Profile For ad356

The milk I haul is for upstate. I have special hatred for dfa. They are a special brand of corporate criminals. Before I got my cdl I actually worked for those criminals. Most of the farmers don't like dfa either.

I worked in a dfa plant, as a reciever. They fired me for vaping. Don't assume it was in the building because I was outside. When hired I was never informed of any such policy intentions. When I started the job I went outside no one cares, then in the span of 5 months they changed their idiot policy 3 times. I couldn't vape outdoors, couldn't vape in my car, was told to seek nicotine addiction treatment. I am a former smoker. They left me in the facility Every night by myself, which in itself is kind of a no no. I would go outside because no one was there, why should it matter.... who exactly was I affecting. Caught once, no written, no verbal, no suspension..... They terminated me the day I returned from vacation in the parking lot. They lied at said they wouldn't fight unemployment. They fought it and LOST the case. They treated me like I vandalized property or committed theft, and no such offense occured. Since I was on unemployment I was given a grant to obtain my class A. I paid $195 for my cdl out of pocket. Their ridiculous policy was never in writing nor did they have a disciplinary process, termination seemed to have been the first step, lol.

As a milk hauler it doesn't really matter because you aren't working for dfa..... I thought I would tell my story though. I really truly think the are the spawn of the devil.

My receiver licence is actually a part D, plant worker I'm still good for a while yet.

These people were so bad to work for the general manager told me he didn't like the sugar in my Lipton iced tea. He did this for times. I went to my supervisor and told him this must stop immediately. He apologized only because he probably realized I could use for harassment if it continued.

The plant was Craig station creamery in pavilion ny

Safety is job number one.... always. It's the only attitude you can have and be successful in any form of trucking

I am a farm pickup driver. i take an empty trailer to 2 farms; take that back to the yard, do a drop and hook and take the 2nd trailer to 2 or 3 more farms. sometimes i take one of those loads to a local plant (o-at-ka) and do a delivery. i do local driving on an assigned route, and go home every day. i make a little over $1k per week take home about $840 per week. the truck is a 2010 kenworth T660 with 382K miles on the clock.... it might not be as new as the large fleets but its a low mileage, well maintained truck AND its a day cab. it has a cummings ISX and an 18 speed manual transmission.

things i really like about the job -home daily, local and familiar routes -nice truck -visiting the farmers, most of them are nice people -rural roads with modest traffic, no heavily congested areas - truck is well taken care of, just got new steer tires yesterday -18 speed MANUAL transmission, once you adapt to splitting the gears the advantage of this transmission is easy to see. especailly with h - boss is not a bad guy to work for, he is a driver himself

things i don really care for but take the good with the bad - rural roads are great right until it snows, they dont plow that well -some of the farms are a real adventure to back into AND they get icy in the winter. i carry TWO 5 gallon buckets of antracite coal ash on the truck at all times. i heat my house with coal, the ash is supper effective to use as a traction aid. - sometimes the farmer is not done milking when i arrive so i have to wait. - NOT an hourly wage, i get paid by the day.... if the weather is bad and it takes me longer then usual, i loose money. same if the farm is not ready to be loaded... however i think about OTR guys and how many times they sit and a shipper/reciver. what i do is not too bad

overall not a bad gig, i think im going to stick around for a while, and maybe move on to something better that pays more (after all ..... so long as it's local).i dont think 55K per year is a bad starting place.

Are you going to be hauling locally or OTR? ALLOT but not all milk hauling is local. my company has farm pickup drivers AND transport drivers. myself, im a farm pickup driver. my day consists of picking up an empty, loading two farms. i then take that loaded trailer back to the yard, do a drop and hook grab another empty. take the empty to 2 or 3 farms depending upon the day and taking that back to the yard loaded...... sometimes my load has to go to o-at-ka (local plant). in that case i do the delivery. i leave the yard at 6:30AM and usually done by 4 pm and go home. NO ELD

My Werner trainer was terrible, he had only been driving for two years, he was actually 23 years old. What made him qualified to be a trainer when he only had limited experience himself. I was really just lining his pockets with my miles. Did I learn something, of course, I do every time I drive. When I left Werner I did dump truck for a while, which is probably easier then tractor trailer but you still gain some relevant experience.

When I went to Walton I was given 3 weeks of GOOD training, allot of it with the owner himself. He has been driving almost 40 years, a top notch driver. Sorry to say but I think i learned more from him. He truly knows to drive and is a good teacher. He also has a driver that was former Werner trainer and he also helped me, he has been driving 20 years.

Walton has 40 some trucks, but the point is sometimes smaller companies do have some training abilities, but the insurance companies and industry is not setup to allow them to take people straight from school. I had 1 year roughly of driving class A and class B trucks before I went there.

In regards to surge, that is the movement of product inside the tank.... always try to load it as full as possible. Surge will be the worst when it's about 1/2 full. Two compartment trailers are better then single compartment trailers. If you have a two compartment trailer and only a 1/2 load, fill the front as much as possible and any remaining product in the back.... always load the front first. The last thing you want is an empty front compartment and full back compartment.

By the way I have over 1 full year in accident free, so perhaps my methods were different then what other people have done, but it worked. I have a clean mvr and nothing on the dac.

We all have to find our own way. the first time i stepped foot in a truck i really only wanted local job, i had little interest in ever driving OTR. when i got out into the "field" i discovered that was next to impossible. when i came home from training, it was springtime and i discovered there was a company that would hire me, so i took it. i never returned to OTR.

You have to decide how important family is. for me, family is number #1, having a relationship with my child (now two kids i have a newborn) and my wife of 13 years was far more important. perhaps i did take a different approach but i did not want to screw up my successful marriage of 13 years, my son was also acting up in school in my absence. my wife was having difficulty keeping everything going at the house, keeping the driveway cleared out, and god forbid if she had car trouble (i do my own repairs). IF i had stayed with werner i would have had only 34 hour home per week and for the sacrifice of seeing my family on a daily basis i would roughly make about what i make now.

this summer i worked for serafini construction, it was actually a great experience. they were really good to me and the company is run by a good woman. i drove a sterling tri-axle dump truck and got allot of rate work ($21.69 per hour), unfortunately it was seasonal work. i left on good terms and was told i am welcome back, should i ever need a job. i also drove class A fertilizer truck which was a good experience BUT we had far too much rain and it was only getting 1 or 2 days of driving sometimes per week; so i went to serafini. serafini is not a bad company to work for.

leaving my wife for 8 weeks was a huge emotional drain i was not prepared for. i have been with her and around her almost everyday since 2001. i think lowering the CDL age to 18 is not a bad idea, get people to consider this as a career choice BEFORE they have families. the OTR lifestyle is a poor fit for family life.

as far as driving a class B truck, i think it was a positive experience. it gave me an opportunity to handle the weight, air brakes, and shifting an eaton manual without dealing with the trailer length. the werner trainer i had was very poor and i was just someone on the truck that could run up miles for him to make more $$ off my back. i was no where near prepared to drive that 53' trailer into places like NYC. serafini was almost all city driving so it gave me some seat time driving a truck in the city. i now have a rural route and i like that.

this is not an easy industry to get a start in. i decided i would only drive a day cab, or i was going to get out. family is most important to me.

I have not been on here since i was insulted and called a "failure" for leaving werner. anyways i left werner and did dump truck over the summer, no desire here to drive OTR, not at all..... i really enjoyed dump truck but the work is mostly seasonal in nature so this late fall when the work ended i went back to class A this time milk tanker. i am a farm pickup driver for walton milk hauling. its not too bad i gross about $1k per week, and yes its the same deal..... i get paid per day, which is one of the few things i dont like about the job. you just have to get that out of your head and run the truck in a safe manner, if it takes me longer on a crappy day so be it..... treat that tanker like its WANTS to roll over and kill you. they are smooth bore tankers and well known for roll over accidents. if the corner is rated for 50 mph, im going to do 35 mph. you must respect a smooth bore tanker.

being with my family was far more valuable to me then living on the road. i make $55K per year roughly and i sleep, shower, and live at home.

i posted on here because this post is relevant to what i am doing, and if i can offer advice i will.

RESPECT THAT TANKER, above all else.

The road training was good and the classroom training was decent, im afraid backing training at least i found wasnt so great. they basically give you a worn out truck in an open parking lot and tell you to have fun. they dont teach you the right way to back up. the cost of BTTI is about 1/2 of what NTTS costs, so the cost is allot less.