It Happened About 25 Years Ago

[ReycleBill]

A true story from my days on the road...

It's Always The Driver's Fault

I picked up the truck at the company headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland with a trailer loaded for Los Angeles, California to be delivered in two weeks. Since I only needed 5 days to get there I knew that meant I'd be doing a quick drop and hook on the LA/Compton terminal yard and with any luck would get a load straight out to North Carolina.

It was no sooner than I'd shifted into 13th gear for the first time that I noticed the transmission was roaring in a way that Fuller Roadranger transmissions don't usually roar. It was back in the days before cell phones so I took the next exit and found a pay phone. "You don't know what you're talking about," the shop foreman told me rudely. "That's a newly rebuilt transmission and I checked it myself. There's nothing wrong with it. Do you want me to tell dispatch you're just trying to get out from under a load?"

What was I to do? I was out ranked. If I refused to drive the truck I would be fired. If I drove it a transmission worth thousands of dollars would be destroyed. I climbed back in the rig and hauled ass in the hope that wherever it finally quit wouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere. With each passing hour the roar got louder.

Ten days later I steered into my home terminal in Greensboro, North Carolina. The roar was so loud and so unusual that the terminal manager-- a former driver who had worked his way through the ranks-- heard it from inside his office and came outside to investigate.

As if the truck had planned it, when another driver attempted to drive the truck to a local shop to diagnose the noise the transmission seized, blocking the terminal gates and requiring a tow truck before it could be moved. Word came down from Baltimore that I was to be fired immediately as repairs were going to cost thousands.

When the local shop removed the transmission they made an interesting discovery. It seems whoever had rebuilt the transmission in Baltimore had left out what was some apparently tiny but important parts. The local shop mechanics and the Baltimore shop mechanics agreed it would have been impossible for me to have removed those parts without having my own shop to work in.

I kept my job but it's always the driver's fault.

 

[xjwmx]

I remember hearing that a major problem trucking companies have is trucks just abandoned in remote parts of the country by people who don't want to be truck drivers anymore. I can see why, after that.

 

[ReycleBill]

I remember hearing that a major problem trucking companies have is trucks just abandoned in remote parts of the country by people who don't want to be truck drivers anymore. I can see why, after that.

You're right. before that incident I spent almost 2 years with the very company I was working for in that story flying around the country picking up abandoned trucks and taking them to the nearest terminal or on network garage. That incident took place after I pissed somebody off and got put back in the mix with all the rest of the drivers there.

It takes over 5 years before a driver can be considered competent in any situation-- many take longer. The average time drivers spend in the industry is now about 3 years. Why I stuck it out for 28 is yet another thing for my shrink to figure out.

Thankfully, the railroads are coming back strong and more and more trucking is becoming short haul. Otherwise our entire economy would dry up tomorrow instead of next month or the month after.

PS. Later I came to love that truck. It had an experimental Cat engine that ran like no truck I've driven before or since. The truck actually ran triple digits and was the pride of the fleet. It had full air ride back in the day when most trucks didn't and why it had a 13 speed transmission I never knew 'cause I never needed more than 6 or 7 gears. And after that incident it was no longer allowed in the Baltimore shop.

 

[xjwmx]

Somebody told me over the summer that truck drivers are pulling down $80k in North Dakota at the moment because of the boom there. Might be worth a year.

 

[XSIOWA]

i got a buddy in Nodak making 100k

 

[ReycleBill]

If you can handle the winters and find affordable food and lodging. Problem with boom times is the bare necessities always sky rocket in price. I saw what we thought was boom times hauling on oil fields in Texas years ago but after expenses I would have been better off to stay home in the cotton mills in North Carolina.

 

[xjwmx]

It was the same in the boom towns of the gold rush as well. Find a bag of gold per day and the cost of everything is a bag of gold....

But I would just live in my truck for a year and eat from the pallet of food I brought up with me.

 

[ReycleBill]

It was the same in the boom towns of the gold rush as well. Find a bag of gold per day and the cost of everything is a bag of gold....

But I would just live in my truck for a year and eat from the pallet of food I brought up with me.

Been there, done that, got old really quick. But hey, good luck, I wish you well.

 

[xjwmx]

Been there, done that, got old really quick.

Roughing it appeals to me. It would be my first choice. No TV to get pissed at. Nobody trying to draw you into their problems, except of course the boss. But it's a boss that's paying you. Crisp morning, hot coffee. The smell of diesel. Smells like...Victory.

 

[ReycleBill]

Roughing it appeals to me. It would be my first choice. No TV to get pissed at. Nobody trying to draw you into their problems, except of course the boss. But it's a boss that's paying you. Crisp morning, hot coffee. The smell of diesel. Smells like...Victory.

Hey, I admit, it has its appeal... for a while. When I was younger I was there. But hey, I've done my time.

Seriously, I think it was Ben Franklin who recommended a man change his profession every few years. Might be something to it.

 

[Downeaster]

Sorta-kinda threadjack:

Your title "It Happened Abut 25 Years Ago" initially makes me think "ancient history" cuz, you know, 25 years is a LONG time.

Then I realize that 25 years ago I was serving my final tour in the Navy right here in Downeast Maine, and Christ, that was just a couple of weeks ago.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was getting old...

More on-topic, I always thought I'd like to drive short-haul (knew I wouldn't like West Coast Turnarounds), never got around to it. Did finally get my CDL-B last year, haven't had the opportunity to use it since. Too damn old to be bouncing around in a truck all day anyway.

 

[ReycleBill]

threadjack? No, it's called conversation. I've done short haul as well. It ain't easy either. Motorcycles are a lot more fun. Still trying to figure out how to get paid to ride.

 

[weekendrider]

Recycle, when were you in the oilpatch?
78-83 were a good 5 years. All the OT you could stand. You worked the first 40 just to pay your taxes on the OT.

I had Petercar with a 400 Cumalong that whispered here Kitty Kitty.
Triple digit truck that would step out on the hills.
Never could out run that crazy cow hauler in the next town.
He had a Freight shaker with a Cat that made the last 4 inchs of stack glow red at night.
It ain't the same any more ol friend.
You actually had to think and plan. No truck stops every 50 miles. No cell phones.
I didn't even talk to dispatch till I got to my destination.
Steering by armstrong, 260 air conditioning when I started a shiney 290 was a common motor.

Did you ever handle a 15 speed two stick Brownie box? The reason they made the laws against shifting on railroad tracks. Make the first five, kick the transmission in neutral with one hand and with the other arm hooked through the steering wheel shift the differental box.

 

[ReycleBill]

Recycle, when were you in the oilpatch?
78-83 were a good 5 years. All the OT you could stand. You worked the first 40 just to pay your taxes on the OT.

I had Petercar with a 400 Cumalong that whispered here Kitty Kitty.
Triple digit truck that would step out on the hills.
Never could out run that crazy cow hauler in the next town.
He had a Freight shaker with a Cat that made the last 4 inchs of stack glow red at night.
It ain't the same any more ol friend.
You actually had to think and plan. No truck stops every 50 miles. No cell phones.
I didn't even talk to dispatch till I got to my destination.
Steering by armstrong, 260 air conditioning when I started a shiney 290 was a common motor.

Did you ever handle a 15 speed two stick Brownie box? The reason they made the laws against shifting on railroad tracks. Make the first five, kick the transmission in neutral with one hand and with the other arm hooked through the steering wheel shift the differental box.

Those were the years I was there... Actually, about 80-83. Had a cornbinder then with a big cam 350 and a RT125 10 speed. not much on top but it loved hills. I had Mile High Cummins in Denver set the specs for high altitude so everywhere else was easy.

Yeah, did Brownies and even a 10x3 in an Oshgosh-- 30 forwards and 6 reverses... most of them useless. And a pentil hook full trailer. But hey, it had 10 wheel drive and could get stuck deeper than anything else I ever drove. Didn't get stuck often but when it did, damn that beast was stuck.

My earliest trips coast to coast were before I-40 was completed and parts of Route 66 were still followed through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Remember the rest area in California with the crank telephone and all calls were collect as there were no slots for your money? I asked the operator once why that phone was there and she explained that one phone was 100 miles from the next closest telephone and the wires wouldn't carry enough current to ring bells and dial numbers so the crank generated just enough power to ring her bell.

Drove a many shiney 290s, nifty 250s and even a few 230s. Along with a few 238 Detroits, 318 Double breasted yamahas and one 350 Detroit with double blowers. The rig I learned to drive in was a '68 Ford F-800 Cab Over with a 352 gas V8 and a roadranger 610 10 speed that belonged to my Daddy. It would get so hot going up long grades that we would put it in low, set the throttle lock and stand on the running boards to cool off. Sometimes, because the truck was only going about 2 miles per hour I would get out and run ahead of it. Daddy would always laugh and say, "If you miss it when I come by you'll have to run all the way to the top of the mountain 'cause the truck won't pull off if I stop on the grade."

Daddy wasn't kidding.

There were also some B model Macks in there too as well as a chain drive Diamond Reo. Not that I'm that old (56) but I grew up in trucks with a family of truckers and had driven over half the nation before I ever got a driver's license.

Of course, if one really wanted to go back in time, my Daddy and uncles made those same trips on dirt roads.

What I miss most about those days is the food. All the food was local back then. Even the few big chains like Union 76 and Husky had a different menu at every restaurant. If you pulled into a truckstop in Texas you ate what Texans ate and if you pulled into a truckstop in New England you ate what New Englanders ate. If the truck-stop was along the coast they served fresh seafood, in Lousiana it was Cajun, New Mexico and Arizona was American Indian and what we now call TexMex. And all of it, no matter where you went was the real deal. Every TA and every Petro has the exact same menu. The food isn't all that bad but it's always the same. None of it's real and frankly, I can't really tell one chain from the other.

 

[weekendrider]

BWHAHAHA Great times eh.
I haven't driven(for hire) since 2000 and don't miss it.
One of the in-laws still owns a couple of local haul trucks so occansionally drop and hook if he is in a bind.
You are so right about the food then. And the cookie cutter fuel stops now.

 

[ReycleBill]

BWHAHAHA Great times eh.
I haven't driven(for hire) since 2000 and don't miss it.
One of the in-laws still owns a couple of local haul trucks so occansionally drop and hook if he is in a bind.
You are so right about the food then. And the cookie cutter fuel stops now.

I left long haul in 2002. After 911 it went from bad to worse. I was in Arlington, VA the morning of 911, Port Elizabeth, NJ on 912 and Western PA on 913, everything went haywire, ports went crazy, troopers, cops, military, constant searches at every bridge, tunnel, port, tunnel, toll booth, weigh station, rest area, sometimes even truck stops and big shippers. Couldn't make a living for all the time spent waiting to be searched. I already suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) so looking at all those guns pointed my way every day pushed me over the edge. I got out so I wouldn't flip out and become a "homegrown terrorist." (going postal.)

Learned to do normal jobs, published a few books that no one bought, dropped my CDL Daddy died so I take care of my mother now. Actually, she's healthier than I am but it's one of those neighborhoods where old ladies living alone get their doors kicked in so I dig 6'x3' holes at night throw some rocks in the bottom then fill them back up so the neighbors all think I'm burying bodies in the back yard and the bad guys stay away. What I'm actually doing is fixing a water problem that keeps much of the yard too wet to walk in.

 

[xjwmx]

Alright. Everybody here's a truck driver. Let's go to ND and make our fortune. I'll drive except when we have to back up or something. Or when we get pulled over by the cops.

 

[ReycleBill]

Ya'll go have all the 18 wheeled fun you want, I've done my time, just watch out for me on my XS.

 

[TheRepairMan]

I can relate to all this, although I never spent all that long in a road tractor ...I cut my teeth working as a mechanic at my dad's gas station, and then I went back to school to become certified by the state of Virginia to work on heavy equipment ...but what I really wanted to do was drive. This was at least 32 years ago, but what I stumbled up on while looking around after school sounded interesting to me, and that was a route driver's job with a local Coca Cola distributor. It felt like a truck driving job, but we were called route salesmen.

It was stupid, really... working up to 18 hour days, with 30 minutes between stops, servicing pop machines and remote mom and pop stores while making a whopping 13 cents per case of drinks sold. I stuck it out three years, and probably didn't average minimum wage, but I was having so much fun meeting new people as a young guy that I really didn't care. I even picked up a beautiful college age wife at one point, and learned a lot about life and myself, but things change so quickly.

When I did leave to go back to turning wrenches I never had the desire to get behind the wheel of a truck again. As a matter of fact, I guess I have made a pretty decent living just working on small foreign cars that nobody else wanted to touch while being able to be home with my family every night, but I still have fond memories of the hundreds of lab hours I spent tearing down and building the big diesels and those huge transmissions and axles.

I've done so many different things, and passed up so many different jobs ...who knows which way I should have gone, but my real passion ironically was to travel the country ... AND, take pictures. I missed the boat, so to speak. I've been stuck in an old greasy shop for the last 30 years, now ...but I do get out to shoot a few pictures once in a while as my second hobby besides motorcycling.

And, an unrelated sample of some fun stuff...

Most recent work taken of an up and coming new country music artist...

-Roger

 

[ReycleBill]

I can relate to all this, although I never spent all that long in a road tractor ...I cut my teeth working as a mechanic at my dad's gas station, and then I went back to school to become certified by the state of Virginia to work on heavy equipment ...but what I really wanted to do was drive. This was at least 32 years ago, but what I stumbled up on while looking around after school sounded interesting to me, so I tried a route driver's job with a local Coca Cola distributor. It felt like a truck driving job, but we were called route salesmen.

It was stupid, really... working up to 18 hour days, with 30 minutes between stops, servicing pop machines and remote mom and pop stores while making a whopping 13 cents per case of drinks sold. I stuck it out three years, and probably didn't average minimum wage, but I was having so much fun meeting new people as a young guy that I really didn't care. I even picked up a beautiful college age wife at one point, and learned a lot about life and myself, but things change so quickly.

When I did leave to go back to turning wrenches I never had the desire to get behind the wheel of a truck again. As a matter of fact, I have made a pretty decent living just working on small foreign cars that nobody else wanted to touch, but I still have fond memories of the hundreds of lab hours I spent tearing down and building the big diesels and those huge transmissions and axles. I passed up so many different jobs ...who knows which way I should have gone, but my real passion ironically was to travel the country ... AND, take pictures. I missed the boat, so to speak. I've been stuck in an old greasy shop for the last 30 years, now.

-Roger

Roger, The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence... 'till you break down the gate holding you back. If I could count the mechanics I've known that wanted to be drivers or the drivers who wanted to be mechanics or those who switched back and forth every few years... Well, I'd be counting for a long time.

It's also been my experience that when you do the real math, local or long haul, the money never looks that good compared to the ACTUAL hours worked unless you're one of the very few who punch a time clock..

If you think about it it's really sad that we trust the lives of all our friends and families to men and women who are often driving the biggest, heaviest and most dangerous vehicles on America's highways for what may amount to less than minimum wage.

But we're getting very close to politics and since politics aren't allowed here I will steer my rig away from that ditch and back towards the center of the road.

Who likes brass? http://wackemall.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-player.html