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Rick Potter
08-08-2016, 8:36 PM
My son has a gravel truck business, and his biggest problem is finding reliable drivers who do not destroy the trucks.

His 18 year old son just graduated from High School, and college was just not in the cards for him. He has been working around the trucks and is the general gopher for his dad, changing tires replacing parts, part runs, etc., for a couple years now. So...he and dad decided to send him to a good truck driving school, which was really easy for him, after being around them so much.

Today he aced his Class one drivers test at the DMV. He got a perfect score on the technical skills like jack knifing into a tight loading dock, etc, and only got dinged two points on overall driving. The test was taken using a truck and trailer from the driving school.

Tomorrow he starts driving for a while, with dad supervising. He will be driving a transfer truck, which is a pretty standard gravel/sand/dirt dump truck in SoCal, not so much in the East. A transfer truck has a large dump body, and tows a smaller trailer. When you get to the job, you disconnect the trailer, dump the main bed, then return and transfer the smaller bed from the trailer into the main box, and dump it. You then return to the trailer, transfer the small box back to the trailer, hook up the trailer, and drive back for another load. Sounds awkward, but you can spread your load out as needed with this setup.

Dad's biggest problem now, is getting insurance for an 18 year old driver. The companies have to offer it, just a matter of finding one that will not cost an arm and a leg. The grandson has never had a ticket, which will make it possible. CA law allows the DMV to count tickets on a personal car to count against a commercial driver, which is not the norm in many states. This makes it pretty tough for truckers here.

Wish him luck,
Proud Grandpa

Mel Fulks
08-08-2016, 9:34 PM
Congratulations to all three generations. Don't think I could handle the job , but I do feel qualified to reccomend lots of coffee and Dave Dudley. Wishing him success and safety.

Curt Harms
08-09-2016, 7:44 AM
One of those jobs that can't be shipped to China or India. Congrats to all.

John Neel
08-10-2016, 9:17 PM
One of those jobs that can't be shipped to China or India. Congrats to all.


The jobs won't be shipped to China or India, but driverless cars may be followed by driverless trucks. Then . . .