Clothes For The Road.....

I think the company I am going to requires that you have shoes with a rigid sole. Thinking, maybe they will allow a nice sandal that has soles. Not sure. I hope they will.

I think the company I am going to requires that you have shoes with a rigid sole. Thinking, maybe they will allow a nice sandal that has soles. Not sure. I hope they will.

Sandle? Where the heck would you wear those? Seriously I know they might be comfortable to wear but why? Walk across the truck stop parking lot your feet would get nasty. And you would not want to wear them at a customer...unprofessional.

Maybe it's just because I do flat-bed work, but 95% of the shippers or receivers that I go to have stated policies on the signs saying that along with the PPE you are required to wear, you must also have "closed toed shoes". Many of them, especially the steel warehouses, will require "steel toed boots". As an added note some of those signs will specify "no sandals allowed" and "Crocs are not considered as closed toed shoes".

Yeah...for all those years we did skateboard, we saw those steel toed shoes signs...We never bought em or wore em...and we were never asked..If a company requires that you have "something out of the ordinary work related items"...they have to provide them....

I meant to use the sandals just for driving. When I got out of the truck, I would be wearing proper foot protection. That is why in the original post, I had said I was thinking of the leather firefighter boots I could easily slip on and off. I would never even think of working outside of these trucks without a safety toe at the very least. I like my toeies intact!

I prefer the cargo pants. As StarCar says, the wallet in the back pocket is painful, but I hate forgetting my wallet. The cargo pants allows me to carry it in a side pocket so I always have it. During the summer, I wear the light weight rip stop fabric that are as cool as shorts. I personally don't like shorts and a lot of places we go do not allow them. Pretty much do only short sleeve shirts/t-shirts since I can't seem to modulate the heat well in the cab. That is especially true if there is much snow since running the defrost at max heat and max fan just about cooks me out while pretty much keeping the windshield and wipers relatively clear. I do have a fleece jacket that I sometimes wear on really cold days that deals with draft in the cab.

I have a pair of Keen steel toed boots (hikers) that are extremely comfortable for both climbing around the truck and trailer as well as driving. I always wear them on loading/unloading days. Otherwise, I have another pair of Keens that are slip ons that work well on those days that all I do is drive, fuel and do load checks.

With some of the super cold weather I have encountered, layers is the key. I have a heavy weight zip hoody that when used with a good heavy duty rain coat keeps me toasty for the most part since it stops the wind, but lowering a zipper keeps me from overheating. I have worn the quilted union suit a couple of times, but find that I tend to over heat when dealing with tarps. I have an old nomex flight suit that I sometimes wear to just to protect my clothes and save on laundry. It seems to be just a tad warm and I work up a sweat getting out of it. Sometimes I am just plain dirty due to tarping.

Gloves are a whole topic in and of themselves. When dealing with salt snow/slush I have found the nit gloves with rubber fingers/palms work well and keep my hands relatively warm. Leather gloves are great, but get really cold when when wet and bungies are really hard on them. If a pair lasts a month then I consider my self lucky. Thinsulate leather gloves are good in cold dry conditions, but even then my fingers get painfully cold when doing the bungies. I have gotten to where I do one part of the trailer and then jump in the truck and put the gloves over the heater outlet for 30 secs or so and then do the other side. I don't have an issue with straps, chains or moving tarps, just the bungies due to how you have to hold the bungies.

What works for me, but interested in what other do, too.

For cold weather, or rainy weather, and handling bungies, TSB always wore leather...they get slippery when your handling bungies and its wet...I don't like them flyin' back in my face. I wear the cheap rubber dipped gloves, WITH glove liners. I have about 10 pairs of these weird white glove liners, they have wire woven into them. And in the cold or wet, they reflect your own heat back at you...I've never had cold hands, not even when they get wet. I can't remember where I got them, But if anyone is interested in them, I'll look them up... I remember, back in the 70's, taking care of my brother in law, after he had multiple toes amputated.....from having a 55 gallon barrel fall on his steel toed boots....I've never wore them since.....