Cant decide which job offer to take, fuel hauling or LTL?

I'd go with Estes Express.

 

Linehaul generally doesn’t slow down in the winter Also cause it’s night shift. City is usually the one that slows down. Honestly fuel is safer bet. Maverick is a pretty good company and expanding. Plus they pay well for a tanker company. Heard drivers make 120k a year over there.

 

Estes for sure. And twice on Sunday. I've been LTL and Fuel.

Maverick unless you are talking about Kum & Go which they own is all Western states. Western states usually have triples and run doubles in the snow. LTL slows down in winter but the worse the conditions, the less the slowdowns affect you. MT/WY never slowed down in winter when I did LTL.

Maverick is a good company for load pay. But I was load pay and absolutely hated it. But I was with an impressively bad load pay fuel company. I'm actually about to file a class action lawsuit for stolen wages against them. Load pay makes you run hard and aggressive. Or at least it did me. The stress and rage was unparalleled. Fuel is a ton of waiting around and annoyances. If you just have to stay busy and hate monotonous driving fuel can be okay but it turns into groundhog day quickly. In WA, Maverick guys were making 500-600 every night. But that is 12 hours every night. No matter what. 12 hour day or nothing. It gets old city driving. Lots of nit picking and rules in fuel. Rack operators can end your career easily. Don't make them mad. Ever. Lots of benzene exposure as well. Everything will smell like gas or diesel. You have to wear full FR clothing at racks, even in summertime. Not sure about dropping at Maverick if you have to stay in the smothering suit. You have to stay focused as well, no zoning out. Small mistakes aren't overlooked. Driver facing cameras for almost all fuel companies. IIRC Maverick's time off sucks. The racks are the hair salon. A lot of good info and a great place to get in good with other guys in case your job vanishes.

As far as LTL Linehaul? Grab your dolly, put it under a pup, hook your lead, hook your dolly, hook your tail. Check the paperwork/placards/tl numbers, enter a hook card and drive. Drop set, build set, finish your turn. At least once you get a bid. Don't know for Estes but you might get hotels for each night. Insanely easy money. If freight wouldn't have died and if I would have had the sense to slow down my dock work and tank my dock numbers to get a linehaul spot, I'd have never left LTL.

Fuel makes good money at most outfits but I personally just hated the nature of it. Too much socializing, too much walking on eggshells, too much waiting around, too much aggravation slip seating with day guys who didn't give a #### about screwing over the night guy. And it was a god awful thieving company as well. I don't want to name names right now but if a ~100 driver fuel company with 3 fatalities on safer snapshot running out of the area near the great salt flats is hiring in your area, just don't. Do your research.

 

Everyone gets called out at the rack for doing something you're not supposed to do once in a while. And the most important thing that will determine the outcome of these situations is your attitude. So if you are the type of person who gets defensive and argumentative when someone tries to correct you (even if you're in the right), then that is definitely something to take into consideration before beginning a fuel delivery job. Because like @Someguywithquestions said, if you get a lifetime lockout from one of these big terminal companies, that is potentially career ending.

 

Estes...not even close!

 

Maverik is rebranding all the Kum n Go stores so I suspect that Solar Transport will be getting rebranded too. Maybe not. Who knows.

I’d say pick whichever one you’d want to do long term. If you want to haul fuel and have a chance to learn now you’re probably better off doing it than wanting to try it when the job market is even tighter.

FR clothing isn’t bad. If you have FR jeans and a long sleeve FR shirt you don’t have to wear the whole shebang when it’s hot. This summer I usually wore FR jeans and a t shirt. I’d throw the FR lab coat on for loading. Couple of the racks I load at don’t even require FR. And you don’t have to wear it any of the places I load ethanol.

You’re going to be slipseating no matter what unless they’re short handed and don’t have anyone for the other shift.

 

I'm reading your post....it sounds like you have an affinity for fuel and oil. If I'm in your shoes, and the ultimate goal is to get to Gemini, then it makes sense to go to Maverik. If you've decided you want to haul fuel then you've got to lay the foundation to be able to do that long term. Everyone is going to tell you to go to Estes, because that's the sexier job and LTL is so coveted on this forum. The job you do the longest must align with your trucker personality, which seems to be pointing to the direction of fuel hauler.

 

If both jobs had the same pay/schedule, etc which would you want to still be doing 10 years from now? Think about your long-term goal and which of these jobs pushed you closer to that goal? Do that one.

 

When you're 60 and 5 years away from retirement, LTL will be a lot nicer. Fuel isn't hard but being old and bottom loading still doesn't feel great. Being old and getting cancer near retirement is even worse.

If you can keep your gullet shut and not end up 500 lbs, LTL is better. Better money for easier work. It's a no brainer. Unless you just have to be in and out of the truck 50 times a night.