What Does A Quarantine Due To Coronavirus Mean For Truckers?

My terminal hasn't had to lay anyone off yet, we have been fortunate to stay just busy enough.

Also found out my cousin who is a nurse in a senior center is in the hospital with it.

Think we may go to voluntary furloughs here in the next few weeks.

Four months paid health and ability to get state and federal unemployment. Other LTLs like Pyle are doing a 15% pay cut. Think I'd rather get the Uncle Sugar kicker than work the 40 and make pauper's pay.

I see other OD terminals are laying off. You guys also furloughing?

It's been more up and down than normal for me in Denver. I went from 55+ hours a week down to a 50, then a 42, a 45, but this last week just spiked back up to 61. Haven't touched anything but Sam's, Lowes, Coors, and pallets for two weeks now.

I see other OD terminals are laying off. You guys also furloughing?

I have only heard about lay offs so far.

What's happening with us, is that our average length of haul has increased.. in other words.. I didn't get home this weekend. I could have possibly made it home very late, but not enough time for a needed reset lol. I'm parked in kingdom city, MO grabbing a 34, because otherwise I'll end up delivering this to Lexington, KY and be out of hours on my 70.

All of our dedicated automotive drivers have been laid off. Damn, I'm glad they didn't let me switch several months ago, "because I'm in a more expensive sleeper truck ".

My company won't allow us to go to our terminals. Only drivers who park at one to go home nearby are allowed. Dispatchers are working from home.

We sold our South Saint Paul, MN terminal???!? Mr. Vogt must have gotten a pretty penny for the property. It's in a great location. Basically we're sharing it with the new owner, whoever that is. I haven't been there, so I don't know which company bought it, but I hear their trailers are there and their 1 local dispatcher now rents his office from that company. Construction of our new terminal in Cedar Rapids is going full steam ahead.

We've stopped hiring any new drivers. All new hire onboarding staff and recruiters are gone.. poof, no more jobs.

Our 2nd shift maintenance shop, mechanics.. poof. They're all gone.. laid off. To be fair a few were switched to days to fill out first shift. What are they doing, since we're not allowed at the terminals? I've heard getting the brand new trucks ready to be assigned and prepping the older trucks for resale.

I've been hauling unusual stuff. Some bottled water, typical tall paper rolls, but currently.. bales of straw. Straw from Colorado to the Kentucky horse farms lol.

What's so special about THIS straw? Apparently it never rains where I picked up near Alamosa, CO. so the straw is VERY clean. Million dollar horses only get the cleanest straw. The bales are a weird size and shape too. Apparently 1 bale per horse stall.

Other than having my temperature checked at some shippers and receivers before being allowed on the property, it's been business as usual for me personally, with a strange variety of freight and more miles. I've been assured by upper management at my company that they will keep me moving.

As a Registered Respiratory Therapist, I've been besieged with high dollar offers for emergency contracts, many states are waiving licensing requirements and most others are offering extremely expedited licenses. I've been offered up to $6k per week to go to NY or NJ based on my past extensive critical care experience. ??? Seriously? My contacts in the northeast are looking at low patient census counts. If they had a reliable titre test, and i could get one, i might consider it, because locking up PPE from healthcare workers is very wrong IMO. I strongly suspect I've already had it from back in mid February when i was extremely sick for 2 weeks.

The only glitch I've had was when a shipper (the farm I got the straw from).. their dog bit me. Crazy dog was near a barn and as I was talking to a family member, just walked over like it was going to sniff my leg and just out of the blue bit my leg then ran off. It broke the skin so had to be reported, but its strictly a big surface scrape (no punctures) that I washed with surgical scrub and bandaged. I've never had anything like this happen before.. usually animals love me. Maybe it has covid19 and has gone nuts lol. The woman did say the dog has done that before. Crazy Australian shepherd.

So how's this affecting the rest of you personally?

I just got a message in my inbox the other day that WM is looking to hire 500 more drivers nationwide by July. Additionally, dedicated carriers are being "reduced or released". What does that mean? I don't know. I'm just glad I'm staying busy.

I've been offered up to $6k per week to go to NY or NJ based on my past extensive critical care experience. ??? Seriously?

Wow, that's some big bucks! That's some serious hazardous duty pay!

I just got a message in my inbox the other day that WM is looking to hire 500 more drivers nationwide by July. Additionally, dedicated carriers are being "reduced or released". What does that mean? I don't know. I'm just glad I'm staying busy.

Interesting. So Walmart is bringing jobs in-house? Hmmmmm.

Correction- That's 500 drivers in my region (northeast). My DC alone wants to bring on 30 or so more additional drivers. Our Transportation manager has made it clear they want to boost in-house numbers and decrease dedicated carriers.

I don't know about nationwide. Many locations still have a waiting list as always. Some even have a waiting list of current WM drivers wanting to transfer in.

Yeah Old School, it is. My question is what are the regular workers being paid? I know not that much. This is for a guaranteed pay contract of at least 8 weeks but up to 12. So whether I work or not, I'd still receive that. 48 hours a week so 4 12 hour shifts per week. With them locking up necessary PPE, I say absolutely not, unless they give me a reliable blood test (titre) to prove I've already had it and I'm immune.

Funny thing though.. I ask my friends about patient census counts.. friends who are doctors, nurses, and other registered therapists.. some in Washington state, some in Kentucky, some in Ohio, some in the Northeast. Response? Crickets. I know for a fact that hospitals in Louisville are laying off employees, as are some in Florida, yet one Tampa hospital will not leave me alone.

I left healthcare for what I thought was a very valid reason. Bean counters should have no say so in the treatment a patient receives. Believe me when I say staffing levels were abysmal. I personally had 16 ventilator dependent patients on 4 different floors when I finally walked out and took 6 other therapists with me. The following year I testified in 4 wrongful death lawsuits. Yes I testified against a Kentucky hospital. The deceased patients families won, thank God. They deserved it.

Oh and to Old School and GTown.. I thought of both of you.. I drove past the New Delhi LA exit going to load in West Monroe 3 or 4 weeks ago and the following week I drove very near GTowns DC. This week I was all over Colorado. Yep hauling strange stuff and certainly not in our normal lanes. Staying busy and I'm grateful.