Thanks for the input on the Volvo lights and OUI/DUI

Maintenance/Repairs
,
41
Having a CDL is a nice certification and all, and we're impressed with your income and your bank account, but what kind of driving do you do? Schoolbus, garbage, residential blood delivery, municipal bus?

I drive a bucket truck. usually a International 7500 6x6 while at work, It has 105ft working height. When I am on call to fix poles when drunks hit them I usually have an International Dura Star with a 63 ft boom. I am a journeyman Lineman with over 20 years of experience. When people are heading into their basements when a storm is coming I am usually heading into work.

I do not think I am better than anyone, I certainly don’t think I am smarter Than anyone, I just feel at times I make better decisions than some people.

Where do you think you make 6 figures driving a cdl vehicle? The Cdl is just part of my job, the bucket truck is merely a tool. If I could find a day job just driving for 130 a year I would sign right up. heck I would do that for 80 a year!

42
At the wedding reception last weekend, several vans showed up to transport folks back to their hotels. Have fun but be safe.

Thankyou Bing. You said it best,

43
And you get counted as a drunk driver if you have any alcohol at all in your car.

That is not true.

You are right about one thing though, only a piddly 10,228 people died from drunken driving last year, and The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion in the USA

44

@Bing–the brother-in-law of our neighbor drove a city bus during the week, but drove a charter buses for an intercity bus line on many weekends. The intercity bus lines had trouble with drivers joining the passengers after the event for a drink or two for the road. Our neighbor’s bil was an absolute non-drinker. He had awards for his years of safe driving as a city bus driver and was very reliable. It paid off for him in extra work opportunity.

45

well i have read almost all of the two related threads and have not heard anyone advocate drunk driving.

46

@WheresRick

LOL

I’m currently working on an International 7600 6x4 aerial truck with the Cummins engine. That is, I’m done with my inspection and service, and now it’s on hold for parts. It’s assigned to our forestry crew.

I’m waiting for the defrost/panel register ac actuator motor (broken), coolant filter, the pressurized coolant reservoir (split) and a lock for the utility tool box

47

@db4690

Awesome, I am always so thankful to the people that keep the trucks running and in good shape, I know sometimes we can be a bit rough on them, but I never abuse one deliberately, though I have had my suspicions that some guys do. You have a tough job, but a very important one.

The truck I work on most days is a 2010 with the maxxforce engine. I like it, but the cummins may be better… The 2008 I take on call also has a maxxforce but it has the stupid exhaust filter that’s always causing us fits. They say its hard on the trucks to idle them, but most days they idle all day with the pto on. Its hard on them.

48

What I object to is when favorites are played; and it’s done all of the time.
A friend spent a long time in a hospital after his motorcycle was hit late at night by a black Lincoln with no headlights on. The driver of that Lincoln was a U.S. District Attorney who refused to submit to a breath or blood test and refused to surrender his drivers license even though state law says submit or lose it. He basically claimed “Federal immunity” due to his position and he was not cited or arrested even though the police said that he and his 2 passengers both smelled of alcohol and appeared intoxicated after leaving the country club.

A guy I know who is now deceased used to put away at least a fifth of Scotch a day. While visiting in-laws in another area he drove one of the in-laws cars to the country club and got tanked up one Saturday night On the way back to the house late at night he ran a red light from the left turn lane and got stopped by the police.
A check of the car led to the name of the owner of that car. In turn, this led to the police apologizing for stopping him and they even provided a police escort home for him even though he was near falling down drunk.
The name I withhold as courtesy to the family and the fact that I like them and have known them forever, but the owner of the car/in-law of the drunk is a long time judge on a certain branch of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
He was allowed to motor off drunk on his hiney based on the car’s registered owner.

49

@ok4450

What I object to is when favorites are played; and it's done all of the time.

I totally agree, there is an Indianapolis police officer that killed a motorcyclist while driving drunk on duty. There was rumor that he was given “professional courtesy” more than once before that happened. He didn’t receive any punishment yet, two years later he was arrested again while driving drunk and wrecking his pickup. He is back out and still driving.

When will it ever end?

50

@asecular

You mean only half as many people died as you said before? So you're saying your number was completely wrong? And that "cost" is mostly money that was not earned because people died.

Yep, your absolutely right, those people really didn’t die due to alcohol related crashes, it would have happened anyway, 10k lives a year is a small price to pay to be able to drive intoxicated. Its time we stopped picking on drivers that like to drink and drive.

Besides, those 10k people would have died eventually anyway, we might as well live our lives drunk and merry. Maybe everyone should be drunk all of the time, you have a better chance of surviving a crash if your drunk.

I am going to the liquor store and then I am going to drive around tonight while drinking a 12 pack in my pickup truck. Who cares if I wreck, I have a big ol billy bad boy pickup and I will be ok.

Gonna have a good time tonight!

51

@asecular, will you stop pulling rick s chain please. its like a car wreck, just look away. anyway its too easy. and @WheresRick, asecular is not advocating driving drunk, tho he may swear he is now, just to annoy you. he is yanking your chain because of the way you treat people, throwing around your income, like it makes you better somehow and calling people uppity. there s a reason all those fights found you. most bar fight are between the biggest jerk in the bar and a guy who he annoys, or picks on, or singles out for derision. it s hard realizing that it s not every one else. I know. before you know it you ve become the jerk and the bully that you hate so much. I learned not to judge others because I have no idea what they have been thru. there s nothing wrong with the guy still in the trailer. I m so much happier now that I m nice. love your neighbor. jesus taught me all that asecular! :slight_smile:

52

@wesw

Well put. Thankyou. I don’t look down on anyone due to money. I am still a blue collar employee, and work hard for my money, Its dirty and dangerous and some days it downright sucks.

I have much respect for the gas station employees, garbage people, ect… I just threw that out there because I flew off the handle and its my lowbrow defense mechanism. I still live in a trailer, except it called a modular house, but we all know those are really gussied up trailers.

Truth be told I make that money with overtime, and lot of it. I am a simple guy, I grew up extremely poor and I wanted to make damn sure I never had to worry about money. I went for the quickest route I could find that was legal and sometimes i wonder if it was the right decision.

Money is not everything. I agree. I am highly trained, but I have no education, so when I feel someone is trying to put me down I throw the money in their face. Its all I know how to do.

You are all a bunch of good folks, and there are good discussions on here.

At this point I will try to leave this discussion in the past. My significant other has told me I need to step away for a bit. I got rather worked up about it because I am very passionate about the subject.

Thanks Again Wesw!

53

I don’t want anyone to read this like I’m advocating driving impaired, because I’m not.

But there are a few “grey area” things that should be considered IMHO:

-No one should drive when significantly impaired.

-A few drinks doesn’t have a “Jeckyl and Hyde” effect on everyone—not everyone turns into a menace to society or a raving a**hole after having a few beers. In fact, most people with some maturity enjoy alcohol responsibly.

-Alcohol only brings out what’s already lurking in a person’s personality.

-Not everyone that likes to have a couple of beers and take themselves home is a drunk driver or even breaking the law.

-Some people are very skilled at driving and some people handle alcohol a lot better than others, and some people can drive a bit impaired pretty darn well, actually better than a lot of people that never touch the stuff, which isn’t to say that they aren’t better drivers if they haven’t imbibed.

-Some people, especially inexperienced teen drivers, the elderly, and perhaps those that just don’t have the aptitude, will always be dangerous or inattentive drivers, even stone sober. If you add alcohol or drugs to the equation, things are going to get much worse.

-Just because a person has had a few drinks, even if they may be over the limit, and they get in some kind of accident, doesn’t necessarily mean it was because of the alcohol. As we all should have learned by now, s**t happens, and while alcohol is certainly a factor in a lot of crashes, a person shouldn’t be demonized because of bad luck and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even if an accident isn’t a person’s fault, if it’s found they had been drinking, it seems like the standard procedure is to throw the book at them.

-People are “human”, and make mistakes. Especially young people and people that life has dealt a bad hand. Incarcerating a person that has had their first DUI with no accident or harm for the “3-day vacation” is enough to make most people consider the consequences of their actions and behave better. This is already a life-changing event, and a lot of people will be lucky to keep their job and domestic life intact after such an occurrence. Making it worse than this for people that make mistakes to appease MADD or anyone else is idiocy and will not help save any lives, and can put a lot of people that can be reached and helped into a further downward spiral. Our current “system” of punishment and social work rarely helps anyone.

-It’s very easy for someone that has had a horribly negative experience with alcohol, has lost a loved one to a tragedy involving alcohol, or just doesn’t enjoy drinking at all to pass judgement on those that do, because they just can’t relate. I liken this to people that think sex is “dirty” or “shameful”, or should only be used for procreation. It’s all to easy to rationalize your version of morality on others when you don’t understand “where they’re coming from.”

-A little tolerance for our fellow humans, even if we can’t understand their motivations or point of view would make the world a little better place in which to dwell.

I am responsibly enjoying some alcohol at the moment myself. And for the record, I did not drive with even one drink in me this evening, as I rarely do.

54

Wouldn’t catch me 60 feet up in the air in a little bucket. Glad someone will do it though. I remember when some reporter was asking Barry Goldwater about his academic background and he said “I’m no Phi Beta Kappa, I hire them”. I’d much rather hire someone to go up in a little bucket than do it myself.

55

Based on this thread, we can change the adage: Alcohol (or the subject of alcohol) brings out the best and the worst in people.

56

@oblivion

Well said, you made great points. Good way of summing it up.

57

@bing

Thats the great thing about people, we all have talents or skills that complement each other. If it wasn’t for many people we would not live in a world as we know it. I wouldn’t have a job if people didn’t work in power plants, or drove semi trucks. There is a lady at mcdonalds making far less than she should that makes your day when you are having a bad one. It goes on and on.

@asecular
Last year I made 35k in overtime working storms. I was away for 3 weeks for hurricane sandy. Linemens base pay is anywhere from 50 to 110k a year, depending on location. Its a job thats in demand even now and should be for a long time since so many people are retiring.

The term Lineman is antiquated but still used alot. There is a shift to caling us lineworkers since there is some women entering the field. i would say 99.8% are men, but I have seen one female apprentice, she was very good and I would say within the top 25% of the class as far as practical and hands on went. The nice thing to see was that all but 2 guys in the class treated her with respect and everyone got along great. She has gone on to be a great journeyman “lineman”.

I had a one on one discussion with the two boneheads the second day and pointed out

  1. They were never on time

  2. They had alot to learn, they were behind where they should have been.

  3. She climbed better then them.

  4. She was smarter then them.

  5. Everyone in that class was to get respect and if they didn’t like it they could leave.

  6. They looked like slobs.

I told them to cut the crap, and shut their mouths. Which they did at least around everyone else. They were both from the same utility and were just ignorant in general. One of the boneheads didn’t make it past his apprenticeship, and the other one had a accident and messed up his leg while on the job. It didn’t surprise me any.

58

No doubt there are better and worse people on any job, I had to leave some duties on my vacation to the most dependable person, not the highest on the food chain, no good deed goes unpunished!

59

Guys, make up you minds, please!

One guy flagged a like for my response

Another guy flagged it “off topic”

Pick one, please

60

@WheresRick

I’m going to risk another “off topic” here

We also have problems with the diesel particulate filters. They plug up so fast, it’s a running joke

Some of our drivers are also quite negligent

One guy was pulling a chipper, curbchecked the h . . . out of it and broke the axle

Another guy brought a 5-yarder in for a scheduled service. He conveniently forgot to mention the “low coolant level” light that was staring him in the face. I pressure tested the system and the upper radiator hose erupted like a geyser! Good thing I didn’t just top it off and let it go . . .
For those of you wondering, it did NOT come in dripping coolant. The hose had weakened and coolant was slowly seeping out. The pressure test just finished it off once and for all.