Central Refrigerated Truck Stop II

I was down In the Carolin's for over a week and I did not worry about the over idle. Of course my truck will only idle for 5 minutes then it shuts off. Tried setting the optiidle its not working.

The good news I finaly got a load that does not have a problem with it and I am out of the East coast.

 

The only ones being paid by the load are the Pasco potato haulers. Any other local work is hourly.

There are OTR locals, or line locals. That's what I am. You, the over the road driver, can bring a trailer into my drop yard and drop it (provided it's set up to drop). Then you grab an empty or another load, and leave. I pick that loaded trailer up, and drive to the delivery point (usually less than an hour away) and deliver the load. Most of my trailers, once delivered, go back to the yard for drivers to take, or go to Fred Meyers. Sometimes I will go pick up a load, and drop the loaded trailer in the drop yard for an OTR/line driver to pick up.

Intermodal locals don't really interact with the otr/line drivers. They run rail loads. These locals go to the rail yard, pick up a loaded trailer, and go deliver it. Or, they take an empty rail trailer, load it, fuel it, and take it to the rail yard to be delivered. That's why if you read the directions for places like our yard in Fontana, it will say "Do NOT take rail trailers from this location!" That usually means that an intermodal local is working out of that yard.

Here in Portland, we have 2 otr locals, and 2 intermodal locals. Intermodal has a different yard than the OTR yard, so most of our drivers almost never see an intermodal load in our yard.

You can't always tell a local from a line driver, unless you come to a yard often and see the same person there all the time. In Denver, Fontana and SLC, they all have daycabs, but it's not always true elsewhere, so that driver you see in the over the road truck might very well be a local. Unlike most cities, all the locals in my city happen to drive lightweight red Internationals.

All our work is hourly. There's no overtime, no detention pay, no arrived at stop on time bonus. It's all straight time for us. Most locals up here average 45 hours a week, usually 50+. Intermodal gets weekends off (unless something pops up) and the other local and I get 1 day off, Saturday for me, Sunday for him, and the other weekend day is yard checks and any loads that might need delivering.

 

Easier to do the job when rested properly...especially on HOT days AND HIGH humidity. I would do my best to 'not' idle, but when it just gets too hot, I could care less about the idle bonus.

 

I hear ya. Since I too pay for fuel it's very rare that I don't try to tough it out. It wasn't even hot yesterday up by Portland, OR. I just felt like being cool for a few hours. Splitting 8 and 2 thi afternoon I'll be hiding out in a truck stop nearby!

 

Smadronia, thank you for outlining the different jobs like that. Seems very logical the way you laid it out.

Sometimes it amazes me how well all the pieces work together.

There's a post from a few days ago that caught my eye:

Be careful with this, McCuley. Trucking isn't like hourly work where you can say, "This position pays $ 15/ hour, and that one pays $21 per hour, so I'm taking the second one."

With driving, your pay per mile is only a part of the equation. Which is better, a regional run that pays 42 cpm and you run 1800 miles, or an over the road run that pays 32 cpm and you run 2600 miles?

Which is better, 36 cpm where you are out for 3 weeks at a time, or 33 cpm where you run past the house twice a week and sleep in your own bed those nights?

Which is better, 38 cpm on the east coast, or 34 cpm running the 11 western?

What I'm getting at is that pay per mile may be an important part of your decision, but it is only a part of the bigger picture. When you look at the folks right here on this forum, they seem the happiest when they are doing the kind of driving they enjoy.

Just my 2 cents (so to speak).

 

So true. My best time ever was running that loop I was on for a few months. Miles were great, and it was a hustle hard then take a 34 kind of deal. Those were the best times hands down. I'd never run Midwest or farmland even if the pay was better. Too much sitting around, and too infrequently is it for a solid 34 where you can forget about work for a day.

 

pay isnt bad . if your from chicago its good for you. u can be home a lot and on weekends maybe even daily.but i heard many guys not going home. but i know one guy he goes home every day and on weekends. but hes from chicago not wisconsin like the others.

 

the only problem with trucking is this fricking backing i mean what do shippers think. why do they make us go down alley or blindside.

 

They don't since they are not backing up to the dock.

 

Anyone can set the cruise at 62 and roll down I70 for 11 hours; being a driver means driving backwards and forwards, in the snow, in a downpour, on a tight schedule, up and down mountains, in tight quarters, blindside(when unavoidable), and across all type of roads where you look around and say "did I miss a no trucks sign?" It comes with the territory, and you either learn it or you hate your job. I suggest the former.