Profile For Muleskinner 6

I came off the road about 6 months ago and got a job with a local company delivering high end chocolate.

After sitting behind the wheel for about a year just driving I had gained a lot of weight and became really lazy. With this job I have 51 stores in Nevada and California and I have to hand unload at each store. I got back into shape real fast.

But in the bright side I am on the road 7 days and home 7 days and I bring home twice what I was making OTR 6-8 weeks at a time with one of the big companies.

Good luck to you and keep us posted.

Carla I drive for Stevens now and went through their training so as far as your boots you don't need steel toes. Basically what they are looking for is ankle support so a decent hiking boot will be fine. The yard rules are "absolutely no open tie shoes". Every time I am on the yard I wear running shoes and nobody says a word.

As far as gloves go get a cheap pair of regular leather work gloves. You don't need anything fancy. I usually have a pair of Mechanix gloves that you get at wal mart in the automotive section for about $20.

Yesterday in Mesquite it was 104 so bring sunscreen and drink plenty of water.

I'm sure we can all tell stories for days about the mistakes we have made. My story is as follows. I dropped off a load in the Los Angeles area and was on my way to pick up another load with 2600 miles on it. That is when my DM called me and wanted me to repower another truck that was out of time and his load has 51 miles left on it. After a very long heated discussion with my DM I finally agreed.

I have a set routine I always do when I hook up or disconnect from a trailer. I always deal with the airlines first, landing gear second and then the release handle.

Apparently since I was so frustrated I disconnected the airlines and pulled the PIN and totally forgot about the landing gear. Thank God it was an empty trailer and it only took about 20 minutes to Jack back up to get under it.

But I have plenty of other drivers in the area come over and make comments about Rooky mistakes. But it's okay because we all make mistakes and we live and learn.

My email has changed since I first registered with this site so not sure if Brett sent your email to there or not. Would really enjoy any information you could share.

Sorry Brett I didn't know it was against the rules of the site to discuss this topic.

Muleskinner i know were not supposed to really talk about this here. But Brett can give you my email and I will send you the numbers.

Brett can you please send muleskinner my email.

Thanks mpw

Ok I have been driving for about a year now and I have been try I got finish my college degree while on the road.

So I am writing a paper for my social economics class and hear it towards the trucking industry. My question is : As an owner operator who own his / her truckoutright how much on average do you make? What is your monthy operating costs like insurance, taxes, and any other applicable fees.

What is the average you make per mile and if you lease your truck to a company what do you make per mile average?

Tba is in advance for the help.

The company that I work for required me to buy a map (because my laminated trucker map wasn't good enough), four load locks, king pin lock, & a trailer lock. And they took weekly payment installments out of my check to pay for the items.

One time I had to do a re-power and the driver that showed up didn't have any load locks to replace the ones I had in the trailer. So I broke the seal and took my load locks out and within minutes I got a call from the company stating they were going to write me up for breaking the seal. My defense was I paid for them so I took them.

okay so I have been out on my own for a little while now and when I am at a truck stop or a shipper / receiver I have noticed a lot of people slide their tandems all the way to the rear before they park.

I asked one of the drivers why he slid his tendons of the way to the back before he tried to park and he said it makes it easier to get into a space.

so of course I tried it and to me it was a lot harder to do because it takes longer for the trailer to react to the input. the only advantage that I could see would be you can't control the trailer swing a lot better.

what are your thoughts?

I totally agree with Brett.

I was raised to pick your battles and fight for what you believe is right. You don't have to fight every battle to prove you are a man .

I think my trainer believed in his cause and he wasn't going to back down.

Choose you battles wisley and try not to bite the hand that feeds you, but remember the neighbor might feed you if you are hungry.

On a good note when we shut down today I only have 7 hours left behind the wheel in training. So Monday I should finish up and then by the end of next week I am hoping to have my own truck.

Good luck drivers and stay safe.

Ok to finish the saga his DM kept arguing with him this morning about there was no freight moving east on I-10 or 20 heading yo the Carolina's. I pointed out three other company trucks we could see from our truck that had to be heading somewhere.

So then the produce manager called me directly and wanted to know what was going on between my trainer and I. I could tell he was agitated and this conversation wasn't going to end well. So being a smart ass that I am I told him nothing we are getting along pretty good, why did he say something different. Well he demanded to know why we weren't moving so I told him to call my trainer because hat was between them and to leave me out of it. Well I then handed my trainer my phone. Then I started regretting doing that because I had visions of my phone going out the window and bouncing down the asphalt.

My trainer handed me the phone and calmly said he wants to talk to you. The first phrase out of the managers mouth was somewhere in the neighborhood of threatening my job.

So as professionally as I could I made sure he knew I didn't work for him and not to threaten my job and I hung up.

My trainer told me to go eat something because he was going to Walmart to buy a huge suitcase yo pack his things.

I called me student counselor and explained everything to her and she was furious that they wanted me to drive the truck with or without my trainers permission.

Needless to say one of the other trucks in the parking lot had a load that was going to S. Carolina and we exchanged loads with that driver.

So crisis adverted and I am currently sitting in S. Carolina getting unloaded and we will be to his house in plenty of time to see his brother get off the plane in the morning.

Might be worn out but the end result is completely worth it.

Sorry for the misspellings. Trying to type on a smart phone sucks when you have big fingers.