National Adult Literacy Database

September 3, 2007

The following story was written by Wayne, from Arthur, Ontario. Wayne is enrolled in literacy classes at the Wellington County Learning Centre in Arthur.

Driving a Service Truck

by Wayne

I have been driving the service truck for a tire shop for over five years. I like working on my own and I like that I get to meet farmers that live in this area. About 80% of my work is on farm vehicles and the rest is on tractor trailers.

When I go out on a service call I have to find where the vehicle is and I have to know what size of tire to bring along. I have to make sure I have everything I need on my truck - tools, gas, calcium. I need a spoon bar to take apart the tires. I also use a hydraulic bead breaker. The bead breaker pushes the tire off the bead. The bead is the outer edge of a tire that is made of wire. It keeps the tire sealed onto the rim. It's really not very nice changing a tire on a farm tractor that has been spreading manure, but it's part of my job.

It's hard to my job in the winter because the rubber is stiff. Sometimes I have to work without gloves because some of my tools are small. With gloves on it's hard to know where the tool is but I take my gloves off my hands get very cold.

After I change or repair the tire, I have to make out a bill. The bill isn't hard to do. It's flat rate based on tire size. They can pay by cheque or with cash. Cheques are best because it means I don't have to deal with cash.

Some farmers and truck companies have accounts with the tire store. I have to make sure that a copy of the bill gets to the office so the tire shop can send out an invoice at the end of the month.

When I started driving the service truck, I rode along with one of the other drivers. He showed me everything I needed to know. Lots of what I do is just common sense but there are laws and safety issues. You have to know what you are doing when you jack up a tractor or a truck trailer. You need a licence to change tires on a tractor trailer so I had to take a course.

[This story was taken with permission, from The Learning Edge, Issue 7, an online newsletter published by the Wellington County Learning Centre, in partnership with AlphaPlus/AlphaRoute.]