Few questions from a new guy

If I was you,....I wouldn't even think of leaving a good local job for otr,...Chances are very good your making more money now than you would otr and you get to go home every night.......

If the garbage companies around here were hiring I would try to get on in a heartbeat.........

 

Stay where you are. And you guys have never bothered me. Just thank God you have a job and a paycheck.

Mike

 

No; were all drivers. Doesn't matter the size of the truck. Were all trying to do the same thing. Make a decent living and share the road.

 

.63 cents a mile! you guys have any places in southwest ohio? geezewiz !

 

Hey Granite! Welcome to the forum!

Do not concern yourself with others "looking down their noses" at you. If they are doing that, then they must have some issues of their own to deal with. It's a strong inferiority complex that gets off on putting other people down.

As to going OTR right now? As others have posted here, I wouldn't even remotely consider it. Too many drivers are spending their "off" time clear across the country, waiting for a load. A lot of drivers are seeing a huge cutback in their miles, due to the economy. Yet the expense of being on the road continues.

Of course, you are the one who has to decide, but if I were in your shoes, I'd stay put. Work hard. Get that raise. Maybe in a few years some promotions. Hell, maybe in several years you will be the boss there, having others under you.

Good Luck!

 

i cant speak for no one but me...if i was makin .63 cents a mile or the equvalent to .63 a mile.......i would be doin it....just tell me a place in southwest ohio i can do that?

 

Jeez, do I have to drive down there and smack you?! Take the advice everyone else is giving you and stay where you are! You have a great job compared to what some of us put up with on a daily basis.

I drove roll-off for a while too. I can appreciate why you may want to leave it sometimes. It's physically demanding work; the landfill's tipping face reeks; the high price of steel means the bins aren't getting patched and should be dropped with the rest of the garbage; poorly designed/placed compactors that are overflowing; the cut-throat nature of the business which makes everything a little illegal and shady sometimes ...and the list goes on.

If you're as unlucky as I was, you lacked both locks on your bins and had to chain everything to your rails, and an auto-tarper and had to tarp your own bins. To all flatbedders: if you think tarping's hard in bad weather, try manually tarping a 40yrd waste bin full of waste wood in bad weather!

Regarding the opinion of others, yes, I admit some of us will look down our noses at the smaller straight-trucks, but roll-off drivers are truly in a league of their own, which is evident in their own unique stories: the roofers (My God! The roofers!) who don't have a clue about positioning bins; the customer who pays their $500 bin deposit cash-in-hand; the residential dump-and-remove order in which you find a 20 yrd bin loaded a foot over the edge, with a couch thrown on top for good measure! ...and let's not forget the tales you can tell about what you find in the trash! Like bears! I served numerous transfer stations in outlying areas in northern Ontario and used to have to fight bears for bins! Many were very tame and merely ramming the bin with the rails would scare them off, but some would just look at you and keep rummaging.

My personal favourite story details the first time I emptied the Wal-Mart compactor at the local landfill. When I scaled in, I told the scale attendant the customer's name, and they suddenly grabbed their company two-way radio and radioed to all staff that the Wal-Mart compactor was coming. "They're waiting up on the tipping face for you," she said. Curious, I drove up to the tipping face and noticed numerous roll-off trucks, bulldozers, and compactors drive up and park. Staff began congregating around my truck, and one driver asked me to spread it out nice and thin. Hesistantly, I spread it out over about 50 feet, and immediately everyone began rummaging! I was amazed! The entire landfill stops when the Wal-Mart compactor turns up!

Regarding weight, yes, most of the time I only scaled around 50,000lbs, though a few times I had to pick-up 40yrd bins full of concrete. Thankfully, the waste site was just out-side town, but even with the tri-axle down the truck was tough to handle. According to my scale ticket, I grossed nearly 80,000lbs with some of them. I've seen drivers stuck trying to pick up bins of sand that had been left in the rain, and watched their front-end come crashing down in the attempt. I was never that aggressive though. Whenever my truck couldn't lift something, I would get pressure from the operations manager to force it, but a call to the health and safety supervisor immediately solved the problem. Needless to say, I think you can see why I don't work there anymore. I'm back to pulling flatbeds and vans, and don't much miss being physically exhausted every night.