Tall Tales from the Truck Stop

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Tall Tales from the Truck Stop

My Students are makin’ the MONEY!

I ran into this guy while waiting for a to go order and we got to talking about lease programs and paychecks. Well of coarse he’s just rollin in the dough! His weekly truck “lease” is over $800 and that doesn’t include insurance. “OH” .. but he’s a trainer… he gets lots of miles and gets paid for all of them cause “he’s a trainer” SO… he’s just rollin in the dough! His students are very happy too…. they get 12 cents a mile! YEAH… 12 cents a mile and they never have a paycheck of less than $1000 a week!

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS A WEEK!

Dang, I’m ready to be a student for THAT company aren’t you?

Talk about a fish story!

Tall Tales!

Yeah, you’ve been there. Sitting at the restaurant with a bunch of fellow drivers and everyone is b/s-ing about all their experiences. Folks that have ran 1,000 miles since sun-up, drivers that make way more than you will ever hope to, triple digit trucks, people that make more money at home than driving trucks but do it anyway and the tales go on……..

Dream Truck!!! (not)

One guy told me how he had a cattle farm and made 250,000 a year doing that but just loved to be out here. I asked him what kind of a truck he had and he told me an international. I asked him if he owned it and he said he did. I asked him if it was his dream truck and he said it sure was. I asked him who he worked for and he said ### truck. I asked him if it was one of their stripped down models and he said it sure was. I asked how much money he made being such a successful o/o with them and he told me $5,000.00 a week after expenses. I asked him if he was a solo driver and he said he was. Everyone else at the counter was listening and trying not to laugh but you know how folks roll their eyes and shake their heads, right? This was at the Rip Griffen/TA travel center outside of Dallas on I-20 at the 503.

I followed him outside and watched him get into his dream truck that really needed a bath (like most of ### trucks do) and wondered how I could be so lucky to be in his

shoes. I thought right then and there that I needed to call ### truck and get into my “dream truck” also. But, I guess everyone has to build themselves up to other folks for some reason.

The Tale of The Low Bridge!

Another tale I listened to was at the Petro travel center in Rochelle, IL. We were all sitting there b/s-ing again about runs, dispatchers, fuel, and all the other crap. A driver across the way chimed in and told us how he had hit a low bridge the other day. I inquired how that happened and he stated that no one had told him that those reefer units were higher than the standard dry van units. We just sat there with blank looks on our faces and tried to think of something else to say but we couldn’t. You know the old saying “it’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”. Seems like that would have worked well in this case for sure.

Anyway, just some tales I have heard and I’ll write more later,

Send YOUR Tall Tales to

thekeystruckers@yahoo.com

and we will gladly add them!

Be safe and profitable,

Thanks! I needed a Good Laugh!

Jim

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12 Comments »

12 Responses

on October 3, 2010 at 6:55 am | Reply Dennis

Harrisburg, Pa. to many years ago. I think at that time it was called the All American, now it’s the Petro.
I had stopped to get something to eat, in the wee hours. Back then it was better to do your driving at night.
This guy starts telling how great this school that he went to was. Now don’t get me wrong, just because I didnt’ go to school does not mean I think anyone who did is any less of a driver than I was. His story was going pretty good until he started talking about how they had this skid pad to teach drivers how to react when the truck went into a skid. I thought that was a pretty good idea. Then out he comes with how they thought him how to recover from a jack-knife. I asked him if he was talking about a skid, and he said no a jack- knife. I asked him if he knew what a jack-knife was and what caused it, he assured me he did. Now for those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about. A jack-knife happens when the trailer doesn’t want to follow the truck anymore , so it pushes the truck out of the way. Once the truck is pushed past the point that it can staighten out without a tow, then it is in a jack-knife
Even after I explained this to him, he still presisted that he could preform this amazing feat of driving.
I finished my meal and left thinking, maybe urine testing is a good thing.
on August 15, 2010 at 11:03 pm | Reply Stumblefoot

As a non smoker I dont normally sit at the counter or the truckers section, not alot of trucking conversation in the No Smoking section, except to listen to the four wheelers talk about the overweight chain smoking foul mouthed drivers they had to walk by. I’m always in a button up shirt, blue jeans and cowboy hat, so they dont single me out as a driver. that allows them to pour their heart and soul out to me as a fellow four wheeler.
As more states get “No Smoking” laws, sorry for the people who do, but it HAS alloyed me to sit up at the counter or in the “Truckers Only” areas and hear the tall tales. My God if I was not a driver with over 3 million miles, and I believed half the BS I would be terrified of the big trucks. We Are our own worst enemy.