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I am a Truck Driver

When I was a 23 year old mother of 2, I thought maneuvering a 40 foot School Bus through the streets of Billings was an adequate challenge for me. I hired on in January, 12 below, 1982.   In 1993  I moved up, making twice the money in half the time, driving a straight truck. 

A company out of Denver hired me to deliver magazines from Billings to Great Falls, to Helena, to Butte, to Missoula and to Kalispell.  All of my deliveries were made on Friday and I returned home on Saturday, every week of the year.  This job, was my Gravy Job. It was my means of supporting my family from June of ‘93 through August of ‘95, when the company filed for bankruptcy and laid me off. 

Although I had been dealing with most all of the aspects of driving truck, log books, manifests, fueling and other things, I had only a Class B commercial driver’s license.  I could not drive a tractor trailer set up, otherwise known as a combination vehicle,  which is what most all trucking is about. I needed a Class A driver’s license.
 
Due to my displacement, I was able to attend Sage Technical School to upgrade my license.   They gave me 6 hours of training with a tractor/trailer outfit. They also scheduled me for the state driving test in their equipment. 

In the short time driving their truck around Billings, I loved looking in the mirrors to see the trailer tracking way back behind me.  I enjoyed shifting the 10 speed transmission, which was not a lot different than the one I had driven in the straight truck. 

After passing the test, I began looking for a job.  Then, as now, driving jobs were plentiful.  Everybody I applied to could really use a driver, but every carrier wanted experienced drivers.  Very few have training programs.  Assurance that I was good at faking it, did not get me a place behind the wheel of their trucks.    They just did not feel comfortable sending me into a big city with very little trailer backing experience. 

After about three days of serious job hunting,  I  found a trucker that despartley needed another driver.   He had two trucks that pulled  double hopper bottom grain trailers.  His girlfriend interviewed me in the morning and let me know he would be in town that afternoon with a load to be delivered in Hardin.  I could do a test drive at that time.  

About 3:00 in the afternoon I met Clyde at the truck stop. I rode with him to Hardin as he told me a little about his 1994 Peterbuilt.  It was an 18 speed with a four and a quarter Catapiller motor. When we got there, he showed me the ins and outs of unloading the load of fertilizer.  Without a second thought of the two trailers, I drove the truck back to Billings.  He asked me if I could be ready to leave at 11:00 pm that night.  I asked, “Does this mean I got the job?”

 “We will see how you do, but yes, I need a driver right away. You will just follow me until I can turn you loose.” I don’t think Clyde realized I had no experience driving a combination unit.  The fact that I had a clean commercial driving record dating back to 1982 and I was available right away overshadowed my inexperience with a tractor trailer unit.


I scurried home and readied myself for a road trip. I needed to get some gear together. The truck I would be driving was another Peterbuilt, an older one with fewer gears, only 13.  I was so excited.  I was going to be a real truck driver.  I took bedding, a CB Radio, a change of clothes, food to munch on and my log book.  I was ready.   Even my kids were excited for me.  They took me out to the truck stop and helped me move into my truck.  They thought the Peterbuilt was way too cool.  Clyde said we would be back in two days.  I said my goodbyes to the kids and I was off, following Clyde, to Causland, Alberta, Canada.  

As we drove all night, my mind bounced around thoughts of, “Man is this cool! Am I ever Cool? I love this.”  I would look in the mirrors and see all the lights and the length of the two trailers following close behind me.  “I am a truck driver.”  I spent the night getting used to the transmission, splitting gears, down shifting, floating gears, up, down, flip one lever, shift the stick, flip the other lever. “Boy is this ever neat, I do really love to drive truck. This is it!– This is me!”  It took some time to find what all the switches were for, way more switches than I had experienced, five on the left, 24 on the right, switches and gauges, “I am a truck driver.”  I had a sliding tongue on the pup, two switches for controlled that .  The second trailer is called a pup. The whole unit, referred to as a train, would need to be shortened up when we went into Canada and lengthened when we came back to the states. “I am catching on to this stuff very well.  I will be a good truck driver.  I am a good truck driver. This is what it’s all about!”

Clyde asked me several times via the CB, “How you doing back there?” 
“I am good.” No way could I be tired, I was having too much fun learning all about my new truck.  And I had not even began with the stereo, yet.

We got to Causland just after lunch time.  My trailer had to be swept out.  Clyde showed me how to clean’em and load’em..  We headed back to the States.  That is when I realized how much work this truck driving job really was.  115,000 pounds of truck and product, to persuade into moving a head from each stop.  115,000 pounds of rolling weight to attempt to stop.

 As we had pulled up out of Shelby, I missed a gear, and there I was, a fish out of the water.  Dead, stopped on the side of the hill.  I had to start over in first gear.  I had visions of rolling backwards down the hill, only a short distance before the unit would create a Z pattern, while the 115,000 pounds pushed and creaked backwards, no longer rolling, but skipping the rubber across the asphalt.  I managed to get it rolling without snapping the driveline, but then I was afraid to shift for fear I would miss another one.  I crept slowly up the hill.

“Are you alright back there?” 

“Yep.” I answered, not wanting to let anyone know what I had just done. 

“We will stop and sleep once we get through Great Falls.”  I had been driving for close to 24 hours by this time.  I was tired and worn out.  Every change in elevation resulted in several shifts of the transmission. 
 
Shift, shift, shift, shift,
up, up, up, up,
down,
up, up, up, up,
down,
up, up, up. 
Down, down, down,
Shift, shift, shift, shift. 

By the time we made it to Raynesford, I was exhausted.  I felt like I had pulled the entire load, 115,000 pounds, on my back, with only my legs for power, my back hurt, my legs hurt, my head hurt, my shoulders hurt, my neck hurt, what a day! Oh the lessons I learned that night!  

 And I still love to drive truck. 

I drove for Clyde three months, Oct, Nov, Dec. I learned much, all about doubles, and ice, and brakes, and No Brakes, in that short three months.  

And. 

I still love to drive truck.

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