CTL license? We don't need no stinkin' CTL license!

Big Truck!

That isn't me, but that is one of the trucks that I drove a few weeks ago. We don't have many of the rules in Antarctica that we do in the USA about work, so with as little as one hour of training you too could be driving truck. You don't need a CTL license, but it definite helps if you have the trucker hat. We didn't need to have any prior truck driving, large vehicle experience, or well, anything. Maybe, they wanted you to be able to drive stick, but there were even a couple automatics trucks so I guess you could get around that too.

My co-pilot, Jami, on a slow day.

They needed volunteers to drive truck because we don't do it enough to actually hire someone, but still need it done. We spent three days moving 150 mill vans filled with waste and retro materials two miles down to the ice pier. We drove to one spot, had a forklift load us up, drove to the scales where you only had a foot on each side of the truck, got weighed, drove to the ice pier, and finally had another forklift unload us. Repeat.

Driving truck!

If you look at the console, you can tell the truck is pretty old. Some people suggested some were from the 50s, but they don't get driven much or far so they are still usable. They were so loud that you needed earplugs to not damage your hearing. Sometimes you need to be rough with them. I don't think I used first gear unless I was going down hill and had to. Second to third was a miserable display of force. I had no seatbelt and my co-pilot barely had a seat!! Come play!

Bad driving by me, no seatbelt by her!!