Adjusting sleep times

There are easier ways to make a living.

I could go back up north and easily make $100k+ annually and be home every night. It would mean long freezing cold hours in winter weather. Dealing with insane traffic and people with so much pent up rage from their daily commutes and crappy home lives. Dealing with emissions restrictions and engine restriction for my hotrods to be street legal. High taxes,. inane home and property prices and taxes.

One way or the other we all end up making some kind of concession in order to earn a living.

I'm getting better at earning more and doing less. Spending more time at home when I do go home. Still havent figured out how to be home everyday and still earn what I am now. I dont think I have it in me to go back into construction in Fla. So 10 more years of this and I should have enough to semi-retire. Then 5 more years to full retirement and cash out my investments. Then maybe get into rental property or flipping houses to supplement my retirement.

Thats the plan anyway,.. we'll see.

Hurst

 

I'm the night driver in the truck i am. Its definitely challenging, can also be rewarding if can make it work. But I also do stuff during the day.

I dont know if I can keep up this ad hoc sleep cycling long term. For me doing this the driving isnt that bad. I become error prone with other things, for get stuff, get frustrated over stuff that isnt that big of a deal but feels like it at the time, forget to call dispatch when I shut down for a nap.

I'm going through that right now actually. I just got chewed pretty good for not calling soon enough. All i can say is I am tired man. I'm trying. When your fatigued easy stuff gets harder.

 

Does construction in Florida even pay well? We get a lot of southern dudes up here from right to work states doing construction because the wages are terrible.

I know if I went down there and drove mixer I’d get something like 12 an hour lol.

 

For the most part no.

Different segments pay different rates. I only know earth work, roadwork/site work and underground pipe work. Storm, force main sewer,.. water etc.

Laborers dont get squat. They are dime a dozen, most dont want to work anyway, and those that do,.. quickly get promoted or trained to be something else.

Right now a few companies from out of state are paying the highest wages for equipment operators. Problem is that when the job is over,.. so to are you. You'll be looking for another company to work for. Local companies arent paying much more than they did 20 yrs ago. Best advise I can give is that you make your deal coming in the door. If you have the experience,.. they may go for it. Chances are if you have too much experience they dont want to pay what you are worth and will soon be let go anyway.

Foreman,.. always in demand. Highest rates,.. again,.. from out of state companies with only 1 big job. 1 - 3 yrs tops. Local companies,.. if you come in with a complete pipe crew and show progress by getting footage in the ground and setting and mudding up structure so the company can put in for submitals,.. you and your guys can command a little bit more. But you as the foreman are responsible for your entire crew. Any screw ups or lack of performance and you job will be at risk. They can and will fire you at will.

When ever people see my Fla tag they always ask what work is like. I tell everyone the same thing. Dont come to Fla broke,.. and make sure you have work waiting for you when you get here. Different areas will have different pay scales and types of work. And sorry if this comes across as racist,.. but dont blame me,.. I'm telling you the truth from experience,.. areas with high concentrations of illegals will have the lowest wages. I've seen good hard working guys who were at top scale get replaced by trained monkeys for half of what the guy with experience was working for. Most of the time the replacement will eventually cause some serious damage,. hitting marked underground cables or gas mains and gets fired. I witnessed one guy back a 450 Hitachi into the side of a new house,.. then rip out the rest of the wall as he swung the boom around and the entire second floor collapsed. You get what you pay for.

Some of these companies are dirty anyway. I've seen entire project sites full of nothing but clay as we dug pond after pond searching for good onsite material for house pads. Ended up building 90% of the site on clay topped with less than 1 foot of clean material. Some house pads had buried fuel drums and contaminated soil buried under them and inspectors paid off to say nothing. I drive by the places a few years later and watch companies who specialize in foundations come in on insurance repairs. If they only knew what I knew,.. well duh,.. of course the foundations were going to settle and crack. Sink holes galore. All set in motion by the original site developer.

Not sure on current wages for drivers,. but few years ago last I checked,.. Dump trucks, Mixers, delivery guys,.. concrete structures, lumber, pipe, site materials,.. etc etc,.. very few made more than $11 - $12 hr. Even fuel truck drivers,.. fueling up equipment etc,.. $14hr,.. that was it. I felt bad for some of them. They would work in the shop cleaning up and helping the mechanics so they could get O/T. Company had no feelings what so ever. The cheaper they could get someone to work,.. the better.

Hurst

 

Jeez, yeah I don’t plan to move there I was just curious.

Sounds pretty corrupt and cut throat.

Especially the guys pouring slabs knowing they will sink. I can’t even pour a footing for a street light without an inspector here.

I love how they’d just bury a whole drum and pour right over it. Haha you get what you pay for I guess.

Thanks for the info.

 

I just did a run that required full night driving.

At what point are you actually fatigued, and not just uncomfortable is the question.

For me "fatigued" is when you're able to feel the muscles moving your eyeballs.

Now this particular run pays a fortune. It requires night driving cause the shipper is slow loading you, but the agent has no problem dishing out full detention pay on top of it.

Now I have an APU, and this is critically important.

The day I'm being loaded, I eat a good meal fairly early, then crank up the AC and crawl in my sleeping bag, getting a solid 3 hour or so extra sleep that morning, waking up at like 1000.

Typically not loaded until 1700 or 1800.

Now about 0300 or so, I can feel the eyeballs.

Dawn is the worst.

But usually by about 0400, I find a spot for a 90 minute or so nap, then finish my shift.

This run takes pretty much the whole 11 for two days.

Now after being up all night, nap, two more hours driving, eat good meal, crank AC.....I sleep like a frigging rhinoceros.

Wake up like 1600 fresh as a daisy. Second night is a snap.

I think your mind will most certainly kill you, if you let it.

I've always been comfortable in the truck.

I always say I'm a macaroni and cheese guy. Just doesn't take that much for me to enjoy myself. Thus I can sack out just about anywhere.

I mean I sleep with two cats. I used to sleep with two German Shepherds.

I can sleep on the floor with a dog.

Guess being comfortable with ones self has a lot to do with it.

 

Basic Fatigue management that's what is all about i've learnt what foods to eat that'll keep you awake and what foods will make you sleepy. Lets face it we all love to stop at mid-day and have a nice big dinner then off we go again down the freeway and wonder why we're soon in the land of Nod i found it best to have a nice hot meal about an hour before i go to sleep along with a nice hot bath if possible or a hot shower this helps you sleep better eating the right foods that keep you awake prevents you from having to pop all sorts of pills to try and stay awake. Salmon and Oranges are great natural foods to keep you alert and awake along with dark chocolate. so I eat these things before i start driving and avoid them if i'm trying to go to sleep.

 

I've getting lazy lately and have been taking 2 hours, and usually just before the sun cracks the horizon. I don't know why I won't do that when I'm driving a day shift.

 

Don’t need to during the day. You can tell when you're getting tired at night also when the headlights start to physically bother you.

That period when the sun comes up after driving all night though...... gotta hit the coffin lol.

I'm usually up at 0400ish, if not on the road by then to start my day. Always been a morning person. Best time of the day.

 

And part two of the saga is adjusting back to days lol.
I didn’t fall asleep until like 0130 or 0200 last night lol.