Which is a tougher job: OTR driver or heavy-equipment operator?

You get in the local????? Union benis and a pension. I would be a OE. I do OTR it's boring lonely, no pension.

 

True. Most of the equipment operators I know have been doing it all their life. A good operator is like a good driver...hard to find and hard to keep.
We've been lucky in that most of our guys have stayed with us. Some of our operators are third generation with the company and learned by working with their dad or grand dad. All we have to do is give them their work, give them a good machine, and get out of the way.
It always amazes me how a good operator, never appearing to hurry but making every move count, can do the amount of work in a day that they do.

 

The man that died in that accident was the grandfather of a good friend of mine back in high school. Very tragic.

I was in my teens when that accident occured so my memory is a bit foggy. I don't really want to post what I think I remember because it might not be correct. The guy was a very experienced operator though.

As for seatbelt failure, most of those heavy equipment seatbelts actually have an expiry date and need to be replaced every few years. I do have doubts as to whether or not a functioning seatbelt would have saved him. Ragdolling like that is still going to beat the tar out of you regardless if you're strapped in or not.

 

I’ve been OTR so long I would not know how to do regular work anymore. I think OTR is a Cush job as long as I don’t get woken up in the middle of my 10 hour break.

 

Ive both fell from load to Trl and Trl to ground personally. And had a piece of metal grating fall on my leg when i was restacking it from the side of a step deck, a few stitches in 5 places above both knees. Granted all that happened early on in flatbed. Never made those mistakes again......... Yet........

The kleating on an East trl really hurts when you take a 6 foot fall and land on a forearm. How i didn't break anything ill never know.

Throwing my back out tarping a load of talcum sacks was not pretty. Feet were sinking into the sacks about 1'6" , knocked off balance as manuvering the tarp into place, was not pretty.


Probably more........

Bonus round: falling out of the truck. Stood up, hit head on top of door frame, completely overwhelmed i lost balance, i grabed the steering wheel (ouch my shoulder.), shins hit the steps, and then i lose grip and fall the rest of the way to my back. Enjoy the pain for a moment, then get up and look around to see if anyone saw that pathetic display.

 

Trucking is the ultimate job. You have a climate controlled environment, tunes and a bed (if it is a sleeper) within a step or two.

I worked 19 years out in the rain, the heat, and the cold. My colleague told me we'd have to have our brains sucked out to become truck drivers. Well, here I am today 10 years driving trucks, wondering why I didn't discover this job sooner.

 

I thought that too. Many of my friends were construction workers, hanging on to scaffolding in the rain, while I, on the other hand, was boogying down the boulevard in my Peterbilt, toasty warm in slippers listening to Molly Hatchet.

 

They’re both tough.
One job the clock can’t move fast enough, and the other it moves too fast

I’ve done both

 

Falling from a trailer deck 5 feet up from the pavement of a busy highway was not fun.

I quit doing that job that has a moffet forklift piggy backed on the trailer.

Too many places having to unload from the road and a forklift that’s a pos. Hated that thing.

A few winters ago, I opened the hood of a 359 Pete... while gently setting the hood’s weight onto the cables that keeps it up when open, the cables snaps, the hood slaps me in the face sending me flying back about 5-6 feet.

I get up, looked around, no one saw me... would’ve been a good laugh though.

Then pick the hood up off the ground, slide a garbage can under, replaced the cables...

 

Carry on, sir! Indoctrination, for sure. Broke a tooth on a 35niner about 7 years ago; went to the dentist yesterday (or day before?!?) a.m...... and they want to rip out the whole rack because of ONE fractured tooth.. LoL.. These hoods are great, but not forgiving, for sure!