What’s Good or Bad About Hopper Driving!?!

I’m looking at a few companies, one is a hopper company. I don’t know hardly anything about it except it can require a little physical activity which I don’t mind. I’m a decent athlete. I would guess that many of my trips would take me to rural locations for pickup or delivery. But, then, maybe deliveries could also often be to processing/manufacturing facilities in or around cities.

 

I do not have any specific "hopper" experience, but run similar Commodities (primarily feed) and run Agriculture locations.

I have loved the Ag world. Most the time I'm working off two lane highways and in some beautiful country. I run regional and local and love that I can almost always unload 24/7 which helps me plan my days and weeks for as much home time as possible, especially because I use the "Ag Exemption" a lot.

Id highly recommend it the Ag world of trucking.

 

I've never pulled a hopper, but just from casual observation.
The bad : 1 Some of the stuff they haul sticks to the side and you'll need a rubber hammer and some elbow grease. 2 You'll get paid on weight hauled, so always over loaded going around scale house. 3 I've seen pictures of some really long lines to get unloaded. 4 You would think all this adds up to making lots of money, but I hear people call them welfare wagons so I don't know.

Now for the good. 1 Some of them trailers look really cool with lots of lights on them.
Hope this helps. And good luck.

 

Some companies don’t care to DH you. 4-500 miles for reload.
As for unloading, carry at least a 1 lb deadblow. You can get a portable air vibrator from Shake-it. It’ll save you on Some meal loads.

Yes. It’s winter, some commodities will freeze in there and you’ll dig it out. Chicken meal will freeze, if you load it and drive down ice/snow covered roads.
You’ll spend 8 hours. Been there done that. Some plants will help you if you have troubles, others will not.

Overall it’s easy if you got a good trailer with good tarp.
Some companies pay percentage some like Foltz pay mileage with accessorial bonus and performance bonuses.

 

Load the wagon. Generally, hoppers don't pay like other modes, many are farmers hauling their own stuff. 90-100K in the wagon is not uncommon, and sometimes lines to unload are pretty long. The up sides are many. No conventional hassles like with reefer or van and most grain elevators are run by farmers and great people. I don't recall hoppers going to many food plants for processing, mostly shipped in bags for those places. Loading in fall in the fields is a great change of pace and might just meet the farmers daughter

 

I go to food processing plants all the time. I’ve hauled bulk popcorn to a plant in Indiana. I haul white rice to cereal makers, bran, defat prefer, and broken rice to dog food places.

 

Not all hopper companies do the same thing and what you haul will depend on the region you’re from, unless the company runs all over the country.

When I had my hopper my loop was DDG going south to the dairies and feedlots and then bringing feed salt back north, with a little grain and some rock mixed in here and there.

Then you have companies like Foltz who are large enough that you’re starting to see them drop and hook at some of their customers while a yard truck unloads the trailers.

You can make good money with a hopper if you’re able to use the log exemptions to your advantage. And if the trailer is set up properly unloading won’t be much of a hassle. The trailer I owned had stationary vibrators down low on the hopper, one on each end slope, and one on each inner slope. All but the absolute worst DDG would come out without much issue, and then I just wouldn’t load DDG out of that plant again. Never got into the blood and bone meal because we don’t have that around here and I stayed in my same loop all the time.