Profile For Richard D.

Hello everyone, I attended a 7.5 week college course to get my cdl license and my classmates mostly went OTR but me? No.I wanted local and hourly pay. I laughed at 30cpm. What a bunch of fools.

I moved back home to TX and drove for the oilfields. That's when it all went south. Nobody cares. It was all about the money. And I made A LOT of money. Thousands and thousands of dollars. I didn't even know what to do with it all.

The training left my head because the other drivers taught me their ways. Coasting to a stop, 24 hour plus shifts, driving with busted lights, torn seat belts, battered tires, leaking toxic oilfield fluids from **** tier tankers, to hell with air brake testing if it didn't beep or boop you're good to go and a pretrip was a quick "okay got all my tires... lights are ok I guess, signal lights are busted but whatever they just need to see the brake lights, darn the right brake light is out..... ah well we gotta get moving. Oh!!! Can't forget the putter-outter!!! (Fire extinguisher)

I got laid off and now i want to work for a legitimate company like Schnieder but wait! They want to teach me how to skip gears when downshifting to a stop? How do you even double clutch anymore? What the heck is HOS i never used that before. Omg whats trip planning?!?!? Leave me alone! I need another mom and pop company!!!!

Listen. Dont be like me. Work for a safe company and utilize all your skills. Because if you dont use it, you lose it.

Get into the oilfield. I do local water delivery. Get paid hourly and make a crap ton of overtime. Its great work. Lots of danger. Lots of change. Nothing ever the same. With a gun aimed at me I wouldnt go otr lol.

Hah. Interesting responses here. Ill come back up north some time. I made a few snow balls but I had to escape asap. I drive a yellow smartcar and I feared the snow would keep me prisoner lmao!

Drive safe you two

I moved to Pennsylvania from Texas to live with my fiance then went to college to become a truck driver. I was a bodyguard/armed guard before all of this.

Got a job hauling food grade milk in a smooth bore tank when suddenly. It happened.

Snow started coming down. What is this stuff?! Oh god! Its slippery! And cold! Mybold R-model Mack can barely clear the windshield. AHHH did I just slide?!?!?!?!?! Why cant i stop?!?!?!

Ok. Needless to say I moved back to Texas and just got in last Monday. I belong to Eagle Ford Shale now

Anyone else ever quit the job because of snow? It scared the tar out of me and made a 3 hour delivery into a 10 hour ordeal with a low delivery rate!!!

College trained me to drive without it, even on some downhills since not all trucks will have an engine brake.

Make no mistake the moment I started driving after graduating I slapped it on just for the cool sound.

With that out of my system.

I use it to help me brake here and there and when going downhill only. But dont leave it on all the time.

I live in Pennsylvania right now and im moving back to my home in Texas in about two weeks to escape the snow. I drove up to Philadelphia to deliver milk and got caught in some minor snow on the mountainous roads. Scared the tar out of me. And it didnt help that I was in an old Mack R model!

Im done with this milk business and joining the oilfield truckers witb the rest of my family. No more hills to downshift for or baffle-less tanks. Just income and flat familiar roads!

And no more going home smelling likw raw milk and bleach.

Small companies that do local work can help you... I have no bad history at all but I work for a second chance milk company (Clouse Trucking Inc) they hire people with bad history. I dont know if thats a rare thing or not.

"Yeah my emoyer is laying an egg over me using the clutch. Ive been learning how to float but it still sounds like this.

ERKKKKK GRIRIRIRIIRIRIRINNNND KLUNK! KABLAM!!!!!!!!!!"

Dont worry it will come. Try to make sure you got plenty of room and time to down shift then concentrate on your rpms. Lets say your tach is at 1000 rpms and its time to downshift. Apply a little pressure on the shifter towards neutral and apply a little throttle so it will come out of gear, then add a lttle more throttle to bring rpms upto about 1800 and will slip right in. In no time you will get the feel for it and it will just come naturally. Good luck

Yeah just lastnight I learned if you give it some throttle it loosens the shifter. I had no idea and was trying to force it out. Its getting a little easier for me now that I learned that trick :)

Hey all hows everyone this week? Tell me about your downshifting advise, seems to me everyone has issues at times.

Dont oveerthink it. Or youll mess everything up!

Clutch, neautral, give her a good rev, clutch, downshift.

Clutch, neautral, rev, clutch, downshift

Rev it too little and youll just grind. Just give it a good purr and it always works.

Clutch? Oh...you mean that thing you use to take off with? Lol. When i got in my trainers truck he said " if you touch that clutch pedal again i am gonna f***ing smack you in the back of the head" joking around of coarse. But way eaiser to shift floating the gears.

Yeah my emoyer is laying an egg over me using the clutch. Ive been learning how to float but it still sounds like this.

ERKKKKK GRIRIRIRIIRIRIRINNNND KLUNK! KABLAM!!!!!!!!!!

Trucking headset, trucker gps, sunglasses, digital watch with a back light, rubber dipped gloves for fueling, work gloves, fifth wheel hook bar thingy, cap with lots of bbreathability, driving gloves, lots of flashlights, raincoat, hammer to check tires, quality multi tool, tire depth gauge, tire psi gauge, rand mcnally motor carrier atlas, trucker metal briefcase for all your logbooks and paperwork, quality ac outlet multi charger, backing up camera for the trucking gps, magnetic spot lights to stick on your trailer when backing into unlit dark areas, seat cushion so ot helps your butt and back breathe, a fancy pen, personal hygiene bag (diaper wipes, nail clippers, toothbrush, etc), good laptop with portable internet!