DC 9770 Centralia, WA

The kind that just serves as a drop yard and switch point?

 

It’s just a satellite yard. Running out of there you’ll do lots of Grandview to RedBluff, or Hermiston to Red Bluff. Basically run western 11 ish and mostly DC to DC. Back every 5 days for your days off.

 

I was based out of Grandview back in 2020, the beginning of Covid, and things change but that's not what I did.

First we parked at Spanaway near Tacoma and then eventually we parked down at Centralia. But as to the work I did, it was all in WA, OR and ID. I never went to California and 70% of my loads were out of Grandview and often Reefer loads going to the Seattle area. Very few dry van general merchandise loads, which pay better because they take less time.

 

Again, my experience was from 2020. I don't know the current pay scale. However, most of the reefer loads and the dry grocery loads are multiple stop loads(usually 3 stops) and the reefer loads get mixed with the chill vs. frozen via bulkheads. You are required to get in the trailer and pull stickers from the pallets to match up to the BOL's and you need to work the bulkheads and then ask the forklift driver or pallet jacker to move some frozen pallets to access their chill, etc.

It's all about the volume to make money their and the longer each load takes, especially in Seattle area traffic, the less miles and fewer loads you can run. When I was there the unload pay was like $14 and the hourly while unloading was like $14 and change but the hourly only kicked in after 45 minutes. Hypothetically, you could do a 3 stopper and each stop could take 44 minutes per...whereas, a general merchandise is always a drop and hook and can be done in 15 minutes if it's ready to be pulled when you arrive. You want to preserve time to be eligible for another dispatch.

Many of the senior drivers told me to not chase the money and it's a culture and a lifestyle...I chased the money, that's why I was there! The biggest week I had was 2700 miles and a gross paycheck of just over $1650. And that included the $42 per night sleeper pay.

YMMV and I'm sure the pay scale is higher and better but that was my experience.