What is considered a satisfactory work day?

I drive for Missouri Dept.of Corrections. I drive a tractor trailer within the state, hauling the products that are made by inmates within our Vocational Rehab program(Prison Industries). It's more LTL but I spend one or two nights out during the week. We stay in hotels and we get a expense allowance for meals. We work on a 7-8 week rotation schedule so we work in a different area every week. I go out on Monday morning and am empty and loaded for the Distribution Center by Tues. afternoon usually, and home by Tues. or Weds. We spend the rest of the week planning our next weeks load and getting loaded. We have inmates to do most of the loading, but we unload most everything ourselves at the customer locations. When needed we have help.

We work 7:30-4:00 Mon.-Fri. We only work overtime if we want to, but it isn't mandatory. We are exempt from logbooks, scales, and we can run the third lane if we need to. The benefits are great but the pay sucks. We are the lowest paid state working force in the nation. We the drivers are our own dispatchers, we run about 30,000 mi per year, and there is no such a thing as hot freight.

After all of that being said....I realize that now days our jobs are precious and shouldn't be taken for granite. I lost one great union LTL job many years ago, and I thought that was where I would retire someday. Working for the prison system I think my position is stable considering there are 28,000 inmates incarcerated.

Money is not everything....
I've spent my life trying to get rich, get ahead, and get comfy. Well, I'm 45 and it still hasn't happened. I spent 1 year injured and unemployed with no source of income. How I made it through only God knows. I learned a little about Patience during that year and also learned that I missed out on so much being gone all the time away from my 4 kids and wife. I became a grandpa during that year and vowed that if I was able to return to work my family would not be left alone anymore.

 

Thanks for all that information, that really is a different type of trucking job.

Your family life sounds wonderful so maybe you really did achieve your goal of getting rich, ahead, and comfy.

 

My
Boss makes me kiss her every morning and night. I am going to file a greivance against her. Do you hear that honey?? Be glad you arent a mechanic, they can make you work 7 days a week without time off.

 

BTW/JDFITZ, New Mexico has the lowest paid workers, youre the second.