Have you ever wanted to hit the road in a Big Rig?

[Vance]

Hey guys,

An old high school buddy recommended this web based simulation:

http://www.trukz.com

I just signed up to see how it goes, and it won't be that hard to find VanceW. :)

[JoePhoto]

Wait until Warren sees this!

Vance - why are you driving in circles?

[Vance]

Cuz my truck only makes left handed turns!

[mattchase]

Just goes to show what direction Vance is leaning.

I wonder if this will work correctly on my phone...

[Cimager]

Wait until Warren sees this!

Vance - why are you driving in circles?

Just saw it Joe. Umm would I ever want to hit the road in a big rig. LOL It looks like fun in the movies. I think on the open highway it's cool. Something about snow and ice though changes my thoughts. Think of how your car or pickup handles in ice and snow then think of having a pivot point and 53feet of trailer behind you. Of course even on Sunny nice days you eventually have to go into cities. What don't people understand??? when they see a sign on the back of a truck that says. Caution Truck makes wide Turns and they even show a photo of what happens on the sign. Duh. Now remember that I'm in a Sleeper Cab. I'm in downtown Providence Rhode Island. I have to make a delivery to the Weston Hotel. Where do they take deliveries. LOL yup in back next to parking garage. Another thing is several times they will have tour buses parked back here too so it does get a little tight. Oh ya snow's all melted too so don't have to deal with the snow piles in the way this time.
Like to video of where I wnet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuYMs7DSy5A
My rig.


Looking from the bunk area of my rig.

[Cimager]

Driving Big Rigs though isn't all that bad of a job. Depending upon who you work for you can make a good pay. Also depends if you want to be over the road or local and if you have to unload or you don't have to. Over the road they usually pay you by the mile. Anywhere from .31 to .49 cents a mile and possibly stop pay which can be $8-$12 per stop. Law says you can only drive a max. of 11 hours a day and work a max of 14 hours a day. After that you have to stop for 10 hours. Usually that means sleeping in the truck at some truck stop. Taking showers at truck stops, eating at truck stops etc. Some are real good some I wouldn't let my dog wash up in. Me I gave up over the road a long time ago. I drive local. New England area. Usually I don't stay overnite. Once in a blue moon I have to. I work Mon - Fri. My work days usually starts around 3:30-4 a.m. can be 8-12 hours long. I'm salary so if I get delayed at stop or in traffic too bad. Today I lucked out. Left at 430 a.m. got back 930 a.m. Tomorrow will probably be the same. (eat your heart out Joe I went riding hehe). Being salary I got paid for the full day. Maybe Wed. I won't be lucky and be out 12-14 hours.
If you're driving local usually you're either salary or hourly. My old job I was hourly. $19.75 hr. time and half after 8 hours. I usually worked 4 days a week (Mon., Tues., Thur., Fri.) Avg.14-15 hour days. So with time and half the pay was good. Problem umm you had to unload the truck. After 20yrs back gave out. Destroyed one disk with potential for two more gone. End of career there. Lost good pay and benefits plus now 55 so who wants a beat up old dude. LOL Did the studio thing but didn't make it. Oh well I tried. Back to driving but easier stuff to deliver and most times customer unloads. Less money but shorter days easier on body.
Some love the life. Consider themselves the last american cowboys. It is nice not having a boss looking at you. Just remember over the road drivers aren't home much. Can be gone from 2 weeks to a couple months. Local drivers. More city driving and usually more unloading of the truck. Would I do it again? Probably.
Oh I looked at the game but didn't play it. Maybe cuz I'm in a truck all day. My truck though is a 2008 Volvo, $95,000 for the cab (company paid not me lol), I hold 198 gallons of diesel fuel. I fuel usually every other day. I don't like it to go below half. Last time I let it go to almost 1/4 and it was $450 to fill it up (company pays not me). I avg. 7.2 miles per gallon. Dash has an onboard computer that tells you everything even outside temp. Right now my truck has 33,575 miles on it. My avg. week is 1400-2000 miles. I choose to start early in the a.m. since I'll be home before supper every day. I also run by the book. I run legal. No faking my logs. More baby boomers are giving up the office and going over the road. Don't know why. ya the allure of the big rigs, the freedom of the road etc. Trust me it gets old quick. What can you make as a trucker?? umm $45,000-$80,000 yr. Depends who you work for etc. like any job. Lots of stress too. Getting into tight places and cars not stopping while you try and back in from a street.

After I backed in



Looking from where I had to back up to the street where I came from. Notice the smoke stack to the right. Mirror barely misses it. Driveway is not even either. On the street sidewalk to the left is a fire hydrant and either side of the building cars are parked.



Didn't mean to hijack the thread. Just thought you'd be interested in real world trucking.

[TonyK]

After last review I make more than that, but I feel a lot more stress. Anything that goes wrong with the system we get blamed for. Network goes out, DB hangs, QA missed something, client turns off system, all of it is development's fault some how.

I generally work 9 to 9 1/2 hrs per day 5 days a week. Some weekends I've been known to dial in. Evenings I would check work e-mail, but that we before moving to the Mac. I consider NOT having IE on this rig a benefit. Oh, the old XP system could be fired up but that takes work.

BTW, that is one LOVELY rig. I'm not much for traveling but my wife thinks she would love driving if she weren't legally blind.

[Cimager]

I think the draw for people to drive is the somewhat freedom of the road. You still have people to answer to but you don't see them much. Usually if you are running on time, don't break down or have problems with the stuff you're hauling you don't hear from anyone. Course one of the drawbacks is that driving truck is dangerous. Our mistakes either kill us or several other people or both. Las week the highway by my house was shut down. (about 3 miles from house)
Main route for people and trucks going north or south. Dumb jerk came around a curve on the entrance ramp had a problem with control of his vehicle ended up hitting another car as he entered the highway. This section of highway also has a big curve. Tanker truck that just got loaded about 30 mins. ago and had 9500 gallons of gas and a few thousand gallons of diesel fuel tried to avoid the cars in the accident. He hit the guard rail tanker tipped and blew up. Unbelieveable site. Driver got out of the truck but was engulfed in flames. 70% burns to his body he died later that nite. Guy was only 43. Video here
http://www.wwlp.com/Global/story.asp?s=8083320
The nice thing is one only needs to get his license and in most cases a high shool education. The funny thing is the amount of drivers out there with serious degrees or technical backgrounds. I spent several years in mgmt. and gave it up to drive truck. Less stress and politics. Oh we still have stress but a different kind.




Those are the days I envy people working inside.

[JoePhoto]

Damn Warren, I got tired of parking my full-size Titan pickup so I traded in for a midsize Pathfinder SUV (for kid and camera gear) - I can't imagine parking that giant rig! Having seen your video and the snowy road photos I must say - stop taking pictures in precarious situations and keep both hands on the wheel!

Seriously, the insight of operating such a machine is refreshing and appreciated. Running a photo studio means more time behind a desk than I'd like... but that's what the bike is for.

[Vance]

A very looooooong time ago, I drove a truck out at DFW for Marriott in flight Kitchens. Yeah, I drove one of those trucks that the back box would
jack up, via hydraulics, to the doors of a Boeing 727 and such, so that we could restock the galley's with food and drink.

Granted, it wasn't anything like what you do, by a long shot, but then I can relate with the stress in that, I had to drive that truck in very close quarters of those airplanes, while dodging the baggage busters.

This game, is more like a web page board game, and in no way, near what the real thing is like. :)

I will say though, the cab of your rig looks pretty sweet bud.