Alternatives to Trucking

My advice if you're going in after the "Big Iron", don't be afraid to run a backhoe, a stomper, a roller ect... I know so many operators who refuse a job because they're not on some big excavator, blade, pan, or dozer. That's one thing about the operators I don't get. The only pay differential is on cranes with Tower pay and boom pay. Everything else IIRC, is the same. If you can't find a job running a D12 high-track, don't be ashamed to run a Case 690.

 

Heavy equipment operators in these parts make pretty good money - at least if you think $23 plus per hour is good money. Problem is, the housing slump has hit the construction industry hard and - a lot of people are getting laid off. Those companies now can be as picky and choosy as they want to be when it comes to hiring operators. I have personal relationships with several of these contractors - they won't just hire Joe Blow, at least not right now. Perhaps this isn't true all over the country, I dunno. I talked with a construction foreman last year who said his brother was making $35 per hour union wages in New York operating a giant excavator.
Actually, I learned how to operate a backhoe and a trackhoe - it's pretty interesting work if you like that kind of thing!

 

Actually that is done all the time in the construction and electrical trades, follow the work. You dont have to stay in an RV park to live in a RV, it just depends on what your set up is. The (mostly) amenities that RV parks offer are water/elec hookup and sewer, which are most important to an RV'er, then alot of parks also have showers and laundry, game rooms and that sort of stuff. Way more enjoyable than living in a truck.

 

Let's face it,any kind of trade will get boring or you just simply want do something else after you do it for year and years wether it's construction,trucking,manufacturing etc etc.Like the saying goes variety is the spice of life.

 

who cares? wages in trucking are going to become depressed to the point to where you might as well be handing out shopping carts at sprawl mart. it's already pretty sad if you look at what most truckers make on an hourly basis. millions of careers were yanked out from under us when our manufacturing was destroyed, then those people all went to truck driving school. as soon as they get Hose and Manuel and Domingo to habla, we'll be pushed out of trucking too. then what is the gringo going to do to make a living? hope all of us are ready to live in the turd world sewer that America is becoming.

 

Honestly. do you all think there is conspiracy against you? Look around you, it's a WORLD ECONOMY. The US won two world wars and saved half of the world through its social programs. Well guess what, all of those people who normally would live out their lives in third world poverty conditions are competing against you and I. 30 years ago if someone told me that I would be buying Red Chinese products, I would have told them to go pound sand. China now manufactures the majority of products and parts we buy. Go into a trucking supply shop and ask for chains and binders, The first question the clerk will ask you: Do you want American or Chinese?.

People are complaining because they're making only $30K a year, the average Chinese worker makes *"$0.57 per hour, or $104 per month"

*http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/06/0502/art1.html

China is fast becoming a consumer nation and because of that Walmart, McDonald's, and KFC have moved in to take advantage and profit.

That's just China. What about India? India is right behind China. Brazil? Well Brazil has become 100% ENERGY INDEPENDENT. Yes that's right, they do not depend on the middle east, Canada, or Russia for their energy. They found and drilled for their oil http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58682

They use sugar cane for energy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil

All this taking place while we "##### and moan" about our problems. While we are crying in our cereal, the rest of the world and btw that's what Wall Street calls them R.O.W. (as in REST OF WORLD), are working very hard to become what we once were.