Where Are They Now?

JuiceBox,

I thought about you the other day. I'm traveling up to Clarksville next week to help my daughter and son-in-law move. He is retiring from the US Army as a Blackhawk pilot after 22 years from Ft. Campbell. Glad to see that you are still trucking hard and hope everything is working out for you.

Not a bad idea! I had forgotten about that thread, i'll try to get some stuff posted.

I'm sneaking back in to poke around for a while. I started here 6 years ago and went to TMC and i've been on the oversized john deere division for the past few years.

It's awesome to have a seasoned hand back around; especially a flatbedder!

Maybe you can grace us with some pix in the 'Flatbed Variety' thread, from years ago?!?!?

Thanks!

~ Anne ~

Still WAITING, LoL.. tap tap tap . . .

Dave Reid?

If all goes well, he's gonna stop by and update. We had a nice chat today! Takes me a minute, but I can usually find'em, haha!

He's got a lot to share. Such a good man!

~ Anne ~

JuiceBox,

I thought about you the other day. I'm traveling up to Clarksville next week to help my daughter and son-in-law move. He is retiring from the US Army as a Blackhawk pilot after 22 years from Ft. Campbell. Glad to see that you are still trucking hard and hope everything is working out for you.

160th?

I guess it's time to get back in here.

Yes Scott let on I was at CFI, but that was for a short minute. My school laid me off (early in the Age of COVID) so I did what I now do best and hit the road again. Not long into my third week driving my old boss called and offered me my job back.

As for this forum, I made a mistake and posted on a topic that had gone political. My ideas did not agree with some others and my post was deleted. So I took a 34 or something.

I guess it's time to get back in here.

Yes Scott let on I was at CFI, but that was for a short minute. My school laid me off (early in the Age of COVID) so I did what I now do best and hit the road again. Not long into my third week driving my old boss called and offered me my job back.

As for this forum, I made a mistake and posted on a topic that had gone political. My ideas did not agree with some others and my post was deleted. So I took a 34 or something.

And we are truly thankful to see you have returned!

I guess it's time to get back in here.

Yes Scott let on I was at CFI, but that was for a short minute. My school laid me off (early in the Age of COVID) so I did what I now do best and hit the road again. Not long into my third week driving my old boss called and offered me my job back.

As for this forum, I made a mistake and posted on a topic that had gone political. My ideas did not agree with some others and my post was deleted. So I took a 34 or something.

And we are truly thankful to see you have returned!

Definitely ditto ~!!!!!

We MISSED you, Errol VS ~!!!!!!

Sorry to have disappeared on you, great people. Momcat tracked me down and let me know that someone was asking about me.

I had a career-ending accident about a year ago and a lot of other bad things occurred in my personal life around the same time and after, so I went awol.

I had a CDL for about 25 years. Most of that time it was a bus CDL and most of that time I drove just part-time as I got into management and ownership of a local company hauling biological cargo. One of the things I liked most about the job was providing training and mentorship of various kinds depending upon the need. Even after I became president of the firm I continued to do the large vehicle training personally, or at the very least the check-rides.

My firm broke apart after Uber/Lyft killed the taxi business, the 2009 recession permanently reduced exec-trans business, and the local city bus company decided to internalize the paratransit operation that we had performed via contract with them for 30 years. I also was kicked out of the house/divorced around that same time so I decided to chuck normal life for a time and see the world via tractor-trailer.

I was fortunate to be hired by Pride Transport Inc (of SLC) pulling reefers. I enjoyed the work immensely and found Pride to be a fantastic company. The only thing I didn't like, really, was the rather horrendous schedule of a reefer puller. I also needed more income than possible to earn as a driver and between that and my love of training/mentoring, I determined to become a trainer as quickly as possible. So, I first became what y'all here call a Top Tier Driver. I assure you that if you ask my fleet manager or others there at Pride they would back my self-praise up on that score.

I was approved to become a trainer very quickly. Yes, I realize that in Utopia a driver would be OTR for 5-10 years before such consideration, but in the real world it takes a year or three or in my case, I made it in about 9 months.

I did some yard training when I was passing through SLC, helping drivers who'd otherwise passed road training but couldn't back up. I think all companies should offer this help but I know that they don't. I even had a personal experience with it when the first company I road trained with kicked me to the curb because I hadn't learned to back (and had been given zero chances to do so during road training - ridiculous). Anyway, I helped several drivers get into a truck after spending a few hours with them. I also got a couple of drivers into trucks that needed a week or two of additional training. That was very rewarding. I also got two FNGs. I did not have good luck with either of those. One of them thought that she knew everything and wouldn't accept any instruction whatsoever from me. I finally gave up and had her terminated. The other one - well I have no clue how he got through CDL school/state licensing. He was afraid of his shadow. On his first day out, he wouldn't go over 40mph on the expressway. We worked on that He eventually made it to Pride's "Phase 2" training, during which he was to drive full shifts while I slept and vice-versa. This proved to be highly problematic. I'm not sure how the many companies that do things this way ever succeed because the trainers just can't get enough sleep. We had a lot of problems with this but we worked through most of them. However, one day after his shift he informed me that he didn't want to drive anymore - he had gotten scared of something during his shift and didn't want to discuss much...he just quit. So, I was about 6 for 6 in the yard training, 2 for 2 in the remedial training, and 0 for 2 in the FNG training. Plus I discovered that I would never get enough sleep, and would be routinely put in fear of my life sitting next to certain folks - twice I thought I was dead for sure but the hand of God apparently lifted us out of trouble.

Another problem had cropped up - I needed more schedule flexibility than Pride could provide as I needed to be able to overnight at three specific locations in 3 different states somewhat regularly and that couldn't be done - certainly not as a trainer but not even as a regular driver.

So I looked for a suitable alternative and found one. I became an IC leased to Schneider, acquiring a truck through Schneider Finance. It worked out very well, really. My income was about the same as it could have been as a trainer for Pride (about 90k after expenses, insurance, and SE tax, etc.). However I got a good night's sleep every night, no one was trying to kill me, and best of all I could schedule my trips such that I could overnight and sometimes more (under load) at all the places I wanted to. It really was terrific.

Then I had a career-ending accident. I will make a separate post about that.

My first lifetime was in the insurance business. After recovering from the accident and other things, I am back to that, and back to living in Michigan.

I wish you all the very best. I might stop by and toss my two cents in on something now and then. I'll put my email address in my profile in case anyone wants to contact me about anything.

I

Dave Reid?

Told you guys.

Big hugs, Dave. You're invaluable in here, ya know.

Thanks for keeping your word, Mr. Reid. Nice chatting with you; ANYTIME!!

~ Anne ~

Dave Reid?

If all goes well, he's gonna stop by and update. We had a nice chat today! Takes me a minute, but I can usually find'em, haha!

He's got a lot to share. Such a good man!

~ Anne ~

Jeramy H.?

Jason R. (Ruck)?