Comments By Harvey C.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wow, thank God you were able to avoid a collision. Were there raised reflectors in the center line? I have cars and trucks drift into my lane from time to time but just a little bit and when they hit those reflectors it seems to get their attention.

Congratulations Bill!

Congratulations and good luck!

Michael emailed the Texas DMV and received a reply that somewhat surprised me as it seems different than what Errol experienced regarding the hazmat endorsement. Seems odd that a federal type of endorsement would require retesting and new fingerprints. Below is the email he received.

Good morning,

The only endorsement that will not transfer State to State is the hazmat. If you have hazmat, you will be required to retest and refingerprint.

I went through this same process in March moving to Missouri from Arkansas.

I had to redo my Hazmat endorsement including the TSA background check (for a fee) and retake the Hazmat written exam.

I chose to take a 4 hour online hazmat class to prepare for the exam (for a fee). This class went into much more detail about packaging types. It was actually interesting.

Do you have a link for that online class. Something interesting sounds good. Michael used an app previously which gave him immediate feedback if he missed something and that worked well for him. We'll probably drive his vehicles to him in November and he'll probably get the transfers and hazmat done then.