Life Post FedEx Freight... as a Local Cryo Driver

That’s exactly what it is. The device is also intrinsically safe so as not to allow an escaping spark if an electrical issue were to occur inside the housing as well.

There are 3 emergency shut offs on the truck, plus the wireless.

 

It’s wonderful, I forgot how amazing working during the daytime is. I’m getting back to the office by around 1pm, it’s 1:30 by the time I fill my truck and park it. By the time I punch out, typically close to 8.75-9 hours, not really every staying past 2:30pm. Not breaking a sweat, not having any stress. I wish I made the move to this earlier.

 

Not only do my location's trucks not have driver facing cameras, there aren't forward facing cameras, lane departure systems or collision mitigation systems as well. It's freaking mindboggling. The only thing the truck has is the Peoplenet system, which will tattle to safety for hard braking, speed over 70mph or if the stability sensors think the truck is going to roll.

 

On Friday my boss was telling my friend and I that he has to find a new vendor to come wash the trucks. The other driver and I told him "to hell with paying an outside company to come do it, just buy a pressure washer and the stuff we need and we will wash our own trucks".

So, finished my route today and when I walked in, bossman had his company credit card ready to send me to Home Depot for a pressure washer.

"Don't spend more than $600, I don't care what you buy, just bring me receipts".

Went to HD, found a pressure washer that was on sale and stout enough for the task at hand, and then looked for one with a beat up box. Brought it to the counter and got them to drop the price another $50 from the sale price and then headed to the local truck goody store, and stocked up on multiple flavors of WAB chemical, brushes, poles and squirt bottles. Total purchase for everything around $425, and securing more hourly work for myself and the other guys instead of it going to a contractor who will do a piss poor job.

We spent an hour or so on my friends truck using the aluminum brighteners, stainless washes and truck scrubs... I gotta say, his truck looks almost brand new now. I think I found an easy little side business if we can just just an efficient method of washing an entire truck in less than 30-45 minutes.

 

My location runs little straight trucks, a mix of Freightliners and Kenworth. The majority of the company fleet seems to consist of the same two manufacturers, whether straight truck or tractor/trailer.

 

Been a rather mundane past month. 45 hours on the clock every week. At least 1 hour of every day is spent hanging in the lounge with the other drivers until our 9 hours is up.

Boss doesn’t care, he’s happy and we are happy.

We were asked if any of us had any interest in occasionally filling in at another location because they have too much work for their handful of drivers.

After I was the only one to volunteer, I discovered that while filling in I’d get a $1/hr differential, as well as the option of getting paid mileage for the additional commuting distance or taking a pickup truck from my location to the other while being punched in. If they decide to use me I’ll be transporting bulk food/medical grade gasses. Still have yet to touch an actual cylinder in the company.