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Old 06-10-2015, 09:52 AM
 
Location: Between West Chester and Chester, PA
2,802 posts, read 3,189,136 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brinson View Post
Truck drivers are forbidden by law working more than 14 hours in a 24 hour period, and only 11 hours of that can be driving. Given the truck is usually more expensive than the driver its fairly logical for a trucking company to want to maximize the number of hours a driver is driving if they can't get a new driver into the truck. Your best bet for shorter hours is going to be places where the truck stays inside a small area-- local pickup/delivery, cartage, etc.
If you're operating in TX for an entire day, you CAN operate over the 14 hour limit, but not over 15. The time between lines 3 and 4 cannot exceed 15 hours within a 24hr period. It has to be all in TX, though, and without crossing state lines. I tried it during my early days in crude oil. Yes, I made some damn fine money but at the expense of my mental and physical condition. After the fifth straight day/night doing it, I slept for nearly 20 hours without moving.

As for the OP's question, no, there aren't any of those types of trucking jobs. There are regular route positions, but they're long and can be pretty grueling. I did food service for 4 years of my life. I did pretty well for myself, but the days would often be 12 - 14 hours long. I'd go home after clocking out, sleep for a few hours, and be back at work in 10.5 hours to do it all over again. Twice a week I went into downtown Seattle and The University District to deliver food stuffs to places, and then I got to deal with morning rush hour through Seattle, Tacoma, and along Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

In SE NM and the rest of the Permian Basin, fuel hauling would be the way to go, IMO. Pilot-Flying J pays an hourly rate whereas Gemini (Loves) pays by the load and micromanages the crap out of their drivers. Personally, I'd prefer to make an hourly rate because waiting at those loading racks within the refineries can take quite some time when they're jammed up with other trucks in line. I would hate to sit for free while I'm on the damn clock.
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Old 06-10-2015, 10:03 AM
 
Location: Connecticut
5,104 posts, read 4,832,095 times
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I don't have experience in the trucking industry so I don't have any inside information.

I can tell you from an outside perspective I would think bus driver (while not prestigious in the public's eye) would provide 8 hour shifts. I'm specifcally thinking of public transportation that is run by the city or other Govt. Northeast states tend to have better public transporation networks, so maybe your area is different. In CT just this year they hired 100 drivers due to a new bus way that opened up. The starting pay was $20 and hour, with possiblity of over time, and associated benefits.

Now those shifts could be odd like 5am - 2pm or 5pm - 2am but if the shifts were consistent you can probably get used to it.
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Old 06-10-2015, 01:44 PM
 
Location: Clovis Strong, NM
3,376 posts, read 6,104,100 times
Reputation: 2031
Quote:
Originally Posted by Creature of the Wheel View Post
If you're operating in TX for an entire day, you CAN operate over the 14 hour limit, but not over 15. The time between lines 3 and 4 cannot exceed 15 hours within a 24hr period. It has to be all in TX, though, and without crossing state lines. I tried it during my early days in crude oil. Yes, I made some damn fine money but at the expense of my mental and physical condition. After the fifth straight day/night doing it, I slept for nearly 20 hours without moving.

As for the OP's question, no, there aren't any of those types of trucking jobs. There are regular route positions, but they're long and can be pretty grueling. I did food service for 4 years of my life. I did pretty well for myself, but the days would often be 12 - 14 hours long. I'd go home after clocking out, sleep for a few hours, and be back at work in 10.5 hours to do it all over again. Twice a week I went into downtown Seattle and The University District to deliver food stuffs to places, and then I got to deal with morning rush hour through Seattle, Tacoma, and along Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

In SE NM and the rest of the Permian Basin, fuel hauling would be the way to go, IMO. Pilot-Flying J pays an hourly rate whereas Gemini (Loves) pays by the load and micromanages the crap out of their drivers. Personally, I'd prefer to make an hourly rate because waiting at those loading racks within the refineries can take quite some time when they're jammed up with other trucks in line. I would hate to sit for free while I'm on the damn clock.
I'm glad to hear that about Loves/Gemini.
Micromanagement is one thing, but to have it combined with per-load pay makes it a deal-breaker(milk hauling pays per load as well, so no real difference there).
So fuel wise, I've got two apps for Pilot/J in order and then of course there's that Griffin outfit I was looking at.
But at this point, you and others seem to be pretty dead on about the lack of eight-hour work available when it comes to driving trucks of any type.
The warehouse guys like to complain about low pay and their eight hour shifts.
But I don't see a whole lot of people on the trucking end clamoring for some strict, eight hour shifts here.

If anything, it's the old-school loud-mouths that strike at any one and any thing that even makes a move at cutting down on drivers hours-of-service.
On the "trucking report board site" I always go to, the drivers posting there are quick to label other drivers as "whiners that wouldn't know a hard days work if it bit them in the rear!!" when it comes to complaints about working conditions across the board.

But once I have my pickup truck paid for and done with, an eight hour cashier position at Stripes or something won't even be that bothersome.
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Old 06-10-2015, 01:48 PM
 
35,095 posts, read 51,226,239 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bentstrider View Post
I've been looking into that, but those jobs are usually the cake of the bunch.
I could move again for a local gig of that type, but the openings I keep finding are either in extremely cold or wet places.
Right now I'm working local, but the nature of these dairies usually stretches things out to the barely legal side of the coin, hours-wise.
It is not the cake of the bunch it is federal law under the terms "Hours of Service", the only ones who are exempt and it is temporary are those who are hauling anhydrous ammonia during the season before and after planting and harvest.
There are a few others but if you are driving 12+ hours a day you are running illegal and your log books will show that if you do them properly.
There is no company in their right mind who would allow you to run illegally. They will pay a much bigger fine than you would and they could be shut down.

What kind of driving do you do that you work so many hours? Is it CDL Class A or a straight truck?
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Old 06-10-2015, 01:50 PM
 
Location: Clovis Strong, NM
3,376 posts, read 6,104,100 times
Reputation: 2031
Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke View Post
Well, for sure, if you want to cut way back on the hours that you work, you are not going to make more money than you are making now.

Local delivery drivers might be an 8 hour shift. If you can get a hazardous license, try looking into propane delivery.

My son makes a heck of a lot more than $60,00 a year driving truck, but he isn't working any 8 hours a day 5 days a week, either. Rule of thumb, if you want a big salary, you have to put in the time to earn it. Almost every profession that earns big puts in long hard hours.
You're right and gauging my sense of anger I feel at work every day/night, the only therapy now would be down to downgrade everything and take the lower pay.
$30,000-$40,000/year isn't so bad or difficult to live on.
Not quite what I'm making now, but not as laughable or life-threatening as the security guard pay I made back in CA!!
Only good thing about where I'm living right now and the rest of the state in general is cheap apartments and utilities that don't require all that mind-numbing.

Along with gas/diesel hauling, the small-truck propane delivery doesn't seem to bad now that it's mentioned.
It's Hank Hill time, y'all!!
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Old 06-10-2015, 01:52 PM
 
35,095 posts, read 51,226,239 times
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Bentstrider, what kind of experience do you have? How long have you been driving? How is your MVR?
I own my own company.
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Old 06-10-2015, 02:14 PM
 
Location: Clovis Strong, NM
3,376 posts, read 6,104,100 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CSD610 View Post
Bentstrider, what kind of experience do you have? How long have you been driving? How is your MVR?
I own my own company.
About 6 years total in all within the past, ten years.
3 years of dry van, 3 years of tankers coming up next month.
No tickets of any particular type.

As far as working 12 hours or more a day, I'm well aware of the HOS.
But within my typical and others 12-14 hour days, it's always going to be a mixture of loading up the tanks, waiting for the dairies with slow pumps, and then getting checked in and out of the dropyard.
Then of course there's also the inevitable "having to wait for trucks at the cheese plant" to be added into the log as well.
So I never exceed the driving time by any means if that was what it looked like.

But there are still some places running paper logs and bending the rules of that "100 air mile" radius provision to get around logs and just use timecards instead.
Plenty of other, local milk haulers around here do it all the time.
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Old 06-10-2015, 02:23 PM
 
35,095 posts, read 51,226,239 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bentstrider View Post
About 6 years total in all within the past, ten years.
3 years of dry van, 3 years of tankers coming up next month.
No tickets of any particular type.

As far as working 12 hours or more a day, I'm well aware of the HOS.
But within my typical and others 12-14 hour days, it's always going to be a mixture of loading up the tanks, waiting for the dairies with slow pumps, and then getting checked in and out of the dropyard.
Then of course there's also the inevitable "having to wait for trucks at the cheese plant" to be added into the log as well.
So I never exceed the driving time by any means if that was what it looked like.

But there are still some places running paper logs and bending the rules of that "100 air mile" radius provision to get around logs and just use timecards instead.
Plenty of other, local milk haulers around here do it all the time.

We don't do milk and it did appear to me from reading your words that you were driving that many hours a day.

We do herbacide, anhydrous, road oil, water, propane, gasoline, jet fuel and most of it is Hazmat.
Too bad you don't live closer we would have a serious talk.
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Old 06-10-2015, 02:53 PM
 
Location: Clovis Strong, NM
3,376 posts, read 6,104,100 times
Reputation: 2031
Quote:
Originally Posted by CSD610 View Post
We don't do milk and it did appear to me from reading your words that you were driving that many hours a day.

We do herbacide, anhydrous, road oil, water, propane, gasoline, jet fuel and most of it is Hazmat.
Too bad you don't live closer we would have a serious talk.
Would've been delightful.
At this point though, I'm accepting of the 12 hours, horse manure, reality.
But just so long as I'm starting at the same time each day, I'm good.

Makes it a lot easier to get back into some sort of workout and possibly, college routine without having to worry about being well-rested in order to come back a short, 9-10 hours later.

It's a real drag, physically and mentally, when you start at 4pm and get off at 6am and have to leave around 3pm to get back in near the same time the next day.
And then of course you still get screamed at because one dairy made you late for the next.

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Old 06-10-2015, 03:18 PM
 
Location: Between West Chester and Chester, PA
2,802 posts, read 3,189,136 times
Reputation: 4900
Quote:
Originally Posted by bentstrider View Post
I'm glad to hear that about Loves/Gemini.
Micromanagement is one thing, but to have it combined with per-load pay makes it a deal-breaker(milk hauling pays per load as well, so no real difference there).
So fuel wise, I've got two apps for Pilot/J in order and then of course there's that Griffin outfit I was looking at.
But at this point, you and others seem to be pretty dead on about the lack of eight-hour work available when it comes to driving trucks of any type.
The warehouse guys like to complain about low pay and their eight hour shifts.
But I don't see a whole lot of people on the trucking end clamoring for some strict, eight hour shifts here.

If anything, it's the old-school loud-mouths that strike at any one and any thing that even makes a move at cutting down on drivers hours-of-service.
On the "trucking report board site" I always go to, the drivers posting there are quick to label other drivers as "whiners that wouldn't know a hard days work if it bit them in the rear!!" when it comes to complaints about working conditions across the board.

But once I have my pickup truck paid for and done with, an eight hour cashier position at Stripes or something won't even be that bothersome.
Yeah, I've been banned from every single trucking forum on the internet. It's quite an achievement! There are a bunch of industry suck-ups on those forums who're so used to being bent over backward that they don't even know it's happening.
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