All about CDL trucking employment in Frederick Maryland and Mid Maryland. Get a CDL job in Maryland. Learn how to drive trucks, from box trucks to the big rigs that go over the road. Frederick Maryland has both jobs and eager employees to fill those jobs.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Aging CDL driver population

It's interesting to see the History Channel's hit serise:
"Ice Road Truckers".

In case you've not seen it, the show is about the trials and tribulations of a small independent trucking company located in Canada.

In winter (not winter as we experience it in the lower 48) but in the ARTIC winter, the rivers and even the ocean is frozen enough for large tractor trailers to drive over it.

In the artic, in summer, the ground isn't ground... it's 'permafrost', and well, that means it melts in summer turning it into a muddy mess. NO WAY can a tractor trailer get traction on that crap.

There are diamond mines and oil drilling rigs etc that absoultely cannot operate without some how, some way vital supplies geting to them.

Enter the Ice Road Truckers.

The stars of this serise are:

  • Hugh


  • Rick


  • Drew


  • Alex


  • Hugh owns four tractors and leases them to the company hired to manage the frieght across the ice.

    Rick is a hot tempered, hot shot driver who: gets a lot done, but tears up some of the equipment.

    Drew is a aprehensive, rather codependent (emotionally) but suitable driver.

    From the History Channel website:
    "Last year, Drew Sherwood quit early in his rookie season on the Yellowknife ice roads, because he felt that Hugh, his employer, wasn't treating him fairly or respectfully."

    http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=59082&display_order=1&mini_id=54692

    Many people viewing the show might come away thinking that Drew is kind of a "Wussie".
    The reality is: Hugh really IS an ass... he's still stuck in the no longer applicable paradigm of "Employees ought to be lucky they even HAVE a job"


    What's reality NOW?

    Employers need us a LOT MORE than we need them.

    Hugh's management style reminds me of MOST of the old school construction outfits I've driven for.
    An excerpt from the History Channel website:
    "Hugh is a big kid and has a reputation for being sarcastic"

    http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=59078&display_order=1&mini_id=54692


    They operate on the concept of: They are the KEEPERS Of the GATE, you wanna work, you tow the line.

    Only problem with this scenario is:

    They need US MORE than we need them!!!

    What's Hugh's situation now that the season is over?

    Hugh "the Polar Bear" is now completely without drivers.

    ...both Rick and Drew have jobs!

    There is an unescapable FACT of LIFE in the CDL truck driving industry:

    There just aren't enough 25 year olds coming up to replace the ranks of Baby Boomers that are retiring.


    There's another History Channel show that's not about CDL truck drivers but DOES feature bad management, errouneous attitudes that some 'Old School' bosses/ managers/ company owners have that are going to put them out of business.

    Especially in this new/ changing/ status quo busting economy.

    Keep your customers happy or you simply won't have any customers

    Keep your EMPLOYEES happy or you simply won't have any employees.

    This site is not responsible for libel, any driver who ever worked for a truck company is welcome to rate any company they worked for, of course if they got fired, they might not give an accurate description of what it was like to work there.

    Wednesday, September 10, 2008

    F.O. Day Company - Asphalt CDL jobs in Frederick Maryland

    Construction truck driving jobs are in decline... that said, there are plenty of reasons why a dump truck driving job can work out to your benefit.

    Like I said in eariler posts, I know more about companies that I've worked for than companies I know other CDL drivers work for.

    Why does a dump truck driving job pay better than a year round job?

    Simple: Weather you haul dirt/ stone/ or ashphalt, more than likely you're going to get laid off (and receive unemployment) for the winter.

    If you've got a winter job lined up, this can work to your advantage.

    An excavating company and an asphalt company is always trying to get a years worth of work accomplished in the roughly 200 or so rain free/ snow free / warm enough days they've got to finish a job in.

    SO... you're getting a years worth of pay in just over a half year's time frame!

    That equates to OVERTIME baby!


    Now, here in Frederick County Maryland the closest ashphalt companies are:

  • Wolfe & Son Inc
    3436 Urbana Pike
    Frederick, Maryland, 21704
    Phone: (301)874-0893

  • From Blogs- Business Advertising Secret Weapon




    I personally know people that work there... Wolfe only pays $13.00 an hour but you DO get paid from the time you turn the key, until you park the truck (something smaller independent trucking companies often do NOT pay, those smaller firms only pay for the hours the truck is earning money by being rented out to Pleasant Excavating or similar larger excavating companies.


  • R.F. Kline
    (301) 622-8211
    7700 Grove Rd,
    Frederick, MD 21704
    http://www.rfkline.com/career.aspx

    Don't know people that have worked there.. get arrogant vibes from the people in charge of hiring... lets just say the jury's still out
    Rate of pay is allegedly pretty good: $17 hour range.


  • Francis O Day Co Inc
    5058 Ballenger Creek
    Frederick, Maryland, 21703
    Phone: (301)695-1322

  • http://foday.com/contact.htm

    Now FO Day is somewhere I've worked for on and off for a decade- it was a great place for a rookie to start - I worked in Rockville back in 1984 - 1993
    Each year I left before Halloween to deliver fuel oil for Steuart Petroleum, and came back every year in spring. Current pay range is about $17 an hour

    This site is not responsible for libel, any driver who ever worked for a truck company is welcome to rate any company they worked for, of course if they got fired, they might not give an accurate description of what it was like to work there.

    Sunday, September 7, 2008

    Over the Road jobs in Frederick Maryland +$1000 week

    It's possible to work out of state and have your CDL truck (tractor) based here in Frederick Maryland.

    There is a hotel off RT 70 that allows tractor trailers to park, it's free if you rent a room there (most of the time the company you work for pays the rent)and if you don't stay there, you can pay a small monthly fee to park.

    Other people simply park their rig in shopping center parking lots or other places where no one will complain.

    Walmart off RT 26 is one place I parked when I worked for Superior Carriers.

    I have hazmat and tanker... there's a severe shortage of ANY Class A drivers, but if you have either the hazmat endorsement or both hazmat and tanker you can get hired in a flash.

    I quit driving for Superior Carriers because of hours of service violations - actually Superior simply 'got rid of me' when I refused to drive while too tired.

    They're gonna say I got fired, but I really don't care!

    I'd rather be looking for a new job than become a greasy stain on the side of the mountain off PA route 31.

    Superior paid by the mile - and my run was 5 times a week from the Proctor and Gamble plant off Holabird Ave in Baltimore MD to a point near the Ohio/ Pennsylvania state line, I took empty trailers up and switched them with a full one at a truck stop not far from the Ohio line.

    This is called a 'relay', a CDL driver may only drive roughly 600 miles in a single day and stay legal. (10 hours a day @ 60 MPH = 600 miles)

    The problem was in unloading... I was out of hours when I got to Uniliver (the parent company for Proctor and Gamble, well maybe it's not the parent company but perhaps it's the manufacturing arm of P & G), it took around 3 hours for my truck to get unloaded, leaving me going over the Baltimore Harbor Key Bridge in violation of Maryland D.O.T. hours of service laws

    One day when I ran my relay, switched an empty trailer for a loaded trailer full of concentrated fabric softener I was just too tired to drive, I took a nap... and my delivery was late.

    There's also good things to say about Superior Carriers - some trucking companies refuse to pay for training (what happens if you get hurt in their truck and you're 'off the clock' ???)

    Superior Carriers paid me FULL WAGES while I road as a passenger learning the route.
    I got paid $.39 mile loaded and $.34 mile empty

    This worked out to $265 a day, if I'd made all 5 runs I'd have made almost $1400 a week.

    There are many 'Walking Floor' trailers parked at the hotel that once was a truck stop off RT 70, those guys are driving for a firm that contracts trash removal from the Frederick County Landfill to landfills in Pennsylvania and down south somewhere near Richmond Virgina.

    A walking floor trailer is a dump trailer that doesn't raise up in the air to unload. What happens is the floor of the truck 'walks', it kind of 'pumps the contents off the truck'

    The company pays by the load, it works out to $250 a day.



    This site is not responsible for libel, any driver who ever worked for a truck company is welcome to rate any company they worked for, of course if they got fired, they might not give an accurate description of what it was like to work there.

    Friday, September 5, 2008

    Other high paying Frederick MD trucking jobs

    Construction used to fuel the demand for CDL truck drivers, back in the 1980's when I started driving, when a rookie took a test drive if you could "make it around the parking lot without hitting anything", you were hired!

    With the recent failings of the mortgage market and the temporary decline in housing prices, construction has lost it's top spot in high paying truck driving jobs.

    However...

    Even though housing prices have fallen in the majority of the country... Here, at least in some places housing prices have actually INCREASED.

    Montgomery county, Northwest DC and some Virginia counties have seen housing prices go UP.

    For the most part, construction firms have old school, crusty, often computer illiterate (definitely Internet illiterate), arrogant, staff Sargent like managers in charge of hiring.

    These guys think there still back in the day where the company had all the power and the employee had to grovel in the dust at their feet in order to get a job.

    The new reality hasn't hit them yet:

    They need us MORE than we need them.


    But for right now, housing starts are non existent... so temporarily, even though
    they're mistaken, right now, there's a bunch of dump truck drivers chasing an ever smaller number of dump truck jobs.

    So what is a CDL driver to do?

    Drive something OTHER than a dump truck.

    Like a Concrete Mixer?

    With a mixer, you're getting paid to:

  • BE careful, you're driving a truck with the center of gravity not on the frame, but behind your head

  • Don't let the concrete set up, pay close attention to how many revolutions the drum has made since you left the plant


  • A mixer has:

    A spinning liquid load, a 20 ton (spinning, liquid load)... get the picture?

    Turn against the direction of the rotation of the drum as quick as you'd like...
    Turn WITH the rotation and you're butt will be 'suckin naugahyde'!

    You only have to feel both wheels on one side of a truck lift off the pavement ONCE for you to learn to never do that again!

    So... this is Frederick Maryland we're talking about, right?

    And what concrete mixer jobs are there to be had in Frederick?

    http://www.schusterconcrete.com

    Frederick Plant - Frederick, MD
    Phone: 301-698-1898
    Serving Frederick County, Washington County, Howard County, Carroll County, and Montgomery County, Maryland

    http://www.superiorplusllc.com/

    5823 Urbana Pike
    Frederick, MD , 21704-7221
    Phone: 301-698-4030
    FAX: 301-698-4037

    ======
    This site is not responsible for libel, any driver who ever worked for a truck company is welcome to rate any company they worked for, of course if they got fired, they might not give an accurate description of what it was like to work there.

    Tuesday, September 2, 2008

    Hours of service violations and eager truck drivers

    The CDL regulations state that a truck driver may not drive over 60 hours a week (roughly speaking with subtle variations, there are some instances when a driver may operate a little over 60 hours)

    According to The "Truckers Report.com website: http://www.thetruckersreport.com the Hours of Service Rules were adopted way back in 1934 and updated every few years or so depending on the number of accidents attributed to tired truck drivers.

    Read in depth here:
    http://www.thetruckersreport.com/hours/new_hours_of_service_rules_for_truckers.shtml

    Ok, we estabilished that the laws says one thing... now what happens in the real world where trucking companys want to get X amount of work done and drivers hungry for a paycheck want to get X amount of money in they're paycheck?

    People break the rules.

    When I was a young man, especially when I was paid time and a half... I frequently went over 60 hours... when you deliver home heating oil and it's a blizzard, the DOT relaxes the hours rules. When the temperature drops below say 20 degrees, for a certain length of time, people might freeze to death if their tank runs empty.

    Ice storms also cause public saftey issues when oil tanks cannot be filled - those instances of working till you drop are understandable (especially if you're wanting a fat pay check!)

    But... when you're so tired that you hit a curb, you need to park the truck!

    Tractor Trailer drives are supposed to fill out a log book

    Log books are required to track a drivers hours on duty, but if you're running under 100 mile radius, you don't have to keep a log. This does not mean you're legally allowed to drive when you're too tired to drive.

    What happens if you hit someone and you're over hours?

    Whose CDL is in danger?

    YOURS

  • The company might get in trouble, but YOU are definately going to get in trouble.


  • The company can easily afford to pay the fine


  • You probably can not afford to pay the fine


  • The fine is going to be 'peanuts' for the company to pay (slap on the wrist)


  • The The Fine YOU have to pay is going to be more than a months pay


  • And if someone dies?

  • YOU ARE GOING TO JAIL, probably not your company


  • When was the last time I was so tired I hit a curb?



    Delivering the US mail last December. I drove 26 consecutive days delivering Mail during the Christmas season extra run from Frederick's Tilco Post Office Warehouse to Shady Grove in Gaithersburg 16501 Shady Grove Rd, Gaithersburg, MD.

    From Frederick Maryland CDL Truck Driving Jobs







    The run was just under 100 miles, I believe it was 49 miles each way, so technically we were not required to keep a log, but 26 consecutive days?

    What do you think would have happened if I refused to drive one of those 26 straight days?

    We'll never know, because I was hired as a Christmas temporary driver, seasonal driver and wanted to have that job full time... so I didn't complain.

    What I wanted was the health insurance that came with being a US Postal Contractor driver, not a US Post Office employee, but an employee of a US Postal Contractor. As an aging baby boomer driver, I was aware that I have health issues that need to be addressed. And as a often self employed person, I never had health insurance for very long, so I really wanted that job.

    In the end, I was fired, Fired for being sick?

    Yup, you see it turns out that Maryland is a "Right to Work" state. You can be fired for any reason within the first 90 days of employment.

    When was I fired?

    The 89th day.

    Moral of the story?

    If you're too tired, park the damn truck.

    You can always get another job:

    They need us MORE than we need them

    Demand EXCEEDS Supply





    This site is not responsible for libel, any driver who ever worked for a truck company is welcome to rate any company they worked for, of course if they got fired, they might not give an accurate description of what it was like to work there.