Location:
CA
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Harvey C. On The Web
Raised on farm, drove small trucks hauling grain to elevators, worked in finance for 30 years, returned to my own farm in 1994. Our son has been driving since August 2020, with Marten Trasportation since March 2021 and loves it.
email: harveyc@gmail.com
Posted: 22 hours, 11 minutes ago
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Drive schedule to fit in April 8th solar eclipse?
Have any of you thought about scheduling your drive on April 8th to be off the road during the upcoming solar eclipse on April 8th (if you are in its path)? A month or so ago I read that it can be a bit dangerous to be driving during an eclipse as some unpredictable drivers will pull off to the shoulder of the road, etc.
We are thinking of flying to Texas to visit Michael during the eclipse and he's going to try to extend his current segment so that he takes home time during the eclipse so he can visit with us. I'm 66 and this may very well my last chance to see a solar eclipse during my lifetime (at least here in the continental U.S.)
Posted: 1 month ago
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Experienced local driver considering CRE OTR Dollar Tree position
My perception when Michael worked at CR England was that Werner handed off some of the inferior Dollar General routes to CR England. I expect it would be the same with Dollar Tree.
Also, though Michael worked for CR England, he once had a trailer with brakes that were locking up and he was told to work with Werner road service to deal with it but Werner didn't seem interested in handling it since he wasn't their driver.
Posted: 1 month ago
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Experienced local driver considering CRE OTR Dollar Tree position
Our son Michael did Dollar General with CR England stories for about five months and only took that fleet as he was worried about not getting offered something else after his co-driver took off with their truck into another fleet when Michael took home time. He very much hated the Dollar General account and looking back at things it's hard not to laugh at some of the crazy things. Several of his loads had milk spilling out of them because the rolltainers were not secured properly at the DC (one time before he even got out of the DC yard). Often spent nights behind a store in a sketchy area. Sometimes stores would not take their delivery at the appointment time because the store was under staffed and only the manager was on duty and needed to attend to customers coming into the store. Michael got lots of backing experience and, thankfully, got good at it and didn't have any incidents. Sometimes stores didn't want some of the product they were supposed to take and that involved discussion with the DC, etc. The PapaPig thread is a good one and he had good mechanic skills and repaired his lift gate himself which Michael was unable to do. There were other equipment problems. These dollar stores have grown so quickly that they can't keep up with maintaining their equipment, staffing, etc. Michael left CRE and went to Marten in March 2021 and is glad he made the move.
Posted: 1 month, 1 week ago
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Sorry, slightly off topic but thought I'd share an interesting update for Michael. He's still working at Marten (coming up on 3 years) but moved to the Dallas, Texas area last November. He had to take his HazMat test in person in Texas which was a bit difficult to schedule around his limited home time. It seems that he's had more HazMat loads in the past three months than the prior time he was based out of California. Makes one wonder if they don't have many drivers with a HazMat endorsement so they give him loads even if they take him out of his regional area.
His most interesting load was taking three drums of a resin from Texas to New Hampshire to an aerospace firm. A worker at that firm said they make propellers with the resin and that the barrels were worth $300-500,000. It was a light load and weather was not good (delivered January 20th with snowy conditions). He then picked up his first load in NYC, something that made him say Southern California isn't quite so bad after all. He picked up a load of eggs headed to Minnesota. No reports of any broken eggs. He was glad to get back down to Texas.
Good luck getting back to South Dakota, Bruce.
Posted: 3 months, 2 weeks ago
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Greatest advancements in Trucking
Is driver comfort greatly improved over say 30-40 years ago? I know a few long-time truck drivers with bad backs who blame bad seats, etc. for their problems.
Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago
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Usually if one jurisdiction requires greater benefits than Federal laws, than those laws are in force. For instance, California has a much higher minimum wage requirement than Federal regulations. In the case of marijuana, the more restrictive regulation is the Federal law so it prevails.
I don't believe Marten is paying rest break pay out of the goodness of their heart but because California law requires it.
This is for the lawyers to figure out, I believe.
Posted: 5 months, 1 week ago
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I wonder if California has similar rules. Michael gets paid for breaks but it's just a small amount, his last weekly paycheck from Marten had "CA REST PAY 10 FOR 100 MIN" for $33.24. He also got "CA NON-PRODUCTIVE PAY" but I think that is for miles he isn't otherwise paid for.
Posted: 5 months, 3 weeks ago
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New job and looking for advice
You shouldn't compare your pay while training to a day laborer. When you are in training the company isn't earning any money off of you and your pay is typically meant as a way to get you by until you are trained and go solo. Your earnings then should be more than a day laborer but is dependent on your performance.
Our son Michael has been driving for 3 years and grosses from $1425/week up to (rarely) $2000/week. The $1425 is his guaranteed minimum (assuming he follows all of the rules) and usually kicks in when he takes home time.
Take a look at the long term big picture.
Posted: 5 months, 3 weeks ago
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Does this mean you'll be doing things like oil changes and filter changes to the locomotives? There are trucking jobs like that for excavation work. They need CDL drivers that can also perform maintenance on equipment in the field.
We wish you the best Big Scott! Hopefully this gig will help with your needs at home.
Thank you.
In addition to fuel, we add sand and water. We also empty toilets. I think we also change breaks. I will be updating as I go.
What are the sand and water used for? Do they go in the locomotives?
Scott hasn't answered so I will. I and some college friends hung out around the trains parked near our college apartments many years ago.
Sand is used for traction under the wheels of an engine when it starts out from a dead stop. Things may have changed since over 40 years ago but I imagine the simple design still continues, they just trick out sand in front of the wheels. I imagine the water is used for flushing their toilet (maybe drinking also?). The toilet is in the nose of the engine, I believe.
Posted: 10 hours, 18 minutes ago
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Drive schedule to fit in April 8th solar eclipse?
Hello Bruce, I check in from time to time and have been doing well. I hope you are doing well. Are farm is listed for sale and we expect to receive an offer this week and we look forward to retiring. We are weary right now as we've been busy shipping fig cutting orders for the past four weeks (over 1,200 orders with 13,000 cuttings thus far) and we have other farm work waiting. We plan to remain living here locally for the time being but might eventually move to Texas if Michael stays settled there.
I'm amazed that Kearsey has been a real life Playboy bunny hiding out as a trucker.
Michael has been doing well but has been frustrated with frequently sitting too long and may try out a flatbed gig.