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CDL FLATBED DRIVERS WANTED
- Thread starter Cody Dixson
- Start date
You’ll enjoy the simplicity:
Commercial Driver License
Different classifications exist.
(Not just trucks, but buses & limousine chauffeur).
A Federal program since 1992. Restrictions —rule changes — via same continue to worsen so as to drive Americans out of the business in concert with financing & insurance.
Inside classifications (A, B, C) are endorsements.
For example I’m Class A certified, with endorsements for:
Double/Triple Trailers
Tanker
Hazardous Material
“Class A” is single or combination vehicles in excess of 26,000-lbs (air brake requirement). Heaviest vehicles with drivers of greatest proficiency (technically).
I run the typical “fleet-spec” tractor & dry van trailer. About 71’ long and a TARE of 34k/lbs. I can load approx 45k lbs in this 53’ trailer (102” wide). Clearance is 13’5”. Tractor weighs 19k.
Maximum combined weight without permit is 80k lbs. Or, 12k Steer Axle, 34K Drive Axles and 34k trailer tandems allowed. States have weigh stations on all major truck routes. Some are very restrictive of routing once off of Federal Highways.
Loads are almost all palletized. Rarely do I have a crew load cases. (A 53’ trailer packed floor to ceiling and just barely get the doors shut on cases of potato chips? 13k lbs).
A 2020 Peterbilt 579 Class 8 tractor at present.
Power is a PACCAR MX13 (based on a MAN design; 450HP/1800TQ) ahead of an Eaton 12-gear automated manual. Average 8.7-mpg lately.
The years been a bit strange, but I’m near 9k miles/month. Pay is mainly by miles in American trucking, so job description (first) and company (second) fill out the other details of compensation.
I’m OTR (Over The Road) meaning I’m 150-miles or more from home base every night (with 750k others) and stay out 3-5/weeks on average. All sorts of types. I enjoyed tanker the most.
Regional covers an area from a major metro that gets them home at the end of each of each week. (Distribution from an RDC — Regional Distribution Center). WalMart an example of this. Dedicated private fleet.
Local are the guys home every night. Rarely more than 75-miles out from city center. Multiple stops. Or, bulk hauling (sand, gravel, etc).
A). See the map: City Mega-Regions of the United States. Population is 330-million. Fully one-third live along the Bos-Wash Corridor (Density comparable to Europe; the only area trains genuinely work as you may be accustomed).
B). The important extension of the above are the lands extending west along the Ohio River to Chicago. (This includes “Canada”). Were there a war of invasion the lands so far described constitute the end of that war once conquered.
C). The rest of the country is described by annual rainfall from E-W. It diminishes gradually then precipitously. “Ends” at the 98th Parallel (West of IH-35). From there to the Pacific Coastal Range is . . nothing.
Effectively, the Mississippi River is the boundary. Trucking is dependent on manufacturing, primarily, (Ag is local), thus populations define truck routes.
There’s some W-E traffic, but it’s mainly N-S-E from the Midwest.
UPS & Fed-X have their giant air hubs up & down IH-65: Indianapolis, Louisville, then Memphis on the River.
The crossing at Memphis is the busiest truck concentration in North America.
Indianapolis to Columbus Ohio is sort of a truck driver heartland. Best loads and best opportunities to be home more.
Pennsylvania is another what with the Bos-Wash Corridor so close.
Guys like me (Ft Worth, TX) are “on a traffic lane”. On the fringe.
Seaports, Train Yards, Great Rivers, then trucks.
“Truck Driver” is the single largest job classification of men in the USA. Three-million, last I looked.
It’s a visibly invisible world. All around folks but they’ve not a clue of what they’re looking at or how it works. (Not by accident, this impression). A separate world. That’s good & bad. Call it anonymous.
(I’ll let you do the conversions to Metric.)
.
Commercial Driver License
Different classifications exist.
(Not just trucks, but buses & limousine chauffeur).
A Federal program since 1992. Restrictions —rule changes — via same continue to worsen so as to drive Americans out of the business in concert with financing & insurance.
Inside classifications (A, B, C) are endorsements.
For example I’m Class A certified, with endorsements for:
Double/Triple Trailers
Tanker
Hazardous Material
“Class A” is single or combination vehicles in excess of 26,000-lbs (air brake requirement). Heaviest vehicles with drivers of greatest proficiency (technically).
I run the typical “fleet-spec” tractor & dry van trailer. About 71’ long and a TARE of 34k/lbs. I can load approx 45k lbs in this 53’ trailer (102” wide). Clearance is 13’5”. Tractor weighs 19k.
Maximum combined weight without permit is 80k lbs. Or, 12k Steer Axle, 34K Drive Axles and 34k trailer tandems allowed. States have weigh stations on all major truck routes. Some are very restrictive of routing once off of Federal Highways.
Loads are almost all palletized. Rarely do I have a crew load cases. (A 53’ trailer packed floor to ceiling and just barely get the doors shut on cases of potato chips? 13k lbs).
A 2020 Peterbilt 579 Class 8 tractor at present.
Power is a PACCAR MX13 (based on a MAN design; 450HP/1800TQ) ahead of an Eaton 12-gear automated manual. Average 8.7-mpg lately.
The years been a bit strange, but I’m near 9k miles/month. Pay is mainly by miles in American trucking, so job description (first) and company (second) fill out the other details of compensation.
I’m OTR (Over The Road) meaning I’m 150-miles or more from home base every night (with 750k others) and stay out 3-5/weeks on average. All sorts of types. I enjoyed tanker the most.
Regional covers an area from a major metro that gets them home at the end of each of each week. (Distribution from an RDC — Regional Distribution Center). WalMart an example of this. Dedicated private fleet.
Local are the guys home every night. Rarely more than 75-miles out from city center. Multiple stops. Or, bulk hauling (sand, gravel, etc).
A). See the map: City Mega-Regions of the United States. Population is 330-million. Fully one-third live along the Bos-Wash Corridor (Density comparable to Europe; the only area trains genuinely work as you may be accustomed).
B). The important extension of the above are the lands extending west along the Ohio River to Chicago. (This includes “Canada”). Were there a war of invasion the lands so far described constitute the end of that war once conquered.
C). The rest of the country is described by annual rainfall from E-W. It diminishes gradually then precipitously. “Ends” at the 98th Parallel (West of IH-35). From there to the Pacific Coastal Range is . . nothing.
Effectively, the Mississippi River is the boundary. Trucking is dependent on manufacturing, primarily, (Ag is local), thus populations define truck routes.
There’s some W-E traffic, but it’s mainly N-S-E from the Midwest.
UPS & Fed-X have their giant air hubs up & down IH-65: Indianapolis, Louisville, then Memphis on the River.
The crossing at Memphis is the busiest truck concentration in North America.
Indianapolis to Columbus Ohio is sort of a truck driver heartland. Best loads and best opportunities to be home more.
Pennsylvania is another what with the Bos-Wash Corridor so close.
Guys like me (Ft Worth, TX) are “on a traffic lane”. On the fringe.
Seaports, Train Yards, Great Rivers, then trucks.
“Truck Driver” is the single largest job classification of men in the USA. Three-million, last I looked.
It’s a visibly invisible world. All around folks but they’ve not a clue of what they’re looking at or how it works. (Not by accident, this impression). A separate world. That’s good & bad. Call it anonymous.
(I’ll let you do the conversions to Metric.)
.
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