another driver told me to dictate terms to the boss??

my wife works at a hospital pretty secure job. its a county hospital and they arent going to close it.

 

this was an extra load, my route pays $150 per day or $200 per day depending upon what day it is. i have not dictated terms to the boss, i just know what i heard; and the reality is he cannot keep drivers. the extra load that day, yeah i got suckered on it. it wont happen again. want me to take an extra load to o-at-ka, sorry i cant. its not worth my time. want me to change my tune better pull out a crisp $100 bill.

i make around $50K per year but this is 6 days a week typically 10 or more hours per day. $1020/6days works out to be $17 with no overtime. then there is exceptions where its not worth it. yesterday was a bad day. i left for work around 5:45am, boss calls me on the way to work. my first farm is delayed 3 hours, start the run at 8am. so i started at 8am. he had me switch order of the farms, go pickup the 2nd farm first, then go pickup the 1st farm. i go and load the 1st farm, go to my 2nd farm. the milk is 53 degrees, crap i cant load that (must be less then 45). go to my 3rd farm load that. go back to the yard grab my 2nd trailer, go back to my 1st farm and load it (milk cooling system had more time to cool the product). i went and loaded my other 2 farms got stuck in one of the half plowed driveway, wasted more time getting pulled to the milk house with a tractor.

not a fun day, in situations like that there should be added pay. oh well i guess we all have days like that. yesterday ended up being 12+ hour day and it wasnt worth it, did what i had to do though. didnt complain about it at work.

 

so when things work perfectly i make $17 per hour, but often times they dont work out like that. typically start at 6:30am done around 3:30pm. when things dont work out, i take the beating. i dont plan on making any moves until i get a little more time in the class A seat. been with this company since November. in the end, this job is just a means to an end. more experience.

also told im not eligible for a 401K until i have been there 10 years. im not sticking around 10 years without retirement.

i did apply recently to a county job. its a heavy equipment operator job, part of that includes truck driving. $18-$20 PER hour to start, state pension, paid holidays and vacation. year round work.

which brings me to another question. do most of you guys get paid holidays. i have to work the holidays and i UNDERSTAND that milk does not stop, however i worked Christmas day and new years and didnt get anything additional for it. i dont object to working these days but additional pay should be something i would think i should get for working holidays. make it worth my while.

hauling milk has its problems but unfortunately that's what we have in NY. dairy. lots of it.

 

i trained two drivers since i have been there. both quit after less then 2 months. the one guy just never showed up again. the other, he called the office and said when he parks the truck he is not coming back.

your right the honeymoon is over, but its been over. i put up with it because 1. my experience is somewhat limited still 2. its steady 3. my wife needs to get on first shift to make things easier.

 

YOU hit the nail on the head. exactly what i am saying. the boss looks at as this, he does not make an additional money when things go to flack so why should he compensate his drivers.

the farmers told me what they pay for his services. $6,000 per month for the daily pickups and $3,600 for the bi-day pickups. i have 2 daily and 5 bi-day pickups. $6,000x2= $12,000 + $3,600x5= $18,000 so he grosses $30K per month. he also pays another driver to deliver the milk i pick up. so subtract both of our wages from the gross of these farms $30K- $8K (if we both make $4k per month). that leaves him with $22K to pay for taxes, tires, repairs and insurance. i have no idea how much that costs. i know its not cheap. i think there is some money left over to compensate the drivers when things go "sideways" like yesterday, or like my one farm generally not done on time. every minute i sit there is a minute i end up making less per hour at the end of the day. i can do math.

a good driver will prevent company losses AND keep the insurance record lower. if i remain accident free, would i get a raise... unlikely. i spoke with a driver that has been there 15 years, he has received 2 raises in 15 years.

his very pay structure encourages "hammer dropping". there are times i find myself ridding against the 63mph governor, and with the hills on the route sometimes you have to. of course i slow right down in towns.

sometimes i think the whole dairy side of trucking is its own worst enemy. they dont pay enough to retain the best drivers, therefore their accident rates are higher and their insurance and repair costs go through the roof.

there is one company so far that i have come across that is hourly pay. that's fixx milk hauling in akron, i heard they take only guys with the best MVR's. maybe after a little while longer i will give them a call

 

problem is, he wont give me additional pay; i will eventually leave and he will ends up with accident prone drivers. the image his company portrays is kind of sad. trailers that are dented, fenders that are ripped and torn from jack-knifing, hoods on trucks that are messed up or cracked, bent up bumpers. what's even sadder is he DOES NOT fix cosmetics. i have been in the same 2006 386 peterbilt day cab for several months. i like the truck. C15 acert no regen or def fluid. i has had the same cracked hood now since as long as i have worked there, its probably been like that for years. sad. here you have a nice running, reliable, mostly mechanical, paid off and you dont want to take care of it. that's the truck you SHOULD take care of. every mile it goes down the road it makes $$. i had to complain to the shop multiple times that the jake was sticking making it harder to shift. i took another driver telling me what was wrong with the truck, the clutch switch. as soon as i said something to the shop that i knew what the problem was and the part was only $55, they fixed the #### thing.

so why abuse this poor truck making it impossible to downshift when using the jake? my bosses idea of fixing trucks is to simply buy a new truck. this truck has plenty of life left in her. if i had the money i would buy it myself and become an O/O

 

isnt there a difference between filling the seat with a good driver that doesn't tear up equipment or a driver that damages stuff. doesn't a good driver save the company money and increase profits. too bad most companies don't look at it like that.