Hopper bottom work

Bruce Oakley Inc.

 

If you have your own authority have you checked out bulkloads.com. currently showing 1900+ loads out of TX and 400+ out of LA.

I am looking into switching to hoppers and came across that site.

 

I can't imagine why hoppers seem so appealing all at once. I been at it a long time, bad habits are hard to break. I will say when harvest is over round my neck of the woods I'm doing a lil something different

 

Not sure for others but in 3yrs I've done VacTruck, Crude,Sand,End dump in the oil field and flat otr. Looking for something I like doing and can call home for a few years. Any insight on hopper bottoms would be appreciated.

 

Before the oil field went bust there was a surge of guys buying hoppers just to haul frac sand. When the boom busted not only were all those guys left looking for other work a lot of the guys displaced from the bust are Pulling hoppers too. It has drove the rates way down. Don't get me wrong there still a few good deals but those that have them are working hard to keep them.

With a 1.50 per mile avg offer for a 3 to 400 mile turn that wont load without a washout then won't unload with 2 hrs of beating on the knock rails till your blue in the face unless you have a suction cup vibrator it just doesn't pencil out anymore. The bulk loads board and hop loads is full of loads for less than a 1.50 a mile.

 

I ran my hopper anywhere for several years. When oil prices dropped hopper rates fell. Problem with hoppers is short loads and long dead head. I was averaging 27% empty at the end. If my truck hadn't quit running i cant say id still be pulling a hopper. Long lines to load/unload are real common. Im not talking long van wait times. Im talking over 100 trucks in line.

 

100 in line??? How do you make anything like that? How fast do they unload? Can't be any less than 5 min/truck? That's 8 hr wait time, more than. Is wait time paid (I'm guessing not).

 

Yes 100 in line at some places. Not always. You only take those loads to get you back to better loads. Backhaul if you will. Nope no pay for waiting. Time spent depends on commodity. Grain, peas comes right out. Probe, scale, dump, scale. 15-20 mins. But when you scale and dump another truck is probing.
Ddgs? Ive seen 3 hrs to unload. Lots of sweat and lots of cursing. Most ddgs loads only have a few trucks in line to dump. Often no one else. You learn to balance rates vs time spent in line.

 

Unless your hauling DDG to feed mill in Arkansas. Most dump DDG in the corn pit. Really screws a corn line up. Me I don't get excited I idle her up and go to bed. I could be the on either end of that deal. But the for sure corn trucks get mad as hell lmao