Milk loader/driver shortage in NM and Texas?

Seems to me that these dairies are just over-producing and dumping milk faster than the loaders are able to pick it up. I've been attempting to stay on strict, trailer shuttling, unloading, and more or less shagging. But, I've been seeing myself being shoved back onto barn loading on a light basis. One dairy a night here, then two or three of them the next night without warning.

The physical aspect of loading doesn't really bother me. But since these are animals we're dealing with, it's a different schedule that has to be adhered to each night regardless of the start time you're ordered. And if you start screwing up due to fatigue, then it's pretty much lights out for your employment standing.

Then of course there's having 6-8 dairies dumped on one driver to run out and load, and haul back to the yard and turnaround. To me, and some others out here, these are some of the main reasons why the amount of route drivers/loaders in the given area remains a finite and yet, diminishing amount. Each milk hauling company out here, and there are at least 5-6 big ones, have billboards and ads in the paper for "local milk collectors". They'll even have "hiring fairs/events" and such, but word gets around about the higher than normal work hours and questionable pay.

Potential employees simply stay where they are, while others get burned out in a short amount of time and end up quitting, then possibly staying home and collecting handouts.
The way I look at it, these companies methods of saving money and doing more with less is burning many out of the job out here. Only useful solutions I see are bringing back "pickup truck loaders" that either stay at one dairy or run out to a couple of different ones to load dropped trailers with a yard-dog, or drivers that show up to be loaded. And then of course there's assigning drivers to a given shift and just having them grab whatever's due to come off during their 12 hour.

Been doing the milk thing for six years myself and while I don't like to hop companies like I did in the past, I'm seriously eyeing the LTL/line-haul bug just to get away from the barns.

 

Inquired to a few companies down there. But their hours seem to be quite crazy as well. I'm trying to talk things over with IRT and stay strictly shuttle/shagger. But a 12 hour shift would be a god-send at this point. I'm just trying to keep the "workaholism" to a minimum.

 

I liked loading when it was only one dairy and a far distance. Clovis to Willard, and Clovis to Perryton were definitely my money makers. 8-9 hours with drive time and loading, and usually $260/night. 5-7 barns in the 70 mile radius of Clovis and you're usually pushing beyond the 14 and near or less the same amount of money.
At least with pre-loaded trailer shuttling and unloading, I could do other things while waiting. I'm going to give it another few days before I start calling in other apps I sent out. At least with an Albuquerque move for Old Dominion, I won't have to worry about CDL switching.

 

So I've been told. Only thing is I'll more than likely have to suffer/stomach a move. I'd much rather do an in-state as opposed to an out of state though.
Only thing that's holding me back is having to deal with different days off and such. Weds/Thursdays have been working out great for me.
I dread having to deal with something like Sun/Mon off. All those social contacts and bonds made pretty much disappear when work days separate you from your "crew".

But, seeing as how I'm starting to get snippy again and thinking those "dark thoughts", the sacrifice might do me well in the long run and well being department. Just have to figure out another crew to roll with on my days off and/or, take some leadership courses to enhance my own gathering potential.

 

Not sure if this post is supposed to motivate me, or just make me despise the job even more. Any way you slice it, I'm just done with the multiple barns and different start times each night. Too big of a responsibility to handle anymore and with all the other driver-loaders running away from it, there will soon be too few of us left out here.

And then that's where the blame games start. The fingers end up pointed at the driver-loaders for not being fast enough to cover 5-7 dairies with make times for each tank usually right on top of each other. Talk about being set up for failure.
All I'm getting at is that there could be better ways to get this dairy song and dance done. But like most trucking outfits, driver's suggestions are typically ignored. And the driver-loaders will typically just get stretched thin until the dairymen pretty much just has to get their own little fleet going to get their product to market.

Anywho, I stopped drinking fluid milk and any dairy product after getting into this. I still eat meat and other good stuff. But swore off pizza, real cheese, and anything that might've come from one of those dairies. I want ice cream or milk, there's always the more tastier and fulfilling, almond or cashew substitutes. I've also begun to do the intermittent fasting thing, along with 36-40 hour fasting periods. So in the case I do get summarily canned again over a slip-up, I'll survive it until something else is found.

It's been an alright, six years of doing the dairy thing. But, it's time to unclip the wings and try something else out.