Truckers Thread

[Erika1487]

Way back when I used to drive truck, (Owner Operator) for Millis Transfer (Beer & Liquor), of Black River falls WI and P I & I Motor Express (Steel Coils) of Sharon PA.
I still have my CDL but have not driven in yrs.

Here is a 'small window' into my former trucking operation as a solo Owner Operator...these projections where based on income earned in 2001 for a Business Loan I took out in Dec of 01..
Sadly Since 2005-early 2006 the industry has gone hell and I would not climb back out onto the road if wild horses dragged me. I do keep my license as a 'back up plan' just in case.

So any other drivers or former drivers out there? Has trucking got so bad that drivers are worse off than in the mid 80's?
Also you four wheelers (nontruckers) have funny trucker stories please share.

Erika

[Silcc69]

I've been somewhat curious of becoming a truck driver but i'm so scared of the way people drive and the repercussions of somebody running into me.

[jerseyboy72]

I was a truck driver for almost 12 years, no longer one. Teamster local 107 out of Philadelphia, local only. We were in vans. I was there only for heath benefits, I never went to work there much. I always had other business stuff going on. I always missed about 6 months of work out of every year, never got fired cause my union was so strong. lol

[Erika1487]

I've been somewhat curious of becoming a truck driver but i'm so scared of the way people drive and the repercussions of somebody running into me.

The one thing about driving truck you can't have is fear or hesitation in an 80,000lb rig.
That being said it is really not that hard to drive one, it takes alot patience and a cool hand at the wheel. All of that comes in time. The frist rig I ever drove was my grandfather's 1967 Mack R model with a Dual stick 4 x 4 transmission with no power steering. I was so white knuckled I don't even remember where the hell I was going. I do rember getting back in one piece though and after that driving truck was as easy as riding a bicycle.

[Erika1487]

I was a truck driver for almost 12 years, no longer one. Teamster local 107 out of Philadelphia, local only. We were in vans. I was there only for heath benefits, I never went to work there much. I always had other business stuff going on. I always missed about 6 months of work out of every year, never got fired cause my union was so strong. lol

All of PI &I Motor Express company drivers where teamsters. I was an owner Operator and found them pretty good guys to deal with the excecption of how they treated thier equipment :/

[Dino Velvet]

Who goes to The Titty Twister? Truckers and bikers only.

[Willie Escalade]

I drove a bus for the LACMTA...similar, but not really a truck driver.

[Caff_Racer]

Not really a funny story about truckers, just a personal anecdote.

About five years ago, a friend and I were on our bikes, riding back from a bikers' meet in Bilbao. Just past Zaragoza my bike started having ignition problems and as a result one of the cylinders would cut out, with the corresponding drop in power (and on a 65 bhp twin, that's the kind of thing that you notice). So we had to get off the motorway and ride the rather daunting stretch of the N-II between Zaragoza and Fraga, which is a two-lane road that is heaving with HGV traffic five days a week. We began overtaking lines of traffic made up of up to seven artics: the only way was to overtake the lot in one go. It was a breeze for my mate on his Triumph Speed Triple 955, but on my wee Thruxton running on half an engine it was a fucking horror story. It was made worse by the fact that the oncoming traffic was the same as that which we were overtaking.

Thankfully, the truckies took pity on us and radioed to each other that two bikes (one of which sounded well crook) were on the move, and in both directions the rigs would all pull across to their respective hard shoulders to give us enough room to pass safely up the middle of the road. From that day on I've always respected truckies, because somehow they have the same spirit of camaraderie as bikers.

[BigDF]

I never drove an 18 wheeler, but I drove a lumber delivery truck in the late seventies. It was a real dog of a truck and since it had a habit of shedding front wheels there weren't too many guys willing to drive it. But while that sounds pretty bad the wheels only fell off when the truck was going slow and turning hard. A few days after I started driving it I went to a place down along the river to pick up some poles for a barn we'd sold and the wheel fell off back where I was supposed to load. The guy driving the big Pettibone loader nearly fell off it, he was laughing so hard.

In the meantime I took a look at the wheel and discovered why this kept happening. The inner seal was shot and allowed all the axle grease to leak out in the course of about six months between the incidents and subsequent repairs. Having worked on cars a lot with my dad, I knew how much of pain it was to remove those old seals and replace them. I made sure the garage where we had the truck worked on was aware of my experience and that they return the used parts to us when we fixed the truck.

I briefly considered going to truck driving school when I was laid off from my factory job in 1994, but after watching a few bleary eyed drivers trying to reconcile their "official" logbooks and the ones they used to get paid for the time they really drove, I decided it would be better to go back and get my degree in Technical Writing.

I'm not at all sure that the CDL licenses intended to do away with the old practice of drivers maintaining licenses in every state they drive in has been such a good thing, because there seem to be a lot of people out there that don't understand truck driving driving the damned things.

[S6XN9NE]

I drive a lot with my work and particularly on the I-80 corridor between Illinois and Indiana. I have never seen anything like the past five or so years as way too many truckers ignore staying out of the left two lanes, driving right up on folks tails and the worst, especially when I am riding my motorcycle, shredding tires including the entire outer tire ring along the roads. I know there are good ones still out there but there seems to be a huge influx of bad ones.............