[Malaki86]

I've been driving for 12 years now. Every truck you get into will shift different from the last one. I don't care if the trucks came off the assembly line one right after the other and have identical setups, they'll be different. Couple that with not having experience and it just makes it harder. Just keep trying and it'll come to you. Hell, my last driving job had me in 4 different trucks, each one with a different shift pattern. Couple that with the fact that I was working 20 hours each day and getting very little sleep and you could see why I was almost ripping the transmissions out for the first hour or so each day just 'relearning'. When I went to JBHunts orientation, the road-test was in a 'stock' Freightliner with a 10 speed. The problem was that I spent my majority of time in 13 speed at the last job. So, I kept 'forgetting' where the 1st gear on the upper-side of the transmission was. When I was still in driving school, we used a fairly new Mack for the on-the-road driving. But, the day of our driving test at the school (not the cdl test), they put us in a ragged out International cabover. You could literally move the gearshift 2 feet in any direction and STILL be in gear.

It's just part of the game, unfortunately. Hang in there.

[smc1185]

Thank you all keep them coming what about oilfield work I here they offer training or they pay for training any info on that would be great I tried going to the careerlink where I live but they don't know anything about it

[Malaki86]

Not sure where you live, but the gas drilling in this area is still in a huge boom. I gave it a try and quickly walked away. The money is great, but the 20 hour days along with 4-6 hours per day at home quickly destroyed me. My last day at work doing that, I drove into ditches at least 3 times on my way home in my personal vehicle because I was flat-out exhausted and couldn't keep my eyes open. Keep in mind that I only lived 10 miles from the shop. Also, not sure where you live, but it's no fun driving a 65,000lb truck on the back roads in WV. BTW - the truck was rated for 45,000lbs, but they didn't care. Logging it? HAHAHA - there's no possible way to log those kind of hours and make it look anywhere near legal.

[smc1185]

Well I live in western Pennsylvania in a city called new castle pa

[Malaki86]

You're close to me - I'm just outside of Fairmont, WV. So, you'll be running the same types of roads. If you're serious about checking into it, check with the large companies, not the small 5-10 truck operations. They're more likely to keep you legal. Smith Transport out of Roaring Springs, PA (just south of Altoona) runs water trucks in that area. Not sure if they're running up there, but a division of Waste Management, REL, runs water trucks.

Keep in mind that you'll need your tanker endorsement. If you don't have it, it's nothing more than a written test to add it to your license. Most of the tanker work is non-HazMat as well.

Also, if they're doing any pipeline work around there, check into that as well. Most of it is union work, so you can find out if there's any openings at the local Teamsters hall. I put in my application with them and was getting phone calls non-stop. The problem was that I was already working and they always called me while I was out on the road, but needed me on site the following day to start work.

[LogBook]

i would surjest looking at swift,knight,werner, and at orintation let them know you want/need a good trainer to help improve your shifting skills. and make them run solo runs the first few weeks till your comfable. dont let the trainer tell you how you should be doing make him show/teach you. thats what he is getting paid for

[smc1185]

What about water companies anybody know of any by me or at least 20 to 30 miles close