Rookie pay

I for one...DO NOT believe there is a shortage of construction jobs.

I got an estimate 4 weeks ago, gave the guy the go ahead...ain't seen his sorry ### since. Talked to him via phone...he's too busy to get to it right now.

He may "delay" himself right out of a job. This is the 4th SOB that has given me the run around in the past 12 months, after getting an estimate for some work.

My patience with the "poor" construction workers...has about run out. I'm about to go to Home Depot...and hire some Mexicans.

 

About that family support...

Let me start by saying that I'm new on this forum, but I have more than a few miles under my belt..

I decided to quit driving OTR (gone 30-45 days at a time) because when my youngest son was born I was sitting at the Flying J in Ellensburg, WA...that was 3-25-07.

I got a job from a small company...3 trips a week to Lansing, MI and back (Mon-Fri) was the deal, that's a 1200+ mile round trip. In short...they ran me to death, remember, (Mon-Fri).

I got tired of that after 10 months and got a factory job....good job, good pay, got laid off Dec. 21.

Got another factory job (luckily)...low pay, not such a good job but it pays some of the bills.

I've been out of a truck for 10 months.

Last week Maverick called me asking if I would be interested in coming back to work for them...they offered my a regional steel hauling deal claiming I should get 1800-2400 miles per week. I immediately knew I wanted to go, but I talked it over with my wife first...she is not crazy about the idea, but fully understands that I'm am one of those guys...driving is in my blood (Dad drove for nearly 50 years).

She stood by me when I was gone sometimes 2 months at a time because she knew I was doing the only job I ever really liked to do and because she loves me. She did ask me to stick with the regional run this time though (home most weekends)...I don't want to do that, but I will. I consider that "meeting in the middle".

A married driver needs the support of his wife so he will have "peace of mind"...a truckers wife needs the support of her husband so she will have "peace of mind". The same goes for a truckers kids. Lots of us are home most weekends these days and that makes it easier on some families but if your family is not 100% behind you...don't get in that truck.

Now...back to my job at Maverick...1800-2400 miles, I could easily do that in 3-4 days if things went right. I know thats not great miles but it should come out to around $700-$900 a week before taxes and all that...right now I'm making $335 a week at that crappy factory job I mentioned. Even a bad week at $400-$500 is still a good week compared to that.

Lots of you guys are saying that now is not a good time for a new guy to start and telling them to find a factory job or flip burgers...well, I'm saying that some of them probably can't survive on that.

The industry is down...no doubt, but its not "out". If a new guy has the OK from the family and wants to drive...he can make it. Just not quite as well as we are accustomed to making it. I used to clear over $2000 a week (and that was Schneider and Maverick Specialized...but I didn't haul glass much, mostly heavy equipment)...those days are gone and I'm gonna miss them.

 

When you get there, see if you can find out why they've started hiding all the trucks waaaaay out out back, instead out front.

They used to display those trucks with pride....now ?????

 

Maybe they finished the expansion they were just starting when I left before...they were adding on to add more parking space.

 

Wish I lived close to ya! Anyway, according to the insurance people and contractor friends, large jobs haven't been happening. However, I've lately been hitting residential small jobs, and just came in from a double deck bid. Seems that many homeowners are unaffected by the recession, but since we small jobbers haul our own materials, it won't help out the trucking industry very much, since the jobs don't require much.

About mexican labor: It's how I learned my spanish...used to be that a mexie carpenter would work circles around the crew, knew more, and wanted more hours. Nowadays it seems (here in Ga.) that you have one guy who speaks english, runs a crew as a sub, the crew is family and freinds who don't know anything, and the work is substandard, but they want full pay of their american counterparts. You may get them a bit cheaper, but you'll need a lieutenant to watch the job.