you guy's drive on the left side of the road?
the mine out in Wyoming does, and they ain't kidding about right of way.
I was running an 18 wheel rig that come in just over 120-K and just about got side swiped by one of those haul trucks coming up over a hill.
I decided to hug the ditch a lot closer for the rest of that little jaunt.
Not at my mine, but some are. The idea is that you can always see the berms on the side of the haul roads when in left hand drive mode. Sounds like Europe does but not catching on here.
These trucks are huge, and have a serious blind spot on the left side, like a 140' blind spot! All maintenance vehicles and contractors have tall flags attached to their trucks before they can enter our mine. The berms are at least six feet tall on the haul roads (110' wide road) and if a small vehicle is next to a berm they are invisible to us from our cab. We have right of way over all other vehicles, not just because we are bigger or in production, but because we cannot see the smaller vehicles at our right side, even if they are sitting next to us. We have horn procedures every time we move, to alert the people or vehicles near us. These trucks can run over a standard full size PU and not even know it! The shovels are dropping 50 ton of over burden/ore/sand per scoop in our dump boxes and they barely wiggle. The ore is noisy going in but you can barely hear crushed rock or sand! A real impressive truck to drive, if you like playing in a sandbox. V-Sixteen cylinder Cummins diesel(@ 2500 Hp), that drives a generator that powers the truck, propelled by two electric rear traction motors(forced air cooled). We carry 1200 gallons of diesel fuel, and grease machine that self greases the unit every so often, hydraulic tank about 200 gallons, and reserve oil tank that automatically adds engine oil when needed, sensors on all. Both dynamic and hydraulic brakes. Air ride seats (and we need them) for the rough ground we run in at the cuts and dumps. The trucks are governed at @ 42 Mph empty, and will do @ 12 Mph loaded up a 15% grade. A traction control system we can manually apply, for slippery down hill conditions, that operates at grade and speed we control.
the pay must be very good, to coax you away from trapping.
The whole package Jon. My wife hasn't had insurance since she retired, and this job comes with a Cadillac policy after 60 days of employment. My oldest son is the mine manager and told me last Xmas I should apply because they are having trouble finding people who can 1) pass a drug test 2)pass a physical 3)Pass a background check 4) willing to work 12 hour rotating shifts with some forced overtime during vacation periods. Pay starts at just under 80K for drivers, and people taking extra shifts are making up to 140 K. We also get profit sharing every quarter, which pays up to an additional $11.00 for every hour worked that quarter, and adds about 5K for a normal rotation truck driver per quarter, which also includes 1 1/2 time for anything over 40 hours and 2 1/2 time for holidays. Three weeks vacation after a year employment and three personal days per year. All shifts are 12.4 hours, with a 10 minute coffee break, a 20 minute lunch, and another 15 minute coffee break. We can stop any time we really need to, all traffic in the mine stops at the same time for breaks and coffee, which is started and stopped by our truck mounted puters (GOIC). Production trucks don't ever pass one another unless one is disabled and been alerted to all mine traffic. Service trucks, graters, water trucks, loaders etc, all have flashing blue lights and safety sirens, common right of way rules in effect at all times, everybody wants to go home at the end of shift. The mine furnishes all our safety glasses, hard Hats, vests, lockers, eye wash stations (lots of dust).
The schedule, which is done a year at a time, was developed by the Dupont Corporation. We work 12.4 hour shifts (Some overlap for personel movement to vehicles at beginning and end of shifts) 2 days, two days off, two nights, two days off, three days, three days off, three nights, three days off. Really when going from days to nights you loose 12 hours, but gain it back, when going from nights to days. It also allows for a 4 day long weekend per month. I really prefer the night shifts because it is much quieter on the radio with most of the 8 hour ground crews off the net, and there is wildlife out and about. Saw some fox pups a couple days ago, lots of deer around.
There are four "crews" of truck drivers and they hired four new drivers and one quit after a couple days. That leaves less than one new crew member on each crew, so we are the bottom of the seniority pole, and are first to get forced overtime. I was available before the other two hires and started before they did by two weeks, and they haven't been certified yet and have to run with or be followed by a trainer still, so guess who gets the forced overtime? I'm getting two days next week, but looking forward to the check. Lots of vacations in June-August period.
Still going to be able to do some beaver work, and the county is willing to work with my schedule to keep me trapping for them. Miss the woods every day, but easier driving than tearing out beaver dams, and less bugs too!
