Why is milk hauling bashed so much?

The few weeks I spent pulling a tanker for someone hauling milk was a lot of time waiting at the processing plant to offload. I think I was getting 23% of the loads or something like that.

Sure, I would put in for detention but every driver knows detention pay for non-owners is a pittance compared to what is made turning wheels. Once that EP-San Antonio route became more time spent in detention than actually driving back and forth- had to move on.

Then, there are the hours- very early mornings and late nights.

The local milk outfit out of El Paso is a joker when it comes to pay. I think they're still at $.32 per mile. Got to be mostly drivers with "international licenses" that would tolerate that.

If that's "bashing milk hauling", then guilty as charged.

 

That comes from the brown cows.

 

Why do I hate hauling milk?. Farms stink and are muddy. I eat, sleep, basically live in my truck. Farm pickups tend to reduce the cab to a muddy (and I bet it's not just mud) mess. If the mud dries before I can clean it up the resultant dust gets distributed by the AC and gets everywhere.

Milk plants stink and have flies. Can't idle in the loading rack so windows down allowing all the stink and flies (and heat) into the cab.

Long delays at milk plants too, long delays that I am not compensated adequately for. Once got $75 for a 35hr wait at a customer.

Apart from all the above, hauling milk is not bad.

I'm lying, dairy is the Devil.

 

He's just upset that after a million miles he hasn't managed to move up from the bottom.

 

Matlack had a guy from upstate N Y who had over a million accident free miles and was on Americas road team. They wouldn't hire his wife saying her milk experience wasn't what they were looking for, she told them too bad; I've backed up more miles than most of your drivers have going forward, your loss....

 

$75 for a 35 wait is ridiculous. We get $15 hourly after two hours. Is it fantastic? No, but I consider it fair because I'm basically doing nothing for it. There are still, in our society people busting their chops for $15. I average $25+ while driving and loading. $185 pay for loading milk, oatka pays $50 for delivery and Campbell $95. Oatka is approx 15 miles from shop and Campbell is 85 miles roughly. I've delivered and worked in several milk plants. None stink or have flies. Farms are a different story. Mud varies by farm. They are not all created equally. I have 1 farm that's a nasty slop hole and their mud... has mud. That place is a flies haven too. The rest aren't so bad. Some are really nice places actually. Depends on the pride level

 

Yep... Nobody bashing the chocolate milk haulers

 

Some drivers bash OTR, but that doesn't mean anything.
Do the type of driving you're satisfied with.

 

I respect OTR drivers I just dont understand how people do it. It's an enormous amount of sacrifice. I work a ton of hours, however I do get home everyday.

 

I hauled milk for 15 months off our Michigan based company farm and from the Fair Life dairy right around the corner.

Hauled Mostly back and forth from Michigan to Wisconsin with a lot of back hauls out of Fair Oaks off 65 in Indaiana.

Now that's a dairy farm to see. Very high tech and clean. Looks like your pulling up to a Country club where you drop and exchange your trailers.

Also hauled as far south as Tennessee and North Carolina.

I loved every minute of it. Great company I worked for with excellent dispatch and personal. My Western Star glider rocked and was meticously maintained by our in house shop.

I made 45 cpm all miles over 3 years ago befor the big push with all the miles you could stand.

$50 extra for drop and hooks at Fair Oaks, $25 for drop and hooks for tank sanitizing $19 an hour detention after 2 hours.

Never had a take home check under a $1000 and I barely pushed my self and only worked 5-6 days a week and only drove 2000 miles a week .

$ 34,000 a year is a little low in my book. But if your happy I'm happy.