am i wrong to insist on training pay

had a talk with the boss. he says i do an excellent job training on loading milk. none of my loads have ever been rejected. i have allot of industry related experience (im talking about dairy itself the non-driving part). he is going to give me some training pay when someone passes their milk receiver test. i told him im not comfortable having someone else drive my truck, he is OK with that.

i think maybe we came to some mutually beneficial terms.

 

its actually not hard to pass the sampler test. answer a 20 question test (study pasteurized milk ordnance a little) and take a sample with the milk inspector watching. the milk inspector doesnt care about the rest of the details. i have never come across someone who cant pass that test. there is more to the job then just pulling samples.

things that can cause rejections
-missing or not matching seals
-loading with expired wash ticket, you have 4 days or 96 hours from time of wash to time the milk first goes on the trailer
- milk out of temperature specs, anything over 45 is rejection material
- bacteria, basically make sure the pump and hose are clean

there are also practices which ensure samples are a valid representation of what is in the milk tank. a clean dipper with clean iodine solution. proper agitation of the milk

passing the receiver test itself is not hard. pretty much the inspector helps your through it.

at least some money is much better then nothing.

 

the part that is sad, i have trained some really really good drivers on milk loading. they also seemed to be good people. he couldnt manage to keep some of them around..... there is one exception, he is an excellent driver and was a foreman a managing concrete truck fleet. he is still around, for now anyways. its possible since he came from texas he is unaware of what other jobs exist.

seems like many get sent with me for several weeks, they get a false representation of what the job actually entails. i have a very good route (which is why i have stayed), they get on their own and then sit at a milk plant for 6-8 hours with a measly $10 per hour for detention pay (only paid out AFTER 2 hours). my boss isnt great but he does enough to keep me around for a while. home daily, as much work as i want, and kept me on the same route. i usually work 6am and done before 4pm usually. i DONT typically go to the milk plant, if i do its oatka in batavia..... not usually a regular thing. this week im going to gross around $1,300 working 7 days but home daily. mostly 8-10 hours per day. this allows me to be with my children at night while my wife works, it would be very hard to find hours elsewhere that work around children.