From Driving planes to Driving Trucks

ProudPilot

ProudPilot

Aeronautics Geek
Well, it looks like I'm out of the right seat for a while. I just can't afford to be billing 20 hrs a week anymore.

So, I have two interviews on Monday (1st ones today, it's a driving interview on Monday) to be a beet hauler until at least thanksgiving. It's 15/hr for 12-13 hrs a day, 7 days a week. I figure I can make enough to last me until at least April. If it goes well, I can have a job driving over the winter as well from silos to the mills. That would be 8 hrs a day 5 days a week. I'm behind on bills though by about 3 months... so this job would be a Godsend.

If you're in ND, plenty of guys hiring. If it's private, you only need a Class D license. I do have my CDL permit, but I think I'll be getting the road test in November.

Oh, and I lost SJS about a year ago. Now I'll be able to afford personal trips at least once a month... nice change.
 
ProudPilot said:
Well, it looks like I'm out of the right seat for a while. I just can't afford to be billing 20 hrs a week anymore.

So, I have two interviews on Monday (1st ones today, it's a driving interview on Monday) to be a beet hauler until at least thanksgiving. It's 15/hr for 12-13 hrs a day, 7 days a week. I figure I can make enough to last me until at least April. If it goes well, I can have a job driving over the winter as well from silos to the mills. That would be 8 hrs a day 5 days a week. I'm behind on bills though by about 3 months... so this job would be a Godsend.

If you're in ND, plenty of guys hiring. If it's private, you only need a Class D license. I do have my CDL permit, but I think I'll be getting the road test in November.

Oh, and I lost SJS about a year ago. Now I'll be able to afford personal trips at least once a month... nice change.
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Good luck getting the job, and good luck on the CDL "checkride." Though stories like these are what make me not want to go into aviation.
 
I still love aviation, and maybe someday I can go overseas where I can make a living AND fly. Seems like in the USA that AND becomes OR until you're about 20 years in. So for now, drive, and most likely ATC. However, still interested in steering UAS if I can find a job.
 
ND DOT allows 7 days a week x 12/13 hrs a day- pushing 100 hour weeks?
If you need to stay awake driving just always have bags of Sunflower seeds. You can drive from LA to NJ in a 3 day weekend with them- in a SLOW truck.
 
No, if it's requiring a CDL, you have a max of 60/70 hours in a 7/8 day period. However, if it's private transport... no work rules. Since it's for a private farm, yeah, massive hours.

I am looking into an international hopper driver spot that would be CDL. I would be home every weekend.

Oh, and it's a maximum of 11 hours driving, with a max 14 hour duty day, following a continuous 10 hour rest period. Then also that 60/70, 7/8 max. Yeah, driving has WAY better rest rules than flying. Oh, and the pay is from when you show up until when you leave. Anyone wanna come drive?
 
there is a reason a friend of mine is having a hard time leaving the oil fields out west, primarily the fact that he is making nearly 100K/yr............ I actually have considered it myself a few times, but i think i would really start to miss the flying, BUT i would be able to pay off a lot of bills really quickly
 
What does he do in the oil fields. Right now I'd really like to get loans and bills paid off so I can come back to flying or aviation management when the industry is doing better.

Oh, and all of you staying in... less competition for you. You are welcome.

Hear back if you got the job at Corporate Air BuickCFI? IFL is hiring for SO at TVF as well.
 
Good for you. Driving trucks is a good gig. Kind of offends me when pilots say"hey i'm going to need the number to that truck driving school."

Yeah truck hours of service are pretty good. Not a lot of overworking possible. The only complaint though is that stupid 14 hour clock. if they did away with that all would be well with the world.

Especialy in OTR trucking. Say you start the day an hour away from your customer who happens to be a groccery warehouse...there is agoing to be a good chance that your 14 hour clock is going to run out before you get to even drive half of your 11. Been stuck at those places for 8 hours plus, sleeping in the back wioth the 14 hour clock ticking. No fun.

Also feel free to explain the split sleeper berth rule.
 
ProudPilot said:
I'd don't have my CDL yet, only the permit. Care to explain this rule?
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lol I would if I could. I don't think anyone understands it. Now going back and reading my post, that part may have come out kind of pompous. Sorry if it did.

Was trying to say that most of the HOS make sense are good with an exception or two. Split sleeper birth would be one of them.
 
ProudPilot said:
What does he do in the oil fields. Right now I'd really like to get loans and bills paid off so I can come back to flying or aviation management when the industry is doing better.

Oh, and all of you staying in... less competition for you. You are welcome.

Hear back if you got the job at Corporate Air BuickCFI? IFL is hiring for SO at TVF as well.
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he is hauling crude, no idea how he landed the gig, he was turning wrenches before
 
I've been up there when they're harvesting beets. Quite the big deal.

It'd be great up there for that time frame, but I wouldn't want to be working 7 days a week. Too many ducks to shoot.

When you go for your road test, despite being in Nodak, they'll probably ask about a mountain scenario. Make sure you tell them when you'd turn off your 4-ways, I lost points because I didn't say.:rolleyes:
 
Well today is my tryout, on a 12 hour shift... no joke.

I'll let ya know how it goes, I report in Thompson at 730am.
 
poser765 said:
Yeah truck hours of service are pretty good. Not a lot of overworking possible. The only complaint though is that stupid 14 hour clock. if they did away with that all would be well with the world.
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Trucking hours are good, if you work for a company that allows you to actually stick to them. IME, learning to lie in your logbook is the first skill every new trucker learns. Overweight or over hours is the only way you make money in that game with rare exceptions. IME, driving was very similar to professional aviation with a few noticeable differences. You generally don't get the good equipment or good pay scale until you've been in the game for several years. And until that happens, the QOL can really suck just like in aviation. And even after you get the good equipment and pay scale, you can still be living on the road most of the time which is also just like aviation. The differences are, the cost/time it takes to get qualified for your first job are worlds away from professional aviation. It took me six weeks and cost me $3500. Also in most cases, you will start out your first job making a wage that will actually allow you to live. My first job was back breaking in terms of the work hours and in terms of the work (walking four full trailer loads of food into restaurant kitchens every week), but the starting pay was $45k working four days a week.

The other difference from pro aviation is more subtle, but definitely there. Show me a pilot who truly believes he or she works with absolute mouth breathing morons and I'll show you a pilot who has never driven a truck for a living. Picture the dumbest pilot you've ever met, and I guarantee you he or she is 10x smarter than some of the truckers you'll have to interact with every day. Truckin' ain't rocket science. It ain't even truckin' science and therefore, most of the folks doing it ain't exactly scientist material. That may or may not bug you. But its one of those unexpected things that I advise everyone going into the field to think about before making a decision.

Don't get me wrong though. I think trucking is a generally a better career choice than aviation. But I also think there are much better career choices than either of them. If I had to stop what I'm doing now and go back to one of those careers, I would probably look at trucking first. Its easier work to get, easier work to do, and the pay and QOL are generally better at the lower end of the ladder.

As for the split sleeper rule, it can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you use it. Its supposed to allow you to split your 14 hours of work into two chunks with a rest period in between. IOW, you still get 14 hours of work and 10 hours of rest every 24 hours in theory. But theory is not always practice. And in practice its sometimes used to allow you to get road checked 18 hours after the beginning of your duty day when the reality is, you've been doing anything but resting during any of those previous 18 hours. There's a reason its not difficult to find drugs at truck stops. :rolleyes:
 
poser765 said:
Good for you. Driving trucks is a good gig. Kind of offends me when pilots say"hey i'm going to need the number to that truck driving school."
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#1: That offends you? Wow, thin skin.

#2: The guys who said that were (playing) Navy fighter aviators. If you can't see that driving a truck would be a "step down" from flying an F-14 in a combat unit...well, that's an interesting perspective.
 
I am in your situation too, I am a furloughed pilot, i passed all of the written tests and now have a CDL instruction permit.

I have to figure out how to get some seat time so i can pass the checkride. I dont want to pay for truck driving school, and the WIA wont pay for it. I have minor experience driving semi tractors trailers on a farm, but thats it. Any real truckers on here mind on telling me what i could do next


Good luck up in the Forks. GO SIOUX!
 
Hacker15e said:
#1: That offends you? Wow, thin skin.

#2: The guys who said that were (playing) Navy fighter aviators. If you can't see that driving a truck would be a "step down" from flying an F-14 in a combat unit...well, that's an interesting perspective.
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I said that id KIND of offends me. Usually people are pretty hard on drivers without knowing anything about them. That's the offensive part. I don't get all worked up and frothy about it. I do think it's kind of snobby though to think that your profession, whatever it is, is someone more superior than another.

And that's how it comes off when other people quote Goose. "Oh well I am going to fail at this bad ass thing, I guess I am just going to have to lower myself to be a truck driver."
 
Joe Gremlin said:
So the only way to be a professional aviator is to fly an F-14 in a combat unit?
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?

No...the "truck driving school" quote is from Top Gun. How do you make the leap to thinking that quote (or my statement about it) had anything to do with being a "professional aviator"?
 
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