#trucker problems

they tried to bury my girlfriend under rubble again

I had to have one more week of training, not because I needed the hours or the training, but because head of Safety who has to sign off on it is on vacation. Sigh.

I didn’t drive at all yesterday. After we changed trucks, Wolf drove out all but an hour of the clock, then we put down about 21:00 central time, very tired for having been up 19 hours. I told him I would take a turn at driving but he said no, while we were home he got chances to rest but I exhausted myself, and I deserved some down time. I’m thankful he is mindful of me like that.

Our truck coded yet AGAIN (after 4 times in the last 2weeks, during which it had a sensor and an entire turbo replaced) so they assigned us a loaner, which took us 3 hours to move into. Mother McCormick manual-shifts a little rough, after all she has 545,900 miles on her. And she has a couple annoying little rattles, and the blackout window coverings are missing off the bunk windows. But we have a couple small black rugs and some duct tape!

There’s MUCH more storage space, cubbies, and bins due to the sky rise, including 2 layers of cubbies around the cab instead of one like Pete Jones. And it’s farther to climb to get into that top bunk but both of us can sit straight up in the beds instead of the other bunk or ceiling being a foot above our faces lying down. Having the extra space is nice.

As far as we know we will be getting our other truck back if they figure out what is ultimately wrong with it.

There was a sudden lane closure in Illinois this morning, no advance warning, because a semi and trailer had just overturned onto its side across the entire median. I hope the driver wasn’t hurt. Fire rescue techs had broken out half the windshield to get to the driver but no ambulance was there yet. I was able to get us stopped rapidly and safely. This is the 4th week in a row I’ve avoided an accident.

I re-wrote a stitch pattern yesterday and test-knitted 2 sizes of Welsh heel to tech edit that pattern.

heya! that's really cool that you are 6 months in and like it enough to stay in the field! @qelscre

biggest difference between regional and otr is how much of a real person life you get to have. unless you have a family, if you decide to go with long haul, i would strongly recommend just putting all your stuff in storage and living in the truck full time. you'll almost never see your permanent shelter anyway, and that way, you don't have to pay rent for a while, and it eliminates a lot of stressors and problems that come with having a home you only use on a bimonthly basis

im not sure if 6 months of experience is enough to get hired at a better company. but if you need to start at a mega fleet, you only have to be there a year as a new driver before being eligible for much better otr jobs. but maybe 6 months of tractor-trailer experience means you don't have to start at a mega for otr? im not sure. when we were running hard for may trucking we'd be out 2 months at a time usually. so that's pretty grueling. but not paying rent for a while is nice

the main big con with long haul is the loneliness. that's the main reason why most people drop out before the 1 year mark. if you have a partner or a pet you can take on the road with you it'll help a lot. it's really hard to stay social otherwise without letting the truck goblin transformation fully consume you. if you can hermit and stay mentally okay it can be a fun travel opportunity for sure. and the money can be really good. so. 🙃😭

for regional, there's a lot of variation with schedule. most companies get you home time at least once every two weeks. some classify the western 11 states as regional. some are as little every other day for layovers, so half your time is spent at home. any certifications you have or can get are helpful. ive heard that line haul jobs are very steady paychecks with doing the same routes every week. if you are okay to work nights there are always jobs for hauling fuel tankers. doing full car hauling or hotshot driving is another common one. fedex doesn't allow passengers but it's supposed to be a good gig if you have your doubles and triples certs. there's so many different regional jobs. for us, staying mostly in the pnw has been very very nice compared to spending 2.5 years of experiencing real winter and summer weather all over the usa. but there are places we miss getting to visit regularly

it also depends on how worth your while it is to transfer. ive heard that in some places, like florida, a lot of local cdl-a jobs don't pay well compared to regional or otr. so the lifestyle change might be very worth it depending on what local stuff is available for you. not gonna lie, long haul is very difficult and the hours are horrifying, but if the pay is good and you like to travel it might be worth it for you!

julian the cat didn't believe me. julian knows i am slower moving than most humans, and does not trust in my ability to keep myself alive. julian really thought i had randomly rolled out of the car, and that i must have gotten lost and died.

he spent that whole work week staring at my pillow in the bunk just sobbing

he spent all day, every day, screaming crying throwing up, going back and forth between mourning over my spot in the bunk and asking valkyrie for comfort and being confused why she wasn't also devastated

even me talking to him over speakephone didn't help, because he's a smart cat, and he's heard digital recordings of his people before, and he is not going to be fooled by that obvious witchcraft

as much as i felt bad for him at the time, it's very flattering to know that a haughty little guy loves me enough to care if i'm dead

it's a VERY strange sensation to be on a truck, on a boat. the boat motions feel very wrong at first xp

as a midwesterner i had no idea that these little islands get so much commuter and delivery and infrastructure traffic all day long

it's an incredible experience and i'll write more about it another time

'competitive pay! great work environment!' = the pay is so embarrassing that they can't put it in public where people will see

'.55cpm' = nice that they put the cents per mile rate so they can't gaslight you as much when you call, but still pretty vague, and there is a lot of room for the company to be sketchy. it could go either way. also more likely to be a 1099 job instead of a w2 job

'.55cpm dry van, .60cpm flatbed, .60cpm dry van teams' = okay now we're getting somewhere, they are being more specific, and also showing that they understand it's appropriate to pay more for more difficult jobs, even if the cpm is not excellent. also shows that they have at least a few options for drivers to choose from. still could have more information theoretically, but almost nobody posts their day rate or anything on their company trailers

thank you, im so glad you like it!! ^-^

this is a great jumping off point for a post ive been thinking about forever but haven't written up, actually!

thanks to my gorgeous girlfriend valkyrie for pointing out a lot of these ❤️❤️❤️🤩🥰

reasons why trucking is a great choice for queer people

since you're mostly out of the road, there's very little opportunity for weird worksite interactions with co workers you'll have to keep dealing with in the future, unless it's your driver manager that's the problem. in that case it's time to request a new dm, or just look for a different company tbh

good money!! after the initial investment of cdl-a school (commercial driver's license class a, meaning tractor-trailers [as opposed to a class b where it's all one vehicle, like yer utility truck, garbage truck, bus, etc {'b for bus' is my mneumonic}]). after a year or two at a starter company, the money immediately becomes really good, and it's not hard to find jobs. which, in most fields, it's not as easy to find a job as a minority person.

a lot of the initial contact with a new company is remote since you are out on the road, so it's less likely you'll be immediately cut from consideration at a new job if you are visibly queer.

get out of your shitty small town very quickly! and/or get away from your shitty family of origin very quickly! with a very good excuse! wow mom id love to come home for christmas, but ive been dispatched to idaho, and im getting holiday pay for it, and they don't let everybody take the holidays off, and i was just too slow this year asking for home time. wow what a shame

really for real if you get an otr gig, which there are a lot of starter companies that will hire anyone with a new cdl, you immediately have the whole country to escape to. gosh would you look at that, i seem to be spending most of my time at this company terminal that happens to be literally a thousand miles away from my place of birth. it would be really convenient to get a po box out here and just start moving all my documents and stuff out here wow gosh. i can do my laundry and get my dot physicals at all these random truck stops so there's no reason to go back home to visit. and actually i really vibe with this city and the income tax is lower here, what if i just got a small apartment room so i can get my taxes and my health insurance moved out here since i seem to RanDoMLy be doing most of my home time here anyway. what a coincidence that the queer community here is so robust. wowee oh my goodness

mobility and experience. you can't spend any real time anywhere, but you can get a feel for what parts of the country you might be interested in moving to, and being on the move all the time can be great. it's a double edged sword not being about to put down roots anywhere though. but it's a way to travel for a group that is often too financially disenfranchised to do so

for men and masc people, it's a very gender-normative blue collar job. nobody will think it's weird for you to be a trucker. you can blend in if you want. or use it as a smokescreen to save up to get to the place in life you really want to be, without anybody judging you for your choice of industry in the meantime.

it's probably also a decent job for a butch woman in terms of social judgement, again because nobody will think it's very strange. use the societal expectations to your advantage while getting that bag and saving up. (might also get fewer hopeful men sniffing around for a truck wife than valkyrie and i deal with, but that might be past a lot of people's powers of observation)

reasons why trucking is a difficult job for queer people

the usa has a very high rate of women truckers compared to the global average, which is also the percentage for mexico and canada. everyone else has a measly 3% of women truckers. the us has a staggering... 6%. a lot of those are cis women in hetero relationships. not gonna lie, it's lonely out here. but the only way to fix it is for more people to join the ranks!

right now there are a lot of states putting forth bathroom bills that make it illegal for a trans person to use a public bathroom (like a rest stop), or even private business's gender segregated bathrooms (like a truck stop). so you have to look up the laws in each state to find out if it's safe to use the bathroom as a trans person. it fucking sucks. the solutions are: portable toilet inside your cab (it's honestly not as gross as it sounds. highly recommend having one for emergencies anyway in case of overnights at stops with no services. look for collapsible toilets for camping and the deodorizing powder), getting a regional gig where most places you'll be are safe to use the bathroom at, and getting private showers to use the toilet at truck stops. please do not fuck around with the bathroom laws. some places have ones that involve bounties to encourage snitching, and they are throwing trans women into men's prisons.

most truckers are maga republicans. so not a great place for friendly co workers. recommend keeping your opinions on anything except trucking to yourself. ..actually, don't talk about how truckers desperately need to become union-focused again

for women and femmes specifically: a lot of truckers (especially otr and regional) have forgotten how to interact with humans, especially femme humans, so get ready for a lot of really awkward interactions, drivers literally staring at you like a you rolled up wearing a seasonally inappropriate halloween costume, and drivers assuming you aren't a driver but someone's truck wife

also weirdos approaching you to ask if you are a driver, and if you're not they immediately lose interest, but if you are, they become WAY TOO INTERESTED because they are looking for a truck bangmaid to do more than half the driving, and all of their hours logs and cargo paperwork

in general, it's a hard life. the hours are absurd, the physical labor involved if you aren't mostly doing drop-and-hook is a lot (but there are plenty of companies that only do drop-and-hook, and i have definitely seen visibly disabled drivers out here working), having a social life of any kind is really really hard. if you don't have a pet or passenger it's incredibly lonely, which is the biggest reason most new drivers don't make it past the first year before dropping out. BUT there are plenty of trucking jobs that have you home every day. i don't know what that's like, but i can only assume it's more like having a regular job with regular hours and getting to interact with other humans regularly

he's so talented