Truck driver b.s.

Your truck will be nice and warm at least

 

Well I found this thread this morning and got many pages deep. Decided to post.

Driving a truck was my 3rd major career choice started in 2002 after 9/11 changed the way things were done in my previous career.

I started out OTR hauling meat and other refrigerated items back and forth and up and down the country. Backhauls were anything and everything you can think of to get us back to the meat houses mainly in the midwest but going everywhere.

I did that for almost 3 years before deciding to come home and actually help raise my second child that I did not get to see nearly enough.

I became a tanker yanker hauling fuel, chemicals, and asphalt.

I switched companies a few times and am now at a really good one that has great benefits.

I hope to retire from here eventually.

I now mainly haul gas, diesel, Jet A, and ethanol in any given week. Oh, and sometimes Racing Fuel. That stuff is wicked.

 

Welcome to truckers BS, I am fuel tanker also, mostly out of MPLS/stop, home daily. Kentucky sure does sound appealing to me this time of year! I'm getting tired of standing out in the station parking lots when it's-10 to 20 below...

 

Minneapolis? I lived in Burnsville for about a year back in the early 90's.

 

I grew up in STP, now live on a farm 45 min north of St Paul. You must not have enjoyed MPLS enough to stay?

 

It was a job thing. Not a fan of the weather either.

 

Hauled Budweiser Beer in to a huge beer distributor warehouse in Coon Rapids many times. It was one of our backhauls from distilleries in Newark NJ, Columbus OH, and a few others.

My truck froze to the ground there one time. When I pulled in, I guess my warm tires melted the ice and I sank down in a bit. When I went to move a few hours later, the truck did not want to go. Finally, after a little finessing of the clutch I was able to "rip" it out of the ice. It was loud!

 

I did fuel tanker for awhile, it wasnt for me.

 

How come?

 

Nice clear night in Long Beach,CA

 

Nice pic! you could have entered that in the weekly photo contest, the theme was Reflecting...
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/weekly-photography-challenge-thread.302888/

 

Thanks! Ah damn…

 

Mostly because off where they where sending me, in the hoods of Detroit at night. I was the only white anything there watching the crack heads, drug dealers gang bangers and prostitutes doing their thing. I would keep my back to the truck so I could see what was coming at me. That and I got tired of smelling like gas all the time and figured that cant be good for you either.

 

30 degrees on this hump day morning, heading to 38! Be safe drivers.

 

Good morning, it's my Friday! The fumes can be bad, I make effort to stay away from them as much as possible...

 

36 degrees this morning, truck fired right up.
Have a great day drivers!

 

27 here going to 32 today, nice mild weather for January! Have a great day as well.

 

Put this week to rest, I'm out!

 

I understand the bad neighborhood thing. I have seen it all, and I do mean all.

I am lucky to work at a company now that keeps our equipment in good shape where there are not too many drips and sprays so we tend to stay relatively clean.

Plus I've been doing it so long now I've learned how to not get it all over me. In the early years, yeah, smelled like fuel a lot.

 

I still go to the hood several times a day, but it's usually during the day and I bump a dock and then I'm inside. It's quite a bit safer. I'm not gonna sugar coat it, Detroit is an armpit, not much left of it. I live one city outside of it and travel through it everyday for work. But it's a wasteland.