So this is how it normally goes- you train for and receive your CDL and within the first 30 days (while the training is still nice and fresh) you get swept up by one of the big-boy longhaulers and you spend the next several years criss-crossing the nation and Mexico and Canada and after you’re burnt out and you’ve gained some experience and seniority you hopefully land a job driving a local or regional route for FedEx or WalMart or UPS so you can get home at night- assuming your wife still remembers who you are and wants you there.
I wanna drive a big rig but I need to sidestep all that.
The only way to do that is to either a) be born into a trucking family or 2) become an owner/operator. I wasn’t born into a trucking family so I had to go the owner/operator route. The problem with that is that even though trucking companies and brokers nationwide are clamoring for owner/operators to haul their loads, they want owner/operators with at least 2-3 years experience.
Shit. What’s a girl to do?
Enter EAGLE SYSTEMS.
One of my CDL instructors told me that EAGLE SYSTEMS was starting a pilot program to attract newbie owner/operators in the hopes of infusing the container trucking business with a new breed of driver which is basically me all over the place. Hello? ME?
I just needed a truck.
And a driver.
(I’d tried to talk about it with Miss Carol who didn’t want to talk about it and it ended up being something like “you ain’t drivin’ it and I ain’t drivin’ it. Or something like that)
So I lucked out and got hooked up with a seasoned driver who has port experience and he and I started looking for a truck whose initial cost, maintenance record, and overall mileage would work within the narrow profit margins of container work and newbieness and still satisfy my need for tractor trailer coolness.
Last week we found her.
She’s an ’04 Freightliner Classic XL with a great maintenance record and 787,000 miles on her and on Friday I drove down to Colfax NC to test drive her and put a deposit down on her sleek red glossiness.
She’s awesome and I love, love, love, her.
I think I’ll call her Trixie.
oceandoggy.com 