I need advice from serious go getter local drivers with experience.

Most of the food service jobs pay well, you've really got to hustle but the pay and benefits are good.

 

I would also suggest garbage if the industry is unionized in your area. 80-100k is quite feasible in that industry.

 

He said he has 3 years experience. Hand unloading at PITA dollar stores. He can go anywhere with all the endorsements.

 

Right on! Fair warning: some LTLs pay overtime, and some basically don't. O.D. pays OT after 60 hours, and Estes after 55. Did you get my PM about that other source of LTL info?

Also: get doubles, hazmat AND tanker endorsements. The tanker is needed because of a recent change in the rules about hazmat bulk liquid totes.

And although some may hire now (O.D. probably is because they are growing so fast), we are getting into the slow season. If you don't have luck now, try again around March.

 

Also check out Southeastern Freight Lines. They have a terminal in Norfolk, and are our (Dayton Freight) partner in the South.

 

All I can tell you about in detail is the gasoline business. First I'll say you'd be lucky to make $1800 a week and if you do you'd be wise to stay there because you never know in this business. The problems are the companies. They are the ones that are changing all the time which makes your job not so secure. I drove for a major (ARCO) oil company. We were # 7 in the country and that's not bad considering we only had dealings in the western states. 6 to be exact if you count Alaska but we had no retail there. The company was sold twice while I was there. Every time the company was sold the drivers were kept on but some benefits got cut. Then if you worked in a smaller terminal, like I did, you got the choice to relocate or go out with what we called the golden handshake. It's an early retirement with a few dollars added by the company. I do not know how much because I went out with a medical right before they closed the terminal.

There are very few if any larger oil companies left that have their own drivers. That has a major impact on drivers because now you are working for the product in the truck and before you worked for the company to sell the product at the store. The major oil companies always knew that distribution would be a loss and the monies to be made were at the retail sites. So the company hired the best drivers and paid the best. It was top of the line for gasoline or tanker drivers. Everyone knew this and just about everyone wanted to work there. Our waiting list for drivers was 5 years average. ( I'm not blowing my horn because I knew someone that helped me get hired or they misplaced the paperwork or they might of thought I was someone else) But once you got hired on to one of these companies you stayed there and retired. I knew some drivers with 20 to 30 years gasoline city driving. And most without a mark on there record.

Now, since these jobs are gone but the requirement or need is still there some companies have bought or dedicated trucks to do the work that these drivers used to do. Those jobs are taken by the drivers that have been there the longest and have some seniority. That's why if you get hired on you stay there because these guys will retire sometime then the next will step up and so on. This is where your motivation comes in to do a good job. Because believe me one bad mark and you're skipped over.

The gasoline business is a 24 hour 7 days a week job. So if you get hired most likely you'll be at the bottom. That means nights and weekends you'll be hauling loads to the stations. That's the way it is generally. Of course there are exceptions but most companies are set up where the drivers after maybe two years get the same pay. Your benefits get better by getting closer to the top of the board so when shift bidding and vacation comes around you have a better pick. You can judge the shift if you want more OT, (if the company pays it) or if you do not want to be around the bosses, or you like the days off and so on.

So if you go through all the testing and requirements it's a better company you'll make good money. Maybe not right at the beginning but it does come if you want it. I never saw anyone just quit from my company. I did see many that retired or transfer. So it's eventually there and not all places are the same. You should never quit a job until you have another. Good luck.

 

Driver, those were the days!!! Any of the old J.D. Rockefeller Standard Oil companies like SOHIO, Exxon, Chevron, Mobil, etc were paying $20+/hr with full pension and bennies up the ying-yang back in the early 90's. My buddy drove for Shell and topped out at $28.00/hr six years ago and was living high on the hog.

Then all the contract carriers started showing up cutting rates/wages to the bone. Round here, Shell outsourced their distribution to Kenan Advantange (KAG) and they wanted to re-hire all the former Shell drivers at $15.00/hr. My buddy told em' to stick it where the sun don't shine and got an LTL job.

You see Kenan all the time constantly hiring, running ragged equipment, 2-inches off the back of a 4-wheeler in the hammer lane with placards. You get what you pay for.

 

That's exactly what happened in Las Vegas. I can tell you with the new companies coming in people like R.O. Anderson were gone. IOW's people with the oil business experience left leaving the book smart people cutting cost in the distribution part of the downstream operations. They found it easy to do and their idea's easy to get approved by the higher ups because they had no down in the trenches experience either. What they failed to realize or know, because it's not in the books, the rolling advertisement with the pride of the company interfacing with the public. Many times I would be unloading right next to the pumps in a clean uniform answering questions about the truck and or company. Very few were negative in nature and a lot just wanted to know. That's just one aspect. The spills, accidents, and cross dumps were less with a company driver. Plus since that's all we did is our own stations we could do a shift much faster, cleaner, and cheaper. Our limit was 160 miles. Anything pass that distance it would be more expensive to have us do it. Nothing against the dedicated guys your job is hard in it's own right. Going to different stations and companies has got to be tough and I would have to write everything down at least twice. But that's what I believe happened.