I'm not too happy with the new job. There's huge earning potential, but a whole slew of disadvantages. Primarily among them the feeling that I'm constantly on the verge of injury. "The way things work" at Frito-Lay makes no sense to me. Engineering maximum cubic capacity seems to take precedence over what would be safer. Moving freight on a hand-truck is no big deal. Moving freight stacked twice as high as the (already height-extended) hand-truck is ridiculously difficult.
And honestly, odd hours would not bother me so much if there was some consistency to it. There isn't... at least not for someone at the bottom. I may work from 6am-9pm one day, then 4pm-4am the next day. Then midnight-10am the day after that.
Anyhow, the job is more about handling freight than it is about driving. But you're accountable for everything of course. And the constantly changing hours make it really difficult to stay alert. Add to all this the fact that they do not have enough tractors, so many are constantly being used. You bring one in... it's fueled up and someone else is already waiting to take it out again. And some of the trailers are well beyond the age they SHOULD be retired. If you miss virtually ANY defect in a post-trip inspection you're written up for it. Now honestly, inspections are part of a driver's duties anywhere... but they're being Nazi about it. If the equipment was actually given better preventative maintenance, they wouldn't be falling apart nearly so much.
All in all, it is brutal. And I hurt.
The temptation of $70k + is quickly losing it's appeal. I feel it is likely that I wont stick with this job if I can find something else that ISN'T going back to over-the-road. I've already started looking for alternatives. Even going through the annoying rigmarole of getting certified for doubles/triples (not that I'm excited about doing that kind of work but it opens up many more options). And getting fingerprinted by the Dept. of Homeland Security so I can have a hazardous materials endorsement.
And honestly, odd hours would not bother me so much if there was some consistency to it. There isn't... at least not for someone at the bottom. I may work from 6am-9pm one day, then 4pm-4am the next day. Then midnight-10am the day after that.
Anyhow, the job is more about handling freight than it is about driving. But you're accountable for everything of course. And the constantly changing hours make it really difficult to stay alert. Add to all this the fact that they do not have enough tractors, so many are constantly being used. You bring one in... it's fueled up and someone else is already waiting to take it out again. And some of the trailers are well beyond the age they SHOULD be retired. If you miss virtually ANY defect in a post-trip inspection you're written up for it. Now honestly, inspections are part of a driver's duties anywhere... but they're being Nazi about it. If the equipment was actually given better preventative maintenance, they wouldn't be falling apart nearly so much.
All in all, it is brutal. And I hurt.
The temptation of $70k + is quickly losing it's appeal. I feel it is likely that I wont stick with this job if I can find something else that ISN'T going back to over-the-road. I've already started looking for alternatives. Even going through the annoying rigmarole of getting certified for doubles/triples (not that I'm excited about doing that kind of work but it opens up many more options). And getting fingerprinted by the Dept. of Homeland Security so I can have a hazardous materials endorsement.
Oh sorry. It took you so long to hook them.
Sometimes i think that instead of leaving Werner I could have switched to their home depot account, since they have a warehouse half an hour from my house that they run to a lot that I could get hometime out of. There could have been some good miles doing that, running down to north carolina. And while the home depots i occasionally delivered to with swift could be tight, they were niver so totally ridiculous as what I was dealing with doing family dollar. Maybe you could do something kind of semi- over the road where you are on a dedicated account running things to your area. But whatever. I certainly get being burned out on over the road. The road itself doesn't suck but trucking companies and too-small loading areas certainly do.
I forgot about the homeland security part of the hazmat endorsement. I need to get on that.