Long Haul Trucking

I made one more trip, this was my last one, I promise. As I was talking to my boss, we were discussing what I was going to do after trucking and he mentions when am I going to give up the heroin? This is my last time, really, I swear I won’t do this any more. I can quit any time I want to!

Anyone that knows anything about addictions knows the love – hate relationship involved in any addiction. The definition of addiction is that it’s progressive, meaning it gets worse and worse. If it’s interfering with your life and you’re entire life’s goal is centered on getting another fix of a drug, cookie or a NASCAR race, it could be an addiction.

Trucking definitely qualifies. It’s progressive, takes over your life, the people stuck in this addiction realize it’s killing them and they need to do something else, but they can’t. Your entire life is centered around the truck, every dime you make goes back into the truck one way or another. You might think you’re making a good living at first, but all of a sudden, you’re 67 years old, you’re still driving and broke, especially now. There are more than a few examples of drivers that have to drive because they have no other way to make money and they didn’t save money for their future, it all went into the truck, because the truck makes the money and it has to be kept running no matter what.

I’m not saying every driver is like that. There are drivers that have been successful, have saved money and may be driving because they enjoy it. There are people that can take a few drinks without bingeing and passing out too. Those with the curse, know they have it and can’t do much about it and may not want to do anything about it.

I’m not quitting cold turkey, I’ve already made arrangements to go into the office and play Safety Manager once a week (it’s a small company), if things pick up and it actually becomes busy, we’ll renegotiate. But for now, it’s some pocket change so I can keep my Big Mac addiction alive and well.

The boss was saying that I’m going to miss the truck. He still has his truck but misses driving it. I’ll miss my truck like a ex-junkie misses his kit, but it’s something I need to do, so I can go on with the rest of my life. We’ll get an RV if I really have to out on the road someday.

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The day I completed and passed my A+ tests I updated all my online resumes. Careerbuilder, Monster etc… That same day I get a call from a recruiter from one of the IT staffing companies in town, checking to see if I’m available for a contract (temporary) computer support job. I won’t find out if I even have a chance to interview till next week, but it was kind of cool to get called like that.

A real corporate type interview; You know when the last time I had to do that was? A long, long, long time ago. This will be the test, if I can get an interview, a job and still do 12 credits (4 classes) in my voluminous spare time.  It’s not like I’m done dealing with the truck either, I still have to do something with it. Now that the camshaft is fixed, I need to get the generator fixed. It will be nice when I’m out to have the microwave working again. Put it in the shop next week while family is in town and I’m not going anywhere anyway.

I’m now studying for my Network+ certification. I already paid for the test (at the 50% school discount), took the class the previous semester and trying to study and take it before the next semester starts on 6/08. Plus the recruiter said it would help if I had it. I feel like I’m cramming, but I’m not. I already went through the book and class once so this is just a review. Except I waited long enough that now the test has been updated. Networking is going back to my roots. I was into networking before there was an Internet. At least before it became popular. The concepts, terminology and even some of the equipment are the same (but updated), it’s like one big refresher course.

Since this might be (if I even get it) my first job interview for a tech position in a long time, I’m not holding my breath. If I don’t get it, it will be good practice and I still have enough school to keep me busy this summer.

I’m going to study in the mornings then go into the office for a half day or two to see how the freight biz is going. When we brought the truck back to the office, the parking lot had a lot of trucks in it. But most everyone likes to be home on the weekends so it wasn’t that unusual.

I know my “empire” is supposed to be supporting me by now, but I like the studying and I want to work. That may change once I get there, but for now that’s what I want and it seems to be working out that way. The empire will always be there and will be something to fall back on if I need it.

Okay, so this is really the state of MY trucking. I still have a truck and now I’m leased to the previous company doing pad wrap freight in Las Vegas. The deal I have with the owner is, I can do what I want. I can go in the office and help dispatch look for loads, go out on sales calls, or I might straighten out the safety office. If I go in a few days a week, keep going to school, my boss ( the owner ) even signed up for a few classes when I did, so we’re going to school together kind of, it’s still online, but by fall, I may need to actually go to class.

It’s still a fluid decision and could change at any moment, but right now, I’m only doing loads out and back. A couple a month, I can make the truck payment. It’s really not good to lose the truck and have it taken back by the bank, especially since it only has another year to go to be paid off. If I can keep up the payments with a couple of trips a month, fine, if not, then it’s back to the original plan. If freight starts picking up, I’ll find someone to drive it and work in the office. That’s a plan and it depends on what happens that will determine how things progress.

I really haven’t been home any longer than usual yet. I’ve been cleaning out the truck. Volvos have a lot of storage inside and after three years I didn’t realize how much stuff had accumulated. Even if I happen to drive some more short trips, I’m only going to pack what I need for one trip. I want the truck ready to sell and be able to clean it out in a few minutes.

I can go into the Bohemian office and basically do what I want, dispatch, find my own loads, whatever. I’ve been talking to the owner and since I left on good terms and things have changed in the office I can go back like nothing happened.

Besides cleaning out the truck, I’ve signed up for four classes this summer and I can register for Fall classes later this week. After this summer I’ll have 27 credits out of the 61 for an AAS, plus all of the certifications I can test for. If a computer job comes up fine, if not I’ll have plenty of practice trying to get one. Bohemian has their server that runs Windows Server on site in the office so I can get some actual experience with that instead of the Linux servers my websites are on while at the same time expanding my website empire to make more money that way too.

As far as plans go, it depends what happens. We have plans that will cover most everything that we can foresee coming up. I’m not stressing over the truck or anything else right now because we’ve been planning for this day for a couple of years. It may have come a little early, but we’re flexible and see it as a good thing.

I need to get into a daily routine so I don’t just sit around the house, because after a while I may be sitting arouuund the house.  I’ve run out of excuses not to exercise, eat healthy and be active. I haven’t seen much TV in the last few years and that’s probably a good thing.

As far as Clark Transfer goes, the couple of posts on Adventures in Trucking about Driving for Clark Transfer show up on the same search page and are actually seeing traffic. They’re really not worth my time, but mess with my last paycheck and things might change. I don’t even need to show them on my resume, I can keep Bohemian on and stretch through those few months and no one will even know or care.

I’m now fifty and it’s almost like when I turned forty. I had nothing, then started driving a truck. At fifty, I’m trying to get out of trucking without losing everything again. It’s not working so well. At forty, it was through my own stupidity, this time will be different. I need a career change, not only for myself, but for my marriage and the rest of our financial well being.

Trucking has become a black hole. The truck always needs something, the generator that’s supposed to be saving me money, is costing more than it’s saving. I’ve always said, it’s not how much you drive it’s how much you make. I’m making less here because of all the bobtail and empty miles that are paid different than loaded.

At forty, I had no choice during my career change, at least this time I have a choice and actually have some sort of plan. Several of the other truckers whose blogs I read, are going through tough times as well.

Last time I really lost everything, house, car, wife, job, savings, retirement, everything. Trucking happened at the right time. I had a place to live, it was kind of small and all the work I could handle.

This time will be different because I’m not technically losing everything. I have a house and a hard working, wonderful wife that is willing to support me during this transition.

What if she loses her job? She hands out food stamps and sadly, business is booming. The plan is to go back to school full time, (go back? I never went. Except for high school, that was it) and work part time until something comes up. She still has her CDL and worse case we go back on the road.

What if trucking turns around and you’re making money? I’ve got to get home. Staying out three, four, five, six weeks at a time is no way to have a marriage.

This company and other companies that do show business are good for teams and singles with no homes. We were living like that once, but not now. If we have to again, we will, but for now, I’m going to be trucking until the time is right.

I made if home for Christmas after one of the worst drives I’ve had in a long time. I was always trying to drive ahead of some weather system or just keep driving through it. I missed a big snow storm in the Northeast and I drove as fast as I could to get in as much driving before more ice and snow hit the Midwest. Wyoming was the worst, usually is. Elk Mountain on I-80 must not have any weather stations or no one cares what the weather is up there because I can look on the internet at three different weather sites and they all say everything is fine on I80 through Wyoming.

I Hate Driving in the Snow

It wasn’t really snowing, but the high winds (thankful for the 42,000 lbs in the trailer to keep me on the road) blew the snow that was there, not only across the road, but high enough to block everyone’s vision. It was worse than fog. There were times I could barely see the hood of my truck. Thankfully, I was able to stop in time when I saw a stopped truck in front of me. Most everyone drove real slow and kept in contact on the radio.

When I stopped at the Little America later that night, the story on the CB was that I-80 going east was closed because of the white out, trucks collided and someone died. I couldn’t find a news report, but Elk Mountain probably doesn’t get much press either. No one cares about that place except for the Elk and Antelopes.

I made it to my delivery a day ahead so I wouldn’t have to drive far if there was any weather. Good plan, because there was. After delivering, I’m heading west to drop the trailer before heading south. I chained up for Donner’s then sat in a traffic jam for two hours because of some wreck up ahead.

I Hate Traffic, Driving in the Snow and Snow Chains

Because of the wreck everyone was bunched together, so the de-chaining area was packed. Trucks and cars were using the regular shoulder so the rest of us had to drive in the left lane to keep from killing someone. Of course there were a few idiots that just saw an empty lane and used it. I stopped one place, didn’t like it because traffic was too close. I drove a little further, found an off ramp and pulled off enough so I was out of the slow lane, but blocking the on ramp a little. At least, the percentage was smaller that someone was actually going to use that off ramp. What a mess.

No More Mama Mia in Las Vegas

The rest of the trip was a piece of cake after that. And now after working in Phoenix last weekend and I’m picking up the closing of Mama Mia in Vegas this week I’m thankful not only for being home, but for not being in the weather. Even though it snowed in Vegas last week, it’s all gone, it’s still cold (for around here). Here’s some video of the snow in Las Vegas in case you missed it.

Cindy had always wanted to see Mama Mia, so a couple of years ago on Valentines Day we went and saw it and had a great time.

Hello to all my friends and family,  I was blessed to be offered from the State of Nevada, Division of Welfare and Supportive Services a position titled, Family Supportive Services I, or as they call it FSSI.

I began September 8th, along with 20 others became the 34th Academy to graduate on December 10th with ceremony. We can invite our families so I hope Wayne will be in town.  Our first week was full of the normal paperwork and passwords to access the different systems we will be working on.  After fingerprinting on Thursday morning we went to our different field offices and met and observed all the different functions in the Welfare Office.  We watched the clerks in the front office handle lines of people waiting for hours.  The Social Workers counselled  women that were theredue to domestic violence issues.  Our function will be processing requests for different welfare programs and taking appointments to discuss and educate those needing to use the system. 

Case Workers will be our title to those that come in to apply.  Then that is broken down into the intake case worker which has the client complete the proper forms needed to process the claim.  Then once it has been processed and they are eligible then it is moved to another unit called on-going case workers. Amoung other functions we will be studying the Food Stamp program when we return to class on Monday.  Our next scheduled time in the field will be in 1 month and we will stay for 1-2 weeks conducting interviews for new claims.  I am still working on my Bachelor’s Degree in Human Services/Management and should be graduating in June ‘09.

Back to work? I think I forgot how to drive, I’ve been home 19 days. A lot has happened in those 19 days. I started three online computer tech classes at the Community College, Cindy’s family flew into Vegas then drove to San Diego for the wedding of Cindy’s niece and the best news, Cindy received an offer from the State of Nevada for a position as a Family Services Specialist 1 starting September 8th.

We’re both completely in shock how everything is coming together. A plan we started over a year ago and have worked incredibly hard for, especially Cindy doing extremely well in school while working part-time and now the job she wanted in her field is now being rewarded.  A major goal of our plan can be checked off.  After three months of training, she will be assigned a social services position somewhere in the city while she finishes her last year of her BA in Human Services. She gave her two week notice for Macy’s and will now be making more money than her boss at Macy’s. Honestly, part time after all the deductions, I think we broke even on the gas. Good thing it was only four miles away. But at the time, every little bit helped.

After having to rely on trucking for a majority of our income and way too much money on our credit cards, finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. I can keep trucking and going to school while we get caught up. Now that trucking isn’t our only source of income, there won’t be as much pressure to stay out for months at a time. I’ll be able to cherry pick my loads more and won’t be concerned as much about sitting and waiting for a load. I’ll have plenty of studying and test taking to keep me busy on extended layovers. And will be able to stay home longer than a few days which will definitely help my mental health and our marriage.

Picture is ours from a few years ago when we were driving together on I-10 in west Texas, part of a double rainbow.

My online classes started today. Watched two lectures and took a quiz. Found out that one of the classes I’m taking for th A+ Certification is only half of the test prep. The certification includes both hardware and operating systems. I’m taking the hardware class. There’s another partner operating system class that uses the same book I already have. So, I sign up for another class. The schedule looks pretty easy. A chapter or two a week a small quiz with a mid-term and a final.

I’m not trucking till Thursday, so I might as well spend the next few days getting ahead of schedule. Shouldn’t be too hard. It’s mostly basic stuff. Read a chapter, take the practice quiz, watch a lecture which is the same as the chapter in the book, take a small quiz and repeat. If I fall behind, fall has a few holidays where I’m pretty sure I won’t be trucking much.

Got the truck out of the shop today. I’m really starting to hate trucking and everything associated with it.

I’ve been home for more than a week. Dropped the truck in the locked yard and forgot about it. I have an air leak that needs worked on and a few pads to fold still. I had a possible load for Thursday, so we went and got the truck on Wed to get the air leak fixed and the annual inspection done. We get to the yard and damn! No one burned the truck down! I guess I have to keep trucking. I go to a nearby truck stop with a shop for the air leak and the inspection and wait. I’m the next truck, but the truck in front of me is waiting for parts. Why they shut the shop down to wait for parts I don’t know. Finally I get in and they can’t fix the air leak I have to go to Volvo.

Since I waited, I had the trailer inspected and it passed, took the truck to the dealer and came back home. Turned down a team load to Manhatten. It paid really well, but I’m didn’t really feel like doing 2800 miles in two and a half days. The truth is I really don’t feel like driving around the block, let alone to NYC. I’m really getting sick of trucking. Especially now that we have a plan and I’ve actually started studying for a couple of computer certifications. After these two classes I’ll be able to test for the A+ and Network+ certifications. Won’t get me a job because everyone still wants experience on top of the certifications, but at least it’s a start, even an entry level computer tech job somewhere would help pay the bills so I can stay home and keep going to school. At least that’s the plan.

Until the plan is further along, I’ll keep driving. The driving part of trucking is still pretty great. I can deal with traffic and construction backups. Driving is only a small part of trucking, it’s all the other crap that I’m getting tired of. The lack of work, the waiting and the general bs at shippers and receivers, having to go where trucks shouldn’t be allowed to go in the first place and just the normal everyday crap.

I did the Blog Talk Radio show with Allen yesterday and it went pretty well. Was expecting a few idiots to call in and call me whatever because I didn’t agree on striking, but it didn’t happen. Here’s the link to go listen to the show. Blog Talk Radio or use the widget thing here –