Time to start Houffing -- new gig at Houff Transfer

Orientation is pretty standard, I guess. You'll meet a parade of folks telling you about the company and the policies and the procedures. Lasts most of the day. We wrapped up around 4:00pm.

They pay you cash for orientation. They provide lunch, and will reimburse you for breakfast and dinner, so keep those receipts. They'll let you use the company car to go get food. The next exit north on 81 from Weyers Cave has a Buc-ee's, a 7-11, and a Sheetz.

I did a full day ride-along with another driver the following day. You get paid for that too, but it'll be on your first paycheck.

 

No worries, my man. I don't mind answering questions. Feel free to ask whatever. If I don't know the answer, I'll make something up.

 

Went to a safety meeting today. They have several of these a year, and you're required to attend at least one. Got paid $50 cash for it, and they had it at the Golden Corral, so I got free breakfast too.

The owner of the company was there as well. Apparently he doesn't always show up to these things, but he showed up to this one. And he had a couple of announcements.

The first announcement was that we are losing one of our big customers. There's a paper plant that makes cardboard boxes just a mile or so down US 1 from our Richmond terminal. The paper company is shutting that plant down, and that's going to cost us some freight.

The second announcement was that everybody is getting a 4% raise from whatever they're currently making now. Because, as he put it, "We know what we're doing, and we're going to be fine, even with losing this freight and even with diesel prices running $5 or $6 per gallon. You don't stay in business as long as we have without knowing how to weather these storms. And we want you to feel the same confidence."

So yeah, still feeling pretty good about this company.