Vets, Wanna help with other 'less common' items of our jobs?

Bull haulers.... not hauling pols around. Very time sensitive and requires very special skills. You need to be very well versed in animal handling and care because you are responsible for their health and well being over several days. Most of these guys are country boys who've been around stock all their lives.

Tankers.... several different types for different products and usages. Each hauls and handles different. Fuels can kill you. Chemicals can kill you. So you will get extensive training by the companys before they turn you loose.

Reefers..... hauling fresh foods which must be temp controlled. Trailers must be cleaned often to avoid contamination. Produce warehouses will drive you nuts and do their best to screw you.

Flats.... the most versatile type of trucking and the most work intensive. No two loads are exactly the same so Load Securement is totally important. Go with a good outfit like Mav to learn this.

Heavy haul and the condos.... not something you'll be concerned with for many years yet. These are experienced truckers and highly specialized.

 

I've kinda sorta been interested in flatbed. You really think Maverick is okay to learn the ropes at? Whatever the choice, it will be like starting all over again.

 

In due time Dragon. Wait for it. Maybe this thread will blow up with answers to your question. But if not, then google will always be your friend!

 

If someboby told me this on the street i would not belive it and would kick there asset for telling such a fib, but it is a true story, this was last night news here, but this bull hauler was tooling down the intersate minding his own buss, with a load of cows, high wind came up , blew truck over and killed 58 cows , plus the driver is in the hosptial, if i hadnt seen the wreck on the news , i say no way , as they turned the truck upright , you could see the grill and everything coverd in that grassy mud type stuff what a mess, i guess high winds has the last say,and thought that be a heavy load , that nothen could touch that, guess not,

 

That many cows would necessitate being a 2 decker I believe so you have heavy weight all the way to the top. Plus live critters move, they are not static like a load of boxes. That's the kind of thing I meant about knowing critters and how they act and react. That's more important when bullhauling than driving the truck.

Maverick is just one of the better flatbed outfits for training you on load securement; just using them as an example, not necessarily recommending that you work there.

 

Pnuematic Tankers are a blast. I used to haul powdered limestone in them and if you didn't watch your gauges every second, they would clog up on you in a heartbeat. When that happened, the only thing to do was release the pressure, shut the whole thing down, take the hose off and try to unplug the pipes by hand. It usually ended up looking like a blizzard just hit, but this was in central Florida so that was out. Plus a couple of weeks hauling that stuff made you feel like someone who smokes two packs a day...

They also had a nice little contraption called a dry-double. It's basically a smooth bore tanker for hauling molten sulfur with another part built around it that has a bottom dump for hauling phosphate used in making cattle feed. The average trailer was older than I was, though they did start replacing them when I left. I can't find a picture of one anywhere. They're a pretty specialized trailer and only a couple of companies use them. I couldn't find a picture of one on the web, but I did track one down on Google Earth. Yes, they are as ugly as that...