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Post by truckertom on Dec 30, 2003 22:43:10 GMT -5
My little girls are in their mid twenties now and mommies themselves. But years ago, when they started missing me too much, I would put them and my wife in a Pete and take off. It was the only way to see them and the owner didn't mind. We did alot of miles and had alot of fun for a few weeks. But reality is going to overtake you sooner or later. They had to go home and back to school.
When I was a little boy, I used to ride with my father. Some children go to bed with stories of the three little pigs. I went to bed to stories about how a 220 Cummins will blow a 2 foot flame out of the stack under a hard pull, and you can turn your headlights off and drive by illuminated flame. He would buy me all the things that my mother disapproved of when we went on the road together.
Oh to be a child again! Keeping a trucking family together takes hard work, you have to make every moment count.
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Post by Drafter1964 on Dec 31, 2003 6:02:52 GMT -5
I aggree Tom with the topic of your Post. The Family does indeed come first. My family is the reason I deceided to change my career, Ironic enough the change ended up to be a career that seems to be the least family friendly in the end. Well since we currently have no children we intend to close up the apartment when the lease is completed, put everything in storage, and hit the road together for a couple of years. First and foremost the reason for this is because we wish to be together as much as possible. Secondly we can save some money for our mutual dream and thirdly we can search for that special place we wish to settle down. I had thought Florida might be that place but the indifference of the state goverment makes me wonder why in the Heck some many people deceide to settle down here. Up until this point we concentrated on large metropolitian areas because that is where the work used to be in the IT Industry. Now we will be looking for something in a rural area. A small ranch where I can finally get a horse for my wife and she can ride to her hearts content. Another reason for the rural area is I can come home from a run and park my truck in the yard without worrying about finding a place to park the dang thing in someones parking lot.
Now it is not my intention to become the dispatchers dream driver, but if I want to make that money the wheels must be turning and they cannot be turning if I am spending time at home with the family. If my family is with me then that gives us the chance to be together and keep those wheels rolling. When we are out there and we deceide we want some time off then we can choose the area which we want to take it without worrying if the company will be able to route us back to Florida. The country is the limit in this case.
If I need to get to Georgia for a certian time period for something we want to do together then I can ask the dispatcher to get us a run to that area. If we happen to be in Vegas and want to take a couple days in that area then a load in that area is the solution. Having my wife with me will solve some issues usually faced by Families. Heck if she gets tired of the road then she can spend some time with her family when I am out on a run and after she has recharged the adventure can continue. I am not saying it will be without problems but from both our viewpoints it will be the one with the least issues.
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Post by truckertom on Dec 31, 2003 7:10:51 GMT -5
I beleive you are describing a Truckers Honeymoon! Ha ha.
I have had alot of driving students that were IT folks, they seem to do really well. But the first few days are really eye openers for them, it is not what they expected from the outside.
Waking up in a new state every day (night) can be fun. You get to see alot of country, after awhile you get to know your fav-o-rite truckstops and sometimes the people in them. Taking a few years to build a nestegg is a good idea plus, when children come along you will have enough experience to get a local/regional job so you can be home for them. I would look into Yellow Freight down the road when it comes time to settle down.
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Post by Drafter1964 on Jan 19, 2004 13:21:04 GMT -5
Thanks Tom,
For the tips. Things might be changing as they often do in life. I have just found out my 18 year old boy is considering leaving Germany and coming over to be with his Papa and step mother. This will change plans around for a while until he gets himself established over here. I can't turn him out on the street so I will have to include him in on any plans I make for the future. I will work with him and get his english polished up until such a time he decides what he would like to do. He may like to become a driver and team with his old man for a while but that will take time because of the min age of 21 that is required for interstate trucking. More on this when I find out more for myself.
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Post by truckertom on Mar 16, 2004 22:23:42 GMT -5
Oh my GOD!!
I had not changed a diaper since my children were babies....I just had to change my grandsons diaper.
I was WAY out of practice! Not prepared for it.
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Post by Maverick Blaquehardt on Mar 18, 2004 10:52:51 GMT -5
There are some Dispatchers out there who need their diapers changed too. Think you could handle that little project TT ? ;D
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Post by truckertom on Apr 4, 2004 15:00:55 GMT -5
"Think you could handle that little project TT ?"
Only if I can bust it a coupla times during the change! I have seen enough (place explicitive here) from dispatchers over the years, I can even pee on a few of their graves!
Just kidding though, I have had some good ones. But you do have to powder their butts once in a while. Gun powder that is. LOL!
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Post by truckertom on Apr 18, 2004 9:33:49 GMT -5
Jason’s Last Day.
Saturday, April the 17. And the Texas sky was clear and welcoming as an old friend at a bar b que cook out. The traffic was mild, roads were in good shape, and even though the world looked as if nothing was happening, there was a milestone being passed in a career. It was Jason’s last day.
When I was younger, Jason asked me to teach him to drive. And even though I never, ever wanted this young son in law of mine to follow me into truck driving, I submitted to the request and taught him how to drive an 18-wheeler. I took him on the same roads that I had taken all my students years before as a driving instructor for the first time. But unlike my students that needed told the same things over and over again, Jason took to it like a duck in water, it was like he was born to it. Years later, after trying to make a living as a driver, and be a father to his children at the same time, he himself became a driving instructor himself and he was a good one. He has in the past five years taught many to drive, and as a driving instructor he is no doubt the best I have ever worked with. But today, after 10 years I finally get my wish, Jason my son in law is no longer a truck driver. April the 17th was his last day as an instructor. And I am proud of him.
Tomorrow morning he begins his career at Union Pacific Railroad. After going to all these hiring seminars for months, he has finally landed the job. In five years he may well be operating a locomotive. His children (my grandchildren) will always have medical insurance, my daughter will never have to drive around town in an uninsured car, while she waits for the Driving Schools payroll check to stop bouncing. They are never going to have to wait two weeks for a late paycheck because the driving school owner decided to go to Las Vegas and spend the payroll on himself. It is a good thing that he is getting out of the driving school business. I will miss my work companion, the rides to and from work together while we laugh at how stupid we are for still being a driving school instructor. Now I will have to laugh alone I guess.
So the world of driving schools has lost another good one, soon to be replaced by another trucker looking for “easy money”. So on with the parade of schools that still do not know the difference between a good instructor and a bad one. Schools that will not do whatever it takes to keep instructors whom their school was built upon.
Sometimes I wish I did not know as much as I do about driving schools, it would make it easier to continue on as an instructor.
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Post by maineiac on May 5, 2004 22:55:40 GMT -5
to tt...head up buddy remember it's only the good ones who care.you may not ever know the good you've done by encouraging that one student to try just a bit harder when they are ready to give up,or taught them just one more time to do the pre trips and saved an accident.
no matter what your job title we are all here to care for and about each other..in the end that's all there is.
blessings all
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Post by truckertom on May 10, 2004 21:37:55 GMT -5
Thanks maineiac, I have been through too many of these schools, and I can say without arrogance that I am one of the best instructors out there. But I don't think I am the type of instructor schools really want.
We are having troubles at our school now because they want to put us all on salary. One that costs the school less than the hourly pay we are making now. And I am making a full $2 less an hour today that I was making in 1991 doing the same job.
We just hired an instructor from another school that we all know. He used to spend much of his day parked at a truckstop rolling cigarettes while his students dry shifted his truck for hours 100 feet away, by them selves. But he doesn't take training seriously! And that makes him a perfect fit in the driving school industry! Look at the fuel milage he is getting!
Instructors like me??? We are just want too much money! So you drive OTR and make $900 a week takehome, oh you may have to pad your log book a little to squeeze that many miles out of it. And the day you go into truckdriver training, you are making $500 gross a week if you are lucky. $400 is the lying recruiters didn't do thier jobs.
I don't know why I am still at this after all these years, I should pack my bags and hit the road!
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Post by maineiac on May 11, 2004 13:41:23 GMT -5
community colleges or voch tech schools in your area?
could you start your own school and accept payments from the major players..swift..schneider ect?
or take a break from that and try mentoring although i read your message about sleepy partner. we could wire up the wheel with electric cattle fence and just make him wear gloves if he falls asleep the zap will wake him.lol
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Post by truckertom on Jun 17, 2004 20:43:58 GMT -5
There are community colleges around, but only one offers driver training and for some reason they seem to attract a crowd that is not going to be good for trucking in the long run. They do a lot of Project Reo work and rehab training, but after having trained rehab folks before, many are looking for a handout from the government. And they get it. But they rarely stick with trucking for long.
We have one student in our school that has been to 4 schools in different states. He has his CDL, and every endorsement you can get. So why is he in our school? Who knows but he paid cash so what are you going to do?
As a long term driving instructor, I know that if I ever want to retire, I will one day have to go back on the road. This is backwards to the way most do it. Alot of instructors are retired truckers looking for a way to make some easy extra money. They eat breakfast, lunch and take all the breaks they want. These are the instructor that will never speak up when their school starts drifting away for it's goal. We now have started the same thing at ours. Our classroom instructor has become the new director. He is retired Air Force as is the owner. We have now hired our old boss from another school as an instructor and I have been hearing some pretty bad things about he and his training.
So after having four schools in our area go under, we are going to hire all the lodge brothers that headed up the now defunct schools to run ours? What sense does that make? But the world keeps turning, and history keeps repeating itself. School owners have been making the same mistakes for decades now, and someone like me that will speak up and warn the owner ahead of time becomes the outcast. It is almost like watching a political party rush big mouthed, opinionated and deaf members to the forefront only to see these same big mouthed idiots turn a political party that was once great into a scrap heap.
But then, who am I? I am just an ignorant truckdriver that watches and listens. When you fire an idiot, there is always another idiot waiting in the wings to replace them.......Driving school owners are impressed with the wrong things.
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