But how much?

Well the last reply to you was typed on my phone and apparently it didn't post. The landscaping company I work for has contracts with a few of the large builders in the are so they take care of all of the haul off, top soil, various landscaping and of course so for a lot of the subdivisions around here. They also have pool installation, mowing and yard maintenance, etc. About 100 or so employees from landscaping, to the equipment operators to the truck drivers.

There's apparently enough sod being moved right now to keep the 2 current sod drivers busy for the most part, and enough for me to start running at least a load a day. From my understanding, in about 3 weeks they'll be needing 6-10 loads of sod per day. I also forgot to mention that the 5 and a 1/2 hour round trip is supposed to include load time and what not but obviously you can't account for many other things like traffic, delays etc.

Pretty decent sized company. As far as the trucks go the owner has 7 semis, and 8 dump trucks currently. Cattle trailer, a box trailer, and 7 flatbeds all with moffets and one step deck.

 

I'm not 100% sure on the average stops per load. My boss prefers to text since he's always on the go so I asked a couple of questions earlier and that also included questions about the average stops per load etc. So I'll report back on that when I hear from him. I've been continually working this out in my head and while on the surface it does seem like a decent deal, that's only if things flow smoothly, and how often does that happen?

You work it out and think, "that comes out to about 20 a hr, not bad for the time being" but the fact that I think too much immediately leads me to thoughts of "well what if there's x amount of trucks in front of me at the grass farm and it takes forever to get loaded" or "what if there's a serious traffic delay" or one of MANY other things that can occur, and then suddenly I get apprehensive because as we've already discussed previously in this thread, it wouldn't take much to knock that 20 a hr rate down substantially. I know money is money, but I made it abundantly clear to him in the beginning that I wasn't going to be running 16 plus hours a day and doctoring my logs. I have a home life, and I enjoy being around my wife and 6 month old son.

But in the short time I've been here, he's seen how I handle myself, how I take care of the equipment etc and he's been pushing to get me on this sod deal, which obviously I'd prefer because I didn't go to school to obtain a class-A just to drive a dump truck.

But for this particular situation I'd feel much better with a straight hourly wage. But I have a sneaky suspicion after talking to a few people who have run sod here, that apparently the consensus is he "takes it easy on you in the beginning" then he'll start pushing for you to run 3 loads day, doctoring logs, sleeping an hour here, sleeping an hour there etc.

So if that's the case, of course you can't pay by the hour. I've only been on this earth 29 years, but time and time again I've had situations where I knew I should of "listened to my gut" but I didn't and regretted it. This is slowly turning into one of those situations. (There's a long story with my boss, and it's been empty promises from the get go). But I'm almost at the point of saying "no thanks, I'll stay in the dump truck", and just try to find another gig locally that pays by the hour for tractor-trailer, even though that's what THIS job was supposed to be from the beginning......which obviously hasn't been the case. Sorry for the unintentional rant.

Dave

 

Understood and I know it's true. I see people everyday at work who are happy just running a dump truck for "ok pay". Maybe I'm too hard on myself, but if I know I have the skills to make more money than I'll attempt to get to that eventual point. I don't want to be rich by any means, but I don't want to struggle either, or wonder everyday "how much will I make today"? Depending on the feedback I get from my boss today I might give it one run on Monday, just to see what the actual time ends up being etc, but barring that, I'll probably just stay in the dump truck and continue to look for tractor-trailer work elsewhere. Thanks again for the insight and advice SB, it's greatly appreciated.

Dave

 

I hear ya loud and clear. That's the problem around here. Companies want to make the most money possible and want you as a driver to be top notch. But they don't want to pay a reasonable wage for it, which in turn gets them morons who just can't get a job anywhere else and think 13 bucks an hour is something to be proud of. And then they wonder why their turnover is so high. Gee I wonder?