Dump Truck instead of an 18-wheeler.

Oh, and since you are going to be fresh out of *Truck Driving* school, and you want to drive *dump trucks, realize that other than a tiny bit about shifting and some rules of the road theory, school basically taught you nothing that transfers to dump trucks.
You will be driving on broken ground, told to drive through grassy fields, going into asphalt plants where you have 6 inches (or less! Lol) clearance on your mirrors, and your exhaust stack is scraping as you go under the hopper full of 100 tons of 400°+ f molten asphalt, backing up to excavators listening for their horn to know when to stop (usually 1 beep is Stop, 2 is go forward and 3 is back up, and one long one is #$&@#%&$@#!!!!!! (or "hey driver that still has their window rolled up, you just backed into my cab, and I am about to drop my bucket on your cab if you don't start paying attention!" etc))
You will be going places where you are asked to do stupid and dangerous things, and to places where you have to take safety training before you are allowed to drive on the site.

You will have to learn the limits of your truck, and what you have to ask for the ground to be improved, or walk it to check for hazards or soft spots.
You will have to check between your duals to get the rocks out before you get back on the road, and wipe the top edges and tailboard off so you don't take out a windshield.

You will have to learn what the different types of materials are, and the different names they are called so when someone tells you to get a load of 3/4 AB, or to get a load of regular Base rock, you will know they are the same thing, but you should probably make sure they want 3/4. (AB is Asphalt Base rock. A mix of 3/4" crushed stone, and several smaller sizes of material and fines so that with the right moisture content, it compacts very well and makes a good surface to pave over)
You will also have to learn to be able to identify by sight the different materials, so when you pull into the quarry, you pull up next to the right pile for the giant loader to load you from, and also know how to position so they can load fast, and are happy with you lol.

Oh ya, and learn how to control the dump bed if they want you to spread it out, or how to dump into a paver, and pay constant attention to the operator telling you up or down, while you make sure you don't run over anybody, and learn how to use the clutch to try to stay under an asphalt grinder spout, while going up a steep hill, without burning it out too bad.

So my point is, don't expect to be put right in a truck, be willing to push brooms and shovel drain rock and such for a company that is willing to train you. (not that I mean doing that all the time, but if they only have you driving some, and want you to help with other things, be willing to be flexible, because dump truck is a skill far beyond just being able to drive a truck.
And if you have the chance to learn more about the work outside of the cab, you become much more valuable as a driver, because you actually understand why you are doing what they tell you to do.

Learn to be a part of the team, working *With the guys on the ground, rather than just being a delivery boy. This doesn't mean you have to be out of the cab, but it means not making more work for them from sloppy dumping, or not dumping where they need it, so they have to shovel it. If you don't notice the paver telling you to lower your bed, and you overflow a couple of tons of asphalt over the sides of the hopper, the guys that have to shovel it all back up are going to remember you! Lol

But pay attention, ask questions whenever you can, whether of other drivers, at the quarry, during lunch on site, or any other chance you get, and make your focus serving the guys on the ground, and you can go far and fast.

Be upfront the first time you go to a quarry or asphalt plant, tell them you are new, and ask them to teach you what you need to know for their procedures and setup, where to spray your bed, (never.... Never forget to spray your bed before loading asphalt.... *shakes head sadly... Never! Lol) what channel do they run CB, Etc. (And that one time you forget my advice and forgot to spray your bed, spray it with diesel, and it will begin dissolving the asphalt... You will get some stick from time to time anyway, especially if it starts to cool before they dump you. Sometimes I would use the fuel nozzle to dribble diesel on bigger clumps, and eventually you would be able to get the last of it off...)

If the quarry loaders have CB's, when you pull up, wait just a little bit back from the pile, get them on the CB, and ask them how they want you to park, and if there is anything else you should know. They will probably get a scoop, and then park with the full bucket high enough to drive under. Pull up under it. They will probably honk when you are right. Slam on your brakes when they honk! Lol
That is where they want you to park to get loaded. Every time.
Watch other trucks if you can as well.

I don't know if you can tell that I enjoyed driving dump truck!
I have stories of how I learned most of those tips, and some are funny, some are sad, and some are still within the statute of limitations lol
I started dump truck with a friend's truck and a slow paced construction company, so I had space to learn, make mistakes, get cussed at, and keep going.
It also meant crappy trucks, plenty of getting dirty and being the "dump truck driver good for nothing but picking up roots and sweeping the street", but I learned a lot.
I went on to other stuff after he went out of business, but a lot I learned there carried over to United Rentals, then construction and driving water truck, which led to operating various equipment, and being trained as a Grade Setter. Then a few years later is when I combined it all and was now the "dump truck driver that everybody called to take care of whatever they needed done, and pick roots up and sweep the freeway" lol

I still was behind the learning curve, because now I was working with and for Caltrans and PG&E and on site on the new Bay Bridge, and learning new quarry and asphalt plant and recycling crushers and material suppliers procedures and rules, sometimes a new one every day as jobs shifted, and taking training for very anal companies and jobsites with strict rules about everything...
Yes, I loved it!

Talking about it makes me want to go back into it, but I don't live near much construction anymore, and winter is not a good time to start lol

 

All of the above is why I turned down 4 jobs offers to drive dump trucks here where I live now. You hit the nail right on it's head.

 

Your comment is why I recommended trying to get a City Job. The bullcrap is not as bad AND if my memory is correct you DO NOT have to maintain a medical card.

 

To the OP, I think it's good that you have your eye set on something. I was the same way when I graduated CDL school back in May and I was dead set on LTL work of some type because I had a few buddies that had LTL gigs and loved them. However, getting on with a good LTL company with little to no experience is rough unless you get lucky.

My son is 3 months old now and back when I was in school I decided that going OTR which is the traditional way of getting your experience was not my cup of tea because I didn't want to leave my very pregnant wife and miss out on seeing my first child. I ironically enough landed a dump truck/straight truck flatbed position with a local landscape company delivering to mostly residential customers and other landscaping companies.

I did that for a couple of months but when it was slow, it was SLOW so I started looking at other dump truck companies becasue I was at the quarry's all the time. Set my eye on a certain company and a few phones calls later they were willing to give me a shot. I've been here now for a couple of months and I will warn you that if you get on with a construction company like I am, it WILL get monotonous, and I don't use that word lightly. I went from delivering to various locations and going to various quarry's all day at my last job, to literally going back and forth to the same job/quarry ALL day long. If the runs are shorter, you could run 20 plus loads, if the runs a little longer, obviously less but the monotony is the same.

Be prepared to be traversing very rough terrain that will beat you and your truck up daily. It's local which is a huge plus with weekends off, but the pay isn't spectacular and its very mind numbing and depending on the season, and or weather, it can slow way down and you might find yourself sitting on your couch twiddling your thumbs like I am right now, or out on a construction site doing manual labor that you did not sign up for, like I did the last 2 weeks due to driving being slow. So I'm currently thinking of just biting the bullet and going OTR for 6 months and then going with an LTL company or something else local that is tractor trailer. It's not something I want to do, but to get to my end goal, it just might be what I HAVE to do, to speed things up. There's pros and cons to everything unfortunately. Just be wise friend and good luck.

Dave

 

Danger is two-fold first just plain being a newbie second the danger of tipping over when raising the box. Not to mention the height of a raised box will hit street lights. My first job was in a straight truck that was over 30 years ago.

 

Yes, lol, you will (and should!) feel constant paranoia about things overhead, and should be getting out of the cab every job site to check for overhead hazards before lifting your bed.
I never hit anything, but I have watched a dump truck pull forward with a raised bed, catch phone lines, snap a couple of poles, and have 12kv wires drop on his truck. It welded the lift cylinder up, and roasted some other parts of his truck, but he followed the rules for what to do when you have power lines on your vehicle (look it up), and wasn't hurt.
I have been places where the boss told me to go ahead and dump, but I insisted on getting out myself to check, and I would have hit something if I had believed him lol

It is like with loading or PreTrip, it comes down to you to verify safety.

My first dump truck job, I spent a lot of time hauling topsoil from a subdivision site to a customer, and we were dumping on a side hill with sticky soil. I almost tipped it several times (the truck and dump frames both had issues, so it was worse than it should have been), so I figured out a trick that has been useful many times since.

Dump a small pile (1 to 2 feet high), which should only require you to raise your bed part way, then lower your bed again, pull forward, and back back up so you are shifted over, so only your downhill duals are on the pile, leveling your truck out.

On that first truck, I had been complaining about the bed flopping sideways when I dumped, but had been told to grow a pair and stop being silly. One day the mechanic was in the other dump truck hauling topsoil with me, and he saw me doing the pile of dirt trick, and yelled at me for wasting time, and wouldn't listen to me about it almost tipping over.
So I asked him to dump it for me next load.
He ridiculed me and cussed, but I parked the truck, and stood next to it the next load, he pulled up, angry and cussing at me, jumps in, backs up, pegs the rpms as he shows me how it is done, and gets the uphill tires about 2 feet off the ground, barely able to get the bed down in time to keep from rolling the truck, shifts the truck over so the back wheels go up on the pile, dumps the rest out very gingerly, parks the truck, climbs out on very shakey legs after removing the seat cushion from his butt, and squeaks that the truck is out of service until it is repaired, and walks kind of funny back to his truck...

I was only slightly disappointed it didn't tip over, but satisfied with his reaction!

 

Saw this post while researching. I’m a new owner operator in Memphis. Looking for work and making contacts have been a challenge. Any advice?

 

It's been 7 years since I made that comment. When I was speaking about the closest place I know about I was speaking to the Little Rock based OP. My Memphis contacts all have either died or retired. Sadly right now the US economy is getting bad. The only advice I can think of is to start expanding your search to other places.

 

Most don’t want OTR experience to begin with that just brings bad habits a lot of times, not that there’s anything hard about driving dumps but it is different