This post isn't about one company in particulary,but about all the companys of the GHOIA(grain haulers of illinois association/Midwest truckers association)
One of the greatest isssues about these companys is there not so strict insurance polices on the experiance of driving as a beginner.These companys will hire you to drive if you possess a class a c.d.l with little or no experiance of drive time behind the wheel.They will have another driver ride with you while you drive for one day so they can see that you can indeed handle the truck in traffic situations.Sound dangerous ? My opinion is absolutley not.You have to start driving for your own experiance once you are granted that c.d.l at some point in time,All a trainer is going to do is teach you about there company polices, logging ,paperwork, and diffrent traffic obsticales you may come across or that he has experianced in his time.All a trainer can do is point in a direction you need to turn your wheel while backing, hes not going to be in that mirrior all the time,it's something you the individual have to physically do over and over again to be able to do it yourself.

The profession of driving the truck is the same , but the professions are diffrently challenged with diffrent scenarios.
Grain haulers use 38'-53' dump,hopper,tanker air ride trailers with gauges in the cab {etc-scale-o-matic}.We do not have to slide tandems to adjust weight ,we will load 24 1/2 ton and be a 79800-80000 lbs everytime we load one shot one kill.The dump trailers will raise 75 feet in the air and if not level slighly the truck will flip over in a second.Most grain in illinois will be loaded from diffrent grain elevators or huge bins at farms and taken to Cargill inc. or A-D-M and then processed for human or ethenol products -Bio diesel ,fuel etc etc. Dumped into huge pits that are convatorbelted and loaded into barges on the mississippi.Grain being of (corn,soybeans,milo,wheat,oats and purina products.)We also haul lots of diffrent fertalizers(pot-ash,dap,map,nitrogen,urea)

We average 10-12 hours a day and (ARE) paid overtime and recieve holiday pay,home everynight and are off on weekends with full benifits.

I recived my c.d.l from a mill in st.louis over the summer and went to start my trucking carrear at stevens transport, dallas texas,i completed there orentation and immediatley knew that i was lied to and would be under paid with no life and married to the truck,so i decided to quit and maybe decided to drive a straight truck locally and put trailer truckin on the back burner because of inexperiance reasons, then i learned of these companys here and now have a job iam passionate about and love all while getting experiance driving an eighteen wheeler for another higher paying local driving jobin the future.

Don't believe that there aren't companys out there locally that won't hire you because you have no driving experiance! It's like finding a needle in a hay stack , but with patience and devotion everybody can land a local home everynight good paying driving job.

Good luck to all of you ~

TopFlights

I couldn't argue a single point of the above post. I spent 5 years hauling grain for the local coop with a 4 axle dump trailer, and it is a fine way to get a start. The handier and more mechanical you are, the better off you are with this kind of work, especially if you haul off of farms. Sometimes you load yourself when no one is home, and have to set up the tractor and run it to operate the auger. It isn't spotlessly clean work, the air is sometimes filled with bees wings from corn, and dust from other crops, but it offeres good hometime, often every nite, decent work, and a good career path into other forms of trucking.

I have often said that if you place yourself somewhere in the food chain, you will always have work available, and this type of work is part of that.

I have never hauled grain, but looks like it would be a peak slam biz, then nothing to do?

__________________
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Cows, hogs, and chickens eat 365 days a year. So you often haul feed into farms for feed or to processing plants. Many farmers do not sell their grain right at harvest, but bin it up and sell it later and ship it at down times. It has busier than normal times, but grain moves on a pretty steady basis.

I couldn't have had a better response so quickly burky,i really love doing this ,this is what i actually went to stevens for thinking i needed to get experiance otr before i could get a local job like this.Granted as you said its not the cleanest job because of the dust and lol (beeswings,always wondered what those red things were flying out of the augers with the corn were), but it beats no shower or bath for a few days and atleast you can shower every night doing it in your own home and tub.

I load on farms sometimes alone also and using the PTO and throttle can be tricky especially if you have to run a sweeper,the experiance you gain from these kind of jobs are great , manuvering a 53' trailer around a farm and getting the trailer under augers in awkward places makes for perfect pratice makes perfect.

We also have thousands of COOP companys to , MFA-FS-pioneer etc etc

I just love doing this .i have so much freedom i go in at 6am my trucks already started and running sometimes already loaded, i punch a clock grab a clipboard with $500.00 and directions cliped on it and chat with my boss briefly about the weather or something do a pre-trip and begin my paid by the hour day of driving and come at night to a hot cooked meal and the love from my wife and kids then a warm bed.

TopFlights~

Ps.burky ever see them lifts were they will lift the tractor and trailer and dump them ? i thought that was very neat and one heck of a lift.

When I was younger, we share cropped. Most farmers had bins, but had their own trucks to delver it. I was wondering. I often see grain trucks here on their side, flipped on the ramp. Most of the trucks are rough looking. Not something I ever though about doing. We did haul livestock as well, but it was before I started driving a truck. I learned to drive in a cornfield in a 1951 mack semi converted to a dump truck. I loved that truck!

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A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Not sure what you mean , but im assuming running out of work ? we stay running all year around but most overtime comes between sep-march especially harvest time. Then you have dairy , and livestock ,poultry and vineyards that provide steady work , there would most likely be a loss of OTR jobs then there would shortage of work for the grain hauler ,the rails are congested with trailers from companys.

I was referring to that I see a lot of local grain trucks during the season, then I don't see them.

__________________
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Those trucks are probably farmers who are owner ops those older trucks are basicly gone now or can't pass inspection all the trucks i have seen are newer 02-07 internationals westernstar freightliners macs with newer wilson, timpte,jet trailers or alumatech,ravens dumptrailers , about seeing them flipped over i often see more container trailers tipped over on ramps than anything.Hopper trailers have those cone hoppers that helps keep center gravity better control .

Depends on where you live , here in illinois missouri iowa nebrasks and a few in the south its a constant flow of work, other states may be into peppers ,onions,potatoes and are limited due to seasons.