changing jobs beware

good luck out there looking for a driving job. there are plenty to be had i hear.

 

Hi, I am just going to be going to school soon, and will get my first trucking job. I actually asked how long typical shifts were and was told 10-12 hours. In my old career, it was usual to work at least one hour (unpaid) through lunch, so I am used to working 9 hours at least. I had a job before where I worked from 7pm till 7am. I figure longer hours are par for the course. Also, when getting a job I have always figured I would do at least a year-- I figure that would be fair since they usually trained me some, so committing to at least a year is also a pretty normal thing. I hope you can find another job that is not 12 hours long, since that gives you headaches.

 

There are very few trucking jobs that work a regular shift unless you get a good local job . Expect 13-14 hour days with no lunch break and irregular hours . You might get an afternoon loading appointment then be expected to run all night then get an early a.m. appointment a few days later and run all day . Some drivers , especially teams don't like the new HOS requiring a minimum of 8 consecutive hours rest but it stopped a lot of abuse by dispatchers expecting drivers to log sleeper berth and extend their day every time they had a 3 or 4 hour delay .

 

I just saw an ad from Conway (CFI), bragging that you can make $82k a year with them! I guess they have to lie really good these days to attract drivers anymore..

 

Rick is right. expect your local positions to be 14 hours. they will get every minute out of you that they can.

Of course you could always come work the oilfields ith me and work 20 to 30 hour shifts. I did 120hrs in the last 7 days. Sorry if I don't have much sympathy for the 12 hour work day.. lol

 

that's not a lie it's not tlling all the truth. if you have eperience and live in the truck there is no reason you couldn't make that. that's pretty much the lower end of the pay where I work. our lead guy did $100k last year

 

We ran two shifts a day so 12 hrs was great. That gave us 2 hours of over time everyday. The system was set up to run 4 10 hour days with 3 days off every week. So just about every driver grabbed the extra 2 hours and then worked a day of overtime so then we ended up with a 60 hour work week which is not hard to do. Plus you still had 2 days off every week. When I was OTR it was much harder because you could never get the same rest everyday. Hourly pay with a set schedule is the only way to go.

 

I work in the oilfield hauling their epuip. and I just got off of a 34 hour shift with only 3 hrs sleep.

 

last monday I worked 36hrs with no sleep. then worked 14 hours wednesday. Thursday morning I started at 4am worked untill saturday night about 11pm. I got about 4 hours sleep thursday night because I was running around abut 110k pounds and blew out a tire and air bag so I was broke down for a bit, friday night I got mabey 3 hours sleep. then on sunday I had the flu and worked about 10 hours and had to knock off early, just was getting too dangerouse to drive being dissy and near incoherant.

I know you know what I'm talkin about!! lol

I laugh at some of these guys sometimes.....