Safety, safety, safety.  This must ALWAYS be a priority, even when walking.

Case in point, I almost ran over two people in the past two weeks because they were walking in such a way I could not see them.  If you must walk in front of a parked truck, stay at least 6 to 8 feet in front of them, if at all possible. 

There is a blind spot right in front of the truck.  If a driver is sitting in the drivers seat, they cannot see  directly in front of the truck. 

The people that I almost hit were both walking from their trucks towards the truck stop.  I was preparing to take off and just plain did not see them.  Thankfully when the truck started to move, they were able to move to safety, quickly. 

Never ever let down your guard.

Let's be safe out there and happy motoring!

Is there any question as to what I said yesterday about this being the most beautiful country in the world? These pix were taken as I was passing through Penn today, 9/15/12.

10.5 years ago I started living a dream. I started to drive truck. For me, there is no other job that could do for me what this job has done. I have had the chance to drive all over this country. My office is the most beautiful office in the world, the United States of America. Within the dream of driving truck, my goal is to have driven truck in all 48 lower states. As of this writing, I have driven in 47 of the 48. I have yet to drive in the state of Maine. That goal will be fulfilled tomorrow. I feel like the most blessed man alive right now. I am working for a good company, performing a job I love, in the greatest nation on earth, with the best wife and family/friends support system A guy could ever ask for.

Sometimes, my brothers and sisters in this industry (i e fellow drivers) surprise me.  I am about 100 miles north of Indianapolis, In this evening.  A student driver needed to get home to San Antonio Texas because his father suddenly passed away.

The company he was training with did not appear to want to help.  So he told them where to go.  With no place to go and flat broke, drivers pitched in. 

Enough money was raised so that a bus ticket could be purchased through greyhound in Indianapolis to get him home.  A driver will be taking him from this truck stop to the truck stop in Indy.  Once there, a security guard at the truck stop has offered to take him to the bus terminal AND give the man some cash for the ride home.

Truckers helping truckers.  That's what we are supposed to do, look out for one another.  It makes me mad and sad that this is often NOT the case any more these days.  It really did my heart good to see all this unfold.

Let's be safe out here and happy motoring!

wow. What a busy few weeks it's been.  In the past month I have covered almost 12k miles!  Whew. Is it any wonder why Im feeling a bit exhausted.  I love my job. Sometimes though I don't always like it.  Take this week for example. I had to leave home at 6am Sunday morning in order to be in Buffalo New York by 7am Monday morning.  That bit the big weaney!  While the paycheck looks nice, I wanna be around to spend it!!!!

Last night I was proceeding east on the pa turnpike when traffic came to a halt, both lanes. Turns out at the entrance to a construction zone the road was narrowing from 3 lanes to 2. Just past the entrance to the construction zone it went from 2 lanes to 1.
Why you ask? A 53ft trailer being hauled by United States Freightways decided to split itself in half and dump its contents all over the highway. What a mess.  It appeared though that no one was hurt.

This tire was found on a trailer that I picked up in Seymour Indiana. There was a good spare sitting in the tire rack. So someone was to freakin lazy to get it changed!

well it seems time has been flying by since last I posted.  Today proved to be rather interesting. Well it started yesterday in sparta wi where I picked up a preloaded and sealed trailer.

I delivered it in Aurora IL this morning at a recycling plant. When I opened the doors I was greeted by an entire pallet of filled water bottles rolling around on the floor. Its seems as though whomever loaded it put the heavier pallet on top of a lighter pallet...and the rest, as they say, is history!  Fortunately, they were out dated bottles of water being sent to recycling center for destruction and re use.
Knowing that my next load was coming out of a food distribution center, I carefully inspected the trailer for cleanliness and damages. I looked up and noticed sunlight where there should not have been any sunlight (the roof of this trailer was aluminum vice translucent). Some how a gash about 1" wide and 2 feet long had been cut into the roof. This is never good. So that trailer had to be taken to our repair shop in davenport, Iowa.

Lets be safe out there and happy motoring :)

PS I would be curious to see who is reading these posts. Please please take a moment to post something in the comments section.  Thank you.

well, it's been a busy, busy week. Only 3200 miles this week!  Right now I am in Milton PA. I have a 45k load of frozen food going to westfield ma for sunday night.

I will add more to this blog later.

Im feeling good today

I know that I had intended to use this blog to help educate people about driving around big trucks, things to look for and things to avoid. It seems like the focus has shifted around to what I've been doing and where I've been. I hope that this change works well for my readers. I hope that I am not boring people to death.  Right now I am home for my usual weekend off with my family. Tomorrow I will be heading for west Chicago. Can you sense the excitement here?

marilyn monroe statue

me in the bunk of my truck

In trying to be courteous today and allowing slow moving traffic to enter the highway at the Ny/Pa state border, heading into pa. By moving out into the left lane, I also put myself into position to bypass an open DOT scale. When I realized this scale was open it was to late. 5-7 miles later, pa state patrol decided they wanted to have a chat with me. That little blunder will cost me $111. As the said in the movie SWAT "Sometimes doing the right thing aint doing the right thing".

Well, lets be safe out there and happy motoring!
Tom

I have really got to do better.  Since my last posts, last year, ive been involved in an accident that resulted in my leaving G and H motor freight. Even though I was not at fault, it seems I did not do enough to avoid/prevent the accident. So, the asked me to leave on good terms. I went to work for heartland express for a short time. They are a good company if you don't mind office politics, long days, short nights and not home as promised. The pay was excellent, one of the best pay packages in the business. But, money isn't everything. So now Im working for a small company out of oxford, iowa and loving every minute of it. It's a pay cut from heartland but I will gladly take less pay for keeping promises.

a long time

wow. Im reviewing this and I see that its been a really long time since I blogged.