Hauling Milk

Definitely no guaranteed start times if you're on the loading roster. I've been attempting to stay on trailer shuttling to the plant. But dispatch is starting to get desperate again to put me back on a full blown loading schedule. Already poking around for new jobs and even trying to get my old shuttle position with Ruan back. Straight 12 hour shifts is actually sounding much better than different start times each night.

 

That's what soured me on loading. I loved the Dairymen and the Lecheros, but the hours were crazy, and the company was pathetic. so bad that Great Wide got most of the dairies....

 

I'm going to disagree with you on that one. The root cause analysis revealed that our company-issued boots were unsuitable for that type of work. Terminal manager tried to cut corners.

 

you were given boots ? i always had to buy my own

 

Me too, the company supplied gloves but not boots. I wore tennis shoes with the rubber over shoe made by Goodyear tire company. All the dairies I went to had a level concrete slab for the truck to park while loading. I could imagine if you we're parked on gravel or dirt that your boots could be caked with mud causing slipping going up the ladder?

 

Gloves ? They gave out gloves ? Anything else like a fitness room or Sauna at the terminal ? lol
Dairies kept me stock in gloves....

 

Yes, I was given boots. We were a union shop. We had management by the nuts. But then they always tried to skirt around the rules and circumvent the contract. It was like a political game. In the end, I'm glad I fell off that tanker. I'm pretty sure I had a religious experience while on the verge of passing out on the ground, but that could have just been the onset of severe brain damage.

 

Well, just had one guy get canned for taking a loaded trailer home with him and keeping it there for two days!! So as usual, I get yanked off of shuttling detail again and thrown back out onto milk loading. Only way to keep myself from completely losing it is to just go slow as possible. Four years of doing this and it's gotten to that point again where I dread going into work each night. Doesn't help that the tractors are 65 max and a three hour turnaround between the yard and the dairies just eats up time like no other.

 

I never said I knew people that thought it was the greatest job. In fact the guys I met that did it were barely able to pay their bills.

 

When I quit hauling milk after 6 years, I knew that I would never haul milk again. Period. I went to Schneider. Didn't stay very long. Gave them 2 weeks notice. They did not put anything on my DAC.