So here recently I sorta fell into this job driving truck (not 18 wheel) with a local outfit. I total out at five axles, with only one being a dually. So i'm in kind of a gray area. I figured I'd talk about that for a second, and see if all y'all would rather have me leave and not come back, seeing as I run a smaller truck (loaded to the gills). I understand there is some animosity toward smaller vehicles, and I'm sitting in that new, wierd gray area between a really big pickup and a semi. I'm running a rig rated at 19,000 total, but this outfit routinely loads it to around 40,000 (yes, you read that right)
I can definitely say a few less than complimentary things about the truck, most notably the crappy ZF S650 transmission. So, the rig is single dual rear axle with a 16 foot bed with ten foot cage, and it hauls a three axle trailer (which takes the brunt of the load). I'll say my total length is around 36 feet. If that don't quailfy me to sit and talk, I'll bug off.
I'll say the outfit I'm working for is fairly slipshod, and I'm the first driver (in 20 years) to actually carry a DOT medical card and a logbook. At this point I probably look like some kind of savage wading in a ditch shoving berries up my nose, but here I am.
However, If you decide againt running me off, I'd sure like to have some folk to talk to. I'm completely new to this kind of thing. I'm coming right from a sweptline Dodge to a heavy single rear axle truck. Everyone seems to thing I drive well though, so I must be doing something right. I'd go for a bigger rig, but one, I'm not rated for it yet, and two, the guy running things wants to keep his rig as small as he can to get it into tight spots (and they've sent me into some tight places)
I feel like a schmuck sometmes having to pull that hunk of junk into the semi fueling lane at some places I end up at, but sometimes the consumer lane is just not built to swing a hunk of junk like the one I'm driving through (inadequate width, turn area). But for as much as the rig is not as big as a semi, I'm on the road for a week at a time sometimes, and have to deal with alot of the same B.S. as you folk. So, I really hope I will be accepted here, as well as on the road. I apologize to anyone who has been held up by an underpowered truck hauling trailer axles and tires in the Northwest during the last several weeks.