Episode #063

I'm ready are you ready? Cause we're recording right now. Are we? Yeah. What? Welcome to the 18 wheel talk podcast show. Oh my god, I'm not ready. Welcome

What are we talking about today, Janet? Well, I know we've been talking about a little bit of everything cuz we're for truckers and travelers and helping them live a healthier life behind the wheel. Yep. But today I wanna talk about trucking and driver shortages and why it's happening. Oh, okay. Oh, well we help truckers and travelers and today we're gonna work on truckers.

We're gonna talk about trucking. Yeah. meeem meem; waahm waahm

I dunno. That sounded like a sick foghorn. Beep beep, . Oh no. Janet's using the city horn. I can't use atra wompwomp I don't know how to, meemmeem There you go. Okay. So anyway, I don't know how to do an air horn. I'm sorry. What do you mean? You don't know how to do an air horn full of hair anyways? Full of hair, air. You're full of hot air.

I know you are, but bump, I know you are. But what am I. All right, Patrick, so before we get into this, lower your microphone a little. You're too high. People wanna see your beautiful face? No. So that better? That's, that's much better. Hey, beautiful. How you doing? I'm good. How are you? Is that, I just, how you, You can move, you know, you don't have to freeze face.

Oh, okay. Whew. That was kinda hard. I know, right? So many people see trucking as a great opportunity. Okay. So they go and they get trained either paying it their own way mm-hmm. or, you know, for a trucking school, or they go through and have a company pay them or they go through a company school. Okay. If they go through a company school, or the company pays for the schooling, they usually sign like a two year contract.

Okay. Where they have to work for the company for two years or they have to reimburse. Okay. Yeah. Well, I know, I know when I went to trucking school, they offered to reimburse for my schooling. Mm-hmm. , However, the company I went, I had to have a 90 or above average. Okay. So, So I did, I did as good as I could.

Okay. I forget, I think I had a 96 average that's good. So I know that, So like my niece had to reimburse cuz she went through a company, trucking school. Uhhuh, . They paid for her schooling. Mm-hmm. And she didn't stay with them. She switched companies. Right. So she has to, She's reimbursing, she has to pay that out of her pocket.

Yeah. And I know that nowadays schooling costs like 10 to $15,000 for trucking. Yeah. Back, back when I went, I, I wanna say I was probably six. Yeah. And I went through a refresher course, which was the same basic course. Mm-hmm. in 2003 or four. Something like it. I think it was three. Yong, yong time ago.

Yong, yong time ago. Long, long time ago. Well, I can still remember. Anyway, that's a different episode. Anyway I actually got a grant. Okay. I got, I got a student loan. That wasn't a student loan. It was kinda, it was a student slash personal loan. Okay. If that make sense. Yeah. I don't know how it just made, it made interest rate was lower.

Yeah, I gotcha. Yeah, I, so I didn't qualify because it was a trade school. Mm-hmm. it didn't qual, I didn't qualify for any kind of grants. Oh, I gotcha. See, and for some reason Hudson Valley Community College down in Hudson. Mm-hmm. I went down there and saw what they had available and applied and went to a place in Albany.

But then they informed me that I had a grant that I, I was just applying for like a, a part of it. Okay. They paid for the whole thing. Wow. You real lucky. I got real lucky. And I think you, because you were, I bet, I bet you it's a, you were a female and b b you're a veteran. Yep. That's why mm-hmm. They had different programs in between the two programs they paid for.

Both you veterans just get it all. Yeah, we get screwed by the government and then we get all the benefits that we can apply for and we have to know what to apply for. And you gotta apply for it. Cuz if you don't apply for it, you don't get it. That's right. So anyway, just saying. So you have to get trained to be a truck driver Woaw!

Wait a minute, what do you mean ya gotta get trained? Well it used to be you could just have your dad or friend train you and go sit down there. He, you all you had to do was sit on your dad's lap and he'd show you how to drive and that was it. Here Janet, you turn the wheel well and here's, here's how you shift, Well basically how that's basically how you learned.

Yeah. And here's how you shift. Yep. Okay. Yep. That's how I learned. Well, I didn't learn sitting on your dad's lap. I I'm glad to say just say it. Just say it. Because if you did that then just in case anybody was Yeah, no. So it used to be you could learn from a friend or a family member and get your license.

Mm-hmm. then. It switched. Do you have to go to schooling. I didn't have like a family or friend that was in trucking. I, I, I think that I'm the only one in my family mm-hmm. that ever drove a truck. Oh, wow. A big rig. I I don't believe any of my uncles grandparents or anybody like that that drove truck. I, I, me, I'm the only one your special in a very good way, I guess.

Yeah. I'm Special alright. We wouldn't have met if it hadn't been through that. True. It's one thing we got in common. Yes. So anyway, Uhhuh that, that one moment on the bridge Ah, yes. The moment on the bridge. Yeah. So a few months after training, I'd like to tell you what Janet said about that moment on the bridge.

However, it's x-rated. No it's not, I told your sister, just gimme this guy. Five minutes in my truck. It's just, I just want him five minutes in the truck. Ewwww, that's my brother. Oh my God. Ewwww and he's married. Yes. And I just went, Oh, well RuRoh. So what do you mean He is married Uhhuh, so I know, right. That was then, this is now moving on back to trucking.

Anyway, back to trucking. A few months after training into the first OTR job. Most of these drivers after they, Cuz you go through schooling. Yep. Then you go and you sit, sit in a truck with a trainer. Yep. The way it's supposed to work is, say their first week or so, you sit in the jump seat, which is the passenger seat for those that don't know it.

Okay. And then the trainer drives. Yep. And then you switch and the trainer is supposed to be awake and coherent. You work on their, They're supposed to work. They're supposed to help you. you're supposed to work their hours. Now, when I was training with my trainer, okay. Mm-hmm. , he had, he had, he had two of us in the truck.

Okay. So we were, we were bringing, one of the trainers was being brought to his actual trainer. Okay. Well, one of the, one of, one of the trainees. I was one, and then the other guy was going to, he was just catching a ride. Okay. So my trainer utilized both of us to kinda get the feel. Okay. So he had us each drive for a couple hours just to get an idea as to how, you know, how we can handle the rig.

I gotcha. And then he took over, basically. So my first job out of school was hazmat, gas, and oil. My first, my first job outta school was flatbed, hauling a 48,000 pound coils loaded suicide. Lucky you. Mine was. And, and, and if you, if, for those of you that don't know, there's two ways to load a, a, a coil. All right.

There's, there's shotgun where if the chain breaks, the coil would roll off the sides of the trailer. Trailer. Yep. And then there's suicide where if the chains break it's gonna roll over the cab of the truck or the back. Or the back of the truck. So you made sure that it was secure. Yes. Suicide is usually the best way to haul a coil.

Mm-hmm. However, I have loaded them both ways. Shotgun. The, the wind drag is really bad. Yes, it is. You know, but if they're small enough and, and they're behind the cab. Then it's not so bad, and if you're tarping it anyways, that it usually takes, takes away some of the wind resistant. Yep. So I hauled fuel to gas stations, which the tankers.

Yep. I I always, I'm sorry, I always wanted to do that. Oh, okay. The tankers have bladders in them. Bladders are baffles, baffles. I meant, I knew I well, well, I've heard of tankers that have bladders in them so that each one is separate. Yeah. They have, they have compartments. Yes. That's the best way to describe it.

So that each one is separate. So if you've got unleaded, premium and mid grade, they're each in their own compartment. Gotcha. Okay. That's how they can keep it separate. Some people think it's all just one big thing. It's not Okay. And you can have diesel in the same tanker as all the others, right? Like is it different compartments?

Different. Usually if we hauled the truck stops, all we hauled was diesel. Okay. Yeah. And I hauled and then, then there's no compartment. And I hauled overload six oil to factories. That's like heating oil. Okay. Extra heavy. 120,000 pounds. Yeah. And you get a lot of times like a three permits for that. Right.

You need special permits. And now, and I hauled them up the mountain up into New Hampshire. Now, when you, when you did that, did you have

like a certain route that you had to go? Like there was a spec. Yes. You got the permit. Yes. I had specific routes. You had to take certain roads to get to where you're going. Correct. Okay. That, But I, what I started to say is I had one trainer, Dan, that taught me gas and oil. Or gas and diesel. Okay. And I had another trainer, Steve, you've heard me talk about Petterson.

Yep. He's the one that taught me six oil. Okay. So I had two different trainers because each one was the best with that company. At what they did. At what they do. Yeah, that makes sense. Steve didn't haul gas for the most part, and Dan, I don't think he ever hauled Six Oil, you know, And, and that's two different, They each had their own rig.

They, I rode one day with each of them well, where they drove and then I swapped. Well, it'd be in that allright. Tankers and, and loading tankers. A whole different story. Cuz you had to load your own, but it being tankers and now you're, you, you're, you're hauling. liquid. Yeah. You're hauling gasoline. Mm-hmm.

Which they have their own compartments. Yep. All right. Gasoline has a different thickness, correct. Than the oil. Oh gosh, yes. And the oil isn't in compartments, The oils in its own thing. Oh, yeah. Now, did the oil have baffles in it? Nope. Because I know like milk trucks will put baffles in it. No, the oil has to allow the slosh.

No, the oil has no baffles. And if you hauled so many gallons to one place and so many gallons to another, which was really rare, it was usually one load, one stop. Right? And it was usually like 300 miles out and all uphill. Of course. Like to Ticonderoga. Yeah. All uphill up to tiny. Yeah, uphill, loaded, downhill, empty in the winter.

uhhuh. But say you that, that, that me saying tiny is an inside joke. Yes. It's a dirty joke. Anyway. I forgot what I was saying, Patrick. We'll, we'll hold that for the X-rated show. Sorry, what was I saying? You were hauling. If you had, if I had two stops, there was meters that would tell me when I had reached the correct amount of gallons.

All right. Yeah. So but that was, that, that makes sense. That was really rare. So, So you'd have a meter on as you were exhausting the Yes. Cause I was taking it out and then you had to empty the hoses out a specific way to get 'em totally empty because you had to wrap those hoses back up onto the trailer up on the truck.

Yeah. And the empty hose weighed over a hundred pounds. Yeah, that's which I could do, but there's a specific way to do it without killing yourself. So anyway, And that's why you went with two different trainers that were best at what they did. Exactly. So you had to pay attention to your trainers. So it's not until drivers that are new get out of that training that they realize how difficult.

The job is, or like in my case, how much they loved the job. I loved truck driving; So did I; like, like there was no tomorrow. See what it, it it took for me when I got out of training, my trainer said, You know what, dude? You got this. Mm-hmm. and I went through, my company's training facility. Mm-hmm. and out of all the, there, there, there was like a drive around the building and pull up and then back it into the building, you know, get out, walk around, yada, yada, yada.

Yeah. Yeah. 20 people went before me. Mm-hmm. And then I went and I pulled up and I got out and walked around and then I got in and I laid on the air horn and then it backed up. Mm-hmm. And then when I got in there, they, they. Brought me out and like, and now, now I'm the center of attention. And I was told, this is the, out of the outta the last 21 people, this is the only guy that did it.

Right. You laid on the air horn. Exactly. Yeah. Cause the first thing he said to me, he says, Why did you do that? I said, Well, contrary to me walking around the truck, I know that some idiot could end up behind me. And by me blowing my air horn at least brings the attention to me for one. Mm-hmm. And, and then when I back up, they, they at least know what, what the hell direction I'm going.

I hit the air horn and it's like they see the flashers and now I'm moving backwards. They know. Get the hell outta my way. Yeah. Because I went to an independent school on lunch breaks. I would spend the time in the Albany New York phone book. Okay. I started with the A's and I called every trucking company in the phone book, Uhhuh, and asked them, Do you hire drivers a straight outta school?

What'd they say? No. They're like, Yeah, talk to me in a year or two. It's like, Yeah, no. And then I talked to one and they said, Well, maybe tell me about yourself. And I did. And then on the, like a Saturday, I went in and I talked to the general manager, Willie Uhhuh. I talked to him and just did an interview.

No. Driving. I wasn't even outta school yet. Right. I just talked to him and he said, You pass the school. Come and see me. You get your license. Come and see me. I'll give you a chance. He says, You're more confident than anybody I've ever met. Right. And that's how I was. I was more confident after that, you know?

Yeah. Than, So when I went and did my first on my own mm-hmm. I had two, two stops. Okay. The first stop was a parallel dock. I had to pull up and back up parallel to the dock. Yeah. And I had to get as close as I could. So they can bring this overhead crane. And that's the only thing I liked about flatbed is, is I didn't have to offload it.

Yeah. It, it either had to be forklift crane or shoved off the, you know, the tail of the truck. I gotcha. So I didn't have to touch, I didn't have to touch the freight other than to put, put the chains in the straps on and, and throw the tarp. That was it. So when I went for my road test Willie's brother Mike Road tested me.

Okay. As I started to get out of the Porta Rensselaer, he said, You might as well turn around. And I thought, I'm that bad. And he says, and I said that to him. He says, No, you're that good. He says, You got the job. So when I was done training gas with Dan, I knew I was done. When I came back, he had me loading by myself across the street.

There was one of the places we loaded gas Okay. Fuel. Yep. And one time I came back and he says, You're good to go. And I said, Okay. He says, No, you're done training with me. Now you move on to six Oil. And I said, Why? And he says, Cuz I watched you load from here cuz you could see the place we loaded. Right, right, right.

Yeah. Says literally is across. He says it was snap, snap, snap. You knew exactly what you were doing and that was the only thing I had yet to see you be comfortable with. Cool. All right. And saw him all the time at the stops, at the, you know, Depot was home all the time on the road. No, I felt really good about it.

I wasn't Bigheaded because I still had to train six oil. I know, I know. So then I got in the truck with Steve and I was in the truck with Steve for a couple weeks. So my training, I had two weeks with Dan and about two weeks with Steve. Okay. So I was coming through the college town in, in Massachusetts there.

Yeah, I know where, Anyway, coming North, North Adams, Mass. Yes. North Adams coming through the college. Kids were darting back and forth, not in the crosswalk. And I was being real patient all the time and stopping and going. And stop. Yeah. They don't look. And then one day I was just fed up with it.

They were not in the, The ones that were in the crosswalk. I stopped really patiently for. And then all these kids just start in the middle of the block going in front of me. I laid on the air horn, it was in the summer, had my window down, leaned out the window and screamed at 'em. Get that blank outta my way.

I'll run your ass over. And they scrammed. You probably, You probably even said it just like that. Get the blank outta my way. No, I swore at 'em. Well, did you swear at em? Get the F outta my way. You said that, Get the F out of my way. No, and I'm not gonna say it. So behave. Come on, we're explicit. You could do it.

You're explicit. Anyway. And Steve started, Wait a minute steve started laughing and when we got back to the terminal, he says, Okay, she's ready. And I looked at him, he says, When you cussed at those kids and you'd had enough. That's how I knew. I was like, Okay. Oh, okay. I'm like, that's all it took I'da cussed at 'em last week.

Yeah, right. I had done that three days ago. Yeah. Right. So anyway, so kids we're talking about how difficult truck driving can be and you, when you're out of training, you have to get to that point where you're comfortable. Yeah. And kids now, or new drivers don't really understand the mental, physical, and emotional side of driving, especially if they have a family at home.

Right. And kids do not understand the parent being gone for weeks on end. But if you're a driver and you've got children at home and you wanna make the money, you're gonna be an over the road driver. You're not really gonna make tons of money. I'm not guilty of it being a daytime driver. No. In a home every night.

If you make your home life your priority. You're not gonna make that money. Right. That's one of the problems in truck driving. It's like, look, I, we gotta pay the bills somehow and this is what I know how to do and you know I'm gonna, I'm gonna make the money to pay the bills. So you either, either work a ton of driver, ton of hours on a day job where you're at home most nights or you go over the road and you're home on weekends.

Every couple weekends. Yeah. My weekend consisted of Saturday evening and then I left out Sunday evening. That was my weekend. I was home every other weekend, you know? But I was on a region. Yeah, I was on a regional board where I was you were cross country, you were cross country. Yeah, I was like home every second or third weekend and I didn't care cuz my dog went with me and I didn't have a husband or kids.

Thank you, Jesus. Yeah. Anyway, but yeah, when I started there was, it was I had to go to Oklahoma to pick up my. And then my first delivery was in Kansas and they worked me back over to the East coast. Cuz obviously I lived in New York. Yeah. So after and I ran the north Northeast Regional board. Yeah. So after I ran fuel, I switched over the road cuz that's what I really wanted to do.

But I appreciated the opportunity that Willie gave me, that I stuck with them until he left the company. And that's when I said I, I met the new manager, didn't like him. And some friends like Steve had gone to this other company for over the road. I went and interviewed with him and they bought a truck for me to drive.

And that's what I did. They said, Hey, we'll buy you a truck. He, he let me pick it out even. What? Yeah. He, he took me to the Peter ship and you call didn't, Peterbuilt, you didn't call me and say, Hey, I got a friend that could probably use a job. You weren't interested in anything I ever showed you. You, you, you didn't know, You didn't ask.

Did I know you then? No, I didn't know you then you worked for Beeline. But when I worked for them, I did. When I first started, I didn't know you. No, but when you met me, you could have said, Hey, you interested in driving? Anyway, so then I might, I might have jumped all over you. I mean all over that. So let's get back to this.

So we're talking about trucking and the shortage. I'da gave you five minutes then you never know. we're talking about the trucking shortage. Sorry, we got sidetracked. Oh yeah. My, my bad. There's the point of view of the trucking company. We are reminiscing. These big companies are willing to train the new people to drive, but then they wonder why the, then people wonder why they pay so low to begin with.

Okay. The reason is it seems to be that so many new drivers leave after six months. They get on their, you know, they get behind the wheel on their own. They're gone from home. They're learning more about driving, breakdown, hours of service, splitting the sleeper. And they find out that driving a truck's a hard job.

It, it's not just pull, drive down the road in a car and stop in a town and done. It's, it's, it's work. It's something marshmallows and rainbows. So then they go find a job working for a smaller company or a place like Amazon or UPS cuz they've got their cdl they can drive for small companies or a local delivery company like that.

Yeah. But, but they don't understand. Mm-hmm. is those companies, they don't need a CDL to drive. I know, but they're trying to make use of the fact that they've learned how to drive. Oh yeah, yeah. I get it. You know, and it's like my, my old company, it's like they made the weight of the truck under 26,000 pounds even though it still had air brakes.

Yeah. You still drive it with a regular driver's license. Yeah. And I don't understand how you didn't need an airbrake permit. You need a That's what I'm saying. It has air brakes. You need at least an air brake endorsement. Yeah. So because they changed it to an air brake endorsement. Yeah. That's how much, That's how much this, It's changed.

Just changed. Oh my God. Anyway. Anyways, so when the drivers stay six months with that company they trained for and leave, first they have to pay that loan back and that leaves the big company out in the cold with the driver that they paid to train and left the company. Yep. So, yeah, I'm sure they send these kids or people a bill, but then they have to probably take 'em to court to get the money back cuz they're going and they end, they end 'em getting, you know, let it go to collections in collections and, and by they're, by that time that company runs out of business because they got no money now.

Yeah. Especially if it's a; end up bankrupt; smaller company yeah. Okay. So you've got that. That's why the smaller companies don't take kids right outta school. And then you got the really big companies, the really good ones that do pay well, that do have ex extremely well pay and great benefits, but you can't walk into those jobs straight outta school.

And that's what these new drivers don't understand. You can't just go to school for four weeks and walk up to usually six, six to eight or six weeks. Okay? I don't know. Anyways, sorry. You can't, you choked me up. I'm sorry, my, my apologies. You can't go to school for 4, 6, 8 weeks, whatever it is. Mm-hmm. and then expect to go get a job making a hundred, $120,000 a year.

What? It's not automatic. Are you kidding me? They told me that if I went to school, that I was gonna make a hundred to $120,000 a year. They lied. I know, right? They do. You have to do your dues. Yeah. You gotta put your time in. That's right. See how I segued that? I do. You have to do your time. You have to. So you think I'm not paying attention?

Well, I thought you were just trying to make me choke. No, I wasn't. I was trying to help you out. Oh, okay. So we spoke to drivers and we found out that in one aspect nothing's changed in truck driving. Mm-hmm. But in another aspect, a lot has changed. You know, believe me, I've seen the change. Imagine the changes my Dad saw.

Oh, I'm, I'm sure he saw the, the bulk of it. When, when, when they change things around and, and a lot of the older drivers that I've ever talked to have, have always said, All right. Some of it makes sense. Yes. The rest of it makes no sense. Yeah. You know, I mean there, there's like certain things like the hours of service.

I understand that, you know, work so many hours be off for so many hours that allows us to get our rest. Correct. I get it. 14 hours on, 10 hours off. There's only 24 hours in a day. The days aren't getting any longer. 16. If there was a traffic accident or you were stuck for a reason, you, you, you could use that once a week.

You had, you had an allotment to get to a safe haven they called it. Correct. You know, bad weather, bad accident. It wasn't, it wasn't a two hour window for you. Well, I'm almost home. No, it was a, it was a, like I said, behind an accident, bad weather, whatever. You had a two hours you could use once a week for something that like that.

Yes. But I started to say as he was born in 27. 1927. Yeah. And he started driving when he was 14 years old. Yeah. That was, I mean, that was back when you were, when you were driving a truck, you were sitting on a bucket. Yeah. And it took pretty much, and it took three stick shifts. . Yeah. And it took him a day to drive from Springfield, Illinois to St.

Louis, Missouri. Yep. And then unload It took him all weekend to go from Springfield to St. Louis and back to make like four bucks or two bucks or something, hauling pigs. I think he said hauling pigs. Yeah. He hauled hogs. His first job, he was a hogger. He made diddley squat, I believe is what he said. Yep. He made, No, no.

I believe his exact words were he made pig shit. I don't think my dad says shit. I believe he said the word shit. Oh, okay. So anyway, diddley shit, He didn't make diddley shit. So the government should. I did that. I got all those swear words in on our explicit show. Okay. driver, the government used to be pretty lax about hours of service.

They didn't do a lot of checking on it. Okay. And there was a lot of falling asleep behind the wheel. Yeah, I've seen a few wrecks where, you know, that driver fell asleep. Fell asleep behind the wheel. Yeah. And then as time change, hours of service did, employers didn't really seem to employers, you know, especially paper logs.

Yep. Which have pretty much gone away. Yeah. Oh, they have, They, they pretty much have even like 15 years ago, a lot of drivers knew how to do two, three, even four books. I dunno what you talked about to make so they could run more hours and keep the company happy. Yeah. I can't even count the number of times a boss would say to me or a dispatcher, Well I know you're outta hours, but if you could just do this, I'll give you this bonus.

And then I'd say, text it to me so I have it in writing. Mm-hmm. that you need this load done. And I'm gonna get this bonus. Huh. And I'll make it work. I'll figure. I'll figure it out on paper, which was my way of saying, I'll run a second book. I'll fudge the numbers. You just gotta gimme the numbers to fudge.

Yeah. But I want it in writing that I'm gonna get a bonus for doing that. Yeah. Cause I'm the one that pays if I get caught. Yeah. See, I always got, like, I got a little extra if I like go preloaded a bunch of trailers for 'em. Yeah. Like if I was at, if I was at a terminal mm-hmm. and they were like, Hey Pat, when you heading out, you know, I'm like, well, I'm still in the sleeper for a couple hours, you know, Hey, you wanna do me a favor?

Can you, can, can you get these two? You know, I got, I got two appointments. It should take, you know, 15 minutes in between. Can you, can you get these trailers preloaded? Yeah. What are you gonna pay me? You know, I've never had to do that. I I didn't mind because I knew the guys at, at the, the plant.

Literally it was a mile down the road. Mm-hmm. give 'em the appointment number. Pull in. They had the stuff ready. I mean, it was literally right there. It was like, grab it, drop it on there. It was a load of pipe. Okay. It was a pipe factory and, and I would adjust the, the I call it the blocks. Okay. I'd adjust the blocks, throw at least three straps over the, so that I could drive it back to the yard.

Yeah. I got, that's all I had to do, you know. Okay. So, so I made, I made a few extra bucks doing that. That's how I made my extra. I gotcha. So hours of service came around in, around 1935, 1935. I was amazed when I saw that. I'm like, they didn't start enforcing it in 1935. whew! You know? Yeah, go ahead. You could drive 12 hours in a 15 hour period and have nine hours of rest as long as you took three breaks.

One break being that nine hours, three hours of breaks. No three breaks. It says three hours. Three hours of breaks. Okay. So within, Within a 24 hour period. Yeah. So you had to be, Yeah. Nine. Let's do the math here. So you could drive 12 hours. That might be a typo. I think. Think it was three breaks plus nine is 21 plus 3 is 24.

No, that's right. Okay. So they could drive 12 hours in a 15 hour period. Yes. And within that 15 hours, they need to take three hours of breaks. Yes. Their's, their three hours of breaks at, plus the nine. So 15 plus, 15 plus to nine is 24 hours. Yeah. But so that makes sense from what my Dad told me. They could do the 12, take the three and count it as part of the nine so that they could roll it over.

So the 15, the 12 plus nine mm-hmm. 21 hours. 21. And they could roll it at 21. Okay. Because they didn't take a break during their nine. Yeah, I get it. So it counted. It was really weird. Yeah. There, there's there. They could roll. There was weird, like other rules written in that if you do this, you can do that.

If you do this, you could do that. But that also established the 60 hour in seven days rule. Yep. Or or; that stuck around. Yeah. The, yeah. Or those. Oh yes. Yeah. 60 hours, seven days, 70 hours, eight days. Yeah. That all depended on whether you are local or long distance. Yes. But then there was also the rotating 15 hour day.

Okay. That was added in 1962. That was drive 10 in a 15 hours, eight off. Yep. Yep. Like I said, they, they changed that you needed an eight hour off. Yes. I, I, when I started working for my last company, that, that rule was in effect. Yeah. I think that's the one I drove on. It's just like I did so much research.

My brain just got fried. It seemed like every time I blinked, I was at work. Yeah. Doing, you know, covering for somebody. It seemed that way. I'm like, I'm like, I just left here. Well, I still need you to work. I'm like, But I just left. Can I sleep? Here's what's weird. In 1935, they came up with the rules. Mm-hmm. But in 1938 is when they were required to start reporting their hours.

Right. So they had the rules, but three years later they said, Oh, we've got these rules. Yeah. Hey, hey, we need you to report, we need you to write 'em down. So that's, that's when the paper logs, which they used to call comic books, and I remember my Grandpa McCue calling 'em that. I remember hearing some of the old guys Oh, you mean that comic book?

Yeah. I used to write comic books, my grandpa would say, and that's what he was talking about when I was little. I didn't know what he was talking about. And then I'm like, Ah. Because, because it was, because that's what it, that's all it was. That's all I was, It was, it was a funny comic strip that he'd write at the end of the week, not at the end of the day; with a bunch of lines written in it.

At the end of the week, they'd fill 'em out and hand 'em in. The comic book. Yeah. Isn't that funny? Now, fast forward to 2016. What happened then? They came out with the electronic logbook. I didn't have to deal with that. I, I did in a way. Okay. I didn't have to personally log in and out of a digital. Can you cheat with it?

I don't think so. I, like I said, I don't know the ins and outs of it, but it, it, it was supposed to take away from the cheating. Okay. Okay. Can you still use paper?

It, it, I, I think you can still run a paper log depending on the year of the vehicle. Okay. If that makes. Okay. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. You know, so if it's older than a 2000 mm-hmm. then, then I think you could still use, you are allowed to use paper logs. I think it's the engine though. I think you're right, because it would be the engine that controls the electronics, not the vehicle.

So say you had a 2002 or three and you put a 2000 or a 99 engine in what? I don't know why you'd do that, but if you did well it, you'd do it to avoid electronic log. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I would do. I would do it to avoid the electronic logs, but if, if it's a crated motor Yeah. You know, But I know one person that still runs paper logs.

I even when we had electronic logs, we some, some of the guys who would run paper logs still. Yeah. But I'm just saying he doesn't have an electronic log in his, in his truck. But those electronic logs never screw up. Yeah. Right. Ever. I remember because our, our scanners mm-hmm. basically kept track of our hours.

So if you forgot to log off the scanner, you couldn't work the next day, technically couldn't, you wouldn't have hours and couldn't work the next day. Okay. So your scanner kind of was your electronic log. Yeah. All I know is, everything I've heard is electronic logs cause arguments with your employers. Al Always.

Always. Because they want you to do more, but you can't. But you can't. Yeah. Don't have the hours. Not, that's not my fault. According to the American Trucking Association. Okay. The driver's shortage, Uhhuh is reported at 80,000 drivers last year and this that would be 2022. 2021. 21. Correct. Okay. And they say that in the next eight years, by 2030 Okay.

It will double to 160,000. Shortage. Shortage. We're right now, we're currently 80,000 truck drivers short. Correct. To be fully fully efficient country. Correct. To be an efficient country with truck drivers and transportation industry of hauling goods. Okay. We need 80,000 more drivers right now. So by 2030 they're gonna say it's gonna be doubled.

Doubled. Correct. I, I, I agree. Because, because of the way the regulat, the, the regulations are changing so much mm-hmm. that they're, if they just allow the drivers, you know, come up with a set of rules and leave that the set of rules and quit fucking with 'em and let the drivers do their job. But here's the thing, there's almost 2 million licensed CDL drivers in the U.S.

I, I'm one of 'em, I'm one of 'em. You still have a cdl? Well, it actually just expired. Oh, okay. But I had it for how many years after I quit. You know? I, Yeah, I, Well, it wouldn't take much for me to get it back, but my point is, how many drivers are out there that have a CDL that don't use it a lot? I have one.

I was one until recently. You know, I still have one. All I gotta, all I gotta do is get a D.O.T. Physical and I'm good to go. Oh, they say that this, Now, here's what's weird. They say that it's supposed to reach 160,000 by 2030, but then they also say it's supposed to reach 240,000 by this year. One of the number, I think it's 1.1 million 600,000 by 2030.

Yeah, by 2030 it's 1,600,000 and it's 240,000 this year, which is a 40% shortage. There's, Oh, I gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. Sorry. My bad. The shortage is expected it to rise to 240 this year. Yeah. Which is almost over. We're at 200. That might have been 2020. No, no. Oh, okay. In 2020, there were over almost 2 million heavy and tractor trailer drivers.

Okay. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Okay. But then you find out that things aren't really running smoothly and haven't been for decades. This is true. There's excellent jobs and there's terrible jobs, and that's why they say there's gonna be a 40% shortage or was this year. Okay. And a lot of it has to do with driver compensation.

Well then, and, and you throw in, you know, hello, where a pandemic swooped in in 2019. Yeah. You know, so you throw that into a mix where, Merchandise isn't being produced because people are in a lockdown, aren't shopping, aren't doing this, aren't going well. There's nobody to drive. The boats, the trucks, the trains and the trucks are sitting in ports waiting to get loaded.

Exactly. Lined up, bumper to bumper. Because, because the boats are stuck out in the harbor for miles, shits and giggles. Yeah. You know, for whatever, God knows reason. So, so I mean, like I said, you throw all that in. Well yeah, there's gonna be a shortage. Of course there's gonna be a shortage. Now they're trying to, they're they're trying to, you know, make it so that they, They're changing the age.

Yeah. Well, yeah. They're changing the age and they're telling these kids they're gonna make a hundred to $120,000. When actually 48,000 is the average for a beginner. For a beginner, No, that's the median annual pay. Oh yeah. It's not beginner. Yeah. That's 23 bucks an hour. It's going up. But that's $23 an hour for median pay.

That's just, I made a lot more than that when I was over the road, but I was experienced too. I, I made, I made, I didn't make, I, I wasn't getting rich, but Yeah. But I wasn't, but I was also, wasn't poor either. I, by no means wasn't poor, but on one hand I was single. Okay. Okay. Didn't have a lot of bills of my own mm-hmm.

But on the other hand, I was supporting my sister and her children. Gotcha. So, yeah, I, I had apples to pineapples. Right. I had I was married with children and one on the way. Did you sell shoes? No. I drove a truck. Love and marriage. Love and marriage. No I drove a truck. Go together like a Horse and Carriage. Anyways. Okay. Anyway, so most, there's a lot of drivers that don't get any overtime, don't have healthcare, and they pay their own fuel.

And they spend days and weeks away from home. Mm-hmm. And if they do have benefits, the benefits suck. True. You know bring in the teamsters. Well, and the, and it's like, okay, well say they don't have to pay their fuel, they have to pay their parking. You know, because a lot of these trucks don't haves to pay for parking.

Now. Yeah. Nowadays. Yeah. Before you didn't have to just Well, I know, but I remember paying for parking at a TA just inside Pennsylvania coming outta Jersey. Yep. I was like, you gotta be fricking, That was like one of the, one that, but I was a big one though. It was, they got a lot of traffic, but they also, you had to spent so much in fuel or food with paying for the parking, though, that also included like a cable hookup.

But you, you had to either pay for fuel, Or food to get your parking for free. Yeah. You gave them your receipts, showed 'em your receipts when you left, and then they'd give you the free parking. If you didn't spend so much money on either of those, you had to pay. Yep. When you left and getting a scale wasn't enough.

No. You had to eat a decent meal. What I mean by that is using the, the, the, the cat scale to weigh your vehicle. For 12 bucks. It used to be back then. Yeah. Now, God, I think it's 20 bucks now. Probably 25. I don't know. Anyway, it's the ridiculous roll up on a scale. Come on. But companies don't reimburse for parking like that.

Nope. I am more, They're not gonna reimburse your meals. Nope. We have a podcast talking about how to eat healthy in a truck, don't we? Meals and trucks or is that still coming? I, we got something out there and whatever it is, guess what? We'll put, there'll be a link in the show notes. I know Janet's gonna make a note about that link in the show notes.

I think it's called Healthy Eating. I just put the word food. Yeah. I think it's healthy eating. So anyway, something like that. So there's all these issues that drivers have when they're on the road. Mm-hmm. , they're being promised big money, they're not gonna make the big money. And like you said, bring in the teamsters.

Yep. Okay. They drive for major carriers. They make what? 80,000 plus. Yeah. Now, now, now the teamsters come in, they say, you know, better pay, better benefits. You, you know so, so now the, instead of 48,000, you got the teamsters in here. Now you're gonna make 80,000 plus healthcare over time and other perks.

Okay. You know, better pay, better hours, better benefits. Okay. I'd go there home at night. Yeah. You know, I, I would, I would jump on a union shop. Yeah. Well, and the other good one is Walmart. Okay. Walmart raised their, I know Walmart raised their pay 21% salary bump. Yeah. So that their average starting pay for drivers, not for employees in the stores.

Driver salaries start at 87,000 and in their first year, oh, 87 was their first starting. This is for experienced drivers. They used to start their drivers at 87,000. They bumped it up to 110,000. Now, you can't come straight outta school and make that, but you can still make that as a first year driver with Walmart.

Right? They have more than possible. Yes. It's not a guarantee. It's possible, but they they aimed to hire over 5,000 drivers is what they were saying for the year we're in. Yep. Which included training 400 to 800 new drivers through their private fleet development. I didn't even know Walmart trained drivers Well, I mean, if you got somebody that works for the company mm-hmm.

and then wants to drive Yeah. They, they find out that they can get in. Benefits Walmart for them to train their own people. Oh, yeah. But I, like I said, I didn't know they had a driver training program. Oh, yeah. It's like, it's like there's a few people that, that, that I work with that, that have talked about, you know, getting into Why don't you drive?

I said, Dude, let me tell you something. I drove 32 years. I don't need to drive, I don't need to drive no more. Mm-hmm. , I mean, granted, they're automatic, so it'd be a whole lot easier, but I, I like the hours that I work. Mm-hmm. , I like seeing the sun. I don't wanna work nights. I did 32 years, 36 years at night.

I, I, 36 years at night work drove 32 of. You know, I, I don't, I don't need it no more. But there's some where, where I tell them, Hey, go talk to So andSo, So they may have a, you know, they may be able to help you pay for schooling or they may help you with training. Yeah. And the fact that you're not driving brings us to driver retention.

You know, they don't talk, they don't, they don't listen. God damn kids. Mm-hmm. don't freaking listen. Anyways, go ahead. Sorry, I didn't mean to sidetrack. No, you're fine. If I was sidetracking, driver retention, besides pay, there's a huge demand for training. Yep. Fleets didn't used to train or they quit training, they brought back the programs.

Well, yeah, because you wanna keep your, It benefits a company to keep somebody that's already been there. Mm-hmm. , I mean, Yes, I know. I've worked for those, those companies where bring in the younger blood mm-hmm. because they can pay 'em less. Because they don't know any better. Yeah. But then, then you get to those old timers chirping in the young kid's ears, and telling 'em to don't do it.

Yeah. Put your foot down. Demand you want more money. Yeah. More money. Better benefits. Well, a way to big in the union, you know, the way to make more money as a truck driver. What's that? Drive team. This is true because twice the amount of work in the same five day period. Yep. If you're working five days a week.

Exactly. The, the wheels on the bus don't stop. You're saying they go round and round. They, they keep going because here's in theory, if you have a team, Okay. Like say you and I were a team. Okay. All right. So we, we will flip a quarter. Who's gonna start off? Okay. All right, Cushla. All right. So say you are starting, so you're gonna drive five hours while I quote sleep.

Okay, then I'm gonna drive five hours and you're gonna sleep. Okay. Then you're, then I'm gonna wake you and then you're gonna drive, and then I'm gonna, you know, five on, five off. Five on, five off. You, me. Cushla. Cailin, Right? Do they get a drive? They're on So one's on your schedule. One's on my schedule.

Okay. Okay. They get shotgun. Okay. I was just checking. Yeah, they don't get bunk time. They get shotgun, They get bunk time with us though. Well, yeah, if, if, if I'm in bunk Cailin's in bunk the two of us are in the bunk. No, I'm saying if I'm in bunk. Cailin's in bunk. Yeah. And then because, you know, she's attached to my hip and then I, I need, I need Cushla to be in the shotgun seat because she's the navigator and if I don't have a navigator, I might get lost.

Okay. I was just checking, Just saying. So anyway, so in theory, teams can make a lot more money because basically you're doing twice the amount of work, but you have to really like the person you're a team with. Yes. You have to really get along with them. I tried team driving once with Beeline. Okay. For one week with a guy that I was dating and that was living with me temporarily while he was apartment hunting.

What, at the end of the week. How bad was that ? At the end of the week, all we did was like a mid Midwest running back. Okay. I kicked him out of my truck. I kicked him out of my house and I kicked him out of my life. Get out. I packed his bags, Get outta house. I'm like, Goodbye. Aios Amigo. Hasta La Vista baby.

Hasta La Pasta. So one of the other big problems, and I don't know if you ran into detention or delay at customer facilities without getting paid. Yeah. I, I used to deadhead. I hate and not get deadhead miles. Did they give you a certain amount after or pay you after so many miles? Yeah, I think, I think it was after 200.

Yeah, I don't remember how many miles. Miles. It was ridiculous. I, I, you know, if I deadheaded 400 miles, I got paid for 200 of it. See? And I, and it wasn't, and it was like a stupid amount of money. It wasn't like, like, Ooh, all right. Yeah, no, it was, it was you, Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah. See, and I know that when I delivered in Chicago, if I delivered to the rail yards and I had to pick up in Indianapolis at one facility, I didn't get paid.

But if I went to the far side facility on the east side of Indianapolis, I got paid. Okay. I don't remember the miles, but it was enough of a difference that I was like, seriously, they're both in Indianapolis and you're not paying me. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. I, I've, I've picked up lumber out of, out of Massachusetts.

Mm-hmm. and hauled it to Ohio and then because they didn't like the price that they had to pay, they dickered the price down. And then I had to eat it on the, on the back end the following week. Oh, that stinks. Because they already paid me for the load. I was like, Oh, no, no, no, no. It's like, why are you taking money from me?

Well, they, they argued the price. I said, Well, that's not my problem. Yeah, you can paid for delivering, not sitting on the load. Yeah. I got paid to deliver the load. I delivered a load, so gimme my money back. Yeah. You know that. Well, obviously that's why I don't work for that company anymore. I know. You know, after you, after that happened, at least two that was the third time it happened.

I said, No more, no more lumber loads. I refuse. I refused lumber loads. I got you. Because they did it to me. Every time I held lumber out of that out of that company. It was an easy. Quick load. Mm-hmm. , I mean, if I was in a pension, I just wanted to do a quick one last quick load before my weekend off.

It worked because I knew that I could get a pipe load out of Ohio and come across top of Canada and, and come, come down into New York and go home. Okay. If I wanted to. Yeah. I never did. Only cuz I, I was afraid to cross the border. I, I went into Canada all the time. Oh. So did I, I always, I always ended up going in over the Ambassador bridge.

That was, that was a trip Grooved highway.

grooved highway to swallowed your tires. Mm-hmm. basically put it in gear, just like, Oh, the steering wheel. Because the grooves were so bad, the truck would drive straight anyways. And if the truck, if the grooves went off the bridge, so would you. But they didn't. Nope, they didn't. So anyway, so, ah, the good old days, another.

Big problem that truck drivers face a huge problem. Okay. Is truck parking. And we have talked about this so many times cuz it's not just truck parking. Let's be honest, if you're traveling, parking is parking parking's an issue. Yeah. We've done a podcast about parking. We did. We, we talked about different places to park that would, that you could park for free or that if you talk to the management of the company nine outta 10 times, they'll be like, Yeah, sure, no problem.

Cause you're not gonna be there that long. You're only there just to get, But not just that truckers have problems parking at home. Oh. But yeah, they gotta find a place to drop their trailer. They're gonna know when my dad drove out of here when my mom was alive and, well when they both were alive anyways.

Mesa. Mm-hmm. When they first had the house on it's Mesa, Arizona. Mesa Arizona on Kachina Drive. Okay. When they first moved in, he could park his rig and trailer. On the street. Okay. And then a bunch of people moved in and they didn't like him having, and they didn't like seeing that. Yeah. Nope. So then he had to park a couple miles down the road on a, on a lot.

Mm-hmm. Then they moved onto 56th Street and same thing. And then some people moved in and he had to park down the road. And that's when he started parking next door to the Wendy's on the vacant lot that the Wendy's owned. Mm-hmm. And he knew the owner. Yep. And that's where I used to park . Obvious reason, Uhhuh

When I lived in Scotia, I couldn't even bobtail my rig into my driveway. Yep. For very long. I could bring it in, unload and then leave. And I used to park at the trucking company around the corner. But even on a cold night, I couldn't go pre-start my truck because of the noise. Because of the noise. I couldn't pre start it to load it.

Yeah. Because I was doing that. I did it one time and they came in and they said, Your truck's been running for an hour. I said, I'm warming it up while I'm loading it. You can't park here anymore. What? Seriously, you can't park here anymore cuz it's been running for 45 minutes. See my neighbors. So then I ended up parking it down at the industrial park.

See now my neighbors decided that it was better that I ran the truck in the winter time. Mm-hmm. than to have a tow truck come over at two in the morning and run a generator to, de-thaw my truck. I, I dunno what to tell you. So, so we came to the understanding that, hey, look, it's in the driveway. It's, it's in the driveway.

It's plugged in and if you let me run it, it won't, I won't have to have the tow truck guy here blaring his because nobody gets any sleep then. Yeah. And that's like six house radius. Oh yeah. Well, the funny thing was is this was a trucking company with semis. I know he allowed them to plug in. I said, I will pay you to let me plug my truck in.

He refused. Yeah. See, that's, that's just, I'm like, I'm home for, for 36, 48 hours. I can't plug my truck in. I can't pre start it. What am I, I can't come over and start it once a day. All right. And leave it run for an hour or two. Yeah. What am I supposed to do? He says, I don't care. Which was fine in the summer.

Boy, when that deep freeze hit, though. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I mean. It's like I had a deep freeze and I, My truck froze. Yeah. And because I couldn't run it, Thank goodness that the industrial park there were super nice, and I could park my truck there and I could park my Ford Escape there when I was, Yeah.

Escaape'. I could park it there when I was on the road. I could leave it there and the guys watched it for me. They'd call me. If anyone bugged it, I'd be like, Just call the cops. Hey, security. So, so, so we did do an episode on truck parking. Yep. And and like I said, we've talked about parking, RVs, trucks, cars, everything when you're traveling.

We talk about it a lot because it's an issue if you travel. Parking is an issue because we're here to help truckers and travelers in their pursuit of health, happiness, and a better life behind the wheel, including parking. Yeah. And that does include parking. Yes. So, so I think I think we might wanna wrap this one up.

Well, I just wanted to go on it to mention a few things. Not going to detail just a few things that truckers face that are specific to their everyday lives. Yeah. Oh, we could do that. They're under pressure to make deliveries, not Of course, from their boss and from the place they're delivering to anybody.

Any, anybody that drives, they don't. We're a, a logistics. Sorry. Correct. They don't care. The place you're delivering to doesn't care if there's bad weather. Nope. You had a breakdown. None of that. No. They'll just refuse the delivery until you take it back. They, they want their ship when they go on it. Okay.

Distractions while driving. There's, with trucks being automatic and having all these sensors now, way, way, way, way too many distractions. Many distractions. And people do, they'll spend so much time on their phone, they'll be like, Ooh. And I, I talked to one of them, I'm like, What happened? Oh, thank God my truck has the thing that puts it back in the lane.

Cuz I wasn't paying enough attention. I'm like, Hang up the fucking phone. Yeah. Get off, get off the God phone. So if you're driving a big rig, you shouldn't be on the phone. You should paying attention. It's, it's one thing to answer the phone, but if you're so much attention on the phone Yeah. That you're swerving, you shouldn't be on the phone.

Yeah. Poor maintenance. Poor maintenance. You just gotta find a good company and. It's up to the driver. Just like an RV driver. You have to check your vehicle regularly, open the hood, check everything, look at belts, look at lights, look at tires, look at oil, fuel, everything. If you're not paying attention, how do you expect the company to, I know right?

They can't fix it. If they, if they don't know it's broke, they can't fix it. Gotta let 'em know it's brokedid. Being away from home, we talked about that. Yep. Being lonely. Aw, don't be lonely. Irregular schedules. Truckers have irregular schedules. That's a gimme, If you have a problem with your schedule and you drive a truck, you're in the wrong industry.

Yeah. If you are so concentrating on, I need to be home with my family. I miss my boyfriend. I miss my girlfriend. That's so sad. Then I wanted to go out and party with my friends. You're the wrong industry. You can't, you got a cdl. You can't party with your friends. Because if you go out and party and then get in that truck the next day and you get pulled over and you blow over a .08, you're done.

It's a lower, I think it's a .04. Is that an 04 now? It's an 04 for a truck driver. It has been for a while. Hasn't been. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe May. I'm thinking. I know when I was at one point it was a 0.08. I'm like, it's, It was 0.04 for a while For a truck driver. That's not even a full beer. Yeah, you can't drink a beer.

You can't drink a beer in a truck. Stop parking lot and drive the next morning. Nope. So you can't have alcohol in In your truck. In the truck. Yeah. You will be ticketed. In fact, I know someone used to drink a six pack of beer every night in their truck. But anyway, anywho, so health is another issue. Truck drivers have drive long hours, sit a lot.

The key is get up every chance you got and get out of that truck, and walk around the truck and keep active. Keep moving. Keep moving. I know people that do, and people with dogs, not cats. Dogs, dogs tend to move more out of their trucks than people without them because they have to take the dog for a walk.

Well, yeah, that's the whole point. You gotta get out, move around. Well, plus it. Let let the little one do it's business. It keeps you from being a big dog. Whichever. Well, yeah, yeah. The, the couple I saw with the seven bass hounds. Oh, I don't even care. Yeah, I don't fathom now too much. And of course, like we talked about, all the regulations you gotta keep track of.

If you work for, if you're a company driver, keep in touch with your dispatcher, your manager, whoever is in charge of you that you report to. Ask them to keep you in touch with new regulations, new company rules. Affects you and your hours. Yeah. Because they, they're always evolving. Yeah. And life can be challenging as a truck driver.

It can be, but it can be very rewarding too. I was lucky. I found it very rewarding. Yeah. I, I did too. I, I, I, I shouldn't, I shouldn't say that. I, I, I didn't like it or I, or I disliked it. I had ups and downs. I had, I had more ups and downs in New York especially, you know? But for the most part I enjoyed Yes.

What I did. You can enjoy your job and not your boss. Yeah. You can enjoy your company and not your boss. Yeah. If your boss sucks sometimes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So anyway, I'm not gonna say anything cuz they might listen to other show. Oh, I don't care if they do. Yeah. Anyway, any who. That's all I wanted to point out was for every problem there's a solution.

This is, this is true. You just have to find the solution. And if you the happy medium. Yeah. And if you are a truck driver or wanna be a truck driver, you know, truck driver in the wrong job, pay attention when you're looking, if you wanna be a truck driver, pay attention when you're looking. Exactly. It's out there.

You just gotta, you gotta know what you want and ask the right questions in the interview and really know what you want. You know, Hey, how much am I a, How much am I getting paid? How, how much, What are the health benefits? What's the cost? What's the, what do I have to pay for myself? Yeah, you need to, you need to know these questions.

The, you need to get the answer to the questions that you wanna know. And the only dumb question is the one you don't ask and asking them a month after you were hired. Doesn't do you any good because when you job jump, it looks really bad on you. Too bad. So sad. The grass three months here and six months there.

The, go ahead and say it. This is the color of the grass. Grass is not greener. If, if you don't find that you like the color of the grass, you should have stayed. Where the hell you were? Mm-hmm. Any who. Any who? That's it. We hope you enjoy the show. Today, and if you're gonna get into truck driving, we wish you the very best, best of luck because trust me, you can make a lucrative living.

And I, I, I got lucky. I, I was able to make enough money to make sure the bills were paid and be home with my family. So you have to decide as to your priorities, how, what and when you wanna Yeah, exactly. Get your priorities straight if you single over the road is great. And my priority when I was over the road was, The ability to travel and see my family in different states.

Yep. And I was able to, I was able to tell my dispatcher, these are the states and cities my family lives in. I prefer loads there. Yeah. Or that go through there where I can take my 34 off and I saw my family. Exactly. Regularly. Exactly. You know, I mean, if you're with somebody and you don't have kids, get in it as a team.

Yeah. Especially if you get along. Yeah. Especially if you get along. If you don't get along well, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that because it could be stressful. Yeah. You might end up kicking 'em out, so at the end of a week. Well, I don't know if you'd do that. I did. Well, I don't know if you'd do that with me, not you.

Oh, oh. ok. I would not kick you out. Whew. You're you're pug daddy. I'm like, you're losing all this baby, Cushla and Cailin would never forget. They would not, they would go on strike. They would, they would be, they would be skin and bones. Where's my dad? I miss my daddy. You mean they're not skin and bones. Now we got fat rats.

Say what? You heard me?

Rollie pollies. They look like potatoes. Right On that note. Well, Frankie looks like a potato

There is a dark purple potato Cushla kinda looks like uhhuh. Anyways, we hope you enjoyed the, we hope you enjoyed the show. Please like, comment, share it with a friend. If you're on YouTube, ring our bell just, you can ring, get the word out, Let 'em know about the show. And and if you can leave us a review.

On your favorite podcast player of Choice, Please do. We appreciate it because, because it does help out the show. I know we forgot what Easter eggs. What about Easter? Oh, don't forget to look for, you know, read our descriptions because Easter Eggs, you know, we wanna thank our, our recent winner for reading our description and getting the Easter egg out of it and finding the little nugget of information that was there.

Your prizes in the mail. Whoop, just so you know, you never know what we're gonna give. It could be a t-shirt, might be a sticker. Could be a gift card. Gift. Gift card to Amazon. Might be just like a gift card in general. Could be a mug, could be anything. It could be, it could be whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever.

You just have to find it and then in the description. And then you have to let us know that you found it and we have to have your name and address to mail you things. Yep. You would just email me with that information, Patrick, at 18 wheel talk.com and let it know and where you found it and what it was exactly.

Tell us exactly where you found it, and you send me an email and you can put it in a subject line, Easter Egg, whatever. Whatever just gets my attention that you read the description. You could put attention. Patrick, say, Hey, I found the egg. What? What? That's right. Give me my prize cuz after all, this is our three year anniversary.

I know it's been, it, it's, it's, Wow, it's been three years already and a couple months. It's just like blank. And it's three years, two months, almost three months. It's been three. This is our third anniversary. We, it, we turned three in August and we're celebrating all year long. Mm-hmm. So we're putting little, little nuggets in our descriptions.

Once it's found, I, I eliminate it from the descriptions. So you can't go back to our past episodes and find it. But the next one you can, you could always be in touch on the next episode. You never know. Nope. You could be the next winner. True. And it's first come, first serve So here today, Gone tomorrow. Yeah.

You get in, you get it in if you're the first one. One and done. Mm-hmm. So if I got a thousand dollars cash on the line, guess what. Janet's going broke. No, I'm just saying if, if, say for instance, the prize for that episode is a thousand dollars cash, First person gets it true. You know, I, I'm not gonna wait, you know, until we get like 400 people.

Let's say I found the nugget and then one, No, it's the first. Come first in first, first one in wins it, and then it's gone off the description. True. So if you can't find a nugget in a description that, that we got out, guess what? Somebody's already got it. You snooze, you lose. Or I forgot to put it in one or the other.

I remind you. So anyways, we hope you enjoyed the show. Thank you. Thank you. Like share, leave a comment and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye. Okay, bye-bye.