I've been working here for a month...

I started carrying the camera with me even though not much changes from day to day out here, but heres a hand full of photos to hold everyone over.



Hey, we're dealing with truckers here... (taken inside the control booth for the dump)




Dumping a load of shaving in Rocklin. From here, the shavings are packaged up and shipped via flatbed to Pet shops around the country. These shavings are used for "bedding" for horses, bunnies and other pets.



This is definently not an easy back to a loading dock. There is no margin for error.




A sunset from last Wednesday. Taken up in Martell, CA about 5 miles west of Jackson,CA at the Ampine-Sierra Pine plant.

I drive for....

Bettendorf Trucking hauling wood chips, sawdust, shavings and hog wood around the sacramento area and into the foothills. I'm based out of the Sierra Pacific lumber mill in Lincoln. I work a 12hr shift from 5pm to 5am and it's not as bad as you might think. In 12hrs I usually do 4-5 loads and about 350 miles. Our main places that we go is Rocklin which is 15 minutes from the terminal, Martel which is 2hrs and Camino which is 1.5hrs away. I like it and it's a steady paycheck but I miss OTR badly. I will return to OTR someday, but for now, I'm building up my experience and I sorta need the $$$.....

Anyways, it's been awhile since I've posted any photos so here they are!!!


This is my truck, a 1998 Peterbilt 385 powered by a Cat C12.



Here's the token "hood" shot enroute to Martel,CA.



This is how we unload the trailers. We back up onto the dump...




Then you unhook from the trailer and pull out just enough so that the trailer is still resting on the 5th wheel but not connected...



and TA DA! Push a couple buttons and chain the trailer down, open the door and raise it up!




Then you lower it back down, hook back up to it and take off. To load it, you back up under a "bin" which is a big box that has two doors on the bottom that you open and dump the load into the trailer, but be careful, you can go over t he 80,000LBS limit VERY and trust me, VERY easy!!!