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Driving job advice/leads possibly??

Steve took it correctly, I indeed get overtime, no double time but I get paid as soon as I walk out of my house until I step out of my truck.
 
The guys running the waste transfer trucks for some part of king county were making $95k a year working 7 12s on 7 off a few years ago last I heard. Seemed like a decent gig for driving truck if you liked time off and I'm betting OT shifts on your days off would be easy to pick up.

Have you thought about getting into maritime diesel stuff? If you like to work, working on ships you can be out most of the year with expenses paid and making good money.
 
Bogus One said:
First off.........
If you're not salary and are willing to take straight time after 40, you're an idiot. There's actually like, Laws about that.
Secondly,
5 12's???
The goal has always been to land a 4 10, or the Unicorn 3 12's (paid for 40)

:shaking:
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Depends on the industry here. "Seasonal" like construction they can pay straight time over 8/40. No one will accept it, but it's legal.

5 12s can be awesome. If you're on OT over 8, and over 40, it ads up really quick. I'd prefer 4 12s for sure, but we're talking truck driving, trades, etc. You don't get ahead as a low end employee on 40/week anymore.

Brian, if you don't have border issues, there's lots of work here in BC, and in Alberta. Good money, lots of hours. Stay out of Victoria and Vancouver in BC and you'll be able to eat AND live too.
 
I do have border issues unfortunately, I always wanted to live in BC, but I decided to become a drunk instead when my Canuckistani fiancé left me many moons ago.
 
Brian468 said:
I do have border issues unfortunately, I always wanted to live in BC, but I decided to become a drunk instead when my Canuckistani fiancé left me many moons ago.
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If it's more than 10 years you're good to go, or you can pay the man and make it go away...
 
Brian468 said:
I do have border issues unfortunately, I always wanted to live in BC, but I decided to become a drunk instead when my Canuckistani fiancé left me many moons ago.
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Awww man, I always thought I recognized your screen name and now I remember. You must be the Brian468 who used to post on the old BC4X4 forum about how to get into Canada. I remember giving you so much grief with the F-OFF we're full and stuff.:laughing::laughing::laughing:
 
Lawless said:
Awww man, I always thought I recognized your screen name and now I remember. You must be the Brian468 who used to post on the old BC4X4 forum about how to get into Canada. I remember giving you so much grief with the F-OFF we're full and stuff.:laughing::laughing::laughing:
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Yes sir, y'all can't be too full I still get emails from head hunters up there a couple times a year 🤣
 
arse_sidewards said:
I don’t get the value prop of the driver facing camera other than constructive dismissal.

There’s no accident that the employer is liable for where “our driver was clearly doing their job and we have it on video” let’s them weasel out.
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A company I worked for installed drivecam which essentially is exactly what you are describing. It had an outward facing set of cameras and one that faced the driver. We used it for helping to teach our drivers how to drive safer. It would flag only when there was an excessive G event (hard braking, hard acceleration, hard turning) and it would record time before and after the event (like ten seconds before and twenty seconds after) It would then go to the third party for their review. If it was deemed unsafe behavior it would be sent to a supervisor to coach the driver on what they could do to drive safer. It was not something you could look at live it was not something you could see if there wasn't a triggering event.

It did help us out in several incidents where people pulled into our trucks and said our trucks hit them. I can think of at least 4 different times where we showed the video to authorities and tickets and liability were changed in an accident.

For our company it reduced the number of serious accidents 35% at my facilities and reduced small accidents (damage to vehicles under 10k) by 70%. It honestly helped drivers drive safer on the road. We had over 500 trucks and ran 1.3M miles a month so lots of opportunity for improvement. Fully understand the big brother feeling up it but it does work and for big companies it does reduce expense and make better drivers.

-ben
 
m016324 said:
It did help us out in several incidents where people pulled into our trucks and said our trucks hit them. I can think of at least 4 different times where we showed the video to authorities and tickets and liability were changed in an accident.
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Driver facing or road facing camera?

m016324 said:
For our company it reduced the number of serious accidents 35% at my facilities and reduced small accidents (damage to vehicles under 10k) by 70%. It honestly helped drivers drive safer on the road. We had over 500 trucks and ran 1.3M miles a month so lots of opportunity for improvement. Fully understand the big brother feeling up it but it does work and for big companies it does reduce expense and make better drivers.
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Is it making the drivers better or giving you a pretext to fire the real shit ones before there's an expensive problem?
 
arse_sidewards said:
Driver facing or road facing camera?


Is it making the drivers better or giving you a pretext to fire the real shit ones before there's an expensive problem?
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Actually both cameras helped in the discussion with the officers as we could also show what we did to avoid contact in two of the incidents. The other two we literally had cars just plow into the side of our trucks. I also remember we had another incident where a drunk driver hit the back of one of our 18 wheelers and the driver of the car died. We were able to show our truck was completely stopped when this happened at a controlled intersection and even had time stamps which helped us with a lawsuit filed by the family of the deceased. So once again the system as a whole helped.

Look I get you don't like the system, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work. We primarily gave positive feedback to our drivers and small tweaks they could do to get better, as they mostly were professional drivers. It was based on the principles of the Smiths System (Smith System Driver Improvement Institute, Inc. - Drive Different. Save Lives) which has been proven over and over in the industry.

Over the two and a half years I helped to run that business I can only think of two or three drivers who even got to disciplinary action from drive cam clips. Of those only one was fired and that was because he was texting and driving and ran into a car. He would have been probably fired before the system was in place but that proof made the decision significantly easier. I'm sure I'm not remembering all of them because it was 8 years ago and we had a lot of truck and people driving like I mentioned in the previous post.

So it's not a tool that was used to get rid of drivers that wasn't the point. The intent wasn't to catch people doing something wrong it was to make them better at their job. Feel free to look it up online they've changed the name (Lytx DriveCam: Intelligent dash cam technology) but it's essentially the same product.

More than willing to answer other questions as it was a huge culture change for the drivers, but it quantifiably made them better at their job.

-ben
 
Wow, I'm late to this party. Been sick and then playing catch-up to the point it took me the entire day to skim this thread, so I'll hit a couple big points that I saw along the way.

1. You are never going to make $150k driving someone else's truck. There is always a foreigner willing to drive for a fraction of that, you're trying to price yourself out of a job.

2. He worked 100+ hours a week in the oilfield under the oilfield exemption along with other tricks. I did it for a year. Basically, as long as you aren't driving a CMV without a qualified 10-hour break, you're good to go to be on-duty (not driving). This means the clock starts when you punch in, then you drive a company car out to a meetup site where your slip-seat truck is waiting 2 hours away. You now have 12 hours to work and drive that truck before you are bound to the pad/lease road until the relief driver shows up. Once that time expire and you have to leave the site, you are stuck (on duty) waiting for the car to show up with your relief driver, then you drive the car back (still counts as on-duty, not driving in commercial terms). So 2 + 12 + 2 + 2 = 18 hours. you then have to take 10 off to relieve your relief... each day tracking back 2 hours until your 5 days are complete, then 24 hours (not 34) off before it starts again. 18 hours 6 days a week most weeks = 108 hours, legally done on an e-log.

3. Lytx is full of shiz, and you are full of shiz for claiming they weren't looking at the drivers to find fault. We use Lyx, OUTWARD FACING ONLY. It has done what we needed, given quality information to protect us from frivolous lawsuits, and never allows us to violate the driver's privacy. I don't care what you claim, yes we CAN turn on the inward camera when the truck is shut down for the night and look in the sleeper (we have a couple day cabs and the spotters with inward on). Lytx uses AI, not human review, so anything is seen to be a violation and sent forth. Example: The reflection of a phone in the windshield... sitting still, but face up. Camera trigged by a bump. 90 minutes later, another bump triggers the camera, the phone is in the exact same spot, face-up. We got 2 separate hand-held phone violations sent by the AI... any human would have seen the phone was in the dash cubby plugged into the stereo to stream music.

4. The Smith System is HOT GARBAGE. It is what has caused a majority of the problems we face on the road today. "Be a pebble in the stream" = sit your 64 mph governed ass in the middle lane and make everyone pass you on the right since the left lane is restricted to trucks. You have proven to know nothing more than the mega-carrier BS that has ruined the industry. - Signed: An exasperated Safety Director that just finished record retention for an ambulance-chaser lawsuit where the 4-wheeler was 100% in the wrong, but since they were hit by a truck, they called chuck in hopes of early retirement.
 
m016324 said:
Look I get you don't like the system,
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What I don't like is when corporate types brand a system that is literally only there for their benefit at the expense of the employee try and act like that's not the case.

Dash cams are for everyone's benefit. Driver cams only benefit the company. You're lying through your teeth to tell your employees otherwise.
m016324 said:
So it's not a tool that was used to get rid of drivers that wasn't the point.
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Yes. Just last week I watched someone get written up for being late 10mo ago just as part of a bullshit paper trail building exercise.
 
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Brian468 said:
I've taken a low boy into NYC when I was younger to move equipment, no thanks.
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They had me run into Long Island NY after I’d been with the company a year with the agreement never to send me there. It was the nightmare I figured it was going to be having to deliver huge paper rolls into the Bronx. I gave them two choices the next day, either route me back to Joplin mo with in a week or come to NY to get your tractor. My dispatcher was pissed as her sub sent me there while she was away on vacation. I was her best driver but she routed me back to Joplin and they got there truck back.

I always wanted to drive a tractor trailer since I could remember. I did it for a year in 87 and got it out of my system. I saw a bunch of this country on their dime but I also saw a lot of shitholes too. I tried to get a gig driving local but no success at that. Two weeks after I got home from Joplin I got hired as an equipment tech cutting my teeth on that and I did that for 6 years then moved into sales.

Life is kinda funny that way really, sometimes you can set your sights on something you truly want to do and work hard enough at it, you can achieve those goals at times. But they don’t always turn out how you think they would either. Then life as it is, will spin you into a different direction and you end up doing a job you never thought about being a possibility in your lifetime. You may or may not be good at it, but my motto is “Nothing ventured, nothing gained!”

I love the job I have now and it’s something I never thought I’d be doing. One thing else also, I’ve been around different jobs long enough to work with a group of great people and over time through changes see things turn to shit. That part really sucks to have happen but I’ve witnessed it not only where I worked at before but after I leave or friends where they work seeing it happen too to them. Poor management will drive good people away and actually kill a company off. A third generation dealership business I worked at for many years ended up being forced to sell out because poor third generation ownership management. It was a waste of a long legacy to up and disappear one day with their company name scrubbed away. To this day I’m still very close to the 2nd generation owners that had nothing to do with it demise. They were bought out before that happened by another family member.

Long story short of it is this, wherever you work it’s never a permanent thing and don’t get comfortable thinking it will be. Like driving your car with one foot out the door all the time. Days are gone where companies gave a shit about their employees. Sure there may be a hand full left out there but nothing like there once was. Not to say people had job security years ago, but they could work some place and end up retiring there which was common place. Not anymore.
 
DRTDEVL said:
Wow, I'm late to this party. Been sick and then playing catch-up to the point it took me the entire day to skim this thread, so I'll hit a couple big points that I saw along the way.

1. You are never going to make $150k driving someone else's truck. There is always a foreigner willing to drive for a fraction of that, you're trying to price yourself out of a job.

2. He worked 100+ hours a week in the oilfield under the oilfield exemption along with other tricks. I did it for a year. Basically, as long as you aren't driving a CMV without a qualified 10-hour break, you're good to go to be on-duty (not driving). This means the clock starts when you punch in, then you drive a company car out to a meetup site where your slip-seat truck is waiting 2 hours away. You now have 12 hours to work and drive that truck before you are bound to the pad/lease road until the relief driver shows up. Once that time expire and you have to leave the site, you are stuck (on duty) waiting for the car to show up with your relief driver, then you drive the car back (still counts as on-duty, not driving in commercial terms). So 2 + 12 + 2 + 2 = 18 hours. you then have to take 10 off to relieve your relief... each day tracking back 2 hours until your 5 days are complete, then 24 hours (not 34) off before it starts again. 18 hours 6 days a week most weeks = 108 hours, legally done on an e-log.
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So 2k a week isn't possible working 60 hours a week at a local job say log truck or flat bedding the western states? I've seen quite a few jobs out west offering 30+ an hour to drive, the logging truck idea being thrown out there kinda struck a cord because I've always wanted to make my living in the forest or on the ocean, in a perfect world find a way to do both.

On the hours thing, 100 hours a week is doable legally with some exemptions out here but we don't do any of that shit, most water haulers are on percentage so they don't log hours just tickets at tank batteries and disposals, I'm an hourly employee but I only track my hours for pay not the DOT, most guys run 12 hours but there's always the long day here and there, I'm hourly cause I cover the shit jobs, I leave the yard around 4 and try to be in around 5pm, sometimes shit happens and that turns into 10 or 11pm.
 
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It's possible. There's union teamster jobs that are upwards of 50 an hour in the seattle/tacoma area, I know some operator's union truck drivers that are over that.

Most log truck drivers are not paid by the hour, you are paid by a percentage of the loads you run. If you bust your ass, you can make decent money, but if you run the truck too hard and always have truck issues, then you don't make anything.
 
KDXSR5 said:
Female. Truck. Driver. 'Nuff said.
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IMG_2793.jpeg
 
arse_sidewards said:
What I don't like is when corporate types brand a system that is literally only there for their benefit at the expense of the employee try and act like that's not the case.

Dash cams are for everyone's benefit. Driver cams only benefit the company. You're lying through your teeth to tell your employees otherwise.

Yes. Just last week I watched someone get written up for being late 10mo ago just as part of a bullshit paper trail building exercise.
Click to expand...
Good for the company means good for the employee.

Fire shit employees, fire as many marginal ones as you can. Don't keep dead stock hanging around.
 
Landslide said:
They had me run into Long Island NY after I’d been with the company a year with the agreement never to send me there. It was the nightmare I figured it was going to be having to deliver huge paper rolls into the Bronx. I gave them two choices the next day, either route me back to Joplin mo with in a week or come to NY to get your tractor. My dispatcher was pissed as her sub sent me there while she was away on vacation. I was her best driver but she routed me back to Joplin and they got there truck back.

I always wanted to drive a tractor trailer since I could remember. I did it for a year in 87 and got it out of my system. I saw a bunch of this country on their dime but I also saw a lot of shitholes too. I tried to get a gig driving local but no success at that. Two weeks after I got home from Joplin I got hired as an equipment tech cutting my teeth on that and I did that for 6 years then moved into sales.

Life is kinda funny that way really, sometimes you can set your sights on something you truly want to do and work hard enough at it, you can achieve those goals at times. But they don’t always turn out how you think they would either. Then life as it is, will spin you into a different direction and you end up doing a job you never thought about being a possibility in your lifetime. You may or may not be good at it, but my motto is “Nothing ventured, nothing gained!”

I love the job I have now and it’s something I never thought I’d be doing. One thing else also, I’ve been around different jobs long enough to work with a group of great people and over time through changes see things turn to shit. That part really sucks to have happen but I’ve witnessed it not only where I worked at before but after I leave or friends where they work seeing it happen too to them. Poor management will drive good people away and actually kill a company off. A third generation dealership business I worked at for many years ended up being forced to sell out because poor third generation ownership management. It was a waste of a long legacy to up and disappear one day with their company name scrubbed away. To this day I’m still very close to the 2nd generation owners that had nothing to do with it demise. They were bought out before that happened by another family member.

Long story short of it is this, wherever you work it’s never a permanent thing and don’t get comfortable thinking it will be. Like driving your car with one foot out the door all the time. Days are gone where companies gave a shit about their employees. Sure there may be a hand full left out there but nothing like there once was. Not to say people had job security years ago, but they could work some place and end up retiring there which was common place. Not anymore.
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Hold the phone


You drove in total for 1 year and refused to drive in city traffic and made threats when sent there "in error" and yet were still the best driver the dispatcher had?

Something isn't adding up :rasta:
 
Brian468 said:
So 2k a week isn't possible working 60 hours a week at a local job say log truck or flat bedding the western states? I've seen quite a few jobs out west offering 30+ an hour to drive, the logging truck idea being thrown out there kinda struck a cord because I've always wanted to make my living in the forest or on the ocean, in a perfect world find a way to do both.

On the hours thing, 100 hours a week is doable legally with some exemptions out here but we don't do any of that shit, most water haulers are on percentage so they don't log hours just tickets at tank batteries and disposals, I'm an hourly employee but I only track my hours for pay not the DOT, most guys run 12 hours but there's always the long day here and there, I'm hourly cause I cover the shit jobs, I leave the yard around 4 and try to be in around 5pm, sometimes shit happens and that turns into 10 or 11pm.
Click to expand...
$30 * 60 = $1800/week pre-tax. 99% of all driving jobs outside the oilfield are paid straight time, no OT to be seen.
 
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