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Interstate: Confessions of a Rookie Truck Driver
Oleh Doug Sanderson
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- Penerbit:
- Doug Sanderson
- Dirilis:
- Dec 17, 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781310716416
- Format:
- Buku
Deskripsi
What does a computer programmer do when he can’t find a high tech job? Hey, why not learn to be a long haul truck driver? Join author Doug Sanderson as he maneuvers his way through truck driver school and starts moving freight down the interstates from the front seat of an eighteen wheeler. Learn a little about the lifestyle of a professional driver; the long hours, the log books, the truck stops, and the reasons for the huge turnover in this industry that is so vital to our economy. All this, plus a few humorous stories, are waiting for anyone who chooses to read about this rookie driver trying to make a living out there on America's interstate highway system.
Tindakan Buku
Mulai MembacaInformasi Buku
Interstate: Confessions of a Rookie Truck Driver
Oleh Doug Sanderson
Panjangnya: 251 halaman4 jam
Deskripsi
What does a computer programmer do when he can’t find a high tech job? Hey, why not learn to be a long haul truck driver? Join author Doug Sanderson as he maneuvers his way through truck driver school and starts moving freight down the interstates from the front seat of an eighteen wheeler. Learn a little about the lifestyle of a professional driver; the long hours, the log books, the truck stops, and the reasons for the huge turnover in this industry that is so vital to our economy. All this, plus a few humorous stories, are waiting for anyone who chooses to read about this rookie driver trying to make a living out there on America's interstate highway system.
- Penerbit:
- Doug Sanderson
- Dirilis:
- Dec 17, 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781310716416
- Format:
- Buku
Tentang penulis
Doug Sanderson grew up in Central Iowa, and started writing stories in grade school. With his parents help, he had a private pilot's license before he was out of high school. Other educational pursuits included Bachelor of Science degrees from Iowa State University and Portland State University, with advanced courses from the School of Hard Knocks. Doug's colorful professional careers have included boat building, drafting, long haul truck driving, and computer programming. Doug has also pursued recreational interests in scuba diving, photography, snow skiing, boat building, yachting, windsurfing, whitewater and flat water kayaking, and motorcycling. He now works as a programmer in Norfolk, Virginia, where he lives on his boat and plots future adventures. More information is available at his website seattleboatguy.com .
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Interstate - Doug Sanderson
Interstate: Confessions of a Rookie Truck Driver
by Douglas C. Sanderson
Smashwords Edition
copyright 2014 Douglas C. Sanderson
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication and Acknowledgements
This book is dedicated to my father, Robert B. Sanderson, and my mother, Marjorie E. Sanderson. Together, they made it all possible.
I would also like to thank my editor, Madalyn Stone, for the great job she did at proofreading my original manuscript. She can be contacted at Madalyn.Stone@gmail.com
Cover design by Doug Sanderson. Cover photographs/copyrights by Milos Muller/Shutterstock and David Touchtone/Shutterstock.
"Speed safely and don't feed the bears."
--
Anonymous
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: So, You Want to Be a Truck Driver?
Chapter 2: Student
Chapter 3: Apprentice
Chapter 4: Rookie
Chapter 5: Driving through July
Chapter 6: Enough!
Chapter 7: The Zebra Rookie
Chapter 8: A Bad Day at the Office
Chapter 9: Dispatchers
Chapter 10: How to Kill a Paycheck - Monthly Mileage
Chapter 11: How to Kill a Paycheck - Free Stuff
Chapter 12: Repairs
Chapter 13: Hours of Service
Chapter 14: The Gory Details
Chapter 15: US–Canada Customs
Chapter 16: Winter Driving
Chapter 17: Lady Luck
Chapter 18: From Sea to Shining Sea
Chapter 19: Suggestions for the Successful Driving Career
Chapter 20: Outta Here!
About Doug Sanderson
Other Titles by Doug Sanderson
Introduction
You know, this book is almost true! I really did do all the stupid things described in this book (as well as a few things not described in this book): I went to a truck-driving school with no big rig driving experience; I got my CDL (Commercial Driver's License); and spent nine months driving all over the place. However, I don't believe there is any truck-driving company named Aardvark
or Zebra
(and if there is, well, it is pure coincidence). The fictitious names were invented because I did not wish to arouse the wrath of my former employers— or their lawyers—who might take issue with some of my opinions. I also changed some of the names of the cities I visited. But despite the fictitious names, all the stuff described in this book really happened to me. I believe both of the trucking companies I describe in this book are reasonably representative of many of the larger trucking companies that were running tractor trailers up and down the interstates at the time of my brief driving career.
Speaking of my brief driving career, the events described in this book mostly took place in 2004. I was roughly fifty years old back then, and had mostly worked various white collar jobs up to that point. This book is a snapshot of the trucking industry at that time, so it is reasonable to assume that there have been a few changes between then and now. I would like to think that the world of the truck driver has improved since then, but I have my doubts.
Although some things in the world of commercial truck driving never change, one exception is the federally controlled driving rules. These rules come and go and change over time. Anyway, the point I would like to make is that some of the federal transportation rules I talk about in this book may no longer apply. And, ten years from now, I'm pretty sure the driving laws enforced today will have changed again.
Last of all, I want to mention that everything in this book is written from the perspective of a dumb-shit, rookie driver (and not a terribly talented one at that). A professional driver with a million driving miles under his belt is more than likely going to have a different perspective on things. If you are considering a driving career, this book might give you some things to think about. However, your research should not begin and end with this book. The more professional drivers you can talk to, the better informed you will be when it comes time to make that go/no-go decision on a driving career.
But, enough of these diesel-based caveats! Let’s go truckin’...
Chapter 1
So, You Want to Be a Truck Driver?
Let’s say you pull your car off the interstate one weekend to add a little fuel and grab a can of pop. There is a little restaurant next to the gas station, and a half-dozen long-haul trucks are parked off to the side of the restaurant. (Honest to god, this actually happened to me on I-5 in Southern Washington!) As your car sucks up the remains of a million-year-old jungle and perhaps the odd dinosaur, your mind briefly ponders the concept of being a truck driver. The guys in those trucks are modern-day gypsies, getting paid to tour the country at their employer's expense. They spend a lot of time away from home, but they probably make pretty good money after a couple years of experience. And, when they get hungry, they can grab a meal on the company expense account. A click
from the gas pump handle announces that your car has finished gorging itself on dinosaurs, and it's time for you to get back in the car and finish your trip. As you drive past the six trucks one last time, you have to smile. That vision of the gypsy life of a truck driver is sort of appealing.
It is also totally inaccurate.
To give you a more accurate view of the life of a truck driver, I am going to describe a totally fictitious job that might be easier for you to relate to. Although this job does not exist in the real world, it is alarmingly similar to the life of a truck driver. Let's say you notice a lot of help-wanted advertisements at various local Quickie stores, and since you need a job, you go in one day and apply for the position. This is what the Quickie store manager tells you:
To get a job at the Quickie store, you have to first get trained at the Quickie school, and you have to pay for your training. This training can be anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months, depending on where you get it. The training is several thousand dollars, and although the Quickie store will reimburse you, they will only pay you one hundred dollars each month, so you can plan on working there quite a while before they have paid off your Quickie school expenses.
Once hired, you will start out working under the supervision of the store manager for a while. You will not only work at the Quickie store, but you will also sleep in the back of the store. There will be times when you need to work during the day and other times when you will need to work the night shift. You will work seven days a week at the Quickie store for three to four solid weeks, and then you will be allowed to go home for three to four days before the cycle starts again.
There is no kitchen in the back of the store where you sleep, so you will have to eat a lot of sandwiches or eat out. Either way, you have to pay for your own food. Much of your on- duty time will be up front, running the cash register. You get paid only when you run the cash register. Unfortunately, you will need to spend at least a couple hours each day doing other stuff, like taking inventory of the stock on the shelves or helping to unload a Quickie truck with fresh inventory or just waiting out in the back of the store for the next Quickie truck to come along. There are a lot of things to be done in the Quickie store, but remember, you will only be paid for the time you spend at the cash register. By the way, if the cash register breaks, you don't get paid for waiting while it is being fixed.
You have to keep your time card up-to-date, which shows how much time you spent at the cash register; how much time you spent doing other stuff, like counting inventory; and how much time you spent off duty. If your time card is not up-to-date, and if the police catch you, you will get a big fine (the Quickie store doesn’t pay the fine; you pay it). You must be physically fit to work in the Quickie store, so you have to periodically get a medical exam. If you fail the exam, either now or 20 years from now, your Quickie store career evaporates. If you carelessly but accidentally sell a six-pack of beer to a minor, you can expect to be charged with a felony crime, which will possibly not only mean some jail time, but will also make it tough for you (as a past felon) to find another job anywhere when you get out of jail.
The going rate for this imaginary job in the Quickie store is about $10 per hour for the time you are lucky enough to be running the cash register. But, since you will need a lot of training in your new Quickie store career, you will only get about one hundred dollars per week to live on for the first couple months.
So, what do you think of the job advertisements in all those Quickie store windows? Is it suddenly very obvious to you why the Quickie stores are having such a hard time finding people willing to work for them? If you are thinking that no one in his right mind would accept a job like that, you are probably right. No one, that is, except possibly a truck driver.
Okay, let’s talk about a truck-driving job for a while. You will need some training to become a truck driver. For one thing, driving a big tractor pulling a big trailer takes some getting used to, especially when it comes to things like shifting and backing up. There are also exams you will have to take, similar to the written and driving tests for an automobile license. Whether you decide to enroll in a truck-driving school or the training division of a big truck-driving corporation or at a community college, it will probably cost you several thousand dollars. You are paying for the use of a very expensive piece of machinery, plus the fuel to make it run, plus the wages of the guy teaching you to drive it.
Like the Quickie store, you will likely get your first employer to either partially or fully reimburse you for the money you spent at truck-driving school, but there are two catches: The first catch is that reimbursement will come in slowly, typically around one hundred dollars per month. If you are paid one hundred dollars for tuition reimbursement each month, and you paid four thousand dollars for your training, how long will it take you to pay off your school loan? You do the math. The second catch is that only your first employer will pay you tuition reimbursement. If you change jobs after six months, you can kiss the remainder of your tuition reimbursement good-bye.
Truck drivers are usually paid by the mile. Since a driver going cross-country every day is likely to rack up more miles than a driver making a bunch of local deliveries in city traffic, the cross-country driver may be more likely to get a bigger paycheck at the end of the month than a local driver whose schedule requires a lot of stops as he messes around with all that loading and unloading nonsense. However, the local driver is more likely to see his wife on a regular basis and sleep in his own bed at night, so there is a lot of temptation to take that lower-paying local job. As you get more experience and more seniority, you will probably have more options and a higher hourly rate than a rookie driver. But, regardless of your experience level, it's tough to rise above the fundamental equation of truck driving: more miles = more money.
As in our Quickie store example, a new, rookie truck driver typically trains with a more experienced driver for one or two months. This is not a bad idea, since what you learn in truck-driving school is only the tip of the truck-driving iceberg. In 2004, you could expect to earn less than one hundred dollars per week during this training period. It doesn't take long with a calculator to figure out that a week of work for one hundred dollars does not result in a very impressive hourly wage. The worst part about it is that some trucking companies take the abuse level even higher during this apprenticeship period.
Instead of really training the new guy, some of these poor slobs are looked upon as a cheap way for the senior driver to log lots of miles. In this unfortunate scenario, the senior driver benefits greatly from all the extra miles he can now log (shut up and drive, kid
) and the trucking company benefits from the outrageously cheap labor rate it is paying the rookie (assuming the kid does not bang up the truck too badly). However, this rookie only really learns what little he can pick up on his own and looks forward to the day when his paycheck reflects the fact that he has finally risen above this indentured-servitude phase. Not all trucking companies have bad training programs, but some of them certainly do. Oh, and did I mention that you normally don't get any tuition reimbursement during this have you got what it takes
period?
As I learned more about truck driving, I was amazed at how much free stuff
a truck driver does. Some of the trucking companies will give the driver a few bucks for some of this stuff, but if you drag out the calculator and divide the money you get by the time you spend doing it, it is typically way below minimum wage. Things most drivers do for free include: sitting in a traffic jam, waiting in line at a weigh station, waiting to get cargo loaded or unloaded, and running around various government offices when crossing the border into a different country. You may have heard about someone who likes his job so much he would do it for free. Truck drivers actually get to experience this employment bliss (sort of).
Along with all the free stuff
you do as a truck driver, there is also a lot of stuff that you can get into trouble doing. When I say trouble,
I mean trouble with the police, not just a nasty phone call from your boss (though you are likely to also get the nasty phone call from your boss, too). Some examples of things that can get you in trouble with the police include: out-of-date driving logbooks, driving too many hours, driving an overweight truck, not having the proper documents for the proper state, and speeding.
The speeding thing is so potentially devastating that it requires special mention. In your car, if you drive over the speed limit, you get a ticket. The stakes are higher as a commercial truck driver. If you are caught speeding too often, you get fired. That is not good, but it can get even worse. If a commercial truck driver is caught going 15 mph over the speed limit, it is a reckless-driving felony. Think about that for a minute. You have been driving down the road at 55 mph. You don't see the sign that says the speed limit is now 40 mph. The police pull you over, and suddenly you’re a felon. Felons not only spend time in jail getting to know other interesting felons with colorful histories (bank robbers, murderers, child rapists), but they play hell finding a job (any job) when they get out of jail. Who wants to hire a felon? In theory at least, all this could be your new reality just because you didn't see the sign that said 40 mph.
As a long-haul driver, you can expect to earn a day off for each week of driving. However, keep in mind that a week
of work for a truck driver means seven days, not five days. Let me put it another way. A typical worker labors five days in a row then earns two days off (Saturday and Sunday). The truck driver works seven days in a row then earns one day off, except that you don’t take off day number eight. You keep on driving until you get back home again after several weeks on the road then take all your earned off-days together.
You will also typically be out on the road anywhere from two to six weeks before you see home again. For most truck drivers, a national holiday is just another work day. I think I was driving through Pennsylvania on Christmas Day. When you get home, it might very well be the middle of the week, so getting a weekend off from work will not happen very often. Maybe your weekend
is Wednesday Thursday Friday, and then you are back out on the road for several more weeks. Annual vacations are also less than impressive.
As you can see, there are a lot of people driving trucks down the interstate who work in an employment situation that is alarmingly similar to the fictitious Quickie store example I invented. So, why would any rational human being become a truck driver?
The hands-down best reason to become a truck driver is if you love trucking (or at least you think you might love trucking). You love the heavy machinery, and you are proud of the skill set you have developed to safely operate that machinery. You love to see the different parts of the country and the changing seasons and the sunsets. You love the idea that your boss's office is usually five hundred miles away from your office.
Although there are women truck drivers, the world of truck driving is still mostly a male dominated, politically conservative group. If you thrive on that kind of environment, boy have I got a job for you!
A tempting reason to get into trucking is all those Drivers Wanted!
signs on the back of trucks, or the help-wanted portion of the Sunday paper, or jobs posted on the internet. (Remember all those Help Wanted
signs in the Quickie stores?) As our economy continues its strangle-hold on the middle class, a few escape to the upper class, but most of us poor slobs drop down into a lower-economic strata. It’s hard to find a lot of job opportunities that require a minimum of education. Truck driving might require training, but it does not require a four-year college degree. After a month or so of truck-driving school, you can start earning a paycheck, though it is going to be sort of a joke for the first couple months. However, the paycheck gets better (in theory) as you get more experience. If you are willing to drive cross-country, it gets even better. If you are willing to drive team
(two drivers per truck), it gets even better.
However, there is a terrible price to be paid for long-haul driving: time away from home. If you and your team driver keep that truck rolling down the interstate day after month after year, you don't really have a life any more. Your life
is 55 mph and truck stops and loading docks. What about weekend fishing trips? What about your son's softball game? What about the Wednesday afternoon dental appointment at 2:30? You might just as well be in orbit. For the solo driver, it is perhaps even worse. That guy has all the same time-away-from-home disadvantages as the team drivers, but the poor slob also makes less money because his truck has to stop when he has to sleep. An ideal truck-driving job is like any other ideal job—good pay, good benefits, and something that allows you some recreation and flexibility. There might be a few truck-driving jobs that fit this description, but not many.
So, the romantic gypsy life of the average truck driver is really not all that romantic. It is mostly a bunch of guys making a tough living at low pay. The annual turnover of truck drivers entering and leaving the profession is enormous. I knew some of this before I signed up for truck-driving school, and I figured out much of the rest of it before I earned my first dollar as a truck driver. But, I still did it. The chapters that follow are the true story of yet another of my enrollments into the School of Hard Knocks; the wacky world of long-haul truck driving.
Chapter 2
Student
I sat in front of Danyl's desk filling out the application for admission into the truck-driver school, wondering if I was making the biggest mistake of my mistake-saturated, working life.
ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
After a fifteen-year career in computer programming, I had decided to go sailing for a year or so before returning to the programming business. Two and a half years later, I was back in the Pacific Northwest, rapidly running out of money and completely unable to get back into the programming industry. It was a devastating combination of (1) a resume that lacked the latest and greatest job skills, (2) a resume that lacked any job experience in the last two and a half years, (3) a lousy economy, and (4) the discovery that a programmer in India would
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