Starting at Barney Trucking, Salina Ut

Hi guys

I left my Job driving at Mr. Bults Inc. where I had worked for 5.5 years hauling turpike doubles, the day after Christmas. Had a disagreement on the some safety issues and I disliked how safety came last in almost every aspect.



I was going to get out of trucking entirely. I have been driving for almost 9 years and just got disenchanted with the whole thing. Took 3 weeks off to just relax and think about my future. Came across a Barney Trucking open house at my local Job Service place and thought ,"What the hell" and went out, interviewed and got hired on last week. Barney hauls Coal and air slide trailers(pneumatics) moving Ash,lime,coal, and some other stuff I can't remember. I was excited to learn a different aspect of my career field, having never hauled either of these trailers



I searched online about the Company and couldn't find a #### thing which was cool. They put me up in my own motel room and bought me lunch everyday and paid me $10 an hour while in training. The first 2 days were the usual stuff, getting bombarded meeting people and learning the SOPs and the particulars and ins and outs. Third day they outfit me with about $300 work of work gear let me sweep and clean out a set of the Air slides. Was alittle spooky standing on that little cat walk trying to use a 10' broom to get the inside of the pod, but I was tied down so I wouldn't fall off. The 4th day I went to an Lime Plant and got to learn how to load the pods. They let me help some other drivers load their trucks. So I got to load 3 trucks. It was a little confusing and intimidating with all the proper procedures and they all change at each plant and if you screw up and they don't like you, they can ban you from their facility. Yeah, wasn't nervous at all, LOL!

On my 5th day I got to unload an airslide at a Local Mine. Again, huge number of rules and regs at this particular customer and none of it posted anywhere on site. The only way I would know was if a trainer or another driver told me. I only got to unload the one truck as they had plenty of Lime there already. Had to wait almost 5 hours for the truck to show, but it was really cool to be able to go through the process of getting the product out of the Pods and into the silos. I'm alittle worried about the remembering all the proper sequences of directing the air to blow the product out. I didn't get to learn about the PTO as the Mine had their own blowers set up so we could unload 2 trailers at once. I think I have the basics down on which valves to do to direct the air and pressurize the tank. Making sure it is empty though, worried about that. My trainer went through alot of steps really quickly as hot to make the tank vibrate to get loose product down to the bottom and how to either knock out or suck up a plug in the line. I don't remember half of it LOL.

I have never seen a company that spent so much money on me right from the beginning. They even wrote me a check paying me the 300 miles I had to drive to get there and back. Everyone here is friendly in a good ol' farm boy sense. But that is also what they all are. Salina is a small farm town as is the surrounding areas. They have about 450 employees and 200 trucks spread out over Utah,Wyoming, and Nevada. I will be working in Carlin Nevada. I will be picking up a truck in Salt Lake city, loading at Pilot Peak near Wendover Nevada and then unloading it somewhere and end my day in Carlin. The next 3 days I will run locally and on the 5th day I will load and bring a load a load back to SLC and I will get 2 days off and stat it all over again.
I may have the option of driving my car out there, working for 3 weeks on and banking my days off. I may do that so I don't have to worry about having to get a run out there and back. They will pay for my Hotel while I'm out there. But I don't know if I will have to share a room or not. I didn't at my Orientation.

I'm nervous. I'll be hitting all the mines and be spending the majority of my time off road. They are saying that I will have to chain every single day because of either snow, ice or mud. and conditions can be really bad with help hours away. It is going to push my skills to the limit. I'm actually looking forward to it. I did the same run twice a day for almost 6 years at my old job. I'm ready for something new. Everyone has made a point to tell that this is the highest paying spot in the commpany. They were losing drivers left and right out here, with them either going to work in the oilfileds or at the mines themselves. They keep saying 60-70k for 5 days work. I hoping it's partially true. I would be happy with 50k but won't complain if it's more.

Their Bennies are average. Health and dental. They don't have Vision, but you can get discounts through the health part of it to get your glasses and tests and such. They have longevity bonuses(up to 10% of your yearly gross at 20 years) and safety bonuses. They don't have vacation but they do have personal time off days which are unpaid. But they immediately start you off with 10 of them and you can accrue up to 25 days by your 20th year there. Bennies don't kick in until after 6 months as that is where the majority of their turnover is. they have 401 and they contibute quite a bit to it. I was surprised! Almost every driver or office person I spoke to or met has been there over 6 years. Lots of gray hairs here lol. I'm looking forward to being here. They seem honest but don't tolerate BS. You made a mistake, then learn from it and move on. You do it again, then you get spanked.

For my second week I will be again going to a hotel in a different area and I will be picked up by my new trainer and I will be operating the truck with his in the co-pilot seat. he'll be training me on everything I just learned. Unloading and loading and ELOGS, and proper procedures for fueling and such. He'll have me for 5 days. He actually called me and seems like a really good guy. He is my first trainers best friend. Everybody knows everybody down there LOL.

Anyway, I haven't been able to really find anything about Barney Trucking on the net. So I thought I would start a thread at least to just talk about it and document my experiences for those who are interested.

Take care

Chris

 

Also please feel free to offer any advice, tips, or tricks regarding the pneumatics or diving out in northern Nevada. I'm assuming it won't be as bad as being out in North Dakota. but everyone makes it seem like I'm going to be flying off the road at every turn LOL

 

Well I lasted 2 and half weeks. One things I noticed all through training was just how crappy their equipment was. I saw Violations all over the place and nobody gave a crap. But I tried to be positive and move forward. Last Thursday I get dispatched to Wendover Nevada to run graveyards out to our terminal in carlin and back, loading out of Pilot Peak, with the truck being parked at the bottom of the road going to Pilot Peak. . I do my pretrip on the only truck that they had available because every single other spare is broke down, and what do I find? Truck Registration and IFTA both expired LAST DECEMBER! Both trailers have expired registration. The vibrator on my #1 pod is completely broken off the Pod and is hanging by the air-line. I have one tire that is so bald that the tread is is smooth in some spots and there are 4 lights out on the pup........
This was the only truck they had and were going to have available. They told me to get loaded and they would have the new registration for me when I got to the terminal. I call while enroute to reverify this and get," Well we won't be able to get it until monday, just go ahead and keep driving. You drive at night so DOT won't see the tags" and They "found" a another trailer set in the yard and promised to have it ready for me. I was already on the road and I should have turned it around and shut it down then as it was really snowing and I take full responsibility for that, I was confident in my ability and I knew the area and had good chains, but it was still a bad decision on my part. I get there, drop the trailers and hook up to my new ones and do my pretrip,,,,,,,and find that the mechanics never took their Air attatchment for shop air off of the emergency line and set the brakes of the back pup so that they managed to be able to drag it out of the shop, around the yard to park it and the tires never drug, even with no air being supplied to release the brakes. Drivers are under strict orders that we cannot adjust our own brakes. So I wait for 3 hours while the on call mechanic does everything he can to get out of coming out to fix it. If it hadn't been snowing, I would have Bobtailed home. I finally say to hell with it and crawl under and redo all 8 slack adjusters and tell them I will drop the truck off and head home, I'm done. There had been another driver in this truck for several days and He never did a pretrip once. He didn't even know what kind of Engine the truck had.

I am done with driving. 10 years of doing this and I cannot find a company that gives a crap about the legality of their Trucks. Yes they all preach about how safe they are and safety and being legal is their top priority and then the very first thing is, It's get the load done, screw you if you're not legal, get the load done. If you don't like it, then leave. I won't risk my license and/ or possible jail time for anybody's load. I'm done with trucking and I'm out.