Driving is a necessity to get us from point A to point B. We all have to be able to drive at some point in our lives. Some like it, some even love it, but others are very passionate about it. Not only do I like and love it, but I am passionate about it. My love for driving started when I deployed to Iraq in October of 2008 and returned in October of 2009.I drove big trucks that hauled supplies and transported troops around the base. I got more passionate about it when I got home and got a vehicle of my own. When I left the military, I had to find a job I would love, and I did. I work for a company called PTI (Professional Transportation Inc.). Even though the military and PTI are different in many ways, for me they have one thing in common, and that is driving. The trucks I used to drive while deployed to Iraq and driving the passenger vans for PTI are completely different in size, number of people and items they can carry, and what I transported.
The first difference I can tell you about is the vehicles sizes. In the Army, driving vehicles that the driver sat four to eight feet off the ground was amazing. The vehicles can haul supplies, heavy equipment, and even other vehicles, so the trucks have to be big. One truck for example is the HET (Heavy Equipment Transporter) which has eight tires on the truck, five independent axles turning independently, 40 tires-- twenty per side, four per axle. The doors are just over five and a half feet from the ground to the bottom of the door. The passenger vehicles for PTI are a lot smaller and have fewer tires --only four and two axles -- and from the ground to the bottom of the door are maybe only one and a half feet.
The second difference of the vehicles is the number of people and the carrying capacity. The HET can carry is only two at a time (unless an emergency arises; then it can carry a few extra people) and the passenger vans can carry a maximum of eight people. The HET trucks are designed to haul and carry heavy...