Milk Hauling Pay

Here you go...
http://www.lynden.com/mw/

 

Hey, MILKDUD, have you started working yet?
Would you consider IDAHO MILK TRANSPORT working outta the Yakima terminal?

 

The entire year of 2014, I brought in about $63,000 before tax/$46,000 after.
Part of the year I was running to a dairy out in Willard, loading two trailers out there, then bringing one back to the cheese plant.
It was a cake run, taking me only 8-9 hours to get done in total.
Felt like I was in my own world out there and back.
Then I got put back on local farm pickup with different co-ops paying different rates.
One co-op all had slow pumps for the most part, snap testing was done yourself, and they all ranged between $30 and $90 a load.
The other co-op had 20-30 minute pump times, snap testing was done by the milkers on site, and the dairies within 10-20 miles paid $50, while the ones out in TX 50-60 miles away paid $70.
Of course I preferred either the Willard run(which got shifted back down to Roswell) or the 20-30min co-op dairies, but I was typically stuck doing whatever was thrown on to me.
Of course there's also a persistent shortage of dairy route drivers in this area and work-loads tend to change throughout the week.
Typically 4-6 local pickups a night, or that one long trip pickup were enough to break into and over the $50,000/year spot for me.

 

Tell y'all one thing, milk hauling down here in the south is cheap, cheap and cheaper. Transport drivers(drivers who only deliver to dairies) are only making around 32 cpm. Farm pick up drivers(those who pick up at farms) are making around $130 a day. You almost have to work 7 days a week to make a decent check. I am "retired" and only do it to "get out of the house", no way I would do this if I had to depend on it to make a living. Oh, you can make a living, but who wants to work 7 days a week. THROW THE LOG BOOK AWAY!

 

That's what kind of makes me leery about moving away from this area and to any other position elsewhere.
The hours might be on the long side for the most part, but at least here, the $200-$300/day average is quite supreme for non-HAZMat related hauling.
That and I'm also working the same, five days a week with at least the same, two days off.(Fri-Tues on, Wed-Thurs off.)
In fact, I'm a little more disappointed that the pay isn't as this high and as uniform across the entire country.
But then again, you've got different co-ops all over the place that control these things as well.

 

i make more than 130 per day but i still dont think thats all that bad. the lowest paying delivery i make is 180mi round trip and that pays $165, when someone else loads the second load you can get 2 in a day. those are rare though. i usually end up grosing $200 per day on average driving up to 600mi per day. its not living large but its not horrible either in my eyes. im averaging 1800-2500 gross every 2 weeks depending on the schedual and how hard i want to run. i dont think $50k a year is bad for something that only took 2 months of training that cost $6500. im home in my own bed every other night and on days off too, thats a nice bonus.

anyway after a bit past my first 100,000 miles the boss is still a slave driver, im still loving the job, and the truck is still a beast. life is good.

 

You are making 30 cpm, wages paid some 35 years ago, but if you are satisfied and happy, then that is more important than money.

 

Lehigh Valley dairies is union and 25 bucks an hour plus overtime @ 70 hour weeks and company paid benefits from what I hear.

 

Yes, but Lehigh Valley do not operate the milk tankers that bring the raw milk in from farms. Most of the raw milk tankers are operated by small business people. LeHigh is probably union through out the plant. Whitewave in Mt. Crawford, Va is union, the workers in the plant are, the drivers who deliver the milk to the stores or schools are, but they receive the raw milk by non-union,small trucking companies.

 

I heard the trucking side was Union. Too far to drive for me though