with life of a thousand truckers eating, resting, going places, fueling and all sorts of things under he sun and stars. That's all gone. And for what? A bit of grass yea high? I don't think so.

Todays truckers are even... softer. Maybe helicopter moms and absent daddies are to blame. Give them a truck and they break something, do some stupid stuff and turn your company like Swift in some cases to a industry wide lack of respect and credibility and so on. Not to include certain persons who have previous work with such outfits.

The biggest take away and last thought I offer is this. Half of my trucking is the old tired outlaw stuff. Big deal. whoopie. The last half of my trucking as a professional was pretty good. To pull into Banning or some other scale and have a tough DOT man or woman call BS to this or that and tell me to explain it ... before they have to write it as a fine or OOS or whatever. I generally was able to explain it. Sometimes they dont buy it. But it is stands as a good explaintation and thus they must acquit. (Bleah...)

The focus on appt times and other problems take way the joy of trucking. Bleaches the very bones. It will get there when it gets there.

 

I've read that diesel mechanics need a CDL to do their job, so I avoided that (Incase it's true). What city is your shop at? Also what would a service writer do? Just curious...

 

You talked about things getting better for you. Maybe I misread that part.

 

There are a lot of shops that will hire a good wrench without a CDL and just have someone that has one do the road testing. My shop was in Philadelphia PA, I sold it to move back to Florida because I got sick of the cold. A service writer is the person that takes the truck in from the customer, gets the info off the truck, gets the concern from the customer. Then during the repair process the service writer will be the one to make calls with estimates and get approval for repair. In my shop my two service writers were also parts guys so they did all the ordering of parts. The service writer is then the one to call the customer when completed and give them the keys to the truck.

 

When you say that I would be a "better driver", it makes me think of the generosity I just lie for truck drivers not only for their convenience but my own. one reason for my desire to driving big rigs is the fact that I don't like driving fast. Hypervelociphobia is the fear of high speeds.I understand physics pretty well and I just cannot imagine the kinetic energy involved with such a huge body going at whatever given speed. It terrifies me. If and whenever truckers want to get into my lane I flash my high beams and let them go in front of me, so I have an excuse to drive slower. (Blushing). You fellows having to go 55 miles an hour, or slower depending on road conditions, is another way in which you guy are a help for me in my fear of high speed. Lol.

 

Sounds easy enough, although I'd have to take a class to become a diesel mechanic. Funny: I'm born the year of the monkey on the Chinese calendar, it would be interesting to be transformed into a grease monkey, via being a mechanic.