Officially Got A New Job Hauling Fuel Tankers. Goodbye Prime/OTR

Well ladies and gentlemen, I finally landed a local job that I've dreamt of for a very long time. But I didn't get it without help. Special shout out to Old School for all his wise advice and his daughter Esther. Esther is a genius when it comes to resume building and OS got my in touch with her. Well, she took my resume and made it dazzle! Thank you OS and be sure to let your daughter know how much I appreciate her for the helping hand also.

My lifelong best friends dad is also a trucker, been in the industry for almost 20 years and most of those years he's been pulling tanker. Long story short, January is his last month at his company. So he tosses a recommendation of me to his bosses. That lands me an interview.

Interview was long! First with a 1 on 1 lecture about safety then a giant stack of paperwork. One of the papers was an entire page filled with math problems; addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with no use of a calculator. Completely unexpected but I just came out of high school so I still remember this. There was also many word problems about percentages and HoS. That section was slightly tougher, I tried calling Errol but he never answered the phone.

I hand him all the paperwork and he immediately goes for the math paper and takes out his score sheet. He compares.... then lifts his hands towards the sky and says "woah, I've never had anyone get all of these right, someone actually knows percentages!!"

We then went for a road test, him in a reflective vest and a clipboard. Eh, usually I'm that guy in the passenger seat doing the grading. Drove a KW, this company mostly has Petes and KWs.

Aced the road test and the terminal manager said he will do everything in his power to hire me.

Pleased to announce that I got the job! It's an hourly pay with 12 hour shifts and alternates 2 to 3 days off per week. So first week I'll have 2 days off, next week 3, next week 2, next week 3, etc. Will be starting on the night shift until I gain seniority, but I don't mind honestly. We deliver gas/diesel to gas stations so not having traffic around all the time will help me transition easier I think.

My start date is February 8th, so I'll have just a few more weeks left at Prime. I'm thrilled about this new job, my wife is clicking her heels she's so excited. I've been trucking slightly over 3 years now, no accidents, 3 driving awards from Prime, and I'm an experienced Instructor/Trainer here. And it took me this long to finally land a great local gig where I'll be home everyday. Landing a local job isn't very easy depending on your area.

Well here i thought you'd just stay at prime forever and hadn't been trying to go local like you originally wanted to. Grats, i'm curious though, is the pay you're poised to make competitive, up or down? Seems like you're slated for quite a lot of hours of driving. I used to do 12's and honestly i don't think i'd like to do 12 hour shifts and still have to drive home at night.

That's fantastic man! Congrats to you and your wife too!

Man, you're going to be putting in some serious hours, eh? I've talked to a number of local gas haulers over the years and that's always the theme: really long hours.

How far do you have to commute to work?

The pay is competitive, most of the jobs in this area start at 18 per hour and this one is much higher. The amount of local jobs here just aren't very impressive which is why it took so long.

Brett, 11 mile commute. Long hours, I know, but it's something I'll have to accept. I think I'll be okay, but with more seniority I'll get better shifts and all the other benefits so it'll get better overtime.

Oh that's not a bad commute at all.

You're right about the traffic at night making things 1,000 times easier though. That's going to help ease your mind quite a bit. It will also give you a chance to learn a lot about the various locations before attempting them during the day.

That set of doubles is interesting, too. That setup will give you a much better turning radius than a single but still allow you to do some backing when you have to. I like that compromise.

So how do they schedule the routes? Do you have to do X number of stops before going home for the day? Does everyone normally do the same routes all the time? How does that work?

Congrats on the local job... sounds like a really good opportunity and I wish you much happiness there.

Congrats Daniel.

I'll miss our phone chats.

Sorry that I didn't make it out on the road to have you as a trainer.

DO keep us all posted on how it goes.

Rick

Congratulations Daniel! All the best.

Good Bye my Wise Young Friend and PSD Trainer, Me and JOPA will miss you at Prime Inc.... Ken C.

Congrats Daniel, that's awesome. I know your a safe driver, but can I add one word of advise to you on driving tanks. I have 10 years of class b tanker exeranse. Those thinks are way easer to roll and crash then dry van or reeffer. Slow down for those turns. Best of luck in your new adventure.