T1B

i shoulda listened to my dad 10 yrs ago when he tried getting me to get mine...always told him i'd NEVER be a truck driver..

well..lo and behold my current job requires me to have one..they put us thru a week long course that most folks get a month to do. Kinda nerve racking butt i "got 'er done".


90 degree backs with a 55ft trailer can get on yer nerves for sure.


now i can make the "big bucks"! .....right?

Got one with multiple endorsements....I am never letting it go..it costs me to keep the medical current, but looks like I am getting a part time job as an office manager for a construction company and the CDL helped me get it ...and truck driving will never get you big bucks, unless you get a Teamsters job, then the retirement is damn near as good as those government tit sucking jobs.

But it will help pay the bills...

Yes. Lost a hundred years life expectancy delivering steel for a couple of years for a sheet metal wholesaler that I wouldn't wish on BSmack. What Derron said. The hours are long, but the pay sucks. In a down economy, you take what you can get.

DOT is a treat too. Count on a good 45 minutes out of your delivery day (longer should they decide to turn your ass around to find a scale) playing 20 questions with Mr. Smokee and putting your truck through the paces of their rolling dog-and-pony show.

I had to get a CDL B with air brake back when I drove a plow truck. I still have it but I don't have any plans on using it. Although it has come in handy delivering trucks for someone I know who sells them for a living who will sometimes call me when he's in a pinch. I figure if I deliver 1 truck every 3 years, the license pays for itself.

Truman wrote: Lost a hundred years life expectancy delivering steel for a couple of years for a sheet metal wholesaler

Ahhh.....the wondering if the next time I get on the brakes a bit too hard if that shit is coming through the cab and spearing my ass to the dashboard..great feeling to have all day long.

Did a stint on the in laws log truck last summer...they were ok with my driving, but the other log truck drivers wondered why I only drove 5 over the speed limit, why I did not knock back a sixer on the last run of the day and on the way home, and how I could possibly be on time every morning to the landing at 4 am.

Truman wrote: DOT is a treat too. Count on a good 45 minutes out of your delivery day (longer should they decide to turn your ass around to find a scale) playing 20 questions with Mr. Smokee and putting your truck through the paces of their rolling dog-and-pony show.

You forgot to mention that when they find a one hour lapse in your log book 6 weeks ago, they are going to write your ass for it as well.

When I used to haul my own equipment, I had turf tires on a tractor that was 1 inch over the side of the trailer...yep..got a ticket for not flagging as a wide load. Fuck those truck cops.

I've had a California Driver's License since I was 16.

Idaho has Couer De Lane. Nice country northern Idaho.

after talking to a few guys at work..it's virtually impossible to go BY THE BOOK with the logs ..and still do what the company wants you to do.


example: If you drive from point A to point B and it takes 4 hours and you DONT get pulled over...then you drive 4 hours back and DONT get pulled over..when you arrive at point A again...write down the 8 hours as Sleep time. In the oilfield you only need 24 hour reset to the 70 hours..as opposed to 48 for OTR drivers.


gonna be fun balancing the logs while working 180 hrs a week but showing i get a 24 hour reset on the hour every 70 hours.

Having a CDL is a litmus test for willingness to undergo the drug tests.

Now if we could just prove you all are documented.

Imus wrote:Having a CDL is a litmus test for willingness to undergo the drug tests.

Now if we could just prove you all are documented.

Talked to one guy who had done his log book..and the weight station looked at it and calculated he had averaged a bit over 105 mph on the trip up from LA.. :doh: :doh:

Thing about a CDL, in Oregon at least, your allowable BAC drops to .02 at any time in any vehicle...and you have to be in a drug testing group..I was usually tested twice a year at least..

A large number of driers any more it seems are spics and ragheads. Their trucks are pieces of shit, fenders held on by duct tape, dirty as hell, drive like fucking maniacs, and get no respect from the other drivers if they open their pie holes on the radio.

I was bringing a load of my equipment up from Southern Oregon 2 years ago, and the wife went with me. Had the stupid CB on, and all the necks talked shit about everything..how his old lady was so fat she made the floorboards creak in their house, but he was still fucking her and all, and how the spics and ragheads are taking over the trucking business...I turned the damn thing off after about an hour...

Derron wrote:Thing about a CDL, in Oregon at least, your allowable BAC drops to .02 at any time in any vehicle...and you have to be in a drug testing group..I was usually tested twice a year at least..

Actually it is .04 and only while operating a commercial vehicle. It's a nationwide requirement of the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, which is the Federal Law that mandates that your employer pay someone to collect your piss.

Here's the relevant Oregon statute.

http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/DMV/docs/vcb/VCB813.pdf?ga=t

You also only have to be in a drug testing group if you are actively employed in a "safety sensitive" position. I haven't been in a drug testing group for over 14 years and they renew my CDL like clockwork. The only time they even asked me for my DOT physical was when I renewed in person a year ago. By mail or online they don't even bother.

BSmack wrote:

Derron wrote:Thing about a CDL, in Oregon at least, your allowable BAC drops to .02 at any time in any vehicle...and you have to be in a drug testing group..I was usually tested twice a year at least..

Actually it is .04 and only while operating a commercial vehicle. It's a nationwide requirement of the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, which is the Federal Law that mandates that your employer pay someone to collect your piss.

Here's the relevant Oregon statute.

http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/DMV/docs/vcb/VCB813.pdf?ga=t

You also only have to be in a drug testing group if you are actively employed in a "safety sensitive" position. I haven't been in a drug testing group for over 14 years and they renew my CDL like clockwork. The only time they even asked me for my DOT physical was when I renewed in person a year ago. By mail or online they don't even bother.

Whatever on the Oregon statue...27 pages is way to much to read to argue with you. I will disagree with the "safety sensitive" position. Most insurance companies will require you to be enrolled in a drug testing consortium. In order to keep a medical current, you have to be drug tested in the physical. Your medical can be renewed every year, or two years, Every year if you are some fat fuck with high BP, 2 years if you are reasonably healthy.

If you get stopped with a medical card that is out of date, you are going to walk from that point, and that can trigger an DOT audit, that I guaranfuckingtee you they will find that your's or the company's paperwork is fucked up.

Despite all the regulations etc, ODOT runs several stings a year at the entry scales inspection points and usually comes up with a 15% or so rate of drug and alcohol impairments and possessions,and they will piss test everybody, and also many paper work violations. Word gets out back down the road and the truck stops start filling up for the drivers waiting out the sting. Run a 24 hour sting in Ashland, Oregon and the truck stops and rests areas south to Redding will fill up in less than 12 hours while everybody "cleans" up themselves and the paperwork.

Derron wrote:Whatever on the Oregon statue...27 pages is way to much to read to argue with you.

Just do a word search for CDL. It's the same in every state. Special CDL restrictions do not carry over to your operation of your personal vehicle. But hey, I'll never argue too much with someone who wants to err on the side of too much caution. So roll the way you want to roll.

I will disagree with the "safety sensitive" position. Most insurance companies will require you to be enrolled in a drug testing consortium. In order to keep a medical current, you have to be drug tested in the physical. Your medical can be renewed every year, or two years, Every year if you are some fat fuck with high BP, 2 years if you are reasonably healthy.

My auto insurance companies have never asked for drug testing proof. That shit is dealt with by your employer. Unless you're self employed.

I've renewed my CDL continuously since I last worked in a safety sensitive job and like I said, no requests for medical paperwork unless I renew in person and not by mail or web. Now, if I take another trucking job somewhere down the line, that's a whole different story. Then I'll have to get my medical paperwork in order. Which around here means paying some hack doctor 70 bucks to say you're not a risk to keel over behind the wheel.

If you get stopped with a medical card that is out of date, you are going to walk from that point, and that can trigger an DOT audit, that I guaranfuckingtee you they will find that your's or the company's paperwork is fucked up.

Yes, if you are currently employed in a safety sensitive position and driving a CDL vehicle, you need to have your medical card. But if you're behind the wheel of your own car, you don't.

Despite all the regulations etc, ODOT runs several stings a year at the entry scales inspection points and usually comes up with a 15% or so rate of drug and alcohol impairments and possessions,and they will piss test everybody, and also many paper work violations. Word gets out back down the road and the truck stops start filling up for the drivers waiting out the sting. Run a 24 hour sting in Ashland, Oregon and the truck stops and rests areas south to Redding will fill up in less than 12 hours while everybody "cleans" up themselves and the paperwork.

That hardly surprises me anymore. Trucking has become such a lousy job and companies take more and more liberties with their drivers that it hardly surprises me that a large percentage of the drivers left who are willing to drive have chemical dependence issues. I have NEVER talked to a long haul trucker who has had anything good to say about the job.

after a dozen years and probably that many message boards, finally there's a topic that B-Monica actually knows what the fuck he's talking about.

i'm stunned

Derron wrote:

Truman wrote: Lost a hundred years life expectancy delivering steel for a couple of years for a sheet metal wholesaler

Ahhh.....the wondering if the next time I get on the brakes a bit too hard if that shit is coming through the cab and spearing my ass to the dashboard..great feeling to have all day long.

Did a stint on the in laws log truck last summer...they were ok with my driving, but the other log truck drivers wondered why I only drove 5 over the speed limit, why I did not knock back a sixer on the last run of the day and on the way home, and how I could possibly be on time every morning to the landing at 4 am.

Werd. Nothing like hauling a load of concrete cans that may-or-may-not be over load-limit to put the hippity-hops in your rear axles…

Concrete cans, btw, are thin sheets of metal rolled into bundles of 50 and loaded onto pallets of 250 to 500, depending upon their size. Commercial contractors use them to line foundation piering holes before pouring concrete. Having one of these bundles drop on your foot would definitely not be a good thing.

I was dispatched to take a load of these heavy-ass bad-boys up to St. Joe the day after what passes as a blizzard in these parts had dumped 16 inches of snow upon us. Normally, drive-time for this milk-run is a little over an hour. The wind that day had other thoughts…

I didn’t have much trouble getting out the city – low and slow is the watchword for driving in weather, and while the Interstates were snow-packed, the plows had done an adequate job of removing the deep stuff. Besides, it was clear that John Commuter had taken a snow-day with the kids…

But all that changed within the space of a mile-marker once I cleared the airport north of the city. The snow-packed lanes on the Interstate had been reduced to a pair of wagon ruts, and I realized I was in the shit forreal. Anyone with any sense woulda packed it in, but my truck was scheduled for a run to Springfield the following day and had to drop this load. Dumbest decision I ever made. What followed was eight hours of white-knuckle terror.

Did I mention the wind? Fucker came screaming down-hill straight outta the West at 70 miles an hour, with nothing to knock it down between the Rockies and Illinois ‘cept the north-bound broadside of my Sterling. That bitch was bent to put meaning into the definition of “high-profile vehicle”.

At any rate, a collection of hearty souls and otherwise poor fucks who couldn’t ditch work formed a convoy of sorts for the journey north at a blazing 30 mph. When it wasn’t busying itself creating whiteouts and trying to bury the Interstate, that cunt of a wind did its level best to change our driving lane and push us into the deep snows of the shoulder and median.

About two hours into my run and a little over half-way to St. Joe, I got passed by an 18-wheeler barreling up the fast lane and doing at least 60 mph. “Dumbfuck,” I remember thinking. I had already lost count of the dozens and dozens of cars and trucks scattered and abandoned along I-29 and figured this stupid fuck was destined to join them. Ten miles later, I was proven right: Speedy McAsshat was jackknifed on the shoulder, his cab buried in a four-foot snow drift. I waved as I crept by.

I finally hit St. Joe without further incident, but I wasn’t exactly wild with the thought of chancing my load to the curves of a cloverleaf, and elected to take the scenic route (an oxymoron if you’ve ever been to St. Joe) into downtown. Coming up to the junction of 36 Highway and 229, I realized that I had just missed a career-ending injury by seconds as the car about a quarter-mile in front of me found out the hard way that semi brakes have little effectiveness on ice. That car looked like it had been shredded by an I.E.D., and I swear pieces of it were still raining down on me as I slowly made the turn onto 229.

The off-load was uneventful but slow, as the yard had a fork equipped with tractor tires that not only made short work of the load, but gave me a boost out of the drift that I had buried my front axle in. Time to head home.

I had already called and cussed my dispatcher and ops manager both for sending me out that day, and bitched about my plight to a half-dozen friends by text. Now I was headed home. At least I knew what I was up against, right?

On an easy down-grade a couple of miles south of St. Joe, I came upon no less than three dozen cars and trucks scattered into drifts on both sides of the highway and all within the cramped space of a quarter-mile stretch. And this down-grade wasn’t done: It was still collecting victims in front of me as I eased my way along. Clearly, Ma Nature’s ice show had MODOT on the run. I was just about to clear the carnage when a HVAC van about 300 feet in front of me saw his back tires skid out from under him, causing him to t-bone a bridge abutment.

“Shit.”

Fucker was cross-wise against the bridge pillar, and I had a lane to change in short order. Trouble was, though, without benefit of a load over my rear axles, I was probably looking at either ramming him and shutting down the highway for hours, or joining the junk yard already piled high on the side of the Interstate. They say God looks after drunks and little children, so I guess He took exception with me as I managed to miss both the van and the salvage yard piled up next to the median.

I had never considered myself to be a truck driver. I was an out-of-work professional that happened to be currently driving a truck to pay his bills and feed his family. The job was simply a “means to an end” while I searched for a “real job”. That said, however, I have come to respect those who make their living this way, as well as the back-end folks who support them. Lots of long, lonely hours. The summers are heavy, hot, and dangerous; the winters are heavy, cold, and dangerous. Watching Ice Road Truckers on the History Channel had always made me nervous… Now I’m not so sure I could ever watch it again.[/soapbox]

Rack all you Drivers up in this bitch.

This thread trucks up the goods.

Anyone still watching Ice Road Truckers?

Diego in Seattle wrote:Anyone still watching Ice Road Truckers?

I gave up on it last season. It was OK viewing for a while. Never must see level. But now it is utterly horrid.

That was a great fucking read, Truman. A simple RACK! does not do justice.

Having dealt with truck drivers at my work for many years, I can say that they are some of the best people on the planet to work with and don't get near enough the appreciation they deserve.

Unless they're Canadian. I've yet to meet a Canadian trucker who wasn't a painfully obstinate assboil, especially the French Canadians.

I have a CDL but might not choose to renew at that level when I get my renewal in about a year. I was previously a school bus driver for three years.