24/7 Chat About Anything

[tx2sturgis]

Grandpa missed his nap time and drifted out of his lane is as dangerous as a driver in their 20s. I vote for all truckers being over 30 and under 40. Technically it is pretty easy to be a grand parent at 40. But it does not explain how a person becomes an experienced driver by the age of 30

And you hit the nail on the head, as they say. When a driver is starting out, how do they gain experience until they get a driving job...but since they have no experience, they can't get the job to build up that experience.

It's a catch 22 that even our government has noticed and is now involved in helping young people get started in trucking, its called the SDAP Program. (Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program)

I dont know all the details but basically it means that carriers can bring in 18, 19, and 20 year olds for training to drive 18 wheelers in interstate commerce. Previously, you had to be 21 years old to even begin to drive class 8 trucks in interstate commerce (within a state, called intrastate, was allowed)

The problem has always been, that at the time many young people are looking for a lifetime career, they were not eligible to drive the big rigs from state to state and so they crossed that line of work off the list, if it ever was on the list.

We have a very real driver shortage and we have to put warm bodies in those seats, or people wont get the stuff they need, including food.

Without trucks, America stops.

 

[bullfrog !]

The average OTR truck driver working in the USA is making around $50,000 to $60,000 a year.

But the average starting pay for WMT drivers is hovering between $80,000 to $100,000 depending on location and their particular preferences, such as working holidays, weekend differentials, part time/full time, etc. Every year the pay goes up and after 5 years it's possible to make $120,000 per year.

With quarterly safety bonuses, stock purchase matching, paid yearly training and retraining classes, paid sick days, vacation, safety days, maternity leave, short and long term disability pay, 401k matching, associate discounts, and various other incentives, the total package is really good. But I put in my 26 years there....I'm done and retired.

Now I say: Let the young-uns have it!

The starting pay was high then because a proven performance record was required. If beginning drivers are offered more than experienced drivers Walmart may create their own shortages. This effort may be mainly about profits as Walmart gets challenged by Amazon.

 

[maki2]

Apprentices never have and never will make the same wages as experienced craftsperson’s in any trade. That is not how the world spins and is simply not going to happen, not even to the bosses son who is just starting out. Apprenticeships is a very ancient practice. Even the organized labor unions have apprenticeship programs. The masons were organized into masters and apprentices systems centuries ago for doing stone work for building cathedrals and castles. So were the teamsters unions back when there were no motor vehicles. Trade schools were one paid to attend and get taught came along later.

If Walmart is conducting this program there will be plenty of book work and class time to go with time on the road. Lots of videos too, very likely computer simulation time with students presented eith scenarios while doing a simulated drive on highways and city streets including the use of feet for breaks and shifting gears while steering. If you are going to do a program and do it right a company the size of Walmart can set up such equipment. It works for pilot training and remember many of the younger generation grew up using lots of computer simulation games. Those simulators require quick and coordinated reaction times. Not crashing and burning is already a long time practiced goal.

I never did like those types of video games, poor me My coordinated skill sets lie in making physical objects with tools and designing objects in 3D CAD.

 

[Gr8ful]

It's getting paid to learn a valuable trade which with enough experience will be a very valuable career. Like my son becoming an AEP lineman. When he completed the training his pay doubled. Now he teaches newbies part time & makes $125k with no student loans & no unpaid 4 years like university. Best of all he loves it.

 

[LargeMarge]

...4th of July week...

.
Independence Day week.
Or we could go straight to Independence Week.
Independence Lifetime...

 

[maki2]

Heatwave week!Low 90s. But a good breeze out of the north in the afternoon! Fortunately I have a nearby air conditioned cooling station, at the Pilot gas station which is a short drive away. There is a McDonalds there. For the price of a iced, large cold drink I can sit inside in the cold AC for a while and use the free internet too. Plus take along a small bag of garbage. Good to do that chore as a bonus. There are a lot of foreign languages at that McDonslds as it is a stop when heading to the Grand Canyon. But it is way too hot to visit the Canyon, triple digit hot. in a July heatwave! Poor tourist

 

[maki2]

Ah the lovely cool of the early morning. I am very much appreciating it while it lasts! But I do need to get busy with a few chores so I do not have to do them in the 90 degree heat. On Thursday the weather pattern returns to the normal monsoon season pattern of cloudy a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.

I have errands in town this afternoon so I can get a break from the heat while driving and doing errands in stores. Hopefully feeling up to getting a haircut too! I will stop and get a burger and enjoy their air conditioning and fast cell signals in town to do some app updating and load some more library books onto my cell phone.

I was wondering why the cell signal in this rural area had gotten so slow then I remembered that what had been a small RV resort at the start of the NFS dispersed camping road has become a very large RV resort with a whole new section crowded with big motorhomes in addition to the original section. Plus they added even more “tiny house”style cabins. That loss of reliable and useable cell signal has meant there are a lot fewer nomads camped here this summer. I do not mind that part too much, I can work while the RV park folks sleep. That RV resort is more than a mile away and the majority of them do not come out here in the woods to play, they go into Flagstaff for their recreational sightseeing excursions .

 

[maki2]

So glad to get back to camp and out of the town! I ended up staying later than I planned in town as I decided to get a haircut but had to wait in town a couple of hours until they had an opening. It was worth it though for keeping cooler on hot days and needing less water for more frequent hair washing in summer. Fortunately there was a Dollar Store and a Harbor Freight and Taco Bell in that same strip mall so my time was not actually totally wasted waiting for the haircut. But the timing meant the setting sun was blinding for driving west to camp. So I stopped at a gas station and waited until the sun went below the horizon before getting on west bound I-40.

Looking at the 7 day forecast I see the heatwave will be gone by the end of the week and next Monday might be in the 70s! Sounds great to me!

But at least the heatwave it is not a hurricane like my friends and family in the Houston area are having to deal with this week. A hurricane in early July is very bizarre weather!

 

[NctryBen]

While we’re not as hot here, the humidity is high and not feeling the best. But 70’s there sound pretty sweet.

 

[maki2]

While we’re not as hot here, the humidity is high and not feeling the best. But 70’s there sound pretty sweet.

When the monsoon seasonal clouds start back up rain and humidity can happen in the Arizona high country. But it is not a steady high humidity levels such as one would experience in New Orleans in summer or in Seattle during winter. The image below shows this coming Saturday when the dry heatwave near Flagstaff going to be over and daily monsoon season thunderstorm clouds return. The green line on the graph is the humidity percentage. The blue line on the graph is percentage of cloud cover. The brown line on the graph is the percentage of chance of rain. The high humidity coincides with the night time low temperature. There is a small rise in humidity when the thunderstorm clouds appear in the afternoon but that increase does not put the weather for the 24 hour period into a high humidity status range. At the bottom of the graph the green bars are rain chance of occurrence and the red bars are thunder-lightning. I like these hour by hour of 6 days of bar charts from the weather.gov website. They give a not more information than the typical weather apps provide. Of course six days out is not totally reliable forecasting especially in the monsoon season where the weather in Arizona has many influences.

 

[Morgana]

LOL venting ... I'm in a four-hour online class and the teacher has already said there's so much material they might not be able to let us have all the breaks ... and we've got one of those overachievers who's got to ask a "question" for every point aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

 

[Happy Camper]

LOL venting ... I'm in a four-hour online class and the teacher has already said there's so much material they might not be able to let us have all the breaks ... and we've got one of those overachievers who's got to ask a "question" for every point aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Oh my connection is bad..... Click.

 

[maki2]

^^ ^ I do not see a problem, it means you get to take an extra break everytime that person asks a question

 

[Morgana]

Yeah that's not how it works.

 

[maki2]

Yeah that's not how it

Try seeing humor in some of the comments here. No one in this forum can solve your frustrations with the other people you volunteer with. Many times they sound like cultural differences that can’t be fixed.

 

[Happy Camper]

LOL venting ... I'm in a four-hour online class and the teacher has already said there's so much material they might not be able to let us have all the breaks ... and we've got one of those overachievers who's got to ask a "question" for every point aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Hi teacher. I'm thinking since xxx has many questions, maybe you guys can spend the breaks going over the things the rest of us learned the first time you said it.

 

[bullfrog !]

Get you an old wire coat hanger, bend it in a u shape. Stretch a rubber band between the ends and attach a paper clip in the center and wind the paper clip till it is tight. Set in a chair with a leather seat and set the contraption under your right hip. Whenever a silly question is asked for a second time slightly raise your right hip making a sound that will make everyone forget the question and hurry to get the class over and done! If nothing else it will allow you to get to take a break. It works well with groups of mature women I’ve found! Probably since it is an online class you could just use an appropriate sound effect.

 

[vanbrat]

A few years back I had to take a ton of online classes.... I tried to do them at home and I kept falling asleep mid class. Hubby would walk by and wake me up to tell me the class was over and time to take my test on this chapter or whatever. This was courses without a live teacher involved so if I dosed off nobody noticed. Oh ya, I got a 98 on the final test. It was to get certified to be a preschool teacher in the state. Something I had been doing for 25+ yrs already.... Still don't know what 2-3 or so I missed. It was pretty basic stuff. Got some good naps in. I still do that if I hold still for more than 10 minutes I tend to doze off. Now the classes have someone watching so no napping.

 

[Morgana]

very tempting ideas ... and there I thought I was being daring by opening up another tab and bitching to you guys about it in realtime. LOL you can tell I got my start before the Internet.
It was a weird setup, with most people taking the class in person and a few remote people tapped in by computer. The teacher was good at her job fortunately. made it look easy but I'm sure it wasn't.
It did run about a half-hour over, and it feels like at least 20 minutes of that were due to Mister Chatty. She eventually got pretty good at keeping things moving forward without seeming to cut him off (at least that's how it looked to me). We all got through it!

 

[Morgana]

It works well with groups of mature women

Hoooo! Now thereby hangs a tale I'm sure...