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when I was 18 years old i was homeless.. My family and i were living in a homeless camp in southern california, "Slab City".. I met this old man named William, he was retired but just lived off of social security.. william lived in an old 1964 international school bus... he was very sick and couldnt drive or even walk.. his legs were so swollen he couldnt wear socks and in my memory i thought they were going to burst.. William offered me 100 dollars to drive his bus and take him from Slab City, near El Centro Ca, to Yuba City Ca.. He agreed to buy me a Greyhound Bus ticket back south.. So William and I left Slab City, i was driving the old international Bus, towing on a tow bar a 1961 Chevrolet pickup..William and his dog layed in Williams bed.. My first problem was the old Chevy truck would not follow around corners, when we would go around a corner I would have to stop in the highway, Jump out of the Bus and run back to the pickup and straighten out the front wheels.. late that evening I was pulling up the pass into Yucca Valley California, it was raining and the lights of the bus were getting DIM, the alternator of the Bus went out.. William had no money to replace the alternator. it was a leece neville Alternator and was very expensive.. So I got some 10 guage wire and ran wires from the old Chevrolet Pickup to the batteries on the bus and started the pickup to keep the Bus batteries charged... early the next morning we were going through Apple Valley California when the bus became very loud, the exhaust pipe was very rusty and broke off near the exhaust manifold, We had no way to repair this, so we drove.. by noon we were at kramer junction (four corners) i was making the left turn to go towards Mojave and Bakersfield when the power steering went out, it had power assist, and blew The hose going down to the Cylinder on the axle..Before we left William had four tires put on the back of the bus, they were old Military style tires, they had good tread but were very rotten.. We went over tehachapi and got on Highway 99 at bakersfield.By the time we got to livingston california we had blown every tire on the rear of the bus. the two on the left rear at different times, but the two on the right within seconds of each other, it had the old dayton wheels, each time a tire blew out we would unhook the old pickup and go tire hunting.. we made the trip with no power steering, no alternator, no exhaust and only had two tires on the rear when i got William to his family In yuba City.. I still made the 900 mile trip in less than two days.. and got on the Greyhound back to El centro to make my way back out to the camp where my parents were... William passed away a few Weeks later, This was in january of 1991...
Last edited by virgil tatro; 12-28-2010 at 12:21 AM..
Very short and brief, 5 1/2 weeks and with regret, I got in an argument with my trainer, walked 4 blocks to a Greyhound station and went home. I don't know where I stand now as Swift said I was not rehirable. I guess I'll have to check my DAC, if that's what they still call it.
I suppose their claim is I abandoned the load but my trainer was running 5-state regional dedicated, he signed for most of the loads........I say I'm just a trainee, it's not my load. It was a huge mistake on my part.
This happened about 3 years ago and I had a FL CDL A, went to MI and declined the CDL A just getting the regular operator liscense and then 2 years later was offered my CDL A again in FL, but again declined. Recently I have found a friend that's running regional and says he can get me hired, regardless of my previous lack of experience and whatever may be on the DAC, all they care about is current points, which I have none.
I'm going back to the liscense office soon and see if they offer me my CDL again.
I'm a local HAZMAT tanker driver for a Chemical distributor from Pa.. I drive a radius of 200 miles form Joliet Il. but mainly be around Chicagoland. I do pick-up and delivery for our Over-the-road trucks because some of the tight places we go to do P/U & D. and largely deliver chemicals to costumer direct from our terminal.
On days when they need me on the other side of our building I will hook up to a Box trailer and make deliveries of mostly drums and totes and pick-up of things. I love it cause I don't have my supervisor looking over me every freaking second and saying dumb stuff!
Big Ryde, your post reminded me of one of my first HAZMAT loads:
Picked up MEK (VERY flammable dry cleaning solvent...) from a chemical company South of Pittsburgh. The MEK was in 10-gallon drums that I was to take to a freight forwarder near O'Hare Airport that was air-shipping it to a customer in the Netherlands. The drums were loaded three to a pallet and banded ONLY at the top. I was pretty new but asked the guys on the dock if maybe it shouldn't be banded at the bottom, too. They said "It should be OK". After loading other non-HAZMAT items behind it, they closed the trailer doors and I left.
Enroute to Chicago, a car driver thought that I didn't move back to the right lane fast enough after the construction zone ended, so he was gonna "teach me a lesson". So he slammed on his brakes in front of me just before he "saluted" me and exited. (Sometimes I swear that HAZMAT placards are magnetic; they attract the lunatic drivers...)
When I opened the doors at the receiver, several of the drums had worked loose from the bands but, fortunately, didn't go anywhere since the other cargo held them in place. The best lessons are the cheap ones...
There are many things a trucker will encounter during his career that a worker in a cubicle could never imagine. I hauled a lot of oil field and heavy equipment in and out of Canada in the late 70's. My Pete had a headache rack and a set of tool boxes with a sturdy platform that allowed room to work with pipe when going to rigs. That extra room gave me plenty of space to carry a large Coleman cooler packed with goodies for roadside picnics. I was headed across Glacier National Park (Westbound) on Hwy 2 in Montana to deliver a piece of equipment. It was a beautiful summer evening so I decided to pull over at the rest area at the top of the mountain in G.N.P. During the night I felt the truck moving. I was sure someone was climbing up on my headache rack to steal my chains and binders. I grabbed my pistol and flashlight and got out of the cab as quietly as I could. I hit the ground and snuck around the corner of my headache rack, then flipped on the flashlight yelling something like "freeze M***** F*****" with my flashlight and pistol aimed at the culprit. I was expecting a man not a Black Bear. I don't know who was more afraid, me or the bear. He hit the ground and took off without me even firing a shot. I cleaned up all the groceries he had scattered from my cooler and got back in the truck and got dressed and finished driving to my destination. There was no way I could get back to sleep after that.
Crew Chief, I love tooling around Chicago and people think I'm crazy when I tell them I love going downtown Chicago. Now I'm not talking just in Chicago I'm talking In the Loop where some of the skyscrapers are our customer cause we sell our own brand of Glycol for the cooling and heating system in skyscrapers and huge buildings. When the New Soldier Field opened back in 2002 we were there to pump in the heating and cooling. I sometimes have to make deliveries only on Saturday nights cause it's the only time no one in a hurry to go to work or go home so I can back a 45 ft. tanker trailer down in dark alley. I was the low man on the Totem pole so I always got the stick but I never complained and now when they what someone to even go Downtown I'm the first they ask cause I been down there the most since 2002!
This is an awesome thread. I don't drive big rig but took a few trips that were about 825-850 miles and did it in one day. Seen some beautiful country. I salute you guys.
Crew Chief, I love tooling around Chicago and people think I'm crazy when I tell them I love going downtown Chicago. Now I'm not talking just in Chicago I'm talking In the Loop where some of the skyscrapers are our customer cause we sell our own brand of Glycol for the cooling and heating system in skyscrapers and huge buildings. When the New Soldier Field opened back in 2002 we were there to pump in the heating and cooling. I sometimes have to make deliveries only on Saturday nights cause it's the only time no one in a hurry to go to work or go home so I can back a 45 ft. tanker trailer down in dark alley. I was the low man on the Totem pole so I always got the stick but I never complained and now when they what someone to even go Downtown I'm the first they ask cause I been down there the most since 2002!
Big Ryde, I kinda miss running Chicagoland! You KNOW you're not gonna make time through town, so just tune in to some great radio and relax! (LOVE Nick Biondi!) OH, if you get a chance, listen to WGN's Mike McConnell. I'm not a really big talk fan. And McConnell and I frequently see things differently. But I genuinely enjoyed listening to him when he was on Cincinnati's WLW. He's on from 0830 to 1230, I believe.
Although most of our Chicagoland pickups & deliveries were in nice, roomy industrial parks in the 'burbs, I've had to dodge a few El tracks in my day!
Big Ryde, I kinda miss running Chicagoland! You KNOW you're not gonna make time through town, so just tune in to some great radio and relax! (LOVE Nick Biondi!) OH, if you get a chance, listen to WGN's Mike McConnell. I'm not a really big talk fan. And McConnell and I frequently see things differently. But I genuinely enjoyed listening to him when he was on Cincinnati's WLW. He's on from 0830 to 1230, I believe.
Although most of our Chicagoland pickups & deliveries were in nice, roomy industrial parks in the 'burbs, I've had to dodge a few El tracks in my day!
It's been a Big shake-up at WGN. The old programmer who used to program for Howard Stearn "Pig Vomit" has been fired last month. I don't listen to WGN but I love real radio drama! Since Pig Virus been the head man I guess he ran off the original personalities and supplanted his guys and Mike McConnell was one of them. He started off horribly so bad that the Wigs at WGN made WGN employee's to call the show because they had no one calling in. I don't know if Mike is still on air but last I heard was that the Morning, afternoon, and evening guy was fired. I listen to Sports Radio The Score. It seen to make my day go by faster. And I pace myself daily cause I get paid by the hour.
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(Sometimes I swear that HAZMAT placards are magnetic; they attract the lunatic drivers...)
