Great jobs in Texas

I was driving for Prairie, if you drove for Ozinga you definitely know Prairie, and Meyers. My uncle drove for all three. I ran for Prairie for 10 years with the last few being very spotty because we were bought out by a company from Brazil as the market was crashing and we lost ALL of our state jobs, many of them to Ozinga, the rest to Meyers. My first 7.5 years with Prairie was driving a mixer, my last 2.5 was driving a bulker hauling cement, flyash and slag from the ports to the yards.

Pay wise, I was making about $28/hr driving the mixer and $23/hr driving the bulker. Pay where I am now averages between $20/hr - $25/hr depending on your loads that day. Pay is not by the hour but by the task, so you get paid so much per mile, and so much for loading, so much for unloading, so much for fueling and pre and post trip inspections and they have a nice system here where they pay you by the minute for any extra time it takes you to do a load over what they alot for that load or unload. It works out well and the upside is it's a guaranteed 60 hours a week, with full benefits that cost a fraction of what I was paying through the union in Chicago, and they have a great 401k matching dollar for dollar up to 6%. On top of the 401k they also have a pension, and they have a good safety bonus program. From .5%-5% depending on how many years you have gone without a safety recordable incident over $400. So if you make $60k you will get a $3k bonus at the end of the year if you have been working long enough, and $60k a year is on the low end of what you will earn here.

If you are looking for a move out of the dead Chicago concrete business, I highly recommend this. No calling a tape recorder every night for your next day's schedule, and the cost of living down here is a lot lower. Gas right now is between $2.95 - $3.10 a gallon. Good bonuses for working holidays and days off, and work that is actually picking up. Now if we could just get the new trucks in that I was told were coming in October, that would be great.

 

Hello every one I am starting the research on coming out there to the Great State of Texas. I talked to Mission Petroleum today and they told me they could hire me on without switching my licsence until 30 days of hire. There website states they pay 24%. I know with percentage pay you take a pay cut at the beginning but then you start making more once you figure out the area.

Does anyone know anything about Mission Petroleum. This is for a crude hauling position.

 

DOES THEY HIRE NEWBIES?

 

Don't know about crude. But they have been hauling gasoline since at least 1973. Used to deliver to service station that was my 1st real job after paper routes and the like.

 

No they don't hire newbies, you have to have 2 years tractor trailer experiance or 1 year tractor and trailer experiance with approved truck driving school.

Yes they also haul crude oil according to their website and terminal manager. I was hoping they I could also haul gas for them when crude got slow but the crude hauling terminal and the gas hauling terminal are in 2 different places.

 

I was orinally thinking of going to the Bad Lands but started thinking of the Money I would be making and how my ex-wife has custody of my only tax deduction so that is why I am leaning more towards Texas. Plus you don't have tp put up with the housing shortage and weather. By the time it is all said and done it will probably equal out, when you consider expenses.

 

Hey Mac I was an owner/operator ( semi w/ end dump ) leased on to Meyer for 11 years out of the Mchenry and Algonquin pits. I left after Meyer was bought out but, since then have been still driving, lowboy and flat bed and digging trenches with backhoes and excavators mostly but this too is coming to an end this July. So I have my Haz and tanker endorsments, so could you recomend an area and or outfit to check out this April or May. Thanks in adavance.

 

I used to live on 31 about a mile south of Algonquin, tons of quarries and Meyer trucks in that area! Where I work now they run end dumps to haul fuel coke, similar pay scheme to the crude oil side. I would highly recommend these guys if you were interested in relocating. I ran coke for these guys for about a month before they started me on crude oil. They want to train up all their new drivers on all of their services, so they would probably train you up on crude too after running coke for a while. They also have a dedicated premium coke run up to Pennsylvania that pays really well, and a lube oil division that is a regional run job. Coke pays similar to crude but just a little bit lower, so instead of $1200/week, you would be more around $1000-$1100 a week. The benefits are great, the pension and 401k are great and the cost of living down here is much lower than where we are from. If you are interested shoot me a PM and I'll get you the number to call down here to our yard and you can talk to our terminal manager. They want experience driving more than anything else, so with 11 years and a decent amount of tractor trailer experience you will probably meet the qualifications. I hired on to haul crude without ANY bulk liquid hazmat experience because of my work history and overall driving experience. I had a couple of years of pneumatic tanker experience, but that is an entirely different animal.

PS:
Almost forgot, you will need a TWIC card to haul fuel coke because you get loaded at the Conoco Phillips refinery in Westlake, Louisiana which is right outside Lake Charles. The company I drive for is owned by Conoco Phillips and DuPont.

 

I am in the dead concrete business in Michigan and looking to soon make a move to DFW area, hopefully hauling water. Any info for a concrete pump operator with 12 years exp with a class B. I am getting my A in the next couple of weeks.

 

I settled in Louisiana instead of Texas so I can't really tell you about the DFW, but as an experienced concrete pumper you might want to look into getting on with a well drilling outfit because concrete/mortar is used to case a well usually.