A Cure For Homelessness...

[Mahnarch]

I saw a Hobo today.
He was carrying a backpack, sleeping bag and his skin was orange from a lack of showering.

It got me thinking.

What if, for those who are homeless out of a lack of jobs - and not lazyness, the homeless got jobs as OTRs? (Over The Road drivers)

Shneider, Estes, USFHolland...pick any one.

They will train you and put you in a rig with a sleeper and you can literally 'live on the road'.

There are several trucker's who haven't owned a house in years.
All their mail gets sent to a P.O. Box in their home town and they check it whenever they get around to it.

No mortgage.
No utilities.
No taxes, other than income.

Hotel charges are reimbursed.
Fuel charges are reimbursed.

Most 'Sleepers' have all the necissities.
TV. Fridge. A/C,,,,some have stoves.

And!, you get paid to live in it!!!

Now, if you were down on your luck, what would you think of this deal?
It doesn't matter your size. I've seen 4'10" 89lb. women drivers.

.....I've also seen 5'5" 380lb. drivers......yeck...

***

And for 'McLiberal': even Lawyers, Doctors, CEOs and Scientists can become homeless.

Have you seen 'Fun with Dick and Jane'?

[Demona]

Live as nomads basically? Interesting idea really, but the problem is, who'll hire them?

[Classicblast]

The concept may sound good but spending half my summers on the road and meeting various homeless people everywhere.

That includes diners, parking areas, sidewalks, ballparks, any outdoor event where there's a lot of people for a possible donation, and sometimes even waiting outside locker room doors waiting for the visiting team to come out maybe looking for compassion. Some may not think we have our own homeless in our city, some may feel we need a reputation enhancer by tossing a few bucks or some may just figure that if the visiting team won on the road the players will be in a good mood. And at times they're right.

So what happens next? I have given a few dollars to homeless but what's better is if you find one at a diner say something like "I'd be happy to buy you a cup of coffee, or a Pepsi and soup and a sandwich. More times than not they want the money instead of the meal because booze is what's on preferred.

What I have experienced is that most homeless people are not interested in jobs and most are not interested in a home either. In fact I can remember a number of times if it gets below a certain temperature outside the mayor may order the police to pick up homeless people and take them to a shelter for protection and abut half are resistant to go. Even though the outside temp may have become a threat to their health and in extreme cases even their life.

That means that getting them jobs as truckers may be a solution for somebody who wants a job and can't get one therefore can't afford apartments but those people are rare.

When I played rookie league ball during my college times. I did both simultaneously. Well There's very little money in rookie league baseball. I had a spell where if I got $50 a game (basically 300 a week) but if I didn't start it was $40 if I didn't bat it was $35 and if I didn't play at all it was $30. They don't tell you about that crap when they talk about Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemons getting big contracts.

But if you can reach a A league the players union helps you a little but only a little.

So why did I tell you all that? If you get that pay scale you have a small apartment and probably a roommate or 2. Ones who come from impoverished south American countries and might take your rings and coins while you're in the shower. Don't wrinkle your face and twitch your wrist that really does happen.

The guy who never starts and gets cut after a few games often becomes homeless. His family probably lives in another state or another country and might not have the funds to get him home.

Thumb it? Maybe. Become a restaurant dishwasher or parking lot attendant? Yeah. The latter offers a chance for some failed players to see what' sin the trunk and glove box. Sometimes a 100 bill gets them home. If you travel cheap.

Others sometimes become a roadie. (porter) That's where you hang out with the team and in clubs and bars tell people you're one of the players sign autographs to boost your ego hopefully the giggly little girls in the club don't know the players enough to know you're just the bat bag carrier and bus loader.

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It seems to me most homeless people are not looking for jobs or homes. If you're not into a long read. Thanks.

[Phil]

Wow Classic. That was a soapbox. But it does shed new light on the situation. I hadn't thought of baseball players being begged for money instead of autographs.

[roflstunts]

The way you describe it makes me want to be a trucker.

[Blastgirl]

Mahnarch, what is a routine day for a trucker?
What's the bast part of the job?

What's the most aggravating?

How many miles is the farthest you normally go on a one day run?

How long are you away from home the longest?

What's the most miles/longest hours you have worked in a single time without stopping?

[Mahnarch]

Live as nomads basically? Interesting idea really, but the problem is, who'll hire them?

Demona, you'd be surprised.
Most OTR companies don't care what you look like.
As long as you do a good job/get there on time/don't steal the rig and head for Mexico, they'll take ya.

***

Classic, that's true.
A lot of bumbs don't want anything to do with contributing to the world - mostly Panhandlers.

I don't know what I'd do with them.
They just want to scavenge off others and I guess, if that's how they want to live, then so be it.

***

Stunts, man. It could be the life.
There are actually a lot of retired couples who'll get into a rig and drive cross-country (as opposed to getting an RV) and get paid while they 'retire'.

Like I said, some Sleepers have everything that an RV does. Minus a few windows and plus a 53ft trailer and somewhat of a schedule.

Some retired couples have BOTH of them driving ('doubling', as it's called)
It throws me back when a beautifully taken care of rig will pull up and an elderly lady with Q-Tip hair climbs out of the driver's door.

***

Well, BG, it depends on the route.
I'm a regional driver. I never really venture further than Chicago or Detroit - an 8-10 hour day, round trip, on rare occasion.. But, I'm also 'Warehouse Personel' (1 of 4 throughout the day), so I have to take care of shuffling that at some point during the day.

As far as 'Over The Road' - have you ever been driving late at night and seen a semi parked on the side of an off-ramp, or on-ramp? Or even on the side of a back road?
He's not broken down. He's serving his 'off time'.

Federal D.O.T. law only permits rig drivers to operate for 11 hours 'behind the wheel', give or take a few minutes to find a safe location.
Then, he has to rest for atleast 10 hours in the sleeper part of the cab or in a hotel.

After 72 consectutive driving/off time hours you MUST stay in a hotel, or at home - anywhere outside your rig - for 36 hours minimum.

My usual day as a regional starts off at 1:30pm where I go to our warehouse and jump into my tractor/trailer.
There's another guy who runs to Det. and picks up freight and drops the whole shebang at the warehouse.
I take the T/T into Holland and deliver what Randy picked up (5 stops) and pick up empty tubs (reusable containers) for Randy to bring back to Detroit the next day.
This is a Dedicated Run.

Then, I drop that trailer at our warehouse and bobtail (no trailer) to a nearby factory to swap a 'drop trailer' (one of ours that lives at this factory) from one side to the other, cuz they're too lazy to run it all over on hi-los....the 1/2 miles trek....48 times.....lol.

After that I go back to the warehouse and do a little cross docking [three trucks come in from different places (A.B. and C). I take it all off and put it on one truck going somewhere else (D.) - dedicated run]

Then, I pick up an empty trailer from our main campus and load some other stuff from our warehouse (simplified cross docking) and run it up to Grand Haven.
At GH I unload and get reloaded with stuff for Alto and Newaygo.

I hit Alto first (which is stupid, but Recieving leaves at 10pm) where I offload half a trailers worth of stuff and get reloaded with 1 skid of stuff going back to Grand Haven.

Then I go to Newaygo to rid myself of the rest of the trailer, sans GH skid.

Then back to Grand Haven to offload that one skid and I go back to Zeeland to drop that now empty trailer and bobtail back to the warehouse to finish the cross docking with new stuff that's arrived since I was there last. (and return the tractor/trailer combo for Randy).

All in all, I'm usually running about a 10-12 hour day but, it never feels like it.
I'm doing alot of cranking of landing gear (the legs that hold the front of the trailer) and opening and closing of the swing-back doors but, other than that, I'm cruising softly in my Volvo, jammin' to tunes (Hannity and Savage) and stopping whenever I'm hungry or thirsty at Subway, BK, or whatever.

I tell you what: The dollar menu is a god-send, my friend.

The best part? I love the solitude and freedom I get from this job.
No boss breathing down your neck. You pretty much work at your own pace. The 'office view' is constanly changing. You get to learn the roadways really well.
"Be there atleast by 5" is the same as showing up at 5:15 - cuz you got traffic and other variables.
And, when you get done, you leave. There is no looking at the clock and saying, "15 more minutes to go...." (which is always when the clock slows down for some reason)
There's also no 'definate' start time. I "start" at 1:30pm, but if I show up at 1:35, or 2pm even, it doesn't really matter. No 'points' docked.
Start later, end later. No biggie.

The most aggravating?
I'd have to say....hmm, people in Shipping/Receiving who blame the driver for what's on the truck.
It's like some of them believe the driver is the one who ordered the stuff.
Hey! I just pick it up and drop it off. I don't even know what a 'DS01990584652F' is.

The second most would be the 'four wheelers' (cars) who don't have a clue.
Oh, and anyone with a handicap emblem on their license plate - because if you get behind one of these, you're guaranteed to be creeping at least 5mph under the speed limit for miles on end, and you can't pass because you're in a semi and traffic from the other side is constant.

In a normal day, I'd say I put on about 350-500 miles.
Sometimes they'll take a driver off his regular route to change things up for him and if I go to Chicago or Detroit or Ft. Wayne, we're talking about 800-900 in a single day, round trip.
Too bad we can only charge for half of it. It's usually: pick up locally and run it out there, coming back empty, or vice versa.
Can't charge for an empty truck on the way there or back.

It's funny how the world gets so much smaller when you drive for a living.
I've heard people say things like, "We had the car all looked over and had the oil changed, ready for our trip ALL THE WAY up to Newaygo." and I go there every day without even fueling up.
Most people think 'Local' is in town, maybe the next one over, too.
For me, if it's within 100 miles. It's local.
Holland to Lansing - quick run.

How long away from home the longest?
I guess I already covered that - 10-12 hours on the norm.
I've done one (and only one) 16 hour day (illegal, but I 'didn't know any better'). My second day on the job, into....Chicago...yeck!
But, Semi and Straight trucks are like normal cars to me, now.
I don't do Over The Road, myself, because of the warehouse thing.

Most miles/longest hours.....I've been to the Mississippi and back in one shot.
15 hours (not illegal because I was in a Sprinter van, so different rules) Don't remember the miles.

Once in a while Dispatch will put a Semi driver in a Sprinter to keep him humble and to give us a break.
It's nice because you can do 75mph and get there quicker as opposed to 60-64mph in a bigger truck and getting there slowly but, the ride quality is so much better in the bigger trucks - especially when you're loaded down.

Volvo tractors are the Cadillacs of rigs.
Freightliners would be the Dodge Pickups.
White GMC would be the Sundances.

Ok, this is getting long.
I'll hit post............NOW!

[Phil]

I like the comparing of rigs to car models.

I find it interesting that couples drive after retirement that's great.

I fully understand about shooting the messinger. We deal with that at my work too.

We had some broad carp because there was a fallen tree over tracks into her back yard she didn't want me and this other guy sawing the limbs in her back yard or us to even walk through the yard.

The Troopers set her straight though.

I'll be back to read that post again to reply further later.

[Classicblast]

Mahnarch gives a lot of hope to this situation some hope.

My experiences have been unfortunately what I typed a few days ago.

[Mahnarch]

I rescinde my 'Most Aggrevating" part.

I was down for maintanence at the start of my day.
One of my wiper arms decided to play dead and I had to get a new wiper transmission installed at M&K.

It felt odd being on the 'other side' of the repair process.
It should have been me sitting on the engine doing the repair and the tech talking to me.

What I hated most about it, though, was the down time.
I hate it when I have to stand around and wait while I'm on the clock.
A common cliche in driving is, "Hurry up and wait".
You'll boogey to a place to be there on time and the factory will have the line be slow, or shut down for a bit and you have to wait until the freight is done before you can go.

Being down for an hour or so also made me leave my regular run today, so I did some oddball runs.

I hate it when you go to a place and have to search for a half an hour to find someone who speaks english well enough to understand.

The shipper that I picked up at had such a heavy Russian accent that I though he kept complimenting on my 'backing up' technique.

Three times he said it, and every time I was like, "Yup. I got it in there pretty good."
When, what he was asking, apparently, was if 'the back of the freight was lined up'.

I leave there and get to my drop off point only to have some Japanese Receiver tell me, "I don' know what you say."

....I've learned foreign languages but, I hate to reveal it to foreign nationals because suddenly they want chat you up in their tongue.
I had no choice with this one.

Me: "Hi. I've got something from ACH for you."
Him: "I don' know what you say."
Me: Is your supervisor around?"
Him: "I not know....you say, 'gain?"
Me: *sigh* "Super wa doko des ka?"
Him: "Oh, super des.......*too fast to understand*"

Finally the super comes over and offloads me.

[Phil]

Mahnarch there's a few of us left.

I also hate standing around and there is some down time on my job because a lot of times you get to a point and you have to stop until someone with some brass decides what to do next.

Most of my co workers, and yours too probably try to milk the clock.

Not me if there's nothing to do for our shift I'm happy to be sent home. I don't want it to be a pattern but once in a while sure.

I did double duty 3 days in a row and on the 4th day they just sent me home after an hour of my shift.

They didn't have to ask me twice. I could have stayed and logged up hours but that's wrong.

[Mahnarch]

Yeah, that's the only problem with driving, I see.

I can't just 'be sent home' if times are slow.

Most of the time I'm about 50-60 miles from home, and the freight that I'm supposed to deliver does, eventually, have to be delivered.

It's a trade off, I suppose.

Great 'office view', but lousy timing/placement.

There have been a few times were I'd get to a place in Grand Rapids (25 miles from home) and the freight wasn't going to be done until WAY later and I got to go home early since it was going to be hours.

I've also got to go home if one of our trucks was stuck in Chicago construction and wasn't going to get to me for hours and I'd just pick that trailer up the next day (sucks when it's on a saturday, though...)

I can't say I worker WITH anyone who milks the clock, but I work with people who milk the clock.

WITH, being the guys who drive, like me.
with being the guys who work at the factories I pickup and deliver to.

[Phil]

Once in a while my whole shift consists of riding on a train.

About a month ago there was a utility truck that needed to be returned to Maryland from West Virginia. They trained me to West Virginia gave me a ride to where the truck was, had me drive it to the location in Maryland and trained me home.

A few days after that they put me on a train to Petersburg Virginia had me do a quick job and basically I slept in the back of a van on the way home.

[Mahnarch]

What's the furthest you've been 'trained' from home?

I've never been on a train.
It seems like it's be cool to be on something that's moving and be able to get up and walk around.

[Classicblast]

You're an air pilot but you've never been on a train?

I have a few times it's great. Phil has some inside stories I would say but it's interesting what you see behind the scenes. Like the backs of businesses might not be as clean as they appear from the street.

[Mahnarch]

You're an air pilot but you've never been on a train?

I know. Wierd, huh?

Speaking of planes, I might have a nice weekends gig this fall.
I just revealed to one of the shippers that I deliver to that I fly and he's so excited that he's talking about chartering me for several color tours this fall/winter with friends and relatives.

Apparently, he's a 'wanna-be' pilot who 'never-was' (marriage, kids, mortgage, etc....)
Now he's at that 'mid life' time where he's got cash and time. Kids are out of the house and said house is almost paid for but he doesn't have that 'youthful motivation' anymore.

I'll probably end up spending a ton of the next few weekends bringing him and his friends and family up for photo ops and such.

I can't wait.

Our airport just got a 'new' Cessna (a '94 C172 w/ a Garmin GPS slaved to Auto Pilot)

[Phil]

If you get the chance take a train.

Its very cool. Like Classic said you would be surprised how some things that are familiar to you look from the tracks.

I can understand why people don't opt to take trains though. It's only a little faster than driving. Actually its just more direct It's not that much faster. And you are at someone else's schedule. For a lot of trips you might as well drive if it's going to be on a schedule that might not be convenient. And isn't going to save a ton of time. Planes are fast so that makes it worth it.

But train travel is pretty fun and fascinating.

[Mahnarch]

Planes ARE fast, but you run into the same problems that you do with trains - destination transportation.

Unless you have a friend waiting for you, you either have to rent a car, or ride a bus.

Many smaller airports have a 'courtesy car' (usually a rusted old, mid-80s POS) that you can use for a few hours while visiting a city - free of charge.
Just make sure you fill the gas tank before returning it.

If you ever drive by a small airport and see an old wreck sitting in the parking lot, all by itself, the keys are most likely above the visor, or in the ashtray.
The airport owns it, and it's ready for anyone to use.

Big airports, of course, use Hertz (or whatever) rent-a-cars.

AOPA.org had an article awhile back ('04?) where they had a contest about the worst 'courtesy car'.

The winner was an airport in New Mexico.
A guy wrote in about a 1984 Mercedes diesel station wagon that he took into town and on the way back it started running 'funny'.

The road back to the airport from the restaurant had a long, uphill leg, and the car wouldn't climb it.

He eventually called a wrecker to tow it up the hill and left a note for the airport manager.
The wrecker company told him that this wasn't the first time he's towed that car up that hill...

Funny stuff.