Getting on with Air Products

I work for a competitor of them I have a good freind been at gray quite a while he runs crude team hes happy all cryo companies about the same it will be the sweetest gig you ever had if you get it..Id tell em that you want a good place to call home and retire from and you have heard nothing but good things about them one thing to make sure to understand is if running local it will be nights , weekends and holidays..they do have some sort of a rotating schedule at that particular location so you will see a few weekends off I think its 5on and 10 off or 10 on and 5 off not sure ..gotta be a team player at all these jobs dont ask why just do it no matter how off the wall it may sound..big on safety..cones,wheelchocks and reflective vests...this is not a job for cowboys or bigg riggers ...it is a great job for the right person..there are some good guys at that location years ago we ran the same oilwell customers I would see 2-3 of them every night ...I load at air prod. plants a couple of times a month it would be a good job..good pay I think they make around 48-50 cpm and 20.00 hour with a little incentive for well work..they dont try to bs them ..all of these companies are in need of guys that have exp. and are willing to play the game keyword is willing to play the game...good luck

 

10-4 on what CC tanker said. Especially the safety issues. Too many companies now have adapted the philosophy that 100% of accidents can be prevented and any that occur are YOUR fault. This is total BS of course but the lawyers and insurance companies love it. Make sure and AGREE with anything they ask about safety unless they should throw out some trick question which is unlikely. Some now days have group interviews. You and whoever they decide to include. Could be girls in office, janitor, etc. Can throw old hands off guard. Another new stupid practice from personnel -OOPS I mean Human Resources. You'll do great. Just be yourself as much as possible and smile like a possum.

 

As CC said, cryo is the best! I work for another competitor and we have a few AP guys fill at our plant daily. They are happy with their jobs. Safety and following company procedure is the name of the game in this business. Good luck with your interview and let us know how it goes.

 

In Houston: It's like CC said, good for the right guy. Assenine policies like Duker said too like " Accident = anytime any part of your vehicle comes in contact with anything other than the road surface " and sheet like that.

In Houston you would start local, nights and holidays and weekends. Take you about 5 to 7 years to make days. Top hand here made 93k in 2007 in the city and BEFORE they changed the pay structure to standards. Last I heard they were all running in the 60's here except the teams.

Took away the pension too and threw a few pennies in the 401k plan. Older hands still have it so you may hear about it. They recently tangled with Airgas too, tried to buy them but it didn't fly...this time. No telling, they may be back.......

Good luck, hope you get it.....

jmo

 

The very same thing has happened to me two days ago. I had applied to Fastenal and had a Gentleman call me yesterday. Not one thing He said was in anyway akin to the ads that were placed in several different sites. There was no "Team" at all mentioned in the ad. You would always leave the Yard here at night. This was a team position and you ran for 5 days on a semi dedicated run servicing Fastenal stores and DC's, out and back.. He kept saying there were 3 guys to a truck so I would be basically teaming with 2 other drivers and every other 2 days a driver would switch out and a new one come in. .All that for $40-45k semi-salary. You got paid mileage, but had a base salary. It was really weird and I was in no way comfortable with it. If it had paid alot more like high 50's to mid 60's then I may have. But there is no reason to run team for cheap.

 

as far as standard practice yes that is common..my that works there ran local a long time but volunteered for team for max money..I work for Linde Gas we are the same way I hired on 14 years ago and ran team for a little under a year then 1 short stint around 09 for 3 months I run solo in a daycab and stay in motels 5 days a week ..if we ever get the need for a team again the bottom 2 are forced out wheater they want to or not..this sucks but its common for this type of business...sorry about how things turned out for you..teaming in this business has good points and bad,you are continouly running non stop and are getting paid premium to do it 85k-95+ per driver, but its a rough way to live...good luck

 

Screw Air Products. They treat drivers like crap. Like your scum of the earth. I'd try a different cryogenic company if you really want to pull it.
I worked at APCI for almost 10 years. 3 years in FL running LHY team. Just short of 6 years in Niagara Falls, NY running LHY single. NF is a OPT that's based at Praxair in NF but managed by the Cleveland,OH terminal. It use to be a great company with great management. Now most of HR and Management is all ex-navy officers that hire in and promote and protect each other. The Cleveland site supervisor is a liar that looks at drivers like they are over paid and 2nd class citizens. I was considered the #1 driver in the company when I ran team and when running single in NY til I was dismissed. By pay, miles and efficiency I was #1 in the company. There were more than a few comments made about drivers getting paid to much. Also, all the drivers knew who made what for the year. Constantly trying to create conflict. (Charlie ***** / Management). This is what happened to me...Keep in mind...I've never been in trouble, written up ..nothing. I gave everything to this company and in the end it meant NOTHING. I ended up owing my 401k money a in the end. I lost my job, house, 401k savings...everything! In the end, by a lie and because I had a pension. Here it is:
I hired on in 2005 on Valentines day. I drove team outta the Pace,FL terminal. Me and my partner were the #1 team in the company in LHY.
In 2008 when the economy tanked there were layoffs. Dispatch didn't want to lose me so they made a position for me in NY. Dedicated me to 1 customer. The company's largest one besides NASA at the time. They transferred me to NY. The head of dispatch said it wasn't forever but it'll last a while. Until they go to on site plant. Which admittedly they got because of my dedication to them the 6 years I serviced them. I revolved my life around that customer. The only 1 time they ran out was when I was on vacation. I never said no. They needed it , I went. In 2014 plans for the on site were finalized. There had been opportunities to go back to FL in between the years of 2011-2014. But, I had to quit/rehire to go back to FL. Because I had a pension. That would put me into the company's enhanced 401k. I didn't want anything to do with it. I had built up my vacation, pension and 401k in my time with the company. I would have been at zero. This was the new rule for employees. In my last year with the company my boss/Cleveland site supervisor had transferred 2 of his employees. They just happened to not have a pension so that was ok I guess. Anyways, I was told to hang on(by a guy high up in the company) and they would have to transfer me outta NY and back down to FL when the plant was installed. So I held out. The plant came in. I took a hardship loan outta my 401k to refinance my house in FL because after 6 years of paying for a house in FL and renting in NY I was behind on the mortgage. On December 3rd of 2014 I had a very nice, respectful meeting in Cleveland with Charlie. I asked if there was any news on the FL positions that were open. He said I could stay in NY and pull a different product or apply at Praxair. He knew I loved LHY and had promised the lox/lin guys when I got there in 08 I was never gonna take any of their work. But I said yes to pulling a different product that morning. Knowing he didn't have enough work for me if I was serious about it. I left his office and went out to the truck. 5 mins later I start getting texts from John ****. He was asking about the meeting. We were talking crap. Not unusual because I considered this guy a friend. We were talking about Charlie. Eventually I leave the plant on my way to NF. Dispatch calls me. I stop and call them back and they say your boss just called and told us to have you stop in NF. Do not go to Sarnia to get another trailer. So I stopped in NF like instructed and was met by Charlie and the new driver manager he just hired. A guy he had hired before he even fired the lady driver manager under, "Restructuring". Anyways, I was met and told that he had received text messages from another driver where I was called him a liar and a couple other choice words. Nothing bad that you wouldn't hear on a elementary school playground. The fact was...he was lying about not being able to transfer me and I knew it for a fact. But, he said the texts made him feel unsafe. I've NEVER been anything but 100% respectful to him. He had his driver engage me in a conversation until I said something he could fire me for. Calling someone a liar when they are is horrible I guess. Thru a third party text and out of context. Then he only showed 1 text to his friend in HR, Mike *****. I was never told what the text said. Never saw it. Never in trouble before. 1st offense(which wasn't even a offense), last offense. He needed a reason to fire me so he set me up and made up the rest. Fired 3 weeks before Christmas. A wife, 3 kids and a new mortgage on a house in a place I don't get to work at now. 1 special needs child whose prescriptions I couldn't afford after 1/3/15 because I would have no health insurance anymore. A week later after finally getting a hold of Mr Jones in HR I was told that Mr Dawson told him he felt unsafe AND that I sent the text while I was driving. Which was a absolute lie. I was sitting in the Cleveland yard texting Mr ****. Hadn't even started my trip yet. **** said he had nothing to do with anything and if I needed to talk to someone call Charlie. There's your APCI HR for you. The ex-navy buddy system club/HR. A couple days later I found out he told Praxair management that I was involved in a altercation on Praxair property with another APCI driver and had to be walked off the property. Another absolute lie. I was never shown a text. He wouldn't let me record him when he was firing me for "threatening" him. He flat out lied to HR about me texting while driving. It's now April. I got another job. But I lost EVERYTHING. Still don't have health insurance. Going thru bankruptcy. All because I had a pension and wouldn't quit/rehire. The driver did it because I had a newer truck and he wanted it. The boss did it for HR. And himself because he didn't like me. I bet EVERYTHING on APCI and got kicked to the curb on a lie and over a truck. To give so much and dedicate your life to a company and have that happen makes me so angry. My youngest of my children asking me Christmas morning if Santa was mad at them. I can't tell you how much it hurts. The APCI now is not the APCI of 10 years ago. If you're a driver just know that they don't care one bit about you. Think good drivers are easy to come by. They are easily replaceable. The wages are good. Beware of the Cleveland terminal. It's union which is good. But there's a union guy there that will snitch you out or set you up in a heartbeat. I've heard he's been responsible for 3 firings of fellow union members. But protected by APCI snitch policy. The Cleveland boss is a heartless, lying puppet protected by HR. So beware when applying there. Yeah, this is a sob story. But, I will put my hands on all my kids hearts and swear on their lives that EVERYTHING I've said is true. Loyalty, hard work and dedication means nothing to them in the end. You are a dumb truck driver that they can replace at anytime with no problem. And they will completely destroy your life if they need to for any reason or no reason. Drivers Beware of John , Charlie , Mike , Jeff r people applying at Cleveland .....thank you all for completely destroying my life and putting my family thru what you did and are still doing due to how everything went. Hope you guys had a great Christmas and new years.