Profile For Hillzy

One of the comments was to go a little slower than the flow of traffic and I couldn't agree more with that one. I'm a local flatbed in Chicago dealing with heavy traffic on a daily basis. Speed limits at 70/65/60 for 4-wheelers/busses/trucks are my favorite. I'll play a game with myself setting the cruise just under 60 and see if I can get through the city interstate without hitting the brakes. I get to my destination stress free and in plenty of time. Of course at the height of rush hour, this simply isn't possible but for those times, I just prepare myself mentally and physically to deal with a 20 mile trip that takes 2 hours before I even start the truck.

I had to dig wayyyyyy down in the forum to pull this one back. I was enjoying everyones comments on this so I brought it back to life.

I'd have to say my moment was when I go into the local gas station/truck stop, my first visit is to the truck accessories counter. Looking at all those chrome pieces makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.

I'll keep an eye out.

I just put my truck in my avatar. I'm #53

I started driving with a small local company (30 drivers). It's a contracting company that pulls for Dean Foods. We deliver mostly milk and things like that. The best part about it, no logs! Since it's a local delivery service it doesn't require them. The trucks are nice. I was given a brand new ProStar, only 100 miles on it. The trailers on the other hand, not so much. I have had a trailer issue 3 times. All of them needing on site repair and many hours lost. I have done most of my driving in the city of Chicago. It is a whole different world compared to my experience OTR. We deliver to various types of stores. From jewel size, to the tiny little Spanish stores and everything in between. We unload our own trailers. Some of the stops we need to deliver from the alley out of the side door on the trailer with the lift gate. It's a good workout. Other times we use an electric palet jack, either unloading off of the docks, or getting the pallets forked off the of back. Getting into the alleys with a truck is quite the challenge. Sometimes you need to back it in from the street. Blocking traffic and not hitting any of the millions of parked cars Lining the streets. Other times "jacking" the truck into the alley works better. I enjoy it more then my previous OTR job, though I am glad I started with that. They both have much different challenges. We get paid by the load. Minimum pay is $200-$400 per day. Longer routes with more stops pay more. I start around 3am and get home sometime between noon and 5.

Joseph, are you running out of Harvard? I see you guys all the time. I drive a flatbed for Stark out of Marengo. We are all over the Chicago area too. Last week I had to deliver a load of block to the corner of Lake and Franklin downtown. Getting a flatbed in and out of there makes for an interesting day! LOL I too am loving the local gig. I start anywhere between 3AM and 5AM and get home anywhere between 4PM and 6PM. What's your truck number? If I see you I'll hit the airhorn. LOL

Hi all. I’ve been poking around this forum for about six months now, reading posts pretty much on a daily basis however, as you can see, I haven’t contributed very much up to this point. Perhaps that can change here in the near future but who knows. Anyway, just a brief bio: I went through Truck driver school at my local Community College this previous winter and obtained my CDL in early February and the class was fantastic. They taught all the right things (no matter how trivial it seemed) that helped me pass through my pre-trip, yard and driving test with flying colors. I knew before I even started school that I wanted to do flatbed. I was VERY close to taking an offer with TMC. The only thing that held me back was the fact that I have a family (wife, 13 & 12 year old kids) who are all very active in their sports. With that, I was searching for something more local and I happen to be in the right place at the right time and landed a local flatbed gig. The owner was willing to take a chance on me with no experience other than CDL school, and after 3 months now, I LOVE IT!!

For the past couple months, I’ve been running mainly cubes of brick and block to new construction sites (commercial and residential) throughout the greater Chicago area. I get about 300-400 miles a day and I’m home every night. The pay has been fantastic too. No complaints. It’s challanging some days because some of our runs go deep into downtown Chicago. In fact, last week I delivered some scaffolding to a job in the city about 2 blocks off Lake Michigan on the gold coast. You learn real quick how to maneuver a rig in the city or else you never get out.

But I digress, I can share more stories down the road here. What prompted me to post today was to point my finger and laugh a little at some of these dry van drivers I see. Specifically their wardrobe. At least 40%, maybe even 50% of these drivers I see jump out of the truck in their tank tops, short shorts, and flip flops. I can’t tell if they drive a rig or live on the beach. Granted, since I’m a flatbed guy, I’m wearing jeans, reflective shirts and boots so maybe this is not uncommon for the dry van guys but come on, flip flops? I would still think the company you are driving for wants to uphold some sort of professional image don’t they?

Am I the only one that finds this hilarious?

WOW. Thank you all for the replies! It’s refreshing to have so many peers chime in on something so impactful for myself yet trivial for most.

TankDaddy – When I thought about the nanny idea I could only chuckle and think “nannies are for rich people and I’m not rich”. I’m happy to see I wouldn’t be alone in this thought. It’s certainly a viable option at this point.

Danielsahn – I appreciate the info on the other companies but I’m pretty set on where I’d like to go if I do end up making the jump. I can’t even tell you how many recruiters I’ve heard in the last month. If I’m going to do a daily route, I’m just going with my buddies company in construction.

Old School – I agree with your comments whole heartedly. My family is without a doubt my number one concern. We have had several discussions about this already. If my Children have to make sacrifices in their activities for this career, I simply won’t do it. In reality, the only thing I need to keep that consistent is help getting them to and from their commitments each week. By the way, I love some of the posts and pics from you throughout this forum. The more I read from you the more exciting it becomes.

Murderspolywog – The rider program is a question I asked every recruiter and yes, it seems like an option for pretty much everyone I’ve talked with. When the kids have a free week (which is few and far between), you bet your ace they will be on the road with me. I look at that as a “college commitment plan” LOL. All the recruiters had comparable attributes such as weekly or bi-weekly home time, newer equipment, solid training programs, and even the pay scales were all very close so I’m really splitting hairs here. Without giving away the company just yet, the recruiter that got me going has several benefits that interest me. One in particular is the 401 with a 10% match dollar for dollar. Health insurance was very reasonable with low premiums and deductibles. He was the only recruiter, out of over 20, that truly made me feel as if hard work is the largest determining factor in making more money.

Bottom line is I can really see myself making a decent living doing something I already enjoy doing……driving. There’s just a lot going around in my household as I’m sure there is in others. I’m just curious to read how you all get it done.

Thank for you the comments thus far and keep em coming please.

- Jeff

Hello everyone. First and foremost, thank you to the creator of this site and thank you to all of you who contribute to it. I have been poking around here for a couple months and finally decided to register and jump in on the action.

Just a very brief overview of myself: I’m 44, married, 2 children (11 & 13) and worked primarily in sales my entire professional life. Within the last few years, I got into a service job on light machinery because I was simply tired of talking people into things they didn’t necessarily want. I was just tired of the sales game. That said, my current position is seasonal so every winter I get laid off and collect unemployment. Well, this off-season, I decided to go get my CDL-A. I went though a local college for the training program, finished at the top of the class and now here I sit. I have a good friend that will hire me in his road construction company as a trailer dump driver so I never gave the dozens of recruiters from various trucking companies that came through our school a second thought. An OTR job just didn’t seem to fit into my plan. That was until the last recruiter, he has sparked my curiosity.

My question for the members of this forum is this: How in the world do you make this profession work with a family? I’m specifically talking about kids and their extra curricular activities. As I said I have two children and my wife and I already play zone defense with all their activities. Between school and school functions, hockey, volleyball, baseball and softball, we are CONSTANTLY running. If I’m gone for a week(s) at a time, I can tell you right now that my wife couldn’t handle all the running on her own. Do you guys have nannies? Are there other family members that help you out or something? I’m almost at the point of asking my Mother (who’s retired) if she wants to move in and spend time with her Grand Kids (code for I need you to get them to practice 3 nights a week! LOL). This is obviously a tremendous commitment and I’d like to peruse this company a little further but I don’t want to waste anyone’s time either. I have been thinking about this for a week now and I can’t wrap my head around it. I figured I would turn to you all that are already out there. Perhaps you can help me straighten this out.

Thank you for your time in reading this.

- Jeff