bull haulers

I agree, if you aren't familiar with livestock you have no business messing with it. A brahma will hurt you, a charlois cannot be trusted and will definitely hurt you. I had a 1200 lb charlois heifer not want to go onto the back of the trailer, so I hit her with the hot shot. She turned around and stood up on her back legs and rammed the gate with her head. It caved in a cattle gate, then turned around and walked onto the trailer. I pulled the rope on the rear gate as fast as possible. Those cows that have never been on a truck are hard to deal with and unpredictable.

 

Hey i was just on 64 coming from KY to DE and a couple hundred mile stretch from KY to WV i must have say atleast 50-60 bull haulers on wed! Must be a lot of work out there.

 

the blue grass stockyards in lexington ky. have sales 3 times a week,so there are alot of cattle to haul out of there.

 

Do bull haulers have to go by the same DOT regulations? Is there a web site that tells this information?

 

Yes, they fall under the same regulations. Log book, hours of service, etc is all the same. Have to have the livestock paperwork when you carry the cows and a harvest permit for that participating state like Louisiana if you are over 80k pounds.

 

I grew up in a cow truck, drove one for a long time, yada yada. I had a fun experience last fall at Dressed Beef in GB, WI. There was a o/o trying to back into the inside chute. On his door, it still said Forward Air Freight or something to the like. He had his "co-driver" backing him into the chute, still took prolly 15 minutes to get in. I laughed and everyone harrased him on the CB. It was a good time.

In my opinion, if you are a freight hauler, never even seen a cow that did not have lettuce mayo and a bun... don't try to be a bullhauler. The money is good sometimes, never sleep, in other words, you don't get a 10 hr break. You also need to know how to run 4500 mile or more a week and log it. Every DOT man knows what we do and will do his best to catch you. Even though the scales are closed, it magically open once your past the last exit cause ol' smokey saw you can called his buddy at the scale and let him know you were coming.

If two lanes scare you, well the dirt goat paths will not be good for you. If you think since you can dock a van in a tight warehouse or drop yard this does not mean you can weesle a 53' spread around a tight butt farm not even safe for a pickup truck.

Not all cows are nice and auditioning to be a happy cow for California's cheese commercials. The big moo moos can land you in a hospital. On that note, your hospital visit is after you manage to drag your injured butt back into the truck after finishing loading and delivering the cattle.

Sorry to say, a lot of the roads used to find farms and sneak around the coop are not on your GPS. You may have to find one of those things called a map. I know, crazy. And also, some farmers tell you to turn on said road and drive to the 256th phone pole and turn in the drive and follow it to the old oak tree that was cut down two years ago and turn left at old Harrison's truck for sale that got sold yesterday. When you get to the farm knock on the door and try to get the homeowner to understand that your at the wrong farm. You went 265 telephone poles.

That big long thing in front of you is a hood. That llama you saw on the side of the road is your imagination, the smell is the poo on you, 2 hours sleep is a dream, the sleeper birth line is where you take that log book and lay it down to sleep and get the other one out...HA

I made good money some weeks and crap other ones. I'd run 2800 miles one week and get $1500 check, then run 5000 miles the next and get $650. (I made percentage) Sometimes cattle aren't moving and you don't get much going on. Other times your run so hard you cant even think.

If your lucky you can go home and sleep for a few hours before you get a call and your boss is in a bind and needs you to go back out. But don't worry about sleep, that is what Sundays are for. When you unload at 3am and your happy that you can sleep, dont stress cause you still have another 300 miles to drive to get the next load the loads as soon as you get there.

I deadhead a lot. at least 200 miles everytime, sometimes I dont. I deadheaded from OK to KY to get another load of baby moo moos from the same farm.

Complain all you want, no one cares. Everyone is so stressed about everything that everyone is a DI*K. Everyone is mad. Everything is YOUR fault. Cry all you want it does not matter.

But with all the miles, crap you deal with, 72 hour days and never sleeping, at least you can brag to all your friends that you are a bull hauler. You can ba a bada** of the road, speeding everywhere, dodging scales yada yada. Your cool now. However, you won't have time to sit at the high counter telling trucking tales and going on about you being a bad butt bullhauler.

I cannot speak for all bullhaulers but my own experiences. I also cannot say it is the same all over the US. So if this is all crap to you, sorry.

I am a di*k and I approve this message.

 

Thanks for your service as an Iraq vet, but grow up.[/QUOTE]


No thanks. Some people are too uptight, like you. It's a joke,maybe you didn't see that.

 

I'd say that was actually a pretty good post.

They don't catch what they don't see. Out of sight is out of mind. Most DOT guys don't go hunting for cow trucks, either. It's much easier to sit at the scales and wait for trucks to come to them than to patrol the two lanes & dirt roads hoping for the 1% chance of stumbling upon a cow truck out there on the same backroad at the same exact time.

 

Even with all the bs,its still better than mess'n with freight