Hopper bottom work

One trip to ADM in Decatur and you'll know he speaks the truth and that line can be just as long to load especially if there are plant issues or load won't pass testing most days I love this hopper but I'm in the dog food industry so work is steady and I've gotten use to the smell

 

Hopper bottom is great, never wait more then an hour to unload/load.
Work Colorado to Iowa, down to OK, Texas, back to Kanass.
Home most weekends, would take on 4 drivers if I can find them.

 

I run feed in a hopper all over the country. Pay is great. Runs and customers and jobs are usually great. Detention pay is even better....specifically at places like ADM - Decatur (IL). Get paid to sleep in line. Not a bad gig. HAHA

 

Ol friend dont ya know you ain't one of them there cool kids if ya ain't hooked to a cow wagon or a grain buggy. I tell ya everybody wants to be a cool kid, make a million, and have a playmate for a wife...Of which being hooked to a hopper the cool kid is about all we got right now.

Of those 2300 loads you might find oh about 4 or 5 that are worth turning the key on. Rates tend to come up around harvest as there is a vast shortage of trucks however the rest of the year we all do whatever it takes just to scrape by. And it's nothing for a grain hauler to make 50-60+% of their year during harvest (local guys anyways).

Anybody who tells you that they NEVER wait in might as well roll that tarp over and keep their mouth over the trailer to catch all the #### coming out of it...Or they can just talk and walk around my yard it'll need fertilizer come spring. Last harvest was one of the easiest I've seen on the bean side of things up until about a week before ADM went back to normal hours which is when bean harvest picked up. I pulled on there a few times to see a literal mile and a half long line of trucks in the parking lot. 4 lines over 1/4 mile long and 3 sometimes 4 lines that were an 1/8 mile long. Pull in write down the plate of the truck you're behind and turn the key off you're going to sit there for 3 or 4 hours.

Detention not at a first come first serve when it's time to dump you might see it if you're loading and they break down but if everything is rolling smooth and there's 20 trucks ahead of you waiting to load you're not going to get detention.

Hurry up and wait everywhere you go, I've hauled it all meat and bone, blood, urea, map, grain, DDG, and rock been there done that a time or 2 before the guys that make it are the ones who have been doing it years and years old timers who have a book of contacts they're in good with.

Service doesn't amount to much of anything anymore, it's all about the price you'll move it for. There's a couple outfits I know who lease guys on unfortunately they all want you out 2 weeks at a time. According to the Bruce Oakley website they pay $1.27 loaded and $1.22 mt. Sorry I wouldn't turn the key for that kind of rate hooked to a grain wagon. And I've never heard of this truck can't be heavier than 18.5k. more for less seems to be the name of the game I made more than that jerking a tandem around on my own and could only scale 49k legally.

Person can do what they want if you don't have the contacts or an elevator close to home that can keep you busy I wouldn't bother getting into it. It's cut throat lost my biggest customer this year to a sale next year is going to be a nightmare to say the least. And the new owners just had the odasity to offer me $19/ton on 250 miles sorry can't do it come up to oh say $30/ton and we can start talking about moving a load of DDG but I'm not about to put a load of feed on my truck for less than $2.00/mile loaded when I can run for $2.50/mile all miles hauling grain.

You can haul #### near anything in one of these trailers...You'll also realize #### near everybody's got one...And they don't give a rats ### weather they're making money or not they just turn the key and go.

 

Must be nice to get paid to sit @adm I'm Just happy if I go somewhere and can load or unload in under two hours

 

Lmfao I sent Adm not 1 but 2 invoices one for a late fee since in their infinite wisdom they think they can pay every 30 days, and the next was for detention never got paid for either.

Last year those ####s bought 100k bu out of an elevator in Narka KS. most people couldn't find Narka on a map let alone get there without getting directions especially coming from nebraska.

I called and they wanted to pay a quarter back into Lincoln which is between 98 and 112 miles on the hub depending on which route a person wants to take gravel or the long way.

Long story short I told them .50/bu since I couldn't go at more than 85500 guaranteed them I'd load 5400bu a day m-f to get their contract out. The merchandiser told me that was highway robbery.

Funniest thing about the story? They ended up selling back 97000 bu. I guess that half dollar they would have been charged would have saved us all to much in the stores by eating into their 1.6 billion dollar profit from last year.

I don't haul for Adm and unless I'm running across town with short lines I avoid ADM like the plague. Hansen Mueller just bought the old ICI (interstate commodities) in Lincoln. Once it's all said and done and Hansen Muller takes over I'll avoid that elevator like the plague. Cheap #### and it'll take an act of Congress to get in and out of there in a reasonable amount of time. Called on some HM DDG yesterday $19/ton on 235 miles load to destination told the guy he was ####ing insane that rate should have been no less than $25/ton.

Called on a load of fert Beatrice to Hastings yesterday too was quoted $10. I pissed that broker off as well he didn't like hearing that I wasn't hauling 10,000lbs for free and he #### sure didn't like me telling him that load should have easily paid $20/ton. I'm beginning to wonder what these dumb ####s are thinking. Between the morons turning the key acting like they're making more than peanuts and the brokers accepting what these customers are willing to pay it's outrageous. I'll go hook to a #### dryvan for what I've been offered lately if it doesn't straighten up soon.

 

Can't say I've ever been to Kara but I know it's northeast of Belleville only reason I go to adm is for one of our customers I hear ya on the cheap rates sad thing is that there are fools willing to haul it cheap hopefully they will go out of business soon and rates have to go up

 

Yea take 36 east and it's oh probably 10 miles or so and then you head back north 12 miles. I kid you not for being a whole in the wall it ain't a bad place to load. We ran a bunch out of there in 2015 back into Lincoln great people at that elevator and we could load a truck in roughly 5 minutes.

No doubt some of these guys have got to go out of business you can only haul it cheap for so long before the money and fuel run out. Today wasn't too had. I ran 2 turns to Omaha at .25 and a turn into sire up in council bluffs at .22. the quarter on the wheat ain't too bad I personally think the corn should pay .24 but after fuel surcharge it figured up to $800 on 320 miles or so.

I thought I recognized the truck in your avatar. Took me a minute to make the connection you were from Kansas lol. Hopefully the rates come up sooner than later I'm not looking forward to dropping my grain trailer but when I seen fuel shoot up to 2.60 this morning I figured it was getting closer than I'd like. My customers are complaining over paying 10% for FSC I don't want to think about what they'll say if fuel hits $4 and they're getting charged 40%

 

I'm sitting at Cargill canola plant in Clavet, SK. About a four hour line up. The bin is full, but they are still booking in loads and processing it as it comes off the truck. Slow to unload. But hey: the trucks and truckers time is free to them.

 

Well of course gotta do it that way. Sire had 13 trucks waiting to load DDG when I got there at 430 this afternoon. But they will all be gone by 9 at the latest I can't stand it when places like Cargill, ADM, etc. Keep letting loads come in when they know they're full. It's ridiculous we have the technology to stop the madness but again we're just the morons hauling it.