Questions about Indian River

I don’t drive for them so I won’t be the most help, but there’s a forum somewhere on here with a list of companies that have driver facing cameras and I don’t believe I’ve seen them on there. So I don’t think they have driver facing cameras. I could be wrong though.

 

Last I knew they don’t t have trainers, if you have tanker endorsement and the experience they require you are on your own.

 

@Tanker_82

 

No cameras at IRT.
No micromanaging, they leave you alone and treat you like an adult.
We don’t have a training program that I know of. I’ve never seen or heard of anyone riding with another driver other than the orientation road test.

 

One of their drivers parks his truck in our yard when he's on a 34. He's been with them about four years and he likes it. He's an older guy, retired military I think.
He says the money isn't the greatest and there's a lot of unpaid waiting time but the equipment is good and they fix things that need fixing. He runs mostly west coast and the western mountain states.
He also says that there's a lot of empty miles and that they pay the same loaded or empty. Very little driver unload, the customer usually takes care of that.
He says that there's very little hassle from the office. As long as you're on time, don't get any tickets, or any accidents they leave you alone.
Like I say, this is second hand information but the guy seems steady enough and after four years he should have a good picture of whats going on. I notice he gets a new truck every couple of years, too.

 

That’s correct on the unloading. We don’t carry any hoses or pumps. Everything is done for us at the shipper/receivers. The most I’ve ever had to do is climb up top and open the lid for the receiver because their plant had a policy against it’s employees climbing the tank ladder. (Lid has to be open when unloading to prevent the tank from imploding).
The money really depends on the driver. Some guys work harder, some guys go home more often, some guys are on dedicated routes, etc. I know a guy who runs for Clovis (I was his referral when he hired on). He’s on a dedicated run and told me that with his taxable earnings + his per diem he totaled 74K in 2017. If you run the system and just kinda go home when you want every 2 or 3 weeks or so, you’ll be around 60K a year give or take 5K depending on how hard you run.
We have a new pay scale that was effective February 1st. The very bottom end is 44 cents per mile. And the information above is correct, all miles are paid regardless of loaded or empty.
As far as equipment, it is top notch and IRT doesn’t cut corners or skimp on repairs or maintenance. I had a 3,655 paid mile week last week. That was an honest week too, nothing carried over from the previous pay period. Started that week in Hereford, TX, on a Tuesday morning, made a big triangle to California/Washington/Denver and ended up right back in Hereford, TX the following Monday night. 3,655 miles X .44 cents = $1,608 Gross for last week. That’s a $1,300.67 take home after tax check for 1 week. I only dropped and hooked once, everything else was a live load/live unload and live trailer wash out in Washington. So even with the wait time you can see the money still made and the miles capable of being ran. I don’t waste any time when I’m on the road. When I’m on a long haul I try to cover at least 640 miles before I shut down. Sometimes I’ll burn my 11 down where all I have left is 3-5 minutes left then park on the next off ramp I come to. And there are times where I’ll be showered, coffee in hand, watching my elog count down so that I can start rolling when it hits 10 hours and 1 minute. I’m out here to make money, not lay around eating corn dogs and crying to everyone about every little thing. No job is perfect and I’ve had a few bad days, but IRT has always been good to me.
One thing to remember... if a driver ever tells you he only had 1,500 miles for the week that could be because he had another 1,500 miles to go with it but that final load of the week might not have delivered until the day after the payroll cutoff. A lot of guys will moan about only having a $500 paycheck but they leave out the part about how their next check was $1,500 because they had a load carry over into the next period and had to wait another week to see it. That happens a lot due to only having a 7 day pay period but yet hauling loads that sometimes take 3 to 4 days each to get them to the destination. A person needs to always look at the big picture.

 

Back when I was a tanker yanker a few years ago they didn’t have a very good rep.
This is older info, but..
No detention time, lots of sitting, and a terrible pay scale.
If food grade is what you’re looking for look at Caledonia Haulers out of Minnesota.

You know where I hang out stay in touch with me we are talking about adding some food grade tanks to the fleet.

 

Do they hire recent CDL grads with no experience?