Trucking USA

I’ve been there and I know what you go through. Dispatchers tend to pretend they don’t know the law or worse-could care less for your life.
Let’s put you in a situation. Let’s say you’re coming out of Sacramento and you see the signs ahead ‘chains required’. You don’t know yet, what the real conditions are [...]

I’ll have to admit, I’ve spent nights in some pretty unsavory places. Sometimes, my family with me and my daughter staring nervously into the mirrors to make sure nobody was messing with the trailer.
Of course, I’ve also spent the night in a huge truck stop where my fuel level miraculously went down, while I [...]

On cdlofit.ning.com I had to stop the emails from notifying me of new replies. Someone started a blog about catching a guy taking a piss near the entrance to the truckstop and it started a fire storm.
What a subject and for sure, everyone has an opinion – mostly good.
It truly is hard to take care [...]

I don’t care if you’re company, lease driver or O.O., you will either find yourself living by a set of rules or you will fail as a long haul driver.
Just like at home, if you live over your budget, you will go without for a few days to make up for it. The same on [...]

When I first started out in trucking, I had hair down to my butt. Don’t you know, when I stopped to shower, it took me over an hour because of tending to that hair.
It wasn’t long before I decided, that for the convenience on the road, I cut my hair short. Having naturally curly hair, [...]

Especially if you are new to the industry. This writing is in the hopes of keeping women safe on the road.
First, let me say that if there’s any way for you to go it solo, you’re better off. Even if it’s scary, at first.
I do realize that even if you plan to drive solo, you [...]

This is for all the stranded Arrow drivers. There is a massive move to help you folks get home. There is also the beginnings of a collection to be presented to the most needy of the bunch. More news on that, later.
Right now you can sign on to these sites and find help from other [...]

Back in the day, we ran convoy as often as possible. That is to say, the ‘garbage haulers’ as they used to call us. Hauling fresh produce from CA to NY. I guess they called it ‘garbage hauler’ because in the old days, it wasn’t a refrigerated unit, it was ice and re-ice across the [...]

Guys have their secrets. So do the ladies.
Eating on the road is expensive and, in the winter, exposes you to all the more germs floating around in the air. I was deathly sick, once, while out on a run and from that day on, I did everything in my power to keep from being exposed. [...]

In the heart of Knoxville on I-40, traffic was being directed off the freeway and back on because of a wreck that spread from the underpass to almost the end of the on ramp.
This, of course, was back in the day of driver’s helping driver’s. I was in the bunk and my co-driver, driving. He [...]

This was an incident that happened to a friend of mine, many years ago. A trucker, hauling furniture.
You have to remember that back in the day, there were no interstates. The finest of highways were divided 4 lanes with side traffic.
In this particular situation, he was on a 2 lane road, driving on packed snow [...]

This one I heard from another driver, many years ago. It seems the boss sent his nephew out with one of this drivers. Not in the same truck, just on the same run but both had their own truck.
Back in those days, it was common to see a driver taking a nap on the steering [...]

Know what state this is?

I’ll try to draw the picture for you, so that you can get a better feel as to whether you might like it as a career. Better to hear all the truth up front, before wasting your time. Right?
I can describe  more than one scenario.
Long haul trucking.
A brief tag name for driving anywhere in the [...]

Or should I say, ‘mis-adventures’. Yup, those were the good old days.
I was working with a friend of mine, who hauled containerized furniture on a step deck. He wanted me to learn the business.
Out of 3 tarps, I don’t think there was a one that weighed less than 300 pounds. So one of the first [...]