Hi All. My name is Elizabeth / Betzy for short currently do short trips mostly delivering new units and or trailers bet London - Windsor Hwy 401 corridor. Very interested in long hall perhaps in a few months paying close attention to good guidance roght now. I've always had the dream of driving a tractor trailer.... the worries are more me being comfortable living out of a truck, showering at truck stops and proper insurance. I keep fit and go to the gym daily so how to figure out how to work out and eat healthy is also a concern. Looking for advice or thoughts. Thank you in advance!!
Betzy
Perhaps you can get a taste of long-haul here in Alaska. Begin a career here with any of the three carriers (Carlile, Lynden, and Sourdough) that handle most of the truck freight -- much more than 50% of the freight in Alaska lands in Anchorage. On average, every 24-hour day, about 20 sets head the 350 miles from Anchorage to Fairbanks. So you can run 350 X 2 miles per day at about $0.60/mile in 15 hours (the Alaska driving rule) and you'll be paid for fueling, swapping sets, and other tasks that you perform incident to getting freight here or there. Or some lash-ups pay line drivers by the hour. I've been out of the game for a few years so cannot say for sure which lash-up pays by either method. I suspect that the market ends up making driver pay roughly equivalent between the companies that I mentioned.
I looked for a video of somebody running between the two cities and found none. I'll reference a short video I took from my rig following a rig with a very similar load (50,000+ # of lumber on the lead semi (a 45' flatbed) and 8,000 # of foam on the tail trailer (another 45' flatbed). (the overall length of your rig will approach the state maximum length of 120').
Trucking here is a tad different than down in America ("America" in an Alaskan term for the lower 48 states). Soon you'll get to know and regularly hear from and talk to other skinners from other companies, i.e. once you're on the highway it's like you're in one big company. You won't see turbans, sandals, wife beaters, and a scad of grubby-looking skinners who look like they might soon perish.
There are none of those travel centers here -- thank the Good Lord for that. But that doesn't mean that you can't get fuel, a meal, coffee, etc. on the road. If you run Anchorage-Fairbanks or most other places out of those 2 towns, you'll be running a sleeper. So if you are delayed, you'll have a place to stay. Most rigs carry about 300 gallons of fuel. Pulling doubles with 550 or more horses will mean that you're mileage will average between 3 & 4 mpg. So you can make 700 miles on full tanks. From what I've experienced and heard, I don't think inspections, etc. are particularly onerous.
Coming here or going anywhere to truck or do most anything else was characterized by my old drill sergeant who observed, "There are two jobs better than the one that you have now; that's the one you had last and the one you're going to get next." As it is anywhere, your future here will be a combination of skill and luck.
All this is to say that what I've described is an alternative that might provide you with some insight about long haul while maintaining a somewhat regular life.
Here's a link to my shaky video:
