How all the concrete & asphalt drivers are coping with the hours.

I see concrete as early as 3 a.m. and asphalt later then 7 p.m.

And not many actually take breaks.

Truck driver fired for raising concerns about fatigued driving to be reinstated, paid $184K, feds say

 

Well, when I did dump work, 8hours and it was off to the local watering hole. Many times, concrete drivers start real early, to get jobs in before traffic, blacktop at night could be because it's cooler. Not sure much has changed, but dump trucks I drove, never gave a thought to regulations. If someone is fatigued doing local work, the problem may lie after hours.

 

cooler and less traffic at night, haul stock all day and pave/pour all night…. Rates are cut so far down to nothing doubles are pretty standard to make money….

fck dump trucks

 

You know, in all my trucking, I never really thought there was any money in dump trucks anyway. It was the local, home by 3:30, see you Monday that was the cheese.

 

The conditions and avalibilty have a lot to do with it i believe , i've put cement in a pumper at 2:30 in the morning and at 5:30 pm , just depends on the job . Also did asphalt at different hrs too . I perfer doing it in the day , but some jobs actually get done better during the night .

 

It also depends on the contracts the company has, so if they have a few stretches of interstate or new overpasses they won on a state contract, pay and work as well as reasonable not backbreaking hours may be pretty good, but if they dont have any big contracts, people are getting let go and hours/pay dries up cyclically depending on location and any other work you can scrounge

 

Did that type of work for a while. Mostly dumb trucks but some flat bed hauling equipment and what not. It was a job to me not my preferred otr dedicated cents per mile lots of freedom type of gig. Job as in Monday through Friday 5:30 - 6:00 am to 2:00 -3:00 pm. Made $16.50 per hour for 40 hours then time and a half after 40 ( this was years ago ) .

 

Just a add on - NM is doing a big construction rebuild on i-25 just north of the interchange of 40 right now , replacing bridges on both sides , adding lanes and culverts , etc etc , ABQ Asphalt is one of the contractors , and been seeing alot of the redimix guys heading out in the morning (1 am) so , and they have updates about more coming up . Think they Nmdot is about ready to do more up around Sante Fe too . ( should keep someone busy ).

 

That's a good story. Good for that truck driver, especially for standing up for himself.
Too many drivers cower in fear of losing their job if they hold to safety regulations, so this should be a good lesson.

 

I didn't realize NM knew how to do road construction. They sure haven't done anything to keep up the roads in SE NM, 176 in particular. And from what I understand I-40 is in pretty sorry shape too.