Another newbie Another question

Trimac pays around 24 to 27 an hour I believe. Union environment. A friend of m8ne has worked there for 17 years down her in lower mainland. Typical complaints and àll but being there 17 years he sees something in it.

 

Yeah that's about right for pay. (It varies with product and terminal) They have a pension plan too. I drove for Trimac for five years up until recently. Not every branch is union. It's hit and miss with location and product line. The pay is decent but they're tough to work for, hence the constant hiring. A lot of politics and silly "safety" rules that either drove people out or got them fired. Maintenance sucked big time. They don't give a #### about the appearance of the equipment. (Damage that never gets repaired or regular washes) Pay errors were never ending. Sometimes several hundred missed. They're a fit for some people and this wasn't meant to bash them, I just wanted to put some facts out there about my experience with them for those considering hiring on.

 

Strange, not that great of pay for driving hazardous cargo, I was getting paid 25/hr for driving a school bus in the city, companies pay more than school boards do. But it's split shift, very early mornings with late evenings, and we don't get paid for dead time, field trips were 17/hr. I need something that pays more than $18,000/yr.
The best pay seems to be driving a city bus, c-train, or explosives.

 

Or triples. Lol!

 

I haul food grade and it pays roughly the same as dangerous goods paid. You can make three times what you're making a year now in trucking but there's a lot of time traded for it in most cases.

You may want to investigate the explosives gig a little further. I suspect you're referring to the ad Taiko has in Calgary. There's got to be more to the story there. They've had an ad up for that, frequently for the last few years. (Which isn't a good sign because they're not that big) It could very well be because it's team driving with tanks and liquid. I pull tanks now and there's no way I'd team drive. It's too rough. There's no baffles in most liquid tanks and when the product hits back and forth it's quite rough and not easy to sleep through.

I actually hauled a few of these same explosives loads during my time at Trimac and it paid no different than flour or fuel. I am not saying the ad is BS, just try and get to the bottom of it and find out what's really going on there and what's involved. Maybe keep an eye out for someone one the road doing it now and ask them.

 

I did think that making $100K driving explosives was really high, but what do I know, I'm not in the industry yet. But that would be awesome money, just really high risk if something were to go wrong. Thanks for the advice, nice to know that food and hazardous cargo pay the same, would rather drive the food around. Milk hauling is another one that seems to big business. Why is team driving rough? Another concern of mine is timing, when everyone is in a rush to get their loads where they need to be, fighting traffic and construction slows everything down.

 

Making 100K isn't impossible in some industries of trucking. There's a lot of time traded for it of course.

Team driving isn't for everyone. You need to be able to sleep while the truck is moving and you need a good co-driver who's driving skills you can trust while you're in the bunk sleeping and who can drive and behave in a way that causes minimal disruptions to you while you sleep. (Music down low, avoiding bumps if possible). It's also nice to be in a truck that is spec'd for it too. (Well insulated to keep to outside noise down, room for two)

Team driving with a tank with liquid in it is the above difficulties plus the movement of the load. It's not deadweight back there. Most products do not fill the tank up before the trailer is at it's legal weight limit. So picture a water bottle on its side partially full sloshing back and forth. That happens as you drive. It fights you when you try to slow down or take off. The hit sometimes feels like you've been rear ended.

Milk hauling is good. Guys I talk to are happy doing it. Steady, routine work picking up at the farm delivering to the dairy. If I recall correctly, the pay was nearly $30 an hour. For like a 6 on 3 off schedule. This was an Edmonton driver I spoke to.

 

It's really amazing, making that kind of money in trucking, like a doctor's pay or some corporate job, good to know. I'm pushing mid-40's, so not sure how well I'll do up again younger people, I'll be the old trucker grandma driving down the road when I get to where I want to be, comfortable in my career choices. I love to drive, I'll drive 12 hours in a day to a vacation spot, doing it every day might be a different monster. So I want to get into a career that I love.

Makes sense about the liquid fill and the sloshing, makes it hard to drive with also I'm sure. And thanks for explaining the "team driving" wasn't sure what that was all about. I know there's husband and wife teams out there who drive all night and day to make a buck. I'm sure there's some illegal stuff too out there as far as HOS. I'm a light sleeper so the noise and bumps would drive me nuts.

 

Yes 100k is out here, myself, I make 105-110k.

 

OP, send me a message. I'm from caledonia and can tell you Kim is the best in the biz. U should really ask him what you're looking for. He knows EVERYONE!!!

I work as an insurance broker. I can introduce you to anywhere you want to work.