Caledonia Haulers out of Minnesota

After I got empty in Lexington they sent me to Waverly, TN to get loaded for Fair Oaks, IN. Delivered that this morning and they had me deadhead to the Janesville terminal. Originally I was going to take a loaded trailer going somewhere in Texas but I guess that plan fell through so they're having me drop my empty at a tank wash in Diamond, MO and bobtail home from there. It's nice that they prioritize getting me home on time even if it means deadheading 700+ miles. I could even be home early if my recap wasn't so bad. Only getting back 6 hours tonight so it'll still be Wednesday like I requested.

 

If anyone has somehow not seen my new thread yet, I quit Caledonia Haulers last week. Overall the company itself is good for food grade tanker and the pay is hard to beat. My total gross earnings for 2025 were $81,000. I took lots of home time when I worked there, probably 7 days almost every time whether I was out 3, 4, or 5 weeks. A few times I even took 8 days off when I was feeling extra burnt out. And that's the problem. I always felt burnt out because of the constant short runs. It gets exhausting picking up and delivering basically every day. It could have just been my experience as I've mentioned before because it became very clear to me at some point that they do NOT like if you try to run on recaps. If you don't use all your hours every chance you get, they seem to think you're lazy and "don't want to run". I tried to explain to them how recaps work, but they still gave me loads that were, in their own words, "better for the way you like to run" and talked about how I take more than a 10 hour break most nights. There's 24 hours in a day. If you run 8-9 hours in a day that leaves you with 15-16 hours, and I didn't even take breaks that long. Maybe 13-14 at most. And I'm not saying you have to run recaps evenly and do a perfect 8.75 hours every day, but running out your clock more than once in your 8 day period just sets you up to get bad recap hours later on. So if you're recapping 8-9 hours every day, what's the point of taking a minimum 10 hour break? If the load requires it to make it on time, sure I will. If not? Who cares. I will enjoy having a nice dinner instead of rushing it. I'll watch my shows and whatnot and occasionally play some videogames. Because then, the next day, I'll be better rested and more willing to put in some more miles. That's why I like to run recaps and nobody is gonna change my mind.

Anyway, I could go on about recaps forever, but I just wanted to explain this because your experience could be different at caledonia (and I guarantee you'll make even more money than I did) if you like to run out all your hours and take a 34 every week. In the OTR division you'll be taking a 34 on the road and they pay $250 for each one. Even without that, I think they have the loads to keep you rolling very consistently, hence why I said you can make more than I did if you do 34s. Even on recaps I had some 3000 mile weeks, before they stopped giving me the longer runs.

Basically, all I'm trying to say is, if you're a hard worker and don't run on recaps, it's a pretty good company. But just a little disclaimer, most loads are pump unload. It's not like Indian River or Bynum where you can just drive the truck and the customers do it all. Even when the customer unloads there are a lot of locations that still require you to open the top and/or hook up the hose to the outlet of the trailer.

A big reason I left is also that I decided tanker is not really for me, so it's not purely just for the recap problem. Not only that, I also got tired of Peterbilt's decline in build quality and lack of innovation (it's the same interior since 2012 for dang sake). The paccar engine in my truck was a slow piece of junk. Couldn't get out of its own way and the engine brake was useless. Throttle response was wacky and inconsistent, which to me, that matters with a manual transmission quite a lot. The engine would surge constantly when you were sitting at the governed speed, like it would realize "oh, that's the governed speed, better cut the throttle" immediately followed by "oh, we're slowing down, max throttle now!". Just bad programming in the ECU. Another thing was the sleeper. 72" mid roof just isn't enough for me. I could barely move around with all my stuff in there. Maybe that says more about me though... But that's besides the point

That being said, I'm gonna break it down with some pros and cons:

Pros

• Consistent miles
• Good equipment
• Good accessory pay
• Fantastic vacation pay
• No micromanagement
• APUs
• Family owned (the owner still drives trucks too)
• Drop and hook for clean trailers is very common (I can count on one hand how many live washouts I had)
• $100 for loads going to the east coast

Cons

• Small sleepers
• Limited amount of long hauls
• Some of the trailers are very old (they are very well maintained, but old is old)
• Drop and hook is rare for pickups/deliveries
• Sleeping at customers is pushed pretty hard
• Communication needs improvement
• Janesville shop cares more about getting you out of there quick than actually fixing the problems
• Caledonia shop can be slow (they prioritize local milk trucks)
• They always want you to take a spare truck when yours is in the shop and in my experience they're always filthy inside (my truck was filthy inside too but nobody else was driving it except me!)
• The shop likes to try to get in your truck to pull it in while you're sleeping and then say "sorry, I didn't know you were in there" as if the windshield curtains being closed isn't a clear sign

I might edit this post if I remember to add anything, but for now that's about it. Overall I recommend them to anyone who likes tanker, doesn't mind doing the unloading most of the time, and likes to run hard. I've heard you can make $100k+ at this company and I believe it. If I hadn't taken so much home time and ran on recaps all the time, I could see it happening.

 

Considering they verified employment for Holland before I officially told them I'm quitting, I think they already suspected it was coming. When I told my dispatcher, he didn't seem surprised but also didn't have anything negative to say or any protests at all. They just told me where to go later that day and I ended up deadheading pretty far to caledonia yet they still paid me for it on my last check. They gave me a ride to La Crosse to get my rental car and they were even kind enough to let me pull my truck and the rental car inside the building so I wasn't moving all my stuff into the rental car in the brutally cold wind and snow (the weather in caledonia was not good that day lol).