jormagund

Long and potentially boring to read. Mostly to help myself sort it all out. Just a forewarning...

I have a really difficult decision to make about my immediate and possibly long-term future. I'm going to be taking a new job soon. In fact, as soon as Monday. The trouble is, I am not yet sure which of the TWO jobs I've been hired for I will choose. There are worse positions to be in, obviously, than having to choose between two job offers. Still, the choice is a difficult one.

First, it should be said that in general, trucking companies are litterally tripping over each other to hire people these days. The demand placed on this industry by ALL OF YOU is practically beyond measure. Everything you eat and buy comes via truck for at least part of its trip. As long as people want to eat and buy shit, there will be an ever-increasing need for transportation.

Then, add the fact that my license is completely clean of chargeable infractions. Consider the kind of miles I drive and that I've been doing this for 7+ years now and that becomes pretty impressive and obviously what prospective employers look for first and foremost. So one might think that I could almost have my choice of jobs.

I recently applied for a position with a private fleet. It is a company that utilizes their own drivers for the bulk of their product transportation because doing it in-house has been more financially lucrative to them than hiring common carriers I would assume. Their drivers are Teamsters. The pay might be a LITTLE bit lower than what most companies pay but the benefits are almost impossible to beat. They also seem to have realistic expectations of how much a driver can actually do and remain on the right side of the law. (On a side note: there is so much "bending" of Department of Transportation laws by drivers that it is shocking. But the other side of the coin is that it is often difficult to meet delivery expectations or for drivers to make really good money without such cheating... even if it is minor). The majority of things that fuck up a driver's day aren't even the driver's fault. Traffic is the obvious one, but the real problem actually lies with the shipping and receiving departments that ship and accept the freight. Sometimes they're just slow as molasses. Or perhaps they just don't have their shit together for any number of other reasons. The delays almost always come back to screw the driver the most. The point is, it is ASSUMED that perhaps there could be less BS in working for a private fleet as opposed to a national company that carries more or less anything for anybody.

But there is a downside to the private fleet. I made a very minor white lie on my resume. To make a long story short, I explained some time I was technically unemployed as being covered by owning my own business. I do own a business, but I also had to take time off to take care of my mother for a long period of time. I should have been forthcoming on my resume about this but I wasn't... and I figured no one would really care. Problem is, the private fleet has a consultant that really dug around in my shit as if he was a detective. I had to admit to the white lie and then provide documentation to prove the truth. Fine. But the dude has treated me like shit the entire time and it has really left a bad feeling in my mind. The only saving grace there is that he wouldn't be my immediate boss if I did take the job.

Despite the problem, I was still their best candidate and they were only going to hire ONE person.

So I just don't know. The other choice... the national carrier... would give me a better base pay (though overall we'd be talking about a difference of at best a few thousand bucks a year). They'd also let me get around to more parts of the country in general. With the private fleet I'd be out and back to the Providence area every week so I'd be closer to home. This might mean less mileage in general, plus even though I live in New England I hate working here. The midwest and the south are much better areas to work. The national carrier ACTS like they want me. Of course they do. With the private carrier... I know (and they know) that I'm the best choice but despite that I've just been rubbed the wrong way and it is difficult to get past that.

I have a few days to make up my mind. I'm really not sure which I will choose.