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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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truckers
#3995957 - 03/31/05 03:32 PM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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anyone a trucker? anyone know a trucker? I want to hear some trucker stories.
I just got back from a roadtrip and was curious about the lives of truckers and their profession. how is the pay? how long are they on the road? how exactly does one become a trucker?
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mounds
pleasure peaks
Registered: 03/25/05
Posts: 74
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Re: truckers [Re: Vvellum]
#3996053 - 03/31/05 03:51 PM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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Almost every trucking company has a trucking school. Most will pay for you to go through it, pending a drug test.
Pay depends on who you work for.
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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Re: truckers [Re: mounds]
#3996071 - 03/31/05 03:54 PM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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ever drive a rig?
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IrishNation
The Color Verde
Registered: 01/06/05
Posts: 100
Last seen: 18 years, 9 months
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Re: truckers [Re: Vvellum]
#3996146 - 03/31/05 04:05 PM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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All that i know about truckers is that they can equip almost any kind of appliance through their ciggarette lighter. They sell electric shavers and the like at trucker stops that plug in. now that is fly
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Tomatadunothing
Stranger
Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 500
Last seen: 18 years, 8 months
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My bro is a trucker for one of the big 7 trucking companies, and I'm just a part time road dawg so I know a little bit, even though I don't have my class A licence.
The dudes that make bank are the dudes driving car carriers and the dudes driving government property with a security clearence.
There are job fairs that trucking companies organize to find new drivers. It's not something that you are likely to get rich doing, but you get to see alot of open road. Most companies will not designate the route you have to take. So long as you make the delivery on time, most folks don't give a crap how you got there.
You gotta pass a piss test, and are subject to random drug testing, but alot of truckers love their ups, as well as mexican brick weed.
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
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Re: truckers [Re: Vvellum]
#3996738 - 03/31/05 05:47 PM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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I drive a big rig every day at work. I haul my construction equipment around with me. But I just drive around town. Never done OTR. I have a Class A w/ Tankers and HazMat endorsements. And a motorcycle license also. I can legally drive almost anything on the road.
I totalled a big rig about 2 years ago....in rush hour traffic! That was exciting!
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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kaiowas
lest we baguette
Registered: 07/14/03
Posts: 5,501
Loc: oz
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jesus man. I'm only assuming here but I'm glad you weren't hurt!
do you drive a motorcycle often?
-------------------- Annnnnnd I had a light saber and my friend was there and I said "you look like an indian" and he said "you look like satan" and he found a stick and a rock and he named the rock ooga booga and he named the stick Stick and we both thought that was pretty funny. We got eaten alive by mosquitos but didn't notice til the next day. I stepped on some glass while wading in the swamp and cut my foot open, didn't bother me til the next day either....yeah it was a good time, ended the night by buying some liquor for minors and drinking nips and going to he diner and eating chicken fingers, and then I went home and went to bed.
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snoopaloop53
No BetterFriend. NoWorse Friend.
Registered: 01/20/05
Posts: 311
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My buddy's girlfriend's cat jumped out the passenger window somewhere in the midwest going about 70. She was really upset, he couldn't drive anymore had to pull over get out of the truck and laugh his ass off.
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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cool man. so what are the routes like? is it common to go across the country or is it just regional? how often is one out on the road?
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 22 days
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Re: truckers [Re: kaiowas]
#3996780 - 03/31/05 05:53 PM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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Just some scratches. The miracle was I managed not to hit anyone else on the road. I think theres an old thread about it from when it happened.
I don't ride my motorcyle much anymore. Just when I feel like it. But I used to ride it to work everyday for a few years.
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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sounds like your friend is an idiot.
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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how do you get such licenses TTS?
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 22 days
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Re: truckers [Re: Vvellum]
#3996869 - 03/31/05 06:03 PM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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Quote:
bi0 said: how do you get such licenses TTS?
Pay your money and take the tests. It realy is that simple. The trick is that you have to provide the truck for testing in and not everyone has access to a big rig.
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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hmm that's weird. guess that's where the trucking companies come in, right?
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 22 days
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Re: truckers [Re: Vvellum]
#3996904 - 03/31/05 06:09 PM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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Yeah, that or trucking schools. I was working for construction companies who provided me with trucks for testing in.
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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Tomatadunothing
Stranger
Registered: 05/16/03
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Last seen: 18 years, 8 months
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Yeah, if you get hired on with a company, they will pay for your education. There's really no saying where you'll be going, but cross country trips are common. There are people that own their own trucks that work for the trucking companies as well as people who use a truck the company provides. The first is called an owner/operator. There are also independent owner/operators that just find customers on their own to haul freight for.
The easiest thing to do is get in touch with one of the big 7 trucking companies. I can only think of England and Swift off the top of my head.
This is a job that you would really have a hard time doing if you smoke pot. Just a warning. You will get piss tested more than once.
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SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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Re: truckers [Re: Vvellum] 1
#3999357 - 04/01/05 09:13 AM (19 years, 1 day ago) |
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I got my class A with all the endorsements about almost two years ago and have been trucking since. I haven?t done the long-haul and would only do so as a last resort. With the freedom of being out on your own, in the open road with your own privacy [assuming you?re driving solo], it is a nice, laidback and easygoing job with it?s unique perks. This is the main reason I ended up choosing it as a profession for the meantime. It certainly isn?t something I intend to do for long-term or ?for life?, of course, as I have larger goals in mind, but it is nice to know that I am making actual money, more than I would in some department store, gas station, fast food restaurant, etc? and most of all in a much more relaxed job than any of those.
What most truckers usually do is go for the long-hauling in the first two or three years until they get their tuition paid off by the company they?re with, and then go for the local driving jobs ? most of which usually require/request two to three years of experience anyway. The local driving jobs are where you will find the higher paying jobs. I?ve heard of guys making 40 dollars an hour driving concrete-spray trucks, but it seems to me that the averagely-high pay is more so around 18 to 20+ an hour. Do the math, and you?ll see that it?s definitely pretty decent money per year.
One thing to keep in mind when it comes to long hauling is: It?s not a job.. It?s a lifestyle.
Here is a great site with hundreds upon hundreds of truckers that visit regularly. They're all a good friendly bunch of people [as you'll often see in the real world] and you'll always get your answers to your questions, and you will get more erudite answers there.
http://www.classadrivers.com/phpBB2/index.php
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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Adamist
ℚṲℰϟ✞ЇѺℵ ℛ∃Åʟḯ†У
Registered: 11/23/01
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Loc: Bloomington, IN
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Re: truckers [Re: Vvellum]
#4000169 - 04/01/05 12:13 PM (19 years, 23 hours ago) |
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I've been telling my cousin he should become a trucker so that I can hitch rides with him all across the country. I think he will, because he's a natural trucker type... (good with driving big vehicles, mechanical stuff, and plus he's pretty burly and likes to talk on CB radios)
Only thing keeping us back is that he's only 19 years old... I guess you have to be at least 21 to get your liscence.
-------------------- { { { ṧ◎ηḯ¢ αʟ¢ℌ℮мƴ } } }
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Gr8fulJ420
strange but nota stranger
Registered: 02/17/01
Posts: 2,778
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Re: truckers [Re: Adamist]
#4000592 - 04/01/05 01:26 PM (19 years, 22 hours ago) |
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Last summer we were out in Colorado before the last night of Dead at Red Rocks. We spent an afternoon hiking up the Loveland Pass. We got back to the car to realize that my lady had locked her keys inside of it! She hitched a lift down the mountain to a resort so she could call a service companey to get us.
While she was gone it started snowing up there and a nice trucker let me and buddy hang out with him and his wife in the cab of his rig during a break he was taking. He told us all about how he used to be a successful business man back with computers and shit back the 70s, but took waaaaay to many drugs (green window-pane,I think he said...), lost his business, home, most of his money.... and an old friend loaned him some money so he could get into a truck driving school and his been doing that since. He was a nice guy. Had a DVD player, surround sound and an XBox in the sleeper section of his cab. And an obnoxious dog that wanted to play with us.
We got back into the car when my lady returned with a mechanic, he left, we saw The Dead that night. :-)
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agr8fulchick
Feed Your Head!
Registered: 08/19/04
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Loc: Stranded in Iowa
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I said I was sorry! Leave it to me to lock us out just before a blizzard
-------------------- Life's a journey. Take the scenic route.
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