CHANGE CAREERS: Become a Truck Driver

Are you unemployed? Or have you worked in an office for years and want something different to do to earn a living?Are you unemployed? Or have you worked in an office for years and want something different to do to earn a living? I know Doctors, Lawyers, Police Officers, CEO’s, etc. who have decided that after years of service that they were either tired of it, or just didn’t think that their field was worth it anymore.

They are now truck drivers, going all over the country sight seeing and getting paid for it.Anyone can be become a truck driver, provided they are not felons and are not alcoholics or drug abusers. All you have to do is get in touch with an accredited truck driving school. Most company’s now that will only hire from these type of truck driving schools.

Just as when you try to go to work anywhere nowadays you must pass a pretty extensive background check to even be considered for these truck driving schools. Once you get accepted to the school, the first thing you will be required to do is a Drug Test. This is the first of many Drug Test you will endure through out your new career as a Truck driver.

The next step is a DOT Physical, this requirement is to make sure you are physically able to be a Truck Driver. You may want to read through what is involved in the Physical because this is what disqualifies most people from getting into a Truck Driving School.Now that you have this out of the way, you must find a way to pay for this school. Some companies will give you a pre-hire letter. This means that they will offer to pay for this school upfront but you must agree to stay on employed with them until the debit has been paid, usually within a year or so. They will take this out of your check, each week.

Now you have your pre-hire letter and everything is set, the school has called you and set up a time for you to get started. Most schools will provide you with a way to get to the school, and a motel/hotel for you to stay in while in school. Of course you are the one paying for this. They will most likely provide transportation to and from their school to the motel/hotel and DOT physical and Drug Test.Let’s say you will arrive on Sunday before school begins on Monday. You get checked into the motel/hotel, go swimming, get something to eat etc. but do something relaxing.

Because when the school begins it is grueling, they only have 3 weeks to teach you.This is broke down into part classroom work and then part yard/road training.

Here is a table I created from PTDI a school that come highly recommended.

1. Basic Operation - includes Orientation, Control systems, vehicle inspection, basic control, shifting, backing and docking, coupling and un-coupling. 18(22) hours of classroom and 24(29) hours for range and street/road driving. 2. Safe operating practice for Basic Operation - includes visual search, vehicle communication, speed management, space management. 8(10) hours classroom and 17(20) hours street/road driving. 3. Advanced Operating Practices - includes night operations, extreme Driving conditions, Hazard perception, Emergency manuvers/Skid avoidance, Skid control and recovery, Passive (unmarked or uncontrolled) railroad crossings. 14(17) hours of classroom and 3(4) hours of yard/driving. 4. Vehicle Systems and reporting malfunctions - includes Identification and Maintenance, Diagnosing and Reporting malfunctions. 6(7) hours of classroom and 0(0) hours of yard/driving. 5. Non Vehicle activities - includes Handling and Documenting Cargo, Environmental issues, Hours of service requirements, Accident procedures, Managing life on the road/Personal Resources, Trip Planning, Communication Skills.43(52) hours of classroom and 0(0) hours of yard/driving.

This is a total of 148 hours minimum and 178 hours maximum. This school will teach you the basics of truck driving, they will most likely teach enough to know to get your CDL License.So if you can pass a Drug Test, and DOT physical and are not a felon or a drug abuser, and you want to change careers give Truck Driving a chance.

2nd crash kills driver on I-70

A 44-year-old Aurora woman was killed in a chain-reaction accident in which she was standing on Interstate 70 when she was hurled into the path of a tractor-trailer, authorities say.

Yelena A. Lyubimskaya of Aurora was taken to Denver Health Medical Center following the 7:05 p.m. accident Friday and was later pronounced dead, said Gilbert Mares, spokesman for the Colorado State Patrol.

Lyubimskaya was driving west on I-70 just east of E-470 in a gold 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer when she was involved in an accident with a silver 2003 Pontiac Sunfire, Mares said.

After the two vehicles came to a stop, the Sunfire was facing southeast in the right lane and the Trailblazer was facing south with its rear in the left lane, Mares said.

Lyubimskaya had just stepped out of the driver's seat onto the highway when two semis swerved from the right lane into a left lane to avoid a collision.

A red 2005 Freightliner tractor-trailer crashed into the rear of the Trailblazer, spinning it around and throwing Lyubimskaya into the highway. She was struck by the Freightliner, which then climbed up the concrete barrier and rolled onto its right side.

The driver of the Sunfire, Malinda L. Casey, 19, of Bennett, was transported to University of Colorado Hospital with minor injuries.

Roberta L. Strokel, 57, of Tukwila, Wash., who was driving the Freightliner, and a passenger in her semi were not injured.

Trucking is a thankless job

I have been thanked several times in my years of driving a truck. Let's see if I can remember a few of them.
I was involved in a huge accident on I-77 southbound back in 2004 just south of Wytheville,VA. I came upon the "New River Bridge" and the traffic was stopped because of a accident on the bridge. I got my truck stopped about 20 feet from the accident without hitting anyone or anything. The person driving the little car just in front of me "Thanked me" for not running over them.
When out of nowhere a tractor trailer came barreling down the hill behind me, he did not get stopped. He hit me in the back of my tank, did I forget to mention I was pulling a tank? Oh sorry yea, it was full of ACETONE 7000 gallons to be precise. The other driver totaled his truck and my tanker, but thankfully there was no leak or spark.
A company I was supposed to deliver to one time, had to shut down because I refused to run over my hours on my log book in order to make a delivery. Some of the workers "Thanked Me" because they got to go home early.
I made several early deliveries on some major high dollar hauls, and have been thanked for doing this also.
No, I really know what you are saying, about it being a "Thankless Job". Every time there is a accident involving a tractor trailer (we) get blamed for it. Does not matter that the four wheeler that got crushed, it's driver was on the cell phone or reading a newspaper, or putting on her makeup, or doing work on the computer, all while driving down the road at about 15 over the speed limit.
We as Truck Drivers are looked down upon by society, as a lower life form. It has been like this and will be most likely forever. Even though in times of disaster we are lifesavers. Disaster strikes, besides the Red Cross and Fema and the Emergency people, who else gets called into action?
Truck Drivers, we drive all hours of the day and night to deliver water, and supply's to disaster areas. But are they thanked for it? Yea, maybe right at that moment. But a few weeks later that same driver might be delivering in the same town and he/she gets treated the normal way, with no respect because you drive that truck.

Truckers park rigs to protest gas prices

Gas prices have some truckers feeling helpless. In Screven, Georgia, a group of truckers are taking some drastic measures. It’s not a rest area or a campground, but along Highway 84 in Screven, you’ll find some truckers and their families. Ron White says, “I’m telling you, everything is getting so expensive.”

“I don’t know where I’m going from here,” says Eddie Hudson. For most of his life Hudson has been a contract log hauler. He says he remembers the good old days when fuel prices were reasonable. “You can spend from $400 to $600 of fuel to haul 18 to 20 loads.” SOURCE

News Reporters and their “Stories” about Truck drivers

This is a subject that really irritates me to no end. I come across “stories” written by news reporters, that in fact you can tell by reading them they made them upThey did not go out and talk to any real Truck Drivers to get the real “story”. Because they know nobody would read them except a real truck driver. The most recent article was in reference to truckers dodging the scales.

The reporter talked to one truck driver! Then to a guy from NORWAY! and of course to the Texas DPS officer and a person who I might add was completely wrong in who pays for the roads. Wow four people, and came to a conclusion that truckers were dodging the scales. You can view the video and see for your self.

KXAN news is just one of many news agencies I see that do this, they make the story sound worse than it really is. I have in the passed went around weigh stations just because it is very time consuming.

The website they reference to is a very good website, it is chucked full of very good information. Coops Are Open visit them and see!

Cobra Once Again Redefines the CB Radio With the Addition of Bluetooth

Cobra Electronics Announces First-of-its-Kind CB Radio with Bluetooth.Cobra Electronics (Nasdaq:
COBR), the market leader in CB radios, today announced a ground-breaking
new addition to its long-established and trusted CB radio line. Set to
debut at the 2008 Mid-America Trucking Show, March 27-29 in Louisville, the
patent pending 29 LTD BT is the first-ever CB radio to offer Bluetooth(R)
wireless technology, providing drivers with yet another way to communicate
safely and easily.

Two Fatal Accidents in W.V.

Six people have died in two separate accidents on slick West Virginia roads Wednesday. Four people were killed in Jefferson County after the van they were in collided head-on with a tractor-trailer on U.S. Route 340.

Sheriff's Sergeant Robert Sell says the driver of the westbound van lost control due to icy conditions and the van fishtailed into the eastbound lane and was hit by the truck.

Three passengers in the van were pronounced dead at the scene of the 6:40 a.m. accident near Harpers Ferry. The driver later died at Jefferson Memorial Hospital. The names of the victims aren't available at this time.

Poor road conditions are also blamed for a two-vehicle crash on Interstate 77 in Jackson County that claimed two victims.

Chief Deputy B.W. DeWees of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department says a sport utility vehicle slid into the path of a double tractor-trailer. The SUV was trying to pass the truck at about 7:30 a.m. in the Goldtown area.

DeWees identified the victims, who were both in the SUV, as 23-year-old Amanda Vaughn of Vienna and 38-year-old Michael Ferrier of Vincent, Ohio.Source

Three Texas Men Killed In Fiery Car Crash

Three Texas men are dead after a fiery one-car accident that happened just a hundred yards from their destination. Grapevine police suspect speed was a factor in the crash that killed 26-year-old Aubrey Amado of Grapevine, his 27-year-old childhood friend Justin Cartwright of Euless, and 28-year-old co-worker Cory Pratt of Bedford.

Police say they died when the car in which they were riding slammed into the rear of a parked tractor-trailer rig and burst into flames.

Investigators estimate that the car was exceeding 55 miles per hour in a zone with a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour.

They’re not sure who was at the wheel.

Rig hits stalled car on I-78; 2 teens die

The two teenagers from Bethlehem were heading west on I-78 for a Friday night out when a tractor-trailer cut them off and their car stalled. Jessica Turzanski was still relating the story to her mother on the phone when a second truck slammed into her car.

Turzanski, an 18-year-old Liberty High School senior, and her friend, Dametria L. Davis, a 19-year-old waitress who graduated from Liberty in 2006, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which occurred about 10 p.m. in Tilden Township, Berks County.

Charges are not expected to be filed against the truck driver, said Trooper Kevin Wackley ''It appears to be bad luck,'' he said.Roxanne Davis, Dametria's mother, sat quietly at a kitchen table piled high with food from friends as teary family members sat in her Bethlehem living room Saturday afternoon.

''Anytime you've got to bury your child, it's a nightmare,'' she said.

Twelve hours after two Bethlehem police officers knocked on her door around 4 a.m. to tell her Dametria had been killed, Roxanne Davis said she was still in shock.

Veronica Duggan, Dametria Davis' cousin, said she thought it likely the two teens were headed to a dance club in Hamburg when the accident occurred.

The truck driver, Mark Scali, 52, of Brookfield, Ohio, was uninjured in the crash, which is under investigation, police said. They would not say who owned the truck, what Scali was hauling or where he was headed.

Turzanski's car had stalled in the right lane on a bridge over the Schuylkill River where there was no shoulder, Wackley said. Upon impact, it was pinned between the side of the truck and the concrete barrier on the north side of the bridge.

The westbound lane of I-78 was shut down for about five hours after the accident.

Relatives of both girls said Turzanski was on her cell phone explaining to her mother, Susan, how they became stuck on the bridge when Susan Turzanski heard the phone go dead. Susan Turzanski declined to speak to a reporter Saturday.

Turzanski's aunt, Patti Klapshar, called her a ''fun, beautiful girl with a lot of friends.'' She said, ''She loved going out and hanging out with her friends.''

Turzanski, of Blossom Lane, worked at Maryland Fried Chicken in Bethlehem for the past two years and planned to study restaurant and hotel management at Northampton Community College after her anticipated graduation from Liberty in June, Klapshar said.

She was supposed to work an evening shift at the fast food restaurant on Stefko Boulevard on Saturday, said manager Gary Jacoby. Co-worker Megan Fox described Turzanski as strong-willed and opinionated.

''She would fight for what she believed in,'' Fox said.

Turzanski and Davis shared a love of shopping, hip-hop music and going out, according to their family, friends and co-workers.

Davis had been working for three years as a waitress at Atria Senior Living in Bethlehem and planned to become a dental hygienist.

''She was committed to serving our residents ,'' said Renee Martini, of Atria's human resources department .

The teen's siblings, Kendra Davis, 23, Phuquan Duggan, 14, wiped away tears as they described their sister.

Kendra Davis recalled how her younger sister loved the color pink and played up a pink motif in her bedroom. She liked to listen to Lil' Wayne and sing in the shower -- badly, her sister said. And she loved studying French at Liberty High School, where she also was a cheerleader, member of the Key Club, Students Against Drunk Driving, and the Take Action Club, which raised money for victims of national tragedies like Hurricane Katrina.

Liberty Principal Joann Durante was making arrangements Saturday for grief counseling for students. ''It's going to be a very difficult Monday ,'' she said. ''It's a major loss for the Liberty High School community.''

A viewing for Davis will be held from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Pearson Funeral Home in Bethlehem, followed by a service.

A service will be held for Turzanski at St. Peter and Paul's Byzantine Catholic Church, Klapshar said.

Drivers Advised To Stay Off Roads

MILWAUKEE -- Sub-zero temperatures and high winds caused hazardous driving conditions statewide. The Wisconsin Emergency Management Center said motorists are urged to stay off the roads unless travel is necessary.

Because of the very cold temperatures, road salt will not be effective on icy roads.According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, most roads in the southern part of the state are ice covered and slippery.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department urged drivers to be cautious of the icy road conditions. Police said they responded to nearly two-dozen spinouts overnight.

In Dane County, Wisconsin State Patrol shut down Interstate 39/90 near Stoughton in both directions this morning because of an accident involving a car and semi.

The Wisconsin State Patrol says it has cleared the crash, however, the highway is still icy, and traffic back-ups should be expected.

This is the same area where hundreds of motorists were stranded last week during a traffic backup amid heavy snowfall.

The Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department said all roads are experiencing extreme drifting, particularly the north-south roads.

No roads in Sheboygan County have been closed. The sheriff's department recommends if anyone needs to travel, he or she should try to stay on state highways as they may be in better condition than the secondary roads, have a cell phone, ample fuel, extra clothing and possibly even food to care for oneself in the event a person should become stuck.

For winter road conditions, check the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's Web site.