The good, bad, and ugly of hauling end dumps?

I wouldn't call it laid back....

Most guys are always pushing for that extra load a day. Scale at the pit is only open 7-3 or whatever. And if you want to make money you gotta get that last load .

Also the industry is overwhelmed by nit wits buying old freight trucks and hauling for nothing....

I would say it's less bs than fuel tho. And right now the money is about the same around me (for a hired truck)

 

That is what I did before getting stupid and hauling grain . Most end dumps for construction are hauling a lot of dirt which means clay sticky mud . pain to get out and usually have to shovel a few tons out . they also do rock sand for concrete platst . that is good . just back up to a pile and dump it out . Some places use them for feed products but not a lot I think .
If you could find one that did not haul dirt from construction sites or mud from creeks and only does rock sand and salt mainly you would be doing good . Day cab is going to mean home every night . could be a rare occaision to stay out but a hotel would be required. Winter time sucks if you live in cold area. If you do work , sand and rock have moisture in them and they do freeze in your trailer . Bleach squirted down the sides and bottom takes care of that problem for the most part.

 

End-dumps is all I've pulled, been doing that for almost 5 yrs. I haul for smaller family owned company that has 2 divisions, the other being pneumatic.
We don't run day-cabs and are not home every night. Most of the time we're out M-F, home on weekends. Our days depend on what we're hauling and where to. Right now we have a couple of "short-strokes" where we haul sand from a quarry to a nearby (18 miles to 50 miles) construction site. We may do this all day or just one load. From there we might get a load rock, salt, dust, or grain going some distance. We typically stay in our regional area, hauling to AR,MO, NE,OK, CO,TX.
If we're lucky we get a back-haul with not a large bounce distance. There are times I've had to bounce 4 hrs for my next load. For us this is not good, because we're paid percentage. So driving nearly all day with the bed empty sucks.
Facilities strict? Some are very, some not at all. For instance we haul out of Central Salt. When I first started they were very laid back. I think the upper management changed hands, so now, all the safety gear is required when (and only in a specific area that you can) get out of your truck. The safety gear required are; Hard-hat, safety vest, closed toe shoes or steel-toe boots. There's only one place where they require the boots, however I've managed to sneak in wearing tennis shoes. Any place that is covered by MSHA also demands that you do not climb on or into your trailer, unless you have a safety harness. This is a joke because climbing into a trailer there's nothing to tie off to, that will stop your fall short of the ground.
Product cross-contamination is a very big concern. Make sure you sweep out or wash out afterwards. The above mentioned joke is where this comes into play. You need to get into your trailer to sweep out what you just hauled into their place, but they won't let you climb into your trailer.
Product sticking in trailer could simply mean shoveling or sweeping it out. I've shoveled out up to 10 tons of material due to freezing temps and it not wanting to let go of my trailer, and also spent the night at places because it was frozen and wouldn't budge.
Laid-back? Not so much. How about expenses, that may be pushed off on you? I mentioned washing out a trailer. Yep, my boss will not reimburse for that. I mean that's just a measly $30 or more. Out of my pocket to maintain HIS trailer so he doesn't get calls about contaminated products? We have a $120 mo truck wash limit. Unless we can get to a Streakin-Beacon, it initially comes out of our pocket. He will reimburse, but that's 2 weeks later. I hope not any other company does this. This is no different than floating an interest-free loan to him. At least at the Beacons we can force the company to issue a comcheck. They don't like to, but too bad, he's always harping on wanting the trucks clean. Laid back??? How about having to pay out of pocket for a tire that blew, because he was out of the office and didn't want to go back to issue a check? How about go down the highway illegally because he didn't want to call a service truck. I've sat alongside of I-70 just east of Oakley, for 18 hrs in 20 deg weather, waiting for a tow truck to tow me 4 hrs away, no engine because the fan clutch went out. Why 18 hrs? Well the towing company sent a truck that had a blown head gasket, spewing oil all over the engine. So we had to wait until their 2nd big-truck wrecker could be free and respond. Yep we had a tow-truck towing a tow-truck towing my rig. Laid back???
This is a smaller family owned company. Not a big mega-fleet. Where they know your name, and not a number. We run elogs, but the dispatcher still dispatches like we're still on paper. Then the owner is constantly threatening on turning us down to 68mph. So far we're still at 72mph. The way he has them setup robs the horsepower. He's worried about fuel mileage. He won't listen to any of the O/O, that run with their rigs not governed and get better mileage. He's ran a few "experiments" with trucks at 68 and they don't get any better mileage.
I'll stop there, but you mentioned you wanted it all, and that it looked like it was pretty laid back.