Indian River

I’m glad to hear things have worked out for you, Cobra. I usually wave at the Caledonia trucks now when I see one. They’re still keeping me busy with great miles here. I brought one of those Alexandria, MN loads to Modesto, CA last week, then went up to Grandview, WA and took one to a new customer in the San Francisco Bay Area afterward. I’m on a dead head back up to Washington from Tulare, CA right now. I pickup tomorrow in Grandview, WA to head to Pennsylvania.

I think we lifted the hiring freeze, because I saw a recruitment post from the IRT Facebook page in my newsfeed this morning that said we’re currently needing drivers.

 

We’ve been going to Fruitsmart as long as I’ve worked here. I’m surprised you didn’t when you were with us. We have a terminal / drop yard in Grandview as well. It’s about a mile down the road. They put it in about six years ago. Just so you know, if you ever need to do laundry in Prosser, there’s a nice laundromat about a mile from the Loves. There’s a grocery store across from it as well and a big gravel lot you can get into with a trailer next to the laundromat.

 

I haven’t been to Chino in several months. It may have just been hearsay, but I thought the owner of it passed away and his sister or wife sold it to another tanker outfit.

 

“Must have at least 6 months of OTR Class A experience within the past 1 year”
(Quoted from the IRT Facebook page recruitment post yesterday) The experience doesn’t have to be with tankers, though. We have a training program for those who need it.

I don’t work in the office or have a list of current customers to compare with previous years of customers, but I can say that I don’t notice a difference in freight volume as an OTR driver going on my 9th year here. I’ve seen some customers go away over the years, but I’ve also seen some new customers show up in my load assignments. (delivered to a new one earlier this week) Why customers rotate in and out (which is rare from what I see) is above my pay grade and would be foolish for me to blindly speculate on. We used to haul several loads a day out of Grandview, WA to the Los Angeles area, but I was told that they started receiving concentrate in its place, which eliminated the need for so many trucks and that it made more sense economically for a local day cab company to service their needs. Even though that was my favorite run several years ago, I can see the logic from the customer’s perspective.

As far as the experience requirement changing, I would think different insurance companies have different criteria. Companies also have to evolve over the years. With so many other carriers willing to train new hires and let people in, who have less than two years, I can see the logic in IRT trying to be competitive by implementing their own training program in order to keep the trucks filled and moving.

Tightening up the hiring criteria when it comes to driving records, stable work history, etc and implementing a different CPM bracket for those who appear to be more risky could be a result from bad seeds slipping through the cracks and having accidents, violations, or showing poor work ethics once they get onboard. If it’s people like that walking away, I could see the logic in IRT not being heartbroken about it.

As far as the detention change goes, I received an email when that happened with an explanation about the current economy under the previous administration in DC, etc. I searched my inbox before posting this so I could attach it as a screenshot, but I must’ve deleted it. I’ll get with the driver I brought to IRT in 2017 from my previous company and see if he still has his. Personally, I’ve never cared about the detention since my loading / unloading has never affected my ability to average 2,500-3,000 miles per week. I don’t stay current on “breakdown pay” either since I only have a shop visit once every year or two. That’s my opinion on things.