Wife's new ride

[alloy]

A few months ago my wife's boss walked into her office and told her they have a new ride for her. Took her outside and showed her this truck and told her we will train you and if you accept it we will double your salary immediately. So yes she accepted.

She has been training part time for 1-2 days per week for a couple of months. I have a car trailer and lately it's been going further backward than forward teaching her how to back up. She took her CDL test this morning. She now has a full CDL with hazmat. She will mostly be driving the tank wagon in the last pic, and after 1-2 years they will have her in a full tanker truck and trailer.

I drove truck in the 80's and before I had a stroke I was at $75k as a machinist. She is starting at $95k. If I hadn't had a stroke I would quit machining and drive truck. It's just insane how much they pay.

I'm taking her out to dinner tonight at a place of her choosing.

 

[Aukai]

 

[Just for fun]

Sounds like a nice upgrade in pay!

 

[7milesup]

before I had a stroke I was at $75k as a machinist. She is starting at $95k. If I hadn't had a stroke I would quit machining and drive truck. It's just insane how much they pay.

I think trucker pay is all over the board. Obviously, your wife will be home every day, considering it is a day cab truck, but I think there are many OTR companies that don't even come close to that pay. Heck, if I could have found a trucking job for that pay and home every night, I might have quit flying!

 

[pontiac428]

I would think a HAZMAT distro route located between Portland and Seattle would pay $100k. It has more requirements than delivering Pepsi products to Safeway. It would be hard to find someone who can show up sober and on time every day for anything less in this economy.

I used to proudly drive CDL for $12/hr, but those $$ were worth about $0.25 on the dollar compared to today's cost of living.

It sounds like your wife's company values and invests in their employees. Good on her for taking the opportunity, and good on the company for offering it to her.

 

[alloy]

It is a great pay increase.

As far as I know she will be home every night, but putting in some long hours I'm guessing, and since she's low on the totem poll will work nights and weekends. They have a facility that's open 24 hours, so that let's the drivers work 11 hours before a 8 hour break.

They have started a run to Arizona, but I think that's a tanker truck and trailer, and she can't drive that for at least 1 year. Although they have several 53ft trailers. And they really keep their equipment in good shape.

She has heard a couple of different stories of what she will be doing. Her trainer says one thing, her boss says another. just have to wait and see. They have been pushing her hard to get the cdl. And she's not pulled anything with a full load. Their insurance won't let them pull a load until they are fully licensed. I did my best to impress upon on her it's a whole different ball game fully loaded.

I see how the company treats their people and I tell her she hit the jackpot. She's only been there a year and they put $25k of training in her. I've worked for over 45 years and was never treated that good.

Life will change for us. She's pretty much the only one that can cook. But, she did show me how to make biscuits and gravy, and I have successfully made a waffle a few times

 

[Gnpenning]

During the last recession I drove truck and ran equipment in the oil fields. I got a wide range of experiences for the worst run company you could imagine. I had the best truck and trailer and took care of it which was the one thing they appreciated. They paid on time and I was able to do somethings I haven't done before or since including a oil rig fire. A certain part of it I absolutely loved and miss those parts. I wouldn't want to drive big city rush hour in a rig, I don't even like to in a pickup anymore.

They would do random pee tests run by the cousin of the owner. It was the same group of us every time. After the 2nd time we were pretty vocal about the random test. They didn't care, they only wanted to test those that they knew would pass. Of course we had to work with and put up with those that couldn't pass.

A local run with a good company I could be interested in doing. Your wife's company sounds like one that appreciates good employees and will take care of them. Happy for both of you. She should do just fine.

 

[projectnut]

Things have certainly changed over the years. When I was a kid going to school 18 years old. I worked for Railway Express for a while. In those days the training consisted of throwing you in the cab and seeing what you could do. You had to back into a loading dock on your first attempt, unhook and leave the trailer, hook it back up and drive down the highway.

I was hired as a "long relief" driver which meant I would be replacing anyone who was either on vacation or sick leave. you never knew what you would be doing when you arrived at work. One week it might be a number of runs to Chicago or Minneapolis, the next week you might be driving a delivery truck on a scheduled route.

The pay was $3.15 per hour regardless of the route you had or the time of day you worked. It wasn't a bad job, but there was no definite schedule. One week you might be working second shift. The next could be either first or third shift. That made it extremely hard to get to class on time. I left in the fall of 1967 when I got a call from the local Fisher Body plant. They were paying $5.15 an hour with standard hours of 3:30 PM to 12:00 AM with a few minutes of overtime on occasion.

 

[alloy]

When i owned my trucks my grosss was $144k in 1984, after expenses I was right at $40k. Not bad to a 28 year old in the 80's. Then I was rear ended by a sam tanksley truck in 85 and that ended my driving carreer. I was hurt pretty bad and I still have balance problems from it.

I watched my wife spend many, many hours studying the book. She made flash cards, and took pics of components and I quizzed her on them. There were two parts of the test, pre trip, and driving. In the pre trip she had to name major component of the truck and trailer. Like air compressor, compressor belt (if separate) alternator and belt, air filter, engine mounts, steering linkage, make sure the front tires were not recaps, check the engine oil and spot any leaks, then there was the in cab, lights, then the trailer, ect. Had to demonstrate how to cage the brakes. Over 100 things she had to memorize.

Then there was the driving test. First she had to back up in a straight line. then offset back, then 90 deg backing. In the 90 degree backing she is allowed 2 pull forwards to straighten up, and 2 get out of the cab land look. She hit it in one shot. All that practice paid off. That was the hardest for her. She brought orange cones home took my car trailer and we went to a parking lot and practiced. We were there so much a local cop asked us why we were there every weekend. I pointed out the cones and he just smiled and told us to have a good day, and good luck to her.

I hope today she will know what they will have her doing.

And she really liked the steak I bought her last night.

 

[snoopdog]

Congratulations to the wife, sounds like a great company. Truck driving has been good to me , the best money I ever made was hauling hazmat. Local gigs that pay decent are few and far between.