which job

[jimbo63]

hello this is jimbo ,i trust all your opinions so im gonna ask you all something. ill try not to make it long. i have two offers id like to tell you about each one.one is out of maine hauling paper and water the company pays 34 cents per mile,you cant take the truck home,and they also told me i need to leave my inspection book in truck in case some one needs to use it while home.they slip seat so every time i go out for week i have to load it with my gear and at the end of week have to unload all my gear becouse you dont know if someone will gone with you truck.also to this day they havent told me how many miles i can expect min or max.he keeps running around the answer with well in 2005 2006 some of their drivers made 50,000 well i want to know about how much they make know.and their trucks are older and pretty stripped out.the other job i was just offered and my wife says im stupid if i dont take.is a moving van team of two people hauling high end furniture for rich folks.along the whole east coast gone ten days ill be the driver so ill get 152 dollars a day and 10 dollars a stop . ill have a helper who does nothing but helps me move the furnture into the homes when i get to them .and they dont have sleeprs so they put you up in fine hotels he said. and you only deliver during the day so you get to hang out at the hotel swimming and just hanging out at the end of the day.the only down side is he says the people they deliver to have lots of money and some of them have been waiting 5 months or more to have the stuff custom made so their usually really excited to see you but if you break or scratch something they get mean in a hurry.so we need to go slow never be in a rush and they live in fancy homes so you have to wear booties when you go into their homes. and be polite to the rich people even if their mean to you.oh he also says you have to kiss up even if the furniture is the ugliest thing you ever saw say how nice it looks.id rather be driving a semi but i am finding it hard to find a decent paying job due to my accidents on my liscence i think some of them know this and their trying use me becouse of this.how bad will driving a straight moving van hurt my chances of getting back behind the wheel of a semi if i chose to do this until apr 2009 when the accidents will be off my liscence.if i take the last job until 2009 til my liscence cleans up ill have been out of a semi for about 20 months.i just dont want to ruin my chances of doing class A driving again i know its a desicion i have to make but its nice to hear what others would do.if in this situation.i should have told you all to grab a coffee for this one thanks jimbo

[jefster]

first one sounds pretty crooked, the second one $152 a day isnt very good money for all the work you have to do. If your getting started though you got to start somewhere.

[DDCavi]

Well your accidents will never really be "off" your record I dont think. How long ago were they and what were the circumstances? How many places have you looked? I dont think either of the options are that great. Id keep looking, screw moving furniture.

[Sealord]

"put you up in fine hotels" Where is a semi parked at a "fine hotel"? How long is your work day for $152? $10/stop seems cheap to me. BOL

[JeffTheTerrible]

Yeah, I have to agree with the general consensus here. Neither one of them sounds particularly appealing.

[BigWheels]

guys...hellooooo....

Jimbo63 is asking about 2-offers on the table now, not tomorrow, next week, or next year. Furthermore, he's not you. While you may not care for the offers, those offers may be the only thing he's got in order to get back into driving.

Jimbo63, the first offer involves slipseating. the second offer involves no slipseating, a helper, and dealing with weathly folks. Oh yeah, your wife seems to like this one better.

What does your gut tell you? :!:

[vavega]

just some thoughts i have off the top of my head

water/paper

you'd be in a t/t, which is what you want, and from what i've read on other threads if you're out of a t/t for 20 months you will have trouble getting on with another outfit well at least the big boys without retraining.

you shouldn't have too much trouble unloading water or paper. ask if they pay lumpers for the water. that'll involve a lot of food warehouses and if they don't pay lumpers, a skid of water weighs almost 2k, and is heavy to unload with a pump jack. if you can get a cert card some places will let you use the electric jacks, but don't count on it. you won't have any trouble with paper. even a load to roll in the street isn't hard.

pay
how far out would you run for $.34? if you're doing only CT and NY and back for your reloads, you have no mileage to speak of. what about drop pay, detention, breakdown,and layover? do they have a minimum day in case you get royally screwed somewhere? you'd have to average at least 450 miles a day to make equal the other $152@day rate and that's not counting the $10 a drop. can you live on say the 50k for a year until you get the accidents off?

furnitue

realistically how many drops can you do in a day? would you be doing 10 in the city, or 10 spread out between NH to dc? say you're empty on day 2 in maryland, where do you have to go for a reload? run all the way back to maine? it's nice that they put you up in a hotel, (and if you go that route, get a club card for whatever chain they use and see if they will let you accumulate the points, that will add up) but what about layover pay? with highend furniture and the economy, and the way the recession is going i wonder if sales of expendable goods like that won't decrease soon. tips are always a possibility but don't count on it.

whichever way you go, good luck!

me personally i would take the water/paper job. steel myself to do penance for a year and then if i didn't like it, move on.

[jimbo63]

the first job is maine to maryland out 5 days backhaul back to maine the problem with them is they dont give me straight answers i asked how many miles there drivers are getting min and max and they run me around the question with well in 2005 and 2006 our top drivers made 50,000.what about present day thats what im concerned about. and you cant take the trucks home which means i have to drive an hour to pickup my truck and they slip seat,which he explained if im off for my two days their local drivers will use my truck so i need to take all my gear out at the end of the week and put it back in the beginning of the week.so when i go to get my truck theirs a good possibility it wont be their when i get their .and their trucks are stripped down and old .the second job is straight truck class B daycab first day out he told me you go to a warehouse in massachuesetts load up the truck with furniture drive to say nj stay at a hotel start delivering the next morning.he said you could go to one stop and only deliver one chair . but its out 10 days you go anywheres from maine to florida .so i could do a stop in nj and then my next place to deliver could be nc.he also said most days you start around 7 am and you usually get done by three it all depends on the loads and what furniture is going where.somedays you could have mostly driving and les furniture moving other days it could be opposite .i want to get into a tractor but at the same time i dont want to be used up by a company becouse of the accidents on my liscence.thanks for your advice.

[Ridge Runner]

the first job is maine to maryland out 5 days backhaul back to maine the problem with them is they dont give me straight answers i asked how many miles there drivers are getting min and max and they run me around the question with well in 2005 and 2006 our top drivers made 50,000.

That alone should be a BIG red flag right off. If your getting the "run-around" now, just think what it will be like when you try to get your money from them.

[Twilight Flyer]

I agree with your wife...take the furniture job. Seems to me there would be no contest.

[triskelion]

use paragraphs much??....LOL

[all18wheels]

use paragraphs much??....LOL

What are you, an english teacher? :wink:

[Scottt]

I moved furniture from last June till March. I drove a straight truck and a tractor/trailer. It is hard work and after the first 3 days I thought I couldn't do it anymore. I stuck it out and ended up enjoying it. I lost 30lbs in the first 2 months and never felt better.

Most people will tip you if you are friendly and take care of their belongings. It wasn't uncommon to get a $50-100 tip. I made $500 one week just in tips.

If it wouldn't of been so unpredictable on how many jobs we would do in a week I probably would still be doing it. It got really slow around Christmas and was down to 1 job a week in Jan, Feb so I had to find something different.