To all you newbies - it really isn't so complicated that you need a 15-Step Program to succeed as a trucker. Just go to work and do your job to the best of your abilities and it will all work out. Don't expect a lot of pats on the back, or positive reinforcement for doing your job. With experience you will learn the "little things" that make your job easier and you a more productive employee.

I hit the "magical" four in 2-years. I am eligible for rehire at all of them. You gotta kiss a lot of toads to find a prince/princess.

 

I vote that catalinaflyer stays with LoneStar. The flatbed choices in Sharon, PA are Falcon, Yourga, Strimbu, and PI&I. None compare to LoneStar. I saw in The Herald's online edition that Yourga had a pretty substantial fire at their terminal. $70K a year in the Shenango Valley is BIG MONEY.

 

Great post steelhauler......I like the above quoted part in rule #1 as I have said it (and done it) myself time and time again to those looking to get into the industry. Research, research, and more research is just one of several keys to success.

 

Does this mean you have had four jobs in two years?

 

I'm thinking theyre's som confusion about my location. I don't live in or anywhere near Sharon, PA, in fact my home is 1015 miles due east in Kansas. Sharon is where I stopped at on Christmas Eve to pick up a load going through my house to Ehrinburg, AZ. The load as it turns out was over 14'6" tall after it was loaded on my double drop RGN. I'm not eligable to haul that height with LS as it requires a level 2 driver and I'm only a level 1 which means I can go 13' wide, 95' long, 14' high and up to 120,000#. The load in Sharon fit everything except the height and that required a level 2 or 3 to haul it. The problem came in when they sent me a loaded trailer going to Gonzales, LA and I was supposed to be going home to Kansas.

In retospect I should have just went home then back to Gonzales. I ran into a driver this morning who had loaded in Michigan going to Florida and went home to Texas for Christmas. Says he does it all the time and they have never said a word. Puzzling, I don't want to throw anyone the bus but I would really like to know if the powers in charge allow this. Somewhere around 1000 miles extra and if I had ran home it would have been around 700 miles extra. Maybe my bad for never asking the question.

 

I thought Steelhauler passed?
Hit head on by a drunken bullhauler?
Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.
Just watched Poltergeist on blu-ray...Maybe I'm playin head games with myself..

And why are we tolerating Warm Dry Draft again??

 

Wow, a thousand extra out-of-route miles all of the time and no-one says anything? I'd take that with a grain of salt if I were you. I just ran 200 empty to get home for Christmas but that was for a holiday. I've never heard of a company letting its drivers do that on a regular basis.
Anyone out there know of companies that do this?

 

Kinda like looking for a wife at a strip joint?:lol: Sometimes people only think they are kissing a toad. In todays society, we all want what we dont have, we all think someone is out to screw us, sometimes we have assured ourselves so much that its the wrong fit, that in turn we actually sabotage our chances of seeing through the BS. Kinda like when I worked at a local Ford dealership years ago. Of course, I thought they were a "toad" and was out to screw me, etc,etc,etc. So I left because I was hired away by another dealership...well long story short. I realized only years later, it was mostly in my head, things are worse, the grass can be crabby in another place, still yet we assure ourselves the "next best thing is around the corner"...chances are someone looking at it like that, will wear a few sets of lips out before they kiss a princess

 

Yes 4 jobs in two years and soon to 5 in 29-months!

It's not hard. Figure we all go to a "training" company out of school. You leave them as soon as you get 6-months, lo and behold you are now with a glorified training company. You get out of there, and now you have a year of experience. You go to the better class of companies that require a year of experience. Spend a year there, and find out that there are even more options for a driver with 2-years of experience, a clean MVR, a clean DAC, and presents himself well. Voila, 4 jobs in two years.

I like the "free agency" aspect of trucking. Prior to "holding a steering wheel" I was all wrapped up in a career and doing all the "right" things. In trucking, you can always tell them to screw off and have another job tomorrow. Granted, I haven't told anyone to go screw themselves, because that isn't me.

In a sense steelhauler is correct because it is me! But, I have a great attitude. But I am also like a kid in a candy store, or an 18-year old in the brothel with a fist full of $50's!

It's not hard to be a good driver. Pick up and deliver on time and don't hit things. To maintain your sanity - don't try to anticipate anything and don't even think there is a quid pro quo when you do a "favor" for a dispatcher.

Well I see how easy it is to come up with a 15-step program, or just a long rambling post. My response could have been one three letter word. Instead, I blathered on.....

 

Maybe LoneStar allows it for holidays and special events?