I am a woman who will be a solo,OTR newbie driver.
I want to be as safe as possible. I understand having commonsense and walking upright with confidence.
My fears come from the "horror stories" about ether being sprayed in the vents, and people brea
Those things that you mentioned have happenned. They continue to happen in places -- but they are not common. Your surroundings really dictate the level of danger that you have to worry about. Inner city truckstops are by far and away the worst. Meat and produce markets can be nasty places.
I will not say that bad things do not happen in "safer" areas, but the odds go way, way up in the areas I mentioned above. Try to avoid them as best you can. If you deliver into a city in the morning, try to stay the night outside of town and drive in in the morning. Better yet, call the receiver and ask if you can park there for the night. Ask if their parking area is secure. Street parking outside of a receiver's gate may not be any safer.
Common sense takes a person a long way towards being safe. If you see lots of cars driving around the truckstop lot, this is often a bad sign. If you see people going from truck to truck, this is a bad sign. You'll pick up a lot of "vibes" about an area -- just be receptive to your own intuition.
397 visitor(s) thought this was helpful. Do you?
No, hell no, they're not right. Strength is less important than it used to be years ago, but you need to choose your freight and carrier carefully, with your limitations in mind.
If you choose a flatbed, you will have to be strong enough to throw heavy tarps in all weather conditions, so that would likely not be an option. A dry van or reefer would probably work for you just fine. You may have to do some unloading on occasion, so you'll need to find out what type of freight a carrier hauls. For instance, if you haul meat, you have to be prepared to sometimes unload some or all of the load and boxed meat is very heavy. You'll almost always have a lumper with most carriers, but it would be important to make sure this is true and be ready when a lumper is not available.
Just make sure you ask what kind of freight and how often you'll have to unload it and make your decisions from there. Strength in trucking can sometimes be very helpful, (pulling a fifth wheel, pulling a slider bar, etc) but it isn't a prerequisite.
299 visitor(s) thought this was helpful. Do you?
bravenet.com