Chain Pay?

You need to pull your panties out of your crack and relax. I don’t care what you make and never will. The question was asked and I answered it, the end. This entire industry is based on free market and being able to charge what you want. Which is what I do.

 

Some of you keep saying you shouldn't have to do extra work to get paid the same money, so you'd rather do no extra work and sit and make no money? I don't get that mentality and never will. I mean yeah obviously there is a line there but I don't think throwing chains so you can get 10, 20 or even a 100 miles down the road and keep earning is crossing that line. Just sit there instead and make no money, for possibly days

 

I'm not really sure that's the implication.

It's more like if you want me to do it, pay me for it. If I don't get paid for it I'm not doing it. Like literally every other occupation on the planet.

 

No that's literally my point. You'd rather sit and make no money at all than do a simple task and keep making money. Its chaining. Its not rebuilding the engine or using your own money to put fuel in the tanks.

Make no money vs make money. Hmm

I'm out

 

Chain or don't and sit. Do what you want.

Winter sucks and will always slow you down and that weekly check may not look so good compared to the summer checks.

In the end at tax time I look at what I made for the year and the time it took me to make it and then decide whether it was worth it or not.

I spent 30 years building and remodeling houses before I started driving truck and when the weather was bad in construction you never get as much done and make less even though you're working harder in miserable conditions trying to produce.

Do I think you should get paid for chaining? Sure, why not but in the end you have to look at the big picture and decide from there.

 

Here is an example today why Stevens doesn't let rookies chain. I was going my usual run over Donner. I was stopped at Kingvale finishing my chains. When a Crete driver rolls by, this guy was about 300 yds behind me. By the time he got to me he had 3 of his chains off and between his wheels. 3 out of the 4 wheels he chained had come off driving something like 5 mph and 300 yds. What the actual ####. He pulls in and looks at them. I asked how the hell did that happen. He says I don't know, he walks back and looks at mine and says are you supposed to hook the ends? I says #### dude why don't you just sit here till the controls go down later today and please stay the #### out of anywhere there is snow. He said I didn't know it was going to snow. Yep they drive around us

 

When LP's mill was open at Truckee we used to haul bark from there to the Port of Sacramento. Three trips a day whatever the weather. If it was snowing and the chain controls were up we'd have another truck pick up the third load. That took some of the pressure off the driver.
I don't know how many times the drivers helped out other drivers but from the stories that got back to me it was quite a lot. I'd look at the clock charts and I could usually tell but I never said much.
I mean, what the hell are you gonna do, leave some poor schnook with his piles of tangled chains to sort things out for himself and drive off while he just continues to make his situation worse?
Fifteen minutes of instruction usually sorts things out for the rookie.
I was helping one that had chains that were too small. He was going to lace the ends together with tarp straps and go for it. I told him not to bother. He found a phone booth at Cisco and his boss told him to come on back to Stockton.
I helped a guy at Kingvale and he ran with me to Truckee. Full sets and double drags 'cause the west bound guys said the hill was slick. They were right.
When he unchained he brought his chains up to my truck and said "Here, take 'em. I'll never put on a another set of chains. I bought 'em and I never want to see 'em again." Brand new set of Pewag square links. They were nicer chains than I had.

 

Scary but I’ve seen it lots. Especially on the Coquihalla.

 

Reminds me of Halliburton. After I left, if I got any new hands that came from there, I immediately knew their baseline. They put a lot of money into training and safety.