Better Days

Now that I am a trucker, things get better with time and experience. I remember one of the early trips took me to Center, Colorado.
After loading a roof system at the Truss Joist factory in Boise, I was routed through Utah again. This took me through Salt Lake City, Spanish Fork and over Soldier's Summit to travel via Moab, Utah and Cortez, Colorado. The thing I was not aware of was Wolf Creek Pass. As I headed East out of Pagosa Springs, it looked like I was headed into a box canyon.
The further I went the more it looked like there was no way over the mountain from where I was. The highway, if you could call it that, suddenly began a series of switch backs and twenty mile an hour turns and a seven or eight percent grade. The old B61 Mack I was herding had me down to second and under in the Tri-plex transmission. We are traveling at a whopping ten miles per hour.
After about eight miles of up grade we finally made the summit and looked at a sign warning truckers of six miles of seven per cent down grade ahead. No Jake Brake on a Thermodyne Mack Engine, so second and over was a pretty good gear selection for down the mountain, after stopping for a brake adjustment, (no self adjusting slack adjusters back then).
Leaving the summit, I soon found out I needed to gear down to slow the truck and save my brakes from burning. Down through the tunnel and in the valley, through Del Norte and on to Center we went. It went a little better than Orville "Hauli'n Chickens" (from the song "Wolf Creek Pass"). He was headed West and had the tunnel on the wrong side of the mountain.
This adventure ended with unloading at the new high school gym in Center and I was sent back to Boise empty. This freight was based on round trip rate per mile. It would be good to be home for the week end.
Remember to Truck Safely out There.

First Solo Trip

Wow!! On the road with my first solo OTR assignment makes me feel I have made it. Boy, was I wrong. The things that followed were world class jitters generating.
My truck was an International single drive axle gas rig pulling a single axle 35' trailer fitted with a 10' extension making it 45'. I loaded building roof trusses going to Colorado. Loaded, pretipped and ready I rolled out of Boise. The roads were not freeways, so down through Boise city, through downtown Mountain Home and the first hurdle. That was the King Hill weigh station. Red light, the signal to bring in your papers. After confronting the Weighmaster and passing with flying colors, I am off down the road.
After a lunch stop at Bliss, I rolled on without a problem to the next Weigh Station at Cotterel, Idaho. No problems here so on to Utah. The first stop there was the old weigh station at Perry on "fruit row", past Brigham City. Red light again and bring your papers and log book into the station. Here I learned what truck registration was all about. I needed a trip permit, special fuel permit, authority letter and anything else they could or couldn't find in the registration book. After buying the permits (later found out I didn't need a special fuel permit for gas), I headed for Spanish Fork, Utah.
Time to take a break, which should mean get a room for the night because I am driving a day cab truck. Back in those days we were expected to carry a bed role and make out the best we could. A room would come out of your wages, so curl up on the seat (lucky it was a bench).
Next day on to Grand Junction, and my first delivery, which came off without a hitch. After unload and refuel, myself and the truck, I headed East to Evergreen, Colorado. That meant over Loveland Pass, (The long bathroom tunnel was not there) over the Continental Divide, a route I had not been on. The experience was one of many to come, but I made it and delivered on time with no more problems.
So much for trip one as a professional truck driver. I was feeling pretty good about myself. That feeling would be short lived, but sure felt good right now.
That's it for now, more to come later. Truck Safely out There.

Fathers Day

Fathers day is so special to family and very hard on truckers who don't have weekends, holidays or special times off without planning ahead, way ahead. Most of my fathers days were celebrated when I got back home from a trip. It is part of what makes Mothers so special.
The days on the highway are made easier by a very understanding partner, the wife and mother of your children. This is the Fathers Day gift that truckers cherish. It makes their work so much easier if they know family support is with them.
Happy Fathers Day to all you truckers out there.

Professional Driver Day One

I thought I knew everything about trucks, boy was I wrong. I had to do a road test with the new boss on my first day. It started with a pre-trip inspection, "A what?". That's how much I knew, so being humbled, not put down, I proceeded to learn about Over the Road Trucking. Good thing I found a boss who was a people builder.
After a long classroom session came the introduction to a real truck. In this case it was a !936 International kitted to a 1948 KW. That included a 220 Cummins Engine, 5 and 4 transmissions and brass drive gears. What was I to do with two shift levers? Needless to say, I had a lot to learn.
After fumbling through a road test and satisfying my boss that I was trainable, my assignment included introduction to a "real pro". Marvin was that and more. He could make a truck hum. Gear changes were so smooth you would only hear the change in the engine RPM, like a fine tuned instrument. This was a needed thing to master because in those days syncro-mesh transmissions were years away. Engine speed and road speed had to be matched with the correct gear selection. So the only way to master this art was practice, practice and more practice.
The driver had to become an extension of the truck and operate as a unit. After hours of on the job training, and humbling stops with missed shifts on grades, it began to come to me. Think through the drive train process, engine speed, gear match to road speed and how it related. I finally got it. Thank the Lord, I was a driver, greenhorn but going on to be a veteran.

Good Old Days

Lets face it, everyone is talking about how bad trucking has become today. All the hype about fuel costs, driver shortage, etc. Frankly I'm very tired of it and intend to turn my blogging to an old direction. So this will be the first of many.

Why I became a trucker

Years ago, as a youngster on a rural Wisconsin farm, I always admired the big trucks as any boy would. Big rigs back then where mostly day cab single drive axle trucks with pull trailers. Names like Brockway, Sterling, Mack, Peterbilt, GMC where the big trucks. Engines where for the most part gasoline such as Hall-Scott, Buda and so on. Diesel was used in Europe but slow to catch on in the US.
Back to why I became a trucker. After one room primary school and a small high school education, I enrolled in the University of Wisconsin. After a couple of semesters the Korean conflict (we were not allowed to call it a war) interupted my education and I served in the Air Force for six years. After that I ended up in the great state of Idaho.
The Air Force education in mechanics and flight engineering made me into a mechanic and turned my life to heavy equipment. Wages in those days, in Idaho, were around $1.80 per hour. With a family to support, I found trucking to be a way to make a good living because incentive pay per mile driven added up. So on to a new career.

Fuel Costs Everyones Concern

Fuel certainly is the topic of the day. In this industry it has become to the single largest operational expense. That means we must focus on conservation to compete in the market place.

Key points to address are, driver training, equipment management, shipment routing and so on.
There are many ways to conserve including engine idle time, road speed, engine tune up and tires. Tires of the right type for your operation and tire pressure are critical.

Trucking in Today's Market

Right now Commercial Carrier trucking is about 110 years old and here to stay. It is made up of big business, independent owner operators, private business fleets and several hundred thousand professional drivers. What an historic industry.

Many challenges face trucking that were unforeseen only a few years ago. Things like fuel prices, idling diesel engines, safety challenges, driver shortages, etc. Not to overlook the fact that with this economy, trucks will be traveling less miles, creating a shortfall in collected highway taxes. This will erode the highway funding for construction and repair of our highways which are already in dire need of rebuilding.

The next thing to really change trucking is "Going Green". Stop or control engine idling. How will the drivers live in a truck cab needing heat in the winter and cooling in the summer? Many states now have passed legislation setting rules about this. Of course the way they enforce these rules will be to cite the driver.

These challenges will be met by the industry as always. Many new products and changes in the manufacture of trucks and trucking equipment show up every day. Drivers will adapt to these changes as companies will invest in new products. It will be interesting to watch the evolution in store for trucking and truckers in the coming years.