Ready mix

I have operated a mixer for LaFarge, however, I live in Canada so can only offer my perspective from the Canadian LaFarge operation.

Here, you will probably not ever make more money as a company operator than you would as an operator with LaFarge running mixer.

Their hourly rate this year is something like $37.00/hour, and Saturday work is all double time, no matter how much you worked the past week.

If you worked one night shift, they'd have to give you two more that week, even if there was nothing to do. We'd watch movies all night.

Their training is pretty top notch (training pay is around $24.00/hour or so), and they expect you to be very thorough.

They run a very tight ship, but understand that actual 'driving' is often the least part of your job. Your job is to pour concrete, in all weather, in all locations. You need to know how to judge slump, as most plants are dry-batch plants, and you are the one adding water into the mix. You will climb up ladders often, and spray a lot of water around. Constantly.

I would've stayed there, if it wasn't for the "on-call" nature of the work, which is typical in this industry. However, if you're young and can do this job well, and like it, you'll have it made in the shade once you have senority.

 

I drove one for about 6 months before moving up to batcher. At that time it was all done manually. No computer. Whenever I batched a load for a customer that used to make life miserable for me as a driver I'd make sure to hit the retarder 2 Or 3 extra times so they would spend an extra few hours trying to float it.